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one engineer losing a board marker while trying to illustrate a technical concept in the middle of a smoky powerslide.
The hybrid supercar, which made its debut as the Formula E Safety Car in last weekend’s inaugural ePrix in Beijing, boasts a total power output of 357 HP (266 kW) from its combined electric and turbocharged petrol powerplants and has been launched to rave reviews.
Click below to watch the video.
Hat tip to Elijah Jones for sending us the video!
Image credit: QualcommOtto Greule Jr/Getty Images College football may still be a month away, but many of the expected stars of the 2017 season are spending their offseason preparing.
Some players are in the weight room and others are likely studying game film of their upcoming opponents. But Sam Darnold, USC's star quarterback, has found a different way to work on his timing and accuracy during the summer months — throwing footballs at wakeboarding receivers.
The USC standout and current favorite for the 2017 Heisman trophy posted video of the unconventional training session to his Instagram on Monday.
Darnold took over the starting quarterback position for USC in Week 4 and helped kick-start the Trojans into one of the hottest teams in the country. Behind Darnold, USC topped off the season with a thrilling victory over Penn State in the Rose Bowl.
USC starts its 2017 campaign on Saturday, September 2, at home against Western Michigan. Hopefully Darnold has a chance to get a few throws in on land before then.House lawmakers on Thursday advanced the "crown jewel" of the GOP-led regulatory reform effort, effectively gutting the Dodd-Frank financial regulations that were put in place during the Obama administration.
The Republican bill, called the Financial Choice Act, passed the House 233-186 along party lines. The bill seeks to undo significant parts of the 2010 financial reform law.
Crafted by House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, the bill passed despite vehement objections by Democrats to preserve the sweeping law aimed at preventing another financial crisis and protecting American consumers.
"Every promise of Dodd-Frank has been broken," said Hensarling following his bill's approval. "We will replace economic stagnation with a growing healthy economy."
Republicans criticize the Dodd-Frank regulations as the primary driver for anemic economic growth in the U.S. and for enshrining too-big-to-fail, which they say paves the way for future taxpayer bailouts of the country's biggest banks.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Hensarling's bill would keep the GOP's promise to cut onerous financial regulations in order to help create jobs and foster economic growth.
"We see the Financial Choice Act as the crown jewel of this effort," Ryan said at a press conference. "The Dodd-Frank Act has had a lot of bad consequences for our economy, but most of all in the small communities across our country."
Related: House GOP bill would give Trump greater power over Wall Street regulation
Hensarling's bill would give the president the power to fire the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a consumer watchdog agency created under Dodd-Frank, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at any time for any -- or no -- reason.
It also gives Congress purview over the CFPB's budget, meaning lawmakers could defund the agency entirely.
The GOP proposal would also bar the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from overseeing the so-called living will process, which requires banks to write up plans on how they would safely be unwound in the event of a collapse. The FDIC and the Fed are the two regulators responsible for overseeing this requirement under the 2010 law.
Democrats objected to the bill calling it the "Wrong Choice Act." They say it would return the country to the "regulatory Stone Age" and be a disaster for the U.S. financial system.
"This is a dangerous piece of legislation," Steny Hoyer, the House minority whip said on the House floor on Thursday. He said the bill would repeat recent history and put Americans at risk of losing millions by taking "referees off the field."
Related: Trump wants to revive a 1933 banking law. What that means is very unclear
Minority lawmakers also argue Hensarling's bill would gut consumer protections and allow banks to make risky investments that required taxpayers to come to the rescue of the nation's largest financial institutions almost a decade earlier.
"It's shameful that Republicans have voted to do the bidding of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street and our economy," said Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House panel.
So what's next?
Now the bill's destiny will be in the hands of the Senate.
Senate Republicans will likely seek to craft their own companion measure to overhaul the Dodd-Frank regulations.
Led by chairman Mike Crapo, the GOP senators say they want to take a bipartisan approach to creating a regulatory relief bill for Wall Street and community banks. Crapo has been working closely with his counterpart Sherrod Brown, a top Democrat on the panel, to find common ground.
"Democrats have shown we're willing to work with Republicans to tailor the rules where it makes sense, but not if it means killing the reforms that have made the financial system safer and fairer," Brown said Wednesday in a statement.
On Thursday, Hensarling said he regularly speaks with Crapo, who he said has "encouraged" him to pass the bill.
"I still think he has high hopes of putting together a companion legislation," said Hensarling. "What a package would look like I don't necessarily know," he said, referring questions to Crapo.
Crapo has vowed to work with all stakeholders, including the Trump White House and regulators, "to strike a balance" in achieving smart regulation that spurs the U.S. economy.
The Idaho senator lauded the bill's passage as a "positive move away from government micromanagement, and returns to basic principles of safety and soundness and market-driven principles."
He has set his own target of early 2018 to pass major bank reform legislation.
Related: Wall Street hates the Volcker Rule. Will Trump finally kill it?
Unlike the House, Republicans will need to sway at least eight Democrats to pass a regulatory reform bill to cross the 60-vote threshold. GOP senators currently hold 52 seats in the Senate.
Those who closely follow the debate believe there's no chance Hensarling's bill would pass the Senate as is. Rather, they expect the upper chamber to advance a separate regulatory relief bill of their own.
"We continue to see no path forward for this legislation in the Senate," said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Cowen & Co., in a note to clients ahead of the House vote.
Senate Republicans will have two options to advance President Trump's promise to dismantle the "horrendous" Dodd-Frank law.
Related: Trump begins dismantling Obama financial regulations
They could try to pass a regulatory relief bill through reconciliation, which only requires a 50-vote majority to pass the Senate. That would likely mean a smaller number of limited changes to the Dodd-Frank Act rather than a major single legislative package.
Or they could leave the 2010 regulatory reform law intact and put the onus on regulators, like the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to rewrite some of the rules.
"Much of the language in Dodd-Frank is vague and gives a lot of discretion to regulators on how they write the rules so, over time, I expect the Trump administration will amend some of the Dodd-Frank rules," said Brian Gardner, a policy analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, in a podcast.
Related: Trump's pick for No. 2 spot at Treasury drops out
Any changes to the Dodd-Frank regulations, however, require the approval of those in top regulatory posts at three bank regulatory agencies -- the Fed, the FDIC and the Comptroller of the Currency -- several of which the president has yet to nominate. Trump has yet to fill three open slots on the Fed board, including a new regulatory czar.
On Monday evening, the president tapped Joseph Otting, a former colleague of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at OneWest to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He will oversee more than 1,000 lenders, including big Wall Street banks. His position still requires Senate approval.
The spotlight on the financial reform this week could "convince the White House that it's time to act on these key nominations," said Seiberg.Whereas protests by French people against Islamization or government policy, have been rigorously curtailed by the authorities, migrant gangs have still felt able to terrorize French towns, stampede French motorways, or conduct mass armed brawls in Paris, with little fear of intervention from either security services or the law.
In the measures revealed, proactively combatting criminals appears to have taken a back seat to placating the communities from which they are drawn.
France's Socialist Party government has unveiled a new legislative program designed to decrease the likelihood of further Islamic atrocities, largely it seems that would have ensured the success of the jihadist attacks committed so far.
Last year Muslim jihadists murdered more people in France, than were killed by terrorism in the country during the entire 20th century.
In response, the Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, has announced a range of innovative legal measures, introduced in response to the terrorist outrages which struck France in 2015.
On January 7, of that year, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi stormed the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, massacring twelve and injuring eleven others.
In the days that followed, a comrade of the earlier jihadists committed a string of murders, which culminated in a siege at the kosher supermarket. Amedy Coulibaly killed five and injured eleven more.
On February 3, 2015, three military personnel guarding a Jewish community center in Nice were stabbed, by Moussa Coulibaly.
On June 26, the severed head of Hervé Cornara was placed on display, at the gas factory near Lyon where he worked, alongside twin ISIS flags, by Yassine Salhi.
On August 21, an attempted mass shooting on the Thalys high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris, by Moroccan-born Ayoub El Khazzani, was foiled by American tourists, leading to the wounding of four.
In two days, starting on November 13, multiple jihadist attacks once again struck the French capital. 130 were killed and 352 injured, by perpetrators operating in three teams of three, which included suicide bombers.
Last January, Amedy Coulibaly (left) murdered a policewoman and four Jews in Paris, before being shot dead by police. Right: Medics carry a victim wounded in an attack by Islamist terrorists, who shot hundreds of concert-goers, killing 90, at the Bataclan theater in Paris on November 13, 2015.
France's Socialist Party government has unveiled a new legislative program designed to decrease the likelihood of further Islamic atrocities, largely it seems that would have ensured the success of the jihadist attacks committed so far.
"A range of measures" are set to be introduced to combat the alleged "Social, Ethnic and Territorial Apartheid" currently blighting France.
Not only were the jihadist proclivities of most of last year's perpetrators fully known to the authorities in France, some had been released from prison early following crimes of violence involving automatic weapons.
In the measures revealed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, however, proactively combatting criminals appears to have taken a backseat to placating the communities from which they are drawn.
The first aim of the new laws contained within the Equality and Citizenship bill, reports Le Monde, is to centralize the provision of social housing in France. Until now the growth of Islamized areas has largely been limited to suburbs around major urban centers.
Much as in Germany, where Muslim migrants to Europe are being sent directly into rural areas, the prime minister is proposing a new nationwide system designed, "to make a better distribution of the public housing supply" in France. This nationwide transformation of housing policy is aimed at curtailing "concentrations of poverty," within problematic Islamic enclaves infamous as no-go zones.
"Recalcitrant" locally-elected mayors who oppose the construction of new housing projects in their areas will be overruled by the state in the interests of "social diversity."
Second, in the guise of improving literacy in French amongst those of immigrant descent, a new fast-track employment scheme has also been drawn up.
The scheme "will allow youths with few or no qualifications" to enter France's "citizens' reserve," a government initiative established last year which links the nation's education system with its civil service, allowing an accelerated path into state employment.
The euphemism "youths" is used in the French media to describe the country's increasingly problematic young Muslim population. In 2014, an ICM poll discovered that 27% of French citizens aged 18-24 supported ISIS.
The glowing account given to the proposals being forwarded by Prime Minister Valls, in his country's leading left-wing daily, fails to mention how the newly foreseen "third path" job scheme will address the greater key issues.
Unease is growing at the level of Islamist sympathies already held by state employees in France, such as members of the military and police.
Third, as nationwide protests continue to mount over migrant chaos in French towns, spread across the coast of the English Channel, even greater criminal penalties against free speech are also set to be introduced by the new bill.
Verbal communication has, apparently, been largely exempted from legal free speech curtailment in France, unless recorded and posted online. Such cases then fall under the same strict law that governs the printed word, originally passed in 1881.
This law is why Charlie Hebdo is famous for distributing its most challenging content in the form of cartoons, thereby seeking to exempt itself from strict sanctions against "defamation" in print. Fictional novels published this year about France's Islamic future have sought to do the same.
Under the legislation currently being proposed by Valls, this existing status quo is set for a radical shake-up. The new restrictions planned for France are more in line with the Europe-wide harmonization of hate speech offences, mandated by the European Union.
The augmented provisions against incitement to hatred, previously limited to the 1881 press law, are set to be expanded throughout the French criminal justice system, under the new bill.
Much as in the UK, the new creation of aggravated offences will also ensure that any existing crime can be claimed, by its victim, also to contain a "hate speech" component, incurring far stiffer penalties against the alleged perpetrator.
The application of existing French laws, however, after the last major atrocity in Paris, on November 13, point to the likely reasons for the new proposals being put forward by France's government.
Since the massacre at the Bataclan nightclub and suicide bombings that struck the French capital, the Republic of France has been in a state of emergency. This gives the country's President, François Hollande, "extraordinary powers" under Article 16 of the French Constitution.
In February, the duration of these powers, which enable warrantless searches whilst limiting freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, were extended until May 26 by the lower house of the French legislature, the Assemblée Nationale.
In the intervening period, soldiers have become such a common sight in the French capital, that they often give Paris the impression of being under martial law. Half of the country's army is now deployed on the streets of France.
Yet, whereas protests by French people against Islamization or government policy have been rigorously curtailed by the authorities, migrant gangs have still felt able to terrorize French towns, stampede French motorways, or conduct mass armed brawls in Paris, with little fear of intervention from either security services or the law.
Although the law being introduced by Mr. Valls is chiefly claimed to be about "youth engagement," the new bill seems more the result of a realization that one group in France -- its natives -- can generally be relied upon to obey the law, while apparently another cannot.
There is a certain group of young people, however, with whom Manuel Valls clearly does not wish to engage. He recently excoriated members of the controversial Europe-wide Identitarian Movement, a nationalist youth group notorious for engaging in acts of civil disobedience in response to the changing culture and demography of France and Europe.
Described as the "hipster right" by some outlets, Mr. Valls decried supporters of the movement -- which began in his country -- as "those who want the country closed while dreaming of going back to a France that never existed."
"I believe in my country, in its message and its universal values," Valls added. In the interview published by Libération, on April 12, he continued:
I would like us to be capable of demonstrating that Islam, a great world religion and the second religion of France, is fundamentally compatible with the Republic, democracy, our values, and equality between men and women.
Manuel Valls was later forced to admit, in the interview, that this "compatibility" is something doubted by "a majority of our fellow citizens."
Some 3.3 million people have dual citizenship in France, most of them Muslim. After President Hollande had announced that his country was "at war," in the immediate aftermath of November's attacks, the French Prime Minister unveiled plans to amend France's constitution.
The proposed amendment was intended to strip French citizenship from dual-nationals convicted of terrorism offences. At the time Manuel Valls was described, in the left-wing media, as a "strongman" who had taken a "hard line against terror."
On March 30, however, after a split within the Socialist Party over the issue, the Prime Minister's plans were dropped.
The new, more comprehensive, legislative proposals are set to go before the Assemblée nationale this month.Wide receiver Binjimen Victor (Coconut Creek, Fla.) took to Twitter indicating he’s verbally committed to Ohio State.

Victor chose the Buckeyes over Tennessee and West Virginia, who he said finished second and third in his recruitment.
He officially visited all three programs.
“I feel at home there,” Victor said of Ohio State. “I see myself playing there. I just feel comfortable there.”
Victor officially visited Ohio State October 17.
He unofficially visited Ohio State in the summer.
“The first time I went there I was looking to see if I could play there or not,” Victor said. “I fell in love with it from the very first time I went there. That was the main school I liked.”
Victor (6-4, 175) said he’s familiar with Buckeyes five-star defensive end commit Nick Bosa. He also knows current Buckeyes cornerback Damon Arnette, wide receiver Torrance Gibson and wide receiver Johnny Dixon.
Ohio State Wide Receivers coach Zach Smith served as the recruiter of record.
“He did a great job recruiting me,” Victor said. “He didn’t hit me up every day like some did. He told me how I could help the program and I would fit in.”
Victor, who said he’s done taking trips, said he expects Smith and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer to stop by and see him later this week.
The four-star recruit is ranked as the nation’s No. 12 wide receiver and the No. 15 prospect in Florida in the 2016 class by 247Sports.com Composite Rankings.
“Ohio State is getting someone that’s going to work hard,” Victor said. “They are getting a team leader and someone that’s going to do anything the coach asks me to do. I’m a tall, rangy player that can make plays.”
As a senior, Victor caught 42 passes for 846 yards with 15 touchdowns.
As a junior, Victor caught 44 passes for 811 yards with 12 touchdowns.
Victor is the 19th verbal commit in the 2016 class for Ohio State.A conservative analytics firm apparently scraped a huge trove of Reddit data as part of its voter-targeting efforts. As reported by Gizmodo, GOP-contracted company Deep Root Analytics accidentally put a folder titled “reddit” on a publicly accessible web server along with other internal records, which cyber risk analyst Chris Vickery discovered last week. It contains 170GB of data from several subreddits, but no indication of how Deep Root might be using the information.
The subreddits in question range from innocuous to controversial. One was the banned subreddit r/fatpeoplehate, which Gizmodo speculates was picked for its connection to Trump fans — a FiveThirtyEight analysis of r/The_Donald members found that outside explicitly political subreddits, these users overlapped most strongly with r/fatpeoplehate members. But Deep Root also collected information from mountain-biking and Spanish-speaking subreddits, which have no such connection.
Deep Root leaked profiles of nearly 200 million potential voters as well, and it’s possible that it was trying to match names to Reddit profiles — which would give them a deep look at the preferences of specific voters. Gizmodo notes that the Obama campaign matched voter records with Facebook profiles, but it’s unclear that someone could do the same with Reddit, where few people operate under their real names. The company could also simply be looking for correlations in Reddit users’ interests, which could help predict which messages will resonate with specific categories of voters. All we can say for sure from this leak is that political analysts are watching Reddit — which, given its prominence during the election, isn’t a surprise.Ever since dogs Pistol and Boo brought celebrities Johnny Depp and Amber Heard into the government’s crosshairs, Australia’s laws have been in the headlines.
But while our quarantine laws have a clear and important purpose, other laws seem just bizarre.
Depending on which state you live in, wearing pink hot pants after midday on a Sunday or riding a goat could be illegal.
In Western Australia, it’s illegal to possess more than 50 kilograms of potatoes, which Dr. Justine Rogers, a Law Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, says “was a product of the regulation of food during the Great Depression and post-War period.”
“Now, it’s more clearly tied to the farmers’ monopoly and a desire to keep supply low, and prices and quality high. But you wouldn’t know this by just looking at the rule itself.”
While playing expletive-riddled rap or sexist songs on the radio is apparently fine, laws in the Northern Territory and Victoria say singing an obscene song or ballad in a public place is an offence.
In Victoria, the Summary Offences Act 1966 states that it’s an offence to fly a kite or play a game in a public place “to the annoyance of another person.”
“Not only does that seem insufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment,” notes to University of Wollongong Associate Professor Julia Quilter,” it’s also the kind of activity that we perhaps think we should be promoting – being outside and being active.”
Unsurprisingly, some of the world’s strangest laws are from the United States of America, including offences related to giving a moose a beer, feeding pigs rubbish and having a moustache that makes people laugh in church.
Rogers, who recently took part in Justice Connect’s Ridiculous Laws event, says “without their historical and policy contexts; they seem obscure, funny and, because there have been traditionally more men law-makers than women, often terribly sexist.”
There are a multitude of reasons why we end up with odd-sounding laws. Some, while archaic now, would have seemed reasonable at the time or were passed to deal with a specific event.
While many remain on the books because they are relatively harmless and there’s little political incentive to do repeal them, Professor Quilter explains there’s symbolism to repealing some laws.
“To repeal the offence that relates to obstructing a member of the clergy in the discharge of his or her duties, while it’s probably never been used for a billion years, is also symbolically problematic.”
Most of us understand that archaic laws, both in relevance and language, make the law less accessible to the public, but have less knowledge of the broader effects.
“Even if they seem harmless, having them there chips away at our confidence in the law. It seems out of touch and excessive,” warns Rogers.
“The law doesn’t just have the potential to be weird or odd; it can be downright harmful and discriminatory. There are real things about which people should be concerned and, where necessary, protest.”The Department of Education said Thursday it will try to make it easier for students and parents with troubled credit histories to get college loans.
New rules would ease restrictions on college students seeking loans from the government's direct loan program.
The change would let people get loans more easily even if they have up to $2,085 in debt that is in collections or has been written off by creditors, and it would shorten the length of time their history of such bad debt is scrutinized from five years to two.
Currently, students with that much "adverse debt" are automatically denied, though they can appeal and get loans if they demonstrate extenuating circumstances. Such borrowers may be required to have loan counseling.
The five-year "lookback" would continue to apply to more serious credit problems like bankruptcy and foreclosure.
The department said about 370,000 more borrowers would clear the government's credit check under the new standards.
"These changes allow us to continue to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and open the doors of college to ensure all students have the opportunity to walk through them," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.
The current credit history rules haven't been updated since the so-called PLUS loan program was established in 1994.
The rules would also tighten the definitions of whether an applicant has loans in collection or that have been written off by creditors, which the department says will provide a fairer evaluation of whether they have a bad credit history.
The department expects to make the rules final by November, which means they would take effect for the fall of 2015.What happens when massice ice caps melt? In Iceland's case, the ground rises up.
It'snot something you'd notice walking around but a team of geoscientists has detected evidence that Iceland is literally rising in some places at a rate of more than one inch per year.
How is that possible? Think of a trampoline. "The weight of that person is going to make the trampoline sag beneath them," explains Kathleen Compton, a graduate student in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona. "If they hop off, the trampoline regains its shape. It's a similar phenomenon going on with the Earth. The weight of the ice is so much that it makes the surface of the Earth sag."
But now that ice sheets are melting, the crust of the Earth is rebounding and taking Iceland up with it. And Compton says the Arizona-led researchers, who also include Icelandic geoscientists Richard Bennet and Sigrun Hreinsdottir, are seeing "accelerated uplift."
A GPS receiver is part of Iceland's network of 62 such receivers that geoscientists are using to detect movements of the Icelandic crust. Langjokull glacier is seen the background. Credit: Photo courtesy University of Arizona Department of Geosciences
The team takes measurements using 62 GPS sensors across Iceland, which communicate the data via satellite back to researchers. In southern Iceland, the scientists were surprised to observe the bedrock moving upward as much as 35 millimeters, or 1.4 inches, per year.
That's not enough to notice if you're out hiking around Icelandic glaciers. But on the geological scale, an inch a year is extremely fast.
The team is hoping the GPS data coming from Iceland will allow better insight into the different ways the ice caps are melting.
"Are there places on the ice cap that are melting faster than other parts?" Compton asks. "Can we use GPS to better understand the dynamics of how ice is melting across each of these icesheets?" Thanks to their research, answers may be coming.Image caption The researchers used monitors strapped to the back seat of the car to measure pollution levels
Smoking in the car, even with the windows open or the air conditioning on, creates pollution that exceeds official "safe" limits, scientists say.
Any child sitting in the back of a car when someone in the front is smoking would be exposed to this.
A Scottish team who took measurements during 85 car journeys found readings broke World Health Organization limits, Tobacco Control journal reports.
The British Medical Association says all smoking in cars should be banned.
Currently, it is legal in the UK.
'Civil rights'
Children are particularly susceptible because they have faster breathing rates, a less developed immune system and are largely unable to escape or avoid exposure to second-hand smoke, says Dr Sean Semple, of the University of Aberdeen.
Using a device strapped to the back seat of the car, the researchers logged and then analysed air quality data during a number of journeys ranging from about 10 minutes to an hour in duration.
We believe that there is a clear need for legislation to prohibit smoking in cars where children are present The study authors
In 49 of the 85 journeys in total, the driver smoked up to four cigarettes.
During these 49 smoking journeys, levels of fine particulate matter averaged 85µg/m3, which is more than three times higher than the 25µg/m3 maximum safe indoor air limit recommended by the World Health Organization.
Even if the driver smoked only one cigarette and had the window wide open, particulate matter levels still exceeded the limit at some point during the journey.
On average, the level of second-hand smoke was between one-half and one-third of that measured in UK bars before the ban on smoking in public places came into force.
Levels averaged 7.4µg/m3 during the 34 smoke-free journeys.
Parents must be allowed to use their common sense, and most of the time they do - there is no need for further regulation Simon Clark, Forest
The research authors say: "The evidence from this [research] paper is that second-hand smoke concentrations in cars where smoking takes place are likely to be harmful to health under most ventilation conditions.
"We believe that there is a clear need for legislation to prohibit smoking in cars where children are present."
But Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, says: "We don't encourage adults to smoke in a car if small children are present, out of courtesy if nothing else, but we would strongly oppose legislation to ban smoking in cars.
"According to research, 84% of adults don't smoke in a car with children present so legislation to ban it would be disproportionate.
"In terms of civil rights we are entering difficult territory. For most people a car is their private space. If you ban smoking in cars with children, the next logical step is to ban parents from smoking in the home.
"Parents must be allowed to use their common sense, and most of the time they do. There is no need for further regulation."
But Prof John Britton, chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group, says a ban is necessary to protect children.
He said estimates suggested that each year passive smoking in children accounted for more than 20,000 cases of lower respiratory tract infection, 200 cases of bacterial meningitis, and 40 sudden infant deaths.
And last November the British Medical Association said an outright ban - even if there were no passengers - would be the best way of protecting children as well as non-smoking adults.Ever want Donald Trump to kiss your ass?
Fernando Sosa, a 31-year-old Florida artist, is telling the real-estate-mogul-turned-presidential-candidate where to stick it. He has created a butt plug that looks likes the Donald. It's got everything from his puckered lips to his trademark comb-over.
"I wanted to do something insulting," Sosa told The Huffington Post. "I like the mental picture of his face going into people's asses."
The sex toy was created in reaction to Trump's last month blasting of Mexico and Mexican immigrants. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists," he said in remarks after launching his presidential campaign.
Sosa used a 3D printer to get Trump's trademark hair to whip up just right.
"The technology requires a certain thickness and texture on the hair, so duplicating his thin, see-through comb-over was tough," he said.
They sell for $27.99. Future versions will come with accessories for Trump's noggin like a snap-on toupee and a piece of artificial poop that will also fit snugly on the head.
Sosa has done similar sex toys for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul, among others, but said he never planned to do Trump.
"I didn't think he was going to run," Sosa said. "And then he made those comments about Mexicans. I was born in Mexico so I stopped working on Jeb Bush to do him."
Although Trump is notorious for trying to control the use of his image, Sosa believes First Amendment rules regarding free speech and political parody will protect him in court.
"It does seem like he likes to file frivolous lawsuits, so he might sue me just to scare me," Sosa said. "Rich people don't have to be right to sue. I'd love for him to take me to court."
The Huffington Post reached out to Donald Trump via Twitter, but has not received a response.
Sosa is now planning to finish up the Jeb Bush butt plug and has other ideas of who to do next.The biggest secret of politics in the United States is that a majority of the population is to the left of both major parties. This can be amply demonstrated by comparing public opinion on a host of issues to the policies pushed by corporate and political elites. Whether it’s US aggression overseas, raising taxes on corporations and the super-rich, expanding social services or any number of other issues, there is a vast disconnect between the people and those who purport to represent them.
This perhaps more than anything explains the widespread lack of public interest in voting. Rather than a result of apathy or ignorance, as many elite pundits arrogantly assert, public withdrawal from the electoral process is actually an informed choice. Since the policies of both major parties are generally in opposition to the will of the public, people often rightly view voting as a lose-lose proposition. As a result, voter turn-out in the United States is significantly lower than anywhere else in the industrialized world, plus millions who do vote – perhaps even a majority – do so with little enthusiasm.
On no issue is the disconnect between elites and the public more striking than health care. For decades, public opinion has favored a single payer system such as exists in every other industrialized country. Simultaneously, corporate elites and their representatives in the two major parties have been waging an unrelenting war on the people’s right to comprehensive health care. Their goals, among others, are to privatize Medicare, destroy Medicaid, and shift the cost of employment-based plans in both the public and private sectors to workers via rising co-pays, deductibles and premiums even as coverage diminishes.
The disconnect between the people and elites is what lends the so-called discussion about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) now before the Supreme Court such a comical tone. Amidst all the pathetic cries about Obamacare, nowhere is it mentioned that millions of those who oppose PPACA do so not because it’s a Marxist-Leninist attack on individual liberty, but because they favor single payer and recognize the law as a sell-out to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. President Obama did not call on those who live and work on the frontlines of the health care crisis – nurses, social workers, public health advocates, the uninsured, those with insurance who have been denied necessary care – to write the bill. He handed that task over to members of the insurance industry, and they have been salivating since its passage at the billions of dollars in additional profits they will reap if and when PPACA goes into effect.
The Democrats’ claim that there was no political will for a public option, let alone single payer, was Elite Speak for those of us in charge don’t care a wit what the public wants. No one who’s paying the slightest bit of attention should have expected otherwise. Candidate Obama received $25 million in campaign contributions from the insurance industry in 2008, after all, roughly four times as much as John McCain. And as many nine-year olds understand (not to mention most anyone not in the employ of Fox News), Met Life, Big Pharma and the rest of the ruling class are not in the business of financing Marxist-Leninist revolution.
Following the lead of the rest of the world is off the table in the boardrooms of the super rich even though the lack of a single payer system has been an important factor in the decline in the competitiveness of US industry (Swedish, Japanese and German automakers, for example, do not have to pay a dime for workers’ health insurance). Instead, the super rich pursue a two-pronged plan of moving production to countries where workers are paid subsistence wages and have few rights, on the one hand, while attacking the living standards of those domestic industrial workers who remain. Alongside plant closures and union-busting, the massive shift of the costs of employer health plans to workers has been a major piece of the unprecedented upward redistribution of wealth that’s occurred in this country over the last forty years.
Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides on the PPACA, our wholly inadequate health care system will likely worsen in every way over the short term. Costs to the public will rise, more and more care will be denied, needed services will remain at inadequate levels or disappear altogether, women, people of color and children will be disproportionately impacted, and the overall result will be a further deterioration in living standards for the vast majority. Meanwhile, the super-rich and the political class that serves them (and which enjoys top notch, government-financed health insurance) party all the way to the bank.
Momentum for a single payer system is far from dead, however. Like all efforts for social justice, the push for single payer received a tremendous infusion of energy from the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. Occupy has shone much-needed light on who it is that really owns this country. If that light continues to grow brighter, real health care reforms – not to mention many other necessary changes – are still a possibility.YouTube and SoundCloud Video/Audio to Mp3 Converter & Downloader!
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people have paperwork from health care providers, but a court order is the best evidence, according to its website.
Harris’ bill so far has not received support from Republicans, who ought to reconsider their position. A person’s ability to work, travel and obtain health care depends on having the correct government-issued identification. Lawmakers shouldn’t stand in the way.
Send letters to: letters@suntimes.comScratch a Progressive, and they’ll tell you that their ideal for what America should look like is the “social democracies” of enlightened Europe. That’s why we need higher minimum wage laws, pro-union mandates, and other regulations on the job market. (One new idea in The New Yorker this week is a three-day work week.) Meanwhile, younger Americans are finding it harder than ever to get started in today’s economy, and surveys show a larger number of Americans than even the late 1970s now think future generations will not be as prosperous as previous generations.
I hope everyone catches up with the story in today’s Wall Street Journal about conditions for young workers in Spain and Italy—and especially the reasons why:
In Europe, Job Protections for Older Generation Are Barriers for Younger Workers... In Europe’s weaker economies, people in their 20s and 30s often have little hope of achieving the careers, wealth and economic security enjoyed by their parents. In places like Spain and Italy, the employment rate has tumbled for people under 40 since 2008, even as it has stayed relatively steady or grown for their parents’ generation. Their predicament is exposing a painful truth: The towering cost of labor protections that have provided a comfortable life for Europe’s baby boomers is now keeping their children from breaking in. The older generation benefited from decades of rock-solid job protection, union-guaranteed salary increases and the promise of a comfortable retirement. All this has allowed them to weather Europe’s longest postwar crisis reasonably well. By contrast, many younger Europeans can hope for little more than poorly paid, short-term contracts that often open a lifelong earnings gap they may never close. Employers in many countries are reluctant to hire on permanent contracts because of rigid labor rules and sky-high payroll taxes that go to funding the huge pension bill of their parents.Google has been sniffing around for opportunities in Cuba for months. It's all been hush-hush, but talk to any Cuban tech entrepreneur, as I did during a visit last year, and they'll tell you they've met with Google reps. Indeed, when I was there, I ran into a mid-level Google exec who was on semi-official company business on the island. Google executives have also met with government officials.
On Monday, President Obama, who is on a historic visit to Cuba, shone a spotlight on the company's efforts. In an ABC News interview, Obama said that “Google has a deal to start setting up more Wi-Fi access and broadband access on the island. Change is going to happen here, and I think Raúl Castro understands that.”
That deal between Google and Cuba is still in the works, and the company itself said talks remain in "early stages." In a blog post, Google noted that many tech companies, like Airbnb and Netflix, (and Stripe) have been working to bring their services to the island. "We’re also exploring additional possibilities around increasing and improving internet access, but they’re at early stages," Google said.
The blog post was signed by Brett Perlmutter, whose title is "Cuba Lead" at Google Access, the Alphabet unit responsible for Google Fiber and other broadband projects. A Google Access spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
In the post, written in English and Spanish, Perlmutter also said that Google will be showcasing some of its products and services in Havana during President Obama's trip, and gave a quick rundown of Google services already available there. He aded:
We know, from the experience of many countries around the world, that new technologies and improved internet access can help people in their daily lives, provide new information and experiences, and help harness a country’s creativity and ingenuity. We hope to have the chance to offer more services to the Cuban people in the future.
Cubans have been hankering for Internet access. While broadband availability has expanded over the past year, connectivity remains scarce for most Cubans. Millions on the island have relied on El Paquete Semanal, an informal "internet-in-a-box" (or in a terabyte disk), that is distributed widely through an informal network whose operations were detailed by Forbes:
El Paquete began some half-dozen years ago, compiled by a small, shadowy group of friends in Havana every week. It’s a massive digital trove of recent movies, TV shows, magazines, apps, software updates and other digital goodies made available to Cubans, often mere hours after they become available elsewhere in the world. It’s copied and distributed on portable drives to 100 people, who distribute it to 1,000, and so on, and then it’s delivered through an informal network of human mules who travel in public buses to every corner of the island. Most customers get the drive at home, where they exchange it for last week’s drive and the equivalent of $1.10 to $2.20. (Distributors selling to other distributors charge ten times as much.)
For more details about El Paquete, as well as some of the tech entrepreneurs who met with Obama on Monday, you can read: No Internet? No Problem. Inside Cuba's Tech RevolutionDespite his questionable status, Toronto Raptors small forward DeMarre Carroll is optimistic about his chances of playing in Friday's Game 6 matchup with the Miami Heat.
"I'll have a lot of say, let's put it that way. If it ain't broke, I'm ready to play," Carroll told reporters on Thursday.
Carroll's injury appeared more serious during Game 5, as he was forced to leave Wednesday's contest after crashing to the floor in the third quarter. He's since undergone multiple tests on his left wrist to determine the severity of the injury, with all of them coming back negative.
"My whole wrist went numb so I'm like 'here we go again,'" Carroll said.
Carroll's laid-back approach toward the injury should come as a positive sign for Raptors fans. He joked that if all else fails, DeMar DeRozan's unique Game 5 treatment is always an option.
"I told (director of sports science and assistant coach Alex McKechnie), let's wrap a shoelace around my wrist and see what happens," Carroll added.iOS and Javascript development skills are on the rise. I am always interested in emerging technology skills that are in high demand so I decided to use AngelList’s Jobs API as a proxy for the broader startup community. I analyzed 14,745 jobs posted between February 2012 and November 2014. Here are the key insights based on the data.
Programming Languages
Web development languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, Ruby, and Python remain extremely popular, accounting for approximately 25% of all jobs offered. iOS development skills primarily in Objective-C are also on high demand which is not surprising given popularity of mobile apps, with Swift skills growing the fastest. Java continues to be in demand especially for Android development. I also noticed Node.js and Angular.js on the rise as these platforms become more and more popular.
Node.js is a very robust platform with non-blocking I/O asynchronous calls, which allows it to support thousands of concurrent transactions on commodity hardware. I also enjoy the native websocket support and NPM package manager. Angular.js, launched by Google in 2009, is an open-source web application development framework and offers a great alternative to server side code, including the ability to create highly interactive web applications with great modularity. The chart below lists the top programming languages by number of jobs offered.
Note: the steep ascent in early 2014 could have been driven by the popularity of AngelList for startup jobs and not necessarily the demand for such skills.
Emerging Technologies
While the chart above shows skills in high demand I am also interested in skills in low demand (fewer job postings) but with extremely high growth. Swift is a clear winner with 3,900% growth in number of jobs posted although starting from a smaller base. Other Javascript-based technologies such as React.js (see Javascript below), D3, and express are also growing (see Javascript below), as well as CSS precompilers such as LESS and SCSS/SASS. With the growth of analytics and big data I also noticed R, matlab, and hive as other high growth areas.
Celery, an asynchronous job queue scheduler, also showed high growth. Many applications have job scheduling requirements and Celery offers integration with Python and Django.
Javascript
Node.js was first published in 2009 and has gained immediate adoption ever since. It is a very powerful and scalable JS-based server with strong support for sockets. It also supports web servers using frameworks such as Express and Jade. D3 is a powerful data visualization library with document manipulation features.
Angular.js offers a quick way to build and launch web applications in a modular fashion. Ember and Backbone are competing frameworks with Angular and there are some interesting public discussions about them here, here, and here.
React.js was the fastest growing Javascript library (3000% job growth between 2013 and 2014). Launched by a collaboration between Facebook and Instagram in 2013 and it offers a lightweight web UI library with the ability to update specific data elements as the underlying data changes in the backend.
Meteor.js is a complete web and mobile development framework often (unfairly) compared with Angular. While Angular focuses on the client side and depends on REST APIs to access data, Meteor runs on Node.js and manages both frontend and backend. Greg Neiheisel wrote a comparison between Meteor and Angular here.
Databases
Every dynamic web application requires a database so let’s look at what’s happening here. NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB are quickly gaining ground against traditional relational databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL. This space is evolving quickly and new database offerings are entering the market at a fast pace as you can see in the chart below.
There are several hosted solutions for NoSQL such as MongoLab and Heroku for MongoDB and Cloudant for CouchDB. These solutions offer a very low barrier of entry for the application developer to build scalable applications at a low cost. I particularly like NoSQL for its ability to store and manage unstructured data such as Twitter feeds and the built-in sharding. Kristof Kovacs wrote a great comparison of NoSQL databases here.
There are also in-memory key-value datastores such as redis and memcached that I find very interesting although I haven’t had a chance to work with them yet. These databases have very specific applications and are quickly gaining adoption. You can find comparisons on both databases here and here.
Other noteworthy databases are Cassandra (best for huge datasets with a SQL-like interface based on CQL3), HBase (Hadoop’s database), Accumulo (similar to HBase with cell-level security), Neo4j (targeted for graph-data such as routes, maps, and network topologies), Couchbase (memory-based for low-latency data access), and Riak (strong fault-tolerance).
Note to self: the startup community rarely uses the large scale database vendors such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM DB2 as you can see in the chart below.
Platforms
Amazon AWS is the clear leader in hosting with a robust service and comprehensive offerings ranging from web servers to hadoop implementations. Amazon AWS is also a winner on data privacy, recently winning the bid to build CIA’s cloud infrastructure in 2013.
Phonegap has shown impressive growth in adoption. It offers a comprehensive library to enable developers to build mobile apps across applications. This a pain point for mobile app developers who need to build apps across iOS, Android, and other platforms. Its main competitor is Appcelerator by Titanium that offers an eclipse-based platform to build mobile apps using Javascript and then automatically translating into native code.
It is also important to note that Microsoft recently announced a decision to open source.Net which may generate some attention. The.Net platform is responsible for a small but growing number of jobs offered. Microsoft also gives out a lot of free stuff to startups through their BizSpark offering.
APIs are also in demand with strong adoption from Google APIs, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Balsamiq is a phenomenal wireframing tool and it has grown by 2100% in adoption between 2014 and 2013. Heroku is an application hosting solution with great and simple support for technologies such as Node.js and Python.
Locations
Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley is the top location with 4,319 job posts across San Francisco, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Berkeley, and other locations. New York, Los Angeles, London, and Boston follow next with over 3,800 jobs. India has grown by more than 1000% across Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Pune.
(Click on the map to view larger)
Roles
Developers continue to be in high demand especially mobile developers. This is followed by Marketing, Sales, and Design. These roles are closely tied to product development and business development which is at the heart of every startup. The chart below also include key support roles such as hardware engineer (infrastructure), finance, attorneys, and data scientists.
In conclusion, new programming languages, databases, and platforms are appearing at a very rapid pace. The best thing about it is focus on productivity and support for niche applications. Platforms such as PhoneGap enable cross-device mobile apps to be built much faster although with less features. Yet, it probably covers more than 80% of business scenarios which is enough. Same with MongoDB’s native JSON support which enables quick analysis of social media data such as Twitter feeds. Last, Node.js offers native socket support which enables the development of chat-based applications among many other scenarios. I am encouraged by such rapid technological evolution as it is also lowering the barrier of entry for new web and mobile apps. We should expect faster growth in number of apps and platforms in the coming months as well as new business models. Incumbents should worry.
Thanks to Nick Coult and Paul Johansen for the help writing this post.My Ghost installation recently informed me that an update was available. I usually try to take care of these as quickly as possible and have a little script the did all the updating for me. So I blindly kicked off my script and promptly bricked my Ghost install.
Turns out that at some point I totally missed the major jump to Ghost v1 from v0. When I ran my script, the script attempted to make the major leap across breaking updates. Once I sorted that out and found the documentation, I realized there was a proper process for this activity.
I downgraded my current Ghost version back to what I had previously, backed up all my info through the web utility and the content folder, and followed the documentation on installing the 'new hotness'. This included installing and transitioning to MySQL from the previous database that was embedded with the old v0 installs.
After a few hours of firewall troubleshooting (damn you IPTables) I finally had my new Ghost installation running, imported my backups, and was back up in business.
Confluence Migration
Now that I had my new shiny MySQL database running, it seemed like a good idea to migrate my Confluence install from Postgres, which I was currently running, to MySQL.
As with all things Atlassian, the documentation on how exactly to do this was scattered across the internet. I had 7 or 8 tabs open for the hours that I was working on this migration. When really the steps were relatively simple and include a re-install of Confluence.
Backup your data. Even though I do daily backups, I still followed the recommended process and created an XML backup from the "Backup & Restore" section of the admin page. This will create the backup on the host file system so DO NOT blow away your old install. If migrating, move your old installation to a backup directory. mv /opt/atlassian/confluence /opt/atlassian/confluence-backup
mv /var/atlassian/application-data/confluence /var/atlassian/application-data/confluence-backup Confluene recommends taking note of any user-installed add-ons but my backup had them already. Install MySQL if you have not alrady and configure it. The configuration I needed only included a few commands but they gave me a ton of trouble. After many rounds of trying to make this all work, I started everything over and it miraculously worked. Perhaps it was that I did the database creation command as confluenceuser and root for the others (I really don't know, probably voodoo magic). https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/database-setup-for-mysql-128747.html SET default_storage_engine=INNODB;
CREATE DATABASE confluence CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON confluence.* TO 'confluenceuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; Download the JDBC driver. Download and then run the Confluence Installer selecting the appropriate options, do NOT start the service at the end. wget https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/downloads/binary/atlassian-confluence-6.4.3-x64.bin
chmod +x atlassian-confluence-6.4.3-x64.bin
./atlassian-confluence-6.4.3-x64.bin Unzip the JDBC driver you downloaded earlier, go into that directory and copy the.jar file to /opt/atlassian/confluence/confluence/WEB-INF/lib. Now start Confluence. /etc/init.d/confluence start should do it unless you migrated and still have the old install hanging around, in this case, the service name will get a number ie. confluence1. You can see what you have available by listing out /etc/init.d. With Confluence running, navigate to your page and complete the configuration wizard selecting MySQL as the database and the JDBC connection option. If you get a timeout error, wait a few minutes and refresh the page to see if it clears as there is a fair amount of background work Confluence is doing. NOTE: I got a TON of errors at this step, not sure why, but recreating the database seems to be what finally did it. On the last step of the wizard, it will ask you if you want to restore. To do this, copy your backup file to /var/atlassian/application-data/confluence/restore/. Depending on when you do this, you may have to refresh the page. Follow the prompts. Lastly, update your Base URL in the General Config and you should be good to go.
Hope this is helpful to someone out there because it turned into a major pain for me.For workers who are already prone to overwork, compressing five days into four could contribute added stress. iStock
This story was first published on the Conversation and has been republished here with permission.
Many employers and employees love the thought of a four-day workweek. Supposedly, a four-day work schedule allows workers extra time to pursue leisure activities and family togetherness. Spurred on by visions of spending more time at the beach, many people are now encouraging businesses to adopt this kind of work plan.
There are many purported advantages. Some authorities say that a four-day work schedule facilitates the ability to provide child care and assistance for the elderly.
Proponents of such “compressed” work schedules—those in which employees work longer hours for fewer days of the week—point to gains in productivity that result from decreased overhead costs, such as not having to keep the lights on when nobody is working. Additional cost savings can be obtained from reducing total weekly commuting time.
A variety of businesses has tested the four-day concept, including Amazon, Google, Deloitte, and a host of smaller firms. Amazon announced in 2016 that it was experimenting with an even shorter workweek of 30 hours for select employees, who would earn 75 percent of their full-time salary, should they choose to opt in.
Many of the pilot programs have shown promising results. Statistics from the Society for Human Resource Management indicate that 31 percent of employees were in a compressed workweek schedule as of 2015. That’s the case, however, for only 5 percent of large companies.
This is an issue in which I have considerable experience. I have been studying the health effects of long working hours for nearly 30 years. All the studies point to the potential dangers that can occur as the result of the additional risks created when work demands exceed a particular threshold. Most of the studies I have performed suggest that the dangers are most pronounced when people regularly work more than 12 hours per day or 60 hours per week.
The idea of a four-day workweek is not new. Labor experts have been studying and advocating these approaches since the 1970s. For example, in 2008, researchers from Brigham Young University conducted a series of surveys among employees and community members to assess their perspectives about a four-day workweek. The researchers found that about four-fifths of the employees reported a positive experience working that type of schedule.
Based on these positive results, Utah’s governor enacted a mandatory four-day workweek for all state employees. The state’s goals were to curb energy costs, improve air quality, ensure that needed services would still be available (for instance, garbage collection), and help to recruit and retain state employees. In 2011, however, Utah reversed course, saying that savings never materialized.
Other research has also supported the development and adoption of compressed work schedules. A 1998 study found that compressed schedules were related to high levels of job satisfaction and employees’ satisfaction with their work schedules; supervisors also reported they were pleased with the four-day workweek schedules.
Despite the widespread enthusiasm for a four-day week, I am not convinced that kind of schedule is beneficial for employees or for businesses. The primary problem with the idea is that whatever work needs to be done needs to get done in the same amount of total time. Despite wishes to the contrary, there are still only 24 hours in a day.
The math is simple: Working five eight-hour shifts is equivalent to working four 10-hour shifts. That’s true. But the implications of these schedules are different. The danger is in disregarding the health effects that can occur as a result of fatigue and stress that accumulate over a longer-than-normal working day.
I performed a study showing that the risk of suffering an industrial accident is raised by 37 percent for employees working more than 12 hours in a day. The risk is 61 percent higher for people in “overtime” shifts. Working more than 60 hours in a week is related to an additional injury risk of 23 percent. As the hours worked in those schedules increase, the risks grow accordingly.
More recently, Dr. Xiaoxi Yao, a colleague of mine who is now at the Mayo Clinic, and I recently performed another study using 32 years of work-hour information to analyze the relationship between long working hours over many years and the risk of being diagnosed with a chronic disease later in life. We found that the dangers were quite substantial, especially for women.
Women working more than 60 hours per week, equivalent to 12 hours per day, were more than three times as likely to eventually suffer heart disease, cancer, arthritis, or diabetes, and more than twice as likely to have chronic lung disease or asthma, as women working a conventional 40-hour workweek. Working just a bit more, an average of 41 to 50 hours per week, over many years appeared to substantially increase the long-term risk of disease.
These studies show that not all hours are created equal. The research suggests that harm may occur past a certain point. A four-day week causes workers to squeeze more hours than usual into a day. For workers who are already prone to overwork, the additional burden of compressing five days into four could break the camel’s—or worker’s—back.
Besides the health issues, employers and workers also need to consider the effect that compressing hours into a four-day period has on workers’ mental health, stress levels, and fatigue.
Occupational psychologists realize that people do not function as effectively when tired or stressed. This may be even more of a concern for older workers.
Moreover, just squeezing five days of 10-hour-a-day work into a compressed 40-hour schedule can create more rigidity and reduced flexibility for families and children. For example, if the two additional work hours per day are added onto a conventional day schedule that begins in the morning at approximately 8 or 9 a.m. and extends into the late afternoon hours at about 4 to 5 p.m., then many working parents will lose the ability to interact with their children just at the “prime time” of about 5 to 7 p.m. when kids otherwise would be most likely to be in the house and potentially available to socialize with their siblings and parents—before their bedtime arrives.
There are many obvious ways to address these concerns and make life easier for workers and their families. Don’t overwork. Don’t stay too long at work. Find a job with an employer that has flexible working hours.
I don’t know about you, but the prospect of a four-day week scares me. I already have a hard enough time getting my regular weekly work done over five days. And it’s always so tempting to glance at my work email—just a couple more notes to jot down.
Instead, why not just pull back at a certain point? Maybe it’s time to take Friday off every so often. How about ending work at noon on Fridays, as is the practice of many Jews, to bring in the weekend in a gradual way? The trade-off, if necessary, would involve adding a small increase of one hour per day to the normal Monday through Friday schedule. That approach is actually my personal favorite.
My friend Lonnie Golden, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, Abington, advocates adopting a “Goldilocks” workweek: one that is not too long, not too short and that satisfies the employer’s interest in productivity and the employee’s interest in attaining good health and well-being.A 60 ft (18 m) tall monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee towers over a traffic circle in New Orleans, Louisiana June 24, 2015. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Wednesday morning called for the replacement of the statue. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
Duke University discovered vandalism was done to a Robert E. Lee statue Thursday, including what appear to be holes in the statue’s nose and forehead.
Duke officials have launched an investigation into defacement on the statue near the school’s Duke Chapel, reported Duke Today.
“Duke University is a place of sanctuary and refuge that belongs to every member of the Duke community,” said Vincent E. Price, the school’s president. “Each of us deserves a voice in determining how to address the questions raised by the statues of Robert E. Lee and others, and confront the darker moments in our nation’s history.”
“For an individual or group of individuals to take matters into their own hands and vandalize a house of worship undermines the right, protected in our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, of every Duke student and employee to participate fully in university life.”
The vandal appears to have damaged the lower forehead, nose, and upper left cheek of the Lee statue, as can be seen here. The statue now has holes on its nose and the area above its left eyebrow. (RELATED: Lincoln Memorial Vandalized With Red Spray Paint)
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Duke for comment, but received none in time for publication.
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As far as predictions go, it’s hard to really make one in Price’s case for this coming season. After successfully dealing with consistency issues earlier in his career, he’s already accomplished pretty much all he can from a personal perspective in the league.
In his comeback campaign following, for all intents and purposes, a season-long injury, the only real concern at this stage is whether the Habs will get a full year out of the guy.
Hence the first prediction on this list of bold ones concerning the upcoming Habs season:
5) Habs Will Stay Healthy
It’s admittedly not that bold of a prediction to say Montreal will be healthier after they finished third in man-games lost last season. That’s why it takes the No.5 spot here.
In fact, considering the Habs finished 2014-15 with a league-low 88 games lost due to injury, it’s almost as if you could have seen the pile-up of last season coming. And, because that 2014-15 campaign wasn’t as much an outlier as a reprieve from a few seasons of higher totals (including a league-leading 439 in 2011-12), playing the averages and calling for another milder one on the injury front is a good way to go.
That obviously bodes well for the Habs, even if injuries should never be used as an excuse. However, when it gets to the point that the coach is playing a glorified American Hockey League lineup, different standards should apply to what is essentially a different team. It’s obvious that the key for Montreal is nevertheless keeping just a single player healthy, and the acquisition of Shea Weber should help there.
4) Radulov Will Hit 60 Points
If you’re going to predict things like points scored by new Canadien Alexander Radulov, nothing comes more in handy than a predictive model. TSN’s Scott Cullen just so happens to suggest applying a multiplier of 0.8 to Kontinental Hockey League totals to convert them to NHL ones.
While Radulov scored 65 points for CSKA Moscow last season, that was in just 53 games. Over 82 games, he would have been on pace for 101. Multiplying that by 0.8 yields 80 points. So, 60? It might sound a bit optimistic, but it’s actually a very conservative figure, especially seeing as this is a guy who scored 58 in his last full season with Nashville back in 2007-08 as a 22-year-old, before he hit his prime.
He’s only 30 now, far from over the hill and a good candidate to add much-needed secondary, if not primary scoring to the team.
3) Pacioretty Will Hit 40… Finally
Officially speaking, Max Pacioretty is not a 40-goal scorer, having hit totals of 37 (2014-15) and 39 (2013-14) previously in his career. That doesn’t mean he’s not capable of reaching the plateau, though.
While he is coming off a kind-of-disappointing season, during which he scored just 30, he also notched his highest number of shots (303). That means, with some luck (or less bad luck), he could be in line for a career season, which is saying a lot, considering he’s scored 60 points four times and he’s just 27.
One of those times was last year, indicating he’s not as much removed from his prime—as his critics might suggest—as he is firmly in it. A few things might have to go right for him to have a shot, but a lot already have, including the acquisition of Radulov, which, assuming head coach Michel Therrien plays them on different lines, could consistently lead to easier match-ups for Montreal’s captain.
2) Canadiens Will Win the Atlantic Division
The only thing crazy about this prediction is how the Habs finished out of the playoffs last season. However, a similar story unfolded in 2012-13 after the Northeast Division-champion Canadiens had finished third from last the previous season. In fact, it’s entirely possible, with the lineup Montreal now has, that the Habs will compete for the Stanley Cup.
That’s obviously not the likeliest outcome and fans will probably settle for a division championship just to get the ship back on track. Nevertheless, an outstanding regular season has become the norm under Therrien, with 2015-16 being the exception and not the rule. It wasn’t that long ago Montreal was among the league’s elite as one of just a few teams to earn 100 points in each season since the last work stoppage. What often gets forgotten is Montreal has won two division titles in the last four years.
Believe it or not, the first of those seasons, Price posted just a.905 save percentage. So, this over-reliance on him isn’t too longstanding of a development, with Montreal proven to possess the tools outside of the crease to succeed. It’s just a matter of Therrien deploying them properly… or Price staying healthy so how he deploys them won’t matter.
1) Too Much Credit Will Be Given to Weber
The big question revolves around how the Habs will do in the playoffs. The smart money is on a mediocre finish, exiting in the second round, at which point fans of all walks of life in town will join together in a beautiful harmony and inevitably drink their sorrows away.
Why not make a game of it to at least get a chuckle out of what otherwise would be a traumatic life-altering moment (that you’ll eventually suppress deep down by the time the next season comes around)?
The rules should be simple: Every time Therrien or general manager Marc Bergevin goes out of their way to talk about Weber during the team’s annual post-mortem press conference? Take a shot. Or simply heaps praise on the guy when all a reporter asks about is the play of the team as a whole in front of Price? Take a shot.
Hell, make things interesting by also taking a shot for each front-office member who comes out in a Weber jersey. If they bring him out with them to field questions? Down a whole bottle.
(Please drink responsibly).
There’s little denying management has everything to lose if this trade doesn’t work out. You could make a good case that they traded away the team’s long-term future for a chance to win it all this season or the next one… even if they said they wouldn’t… even if there’s just as good of case to be made they’d have more of a chance with P.K. Subban still on the team.
#Habs Bergevin: "It's hard to make trades these days. Big players are rarely available. I won't sacrifice our future for short term gain." — Chantal ⛄ (@pucksnlife) January 21, 2016
There should simply be a logical desire to make the trade seem better than it was, when, as alluded to earlier, they were already well-positioned to rebound from last season all on their own.
The fact they are just two years removed from a third-round finish with the same core with which they ended last season? There’s unfortunately no room for it in the narrative that this team needed a culture change, brought about primarily by Weber, to succeed. So, here’s to you.Arggh, Why Does the Shower Curtain Attack Me?
toggle caption Lambert/Archive Photos
We've got another "Science Out of the Box" entry on the mysteries of microwave sparks. And you're invited to submit your questions as well. Scroll down for details.
It strikes when we're cold, tired, naked. We may try to dodge it -- but we're cornered.
The shower curtain. Why does it bow inward when we turn on the faucet? NPR's Joe Palca investigates from the scene of the crime: his bathroom. He talks with engineer Liz Marshall from Fluent, Inc., in New Hampshire, a company investigating the curtain effect.
Marshall says there are three explanations. But the simplest, she says, is full of hot air.
Traditional thinking went like this: the hot spray heats the air around it. As the hot air rises, it pulls cooler air into the shower from outside. With that cooler air comes the shower curtain. But this theory is lacking, Marshall says, because it overlooks one important fact. The curtain does the same thing in a cold shower.
Scientists have since turned to the "Bernoulli Effect," which states that when fluids accelerate, the pressure around them drops. So when we turn on the shower, the spray is surrounded by lower air pressure. The pressure outside the shower curtain stays roughly the same. That difference in pressure on either side of the curtain makes it bow in.
That theory held until about five years ago, Marshall says. Then David Schmidt, an engineer at the University of Massachusetts, simulated the shower scene on his computer. His model predicts that when the shower sprays, the air inside the shower becomes a kind of spinning vortex. The pressure at the center of this vortex is very low, as it is at the eye of a hurricane. And that low pressure, Schmidt says, could be what sucks the shower curtain in.
Marshall hopes that further modeling and field studies will settle this steaming hot question.Still having battery life issues on your iPhone 4S under iOS 5.0.1? We’ve already proven the issue is a software problem, not a hardware problem, which means Apple should be able to fix the iPhone 4S’s electric arterial spray… but when?
Real soon, as it happens. In fact, one Apple software engineer says the iOS 5.0.2 update is coming next week. In addition, Apple’s working on its first big point release of iOS 5, which will bring new extensions and abilities to Siri!
According to German Apple blog Macerkopf, an Apple engineer hard at work in the iOS division tells them that Apple has finally licked the battery problems, and will release the fix no later than the end of next week, bringing all iPhone 4Ses up to a standard 40 hours of standby and 10 hours of use.
More exciting, though, is what Apple has in store for iOS 5.1. Siri will apparently be getting some incredible new functionality, including support for these commands:
Take a picture.
Make a video.
Switch on/off WiFi
Switch on/off BlueTooth
If true, not only is Siri going to become even more integrated with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, but it sets a great standard for future point releases, where Apple makes Siri even more smart every few months by expanding her vocabulary. Unfortunately, outside of word that Apple’s working on the update, there’s no ETA, but I think most of us would be happy with the battery life being fixed for now, don’t you?Gareth Bale is being linked with a move to Real Madrid (Picture: Getty)
Gareth Bale. You might have heard of him. Plays for Spurs. Winger, free-roamer, loves a goal or two. Spectacular goals too, none of those boring tap-ins.
If you believe most of what you read in the press he’s distraught, angry, imprisoned, in turmoil etc etc. Ston |
is not the problem. I love Proust and he holds several of the top places for longest grammatically correct English sentences in publication. (These go on for several hundred words. I believe the longest is in excess of 950.) I’ll reproduce Don DeLillo’s third and fourth sentences here; you can skim it instead of reading it.
The roofs of the station wagons were loaded down with carefully secured suitcases full of light and heavy clothing; with pillows, quilts; with rolled-up rugs and sleeping backs, with bicycles, skies, rucksacks, English and Western saddles, inflated rafts. As cars slowed to a crawl and stopped, students sprang out and raced to the rear doors to begin removing the objects inside; the stereo sets, radios, personal computers; small refrigerators and hairdryers and styling irons, the tennis rackets, soccer balls, hockey ad lacrosse sticks, bows and arrows; the controlled substances, the birth control pills and devices; the junk food still in shopping bags-onion -and-garlic chips, nacho thins, peanut creme patties, Waffelos and Kabooms, fruit chews and toffee popcorn, the Dum-Dum pops, the Mystic mints. (White Noise)
Yes, it is an enormous list and is important enough to take up one fourth of the book’s first chapter. The first chapter is two pages long. My teacher spent so much time explaining the meaning behind this list and the emotions its post-modern affectations and styling are instilling in the reader about consumerism. I did what Myers explains all people do, skimmed it. Unless it’s a shopping list for what we are shopping for and have to locate each individual item, we don’t take in a list. We skim it and confirm that yes it is a list. This quote was found in nearly every favorable review of White Noise a book I called later, because I would have failed the class had I spoken up at the time, a hulking waste of my time and why I couldn’t be bothered to read much of the material for that class. Part of A Reader’s Manifesto‘s well, manifesto is that much of contemporary literary fiction is meant to be skimmed and thought profound, but if one puts an inkling of thought or actually reads the words slowly, it all falls apart. The above is a perfect example. The effect only comes over the reader when skimmed. Should you actually read it, like we did in class and go down the list you can’t help but think it a waste of time. And then to be told it is a sublime commentary on consumerism, that’s pretentious bullshit. See, it wasn’t the writing itself, although when you add in the author’s aspirations and inflated opinion of himself, then it becomes pretentious, but it was my teacher’s assessment of it. For this is the second type of pretentious analysis, pulling it out of one’s own ass, or to be less colloquial – making an assertion and then supporting it with something that isn’t there. Also known as lying.
Back to that original quote that started this train of examples, what was it again?
There’s something about German names…I don’t know what it is exactly. It’s just there. (White Noise).
Ah, thank you. Again, what was the point of this line? You say there is something about German names, but don’t know what. In other words you could have not written it. No, it’s not “just there” you have to explain it. Don’t expect me to do the work. I didn’t bring it up.
All of these lines aren’t the problem. By themselves they are just stupid, inane and general wastes of time. The pretentious ones are the ones that try to inadequately defend them. They think there is a profundity to saying ‘I don’t know, it’s just there.’ Or as Myers puts it “I knew this without knowing why.” That is saying there aren’t the words to explain why something is, is some great insight. No it’s laziness. DeLillo has gone on the record saying: Writing is the concentrated form of thinking. This is like one of those Jon Stewart comparison moments where something great is compared to something stupid and contradictory that the exact person suggested for humorous appeal.
So, what does all that literary analysis have to do with video games? Quite a lot. The afflictions that infect the literary reviewers are analogous to the reviewers of video games. In condensed form, Myers suggests there are only three possible responses when a critic is asked to review a work of literature:
1. “Praise the novel and novelist.”
2. “Lament that novel is unworthy of novelist’s huge talent,” (But still praise it).
3. “Review someone else’s novel instead.”
To paraphrase:
1.Praise the video game with a high score
2.Lament it wasn’t as good as you hoped, but decent (And still give it an inflated high score)
3.Review another game instead
Number 3 isn’t as used, though given how much shovelware gets put out and not reviewed you can be sure that the mean, median and average review remains high.
This graphic may be in jest, but is underlies a sad reality about video game reviews, the populous criticism. In some cases it may be about not having raised your standards enough, as it seems if it runs technically well then it guarantees a 6 already. But then this falls apart for the biggest of big releases, full of game stopping, save deleting, console crashing bugs getting 9s. Read that again, because they are not exaggerations. “Game stopping.” “Save deleting.” “Console crashing.” Of course I’m talking about Fallout: New Vegas. That the game got so many high scores despite not being able to run most of the time is unconscionable. As of writing this, the game has an 82 Metacritic average for the PS3 version, with the lowest score being a 60. The 360 version has an even higher rating with an 84. Yes, the developers fixed most, note only most, of the bugs through patches. A minority of consoles are connected to the internet meaning that most will never see those patches. These are the same people who buy only a few games a year. One of their $60 purchases is unplayable and it has an 84 average. I’m guessing this game falls under the second category of praise. It’s bad, but you still praise it because of its lineage/who it comes from.
If you want batshit writing and under supported or unsupported main stream video game writing, well you can go here to find an archive of it.
It’s all about honesty. I’m not talking about reviewers supposedly being paid off to like or hate a game. Whether that happens or not has no bearing on what I’m talking about. I’m also not talking about badly written reviews in the form of poor structure or being unclear or convoluted at times.
This is not a well-written review. Back in January is caused a small furor on Reddit and later on the rest of the internet over people complaining how bad it is. The craftsmanship and tone have been criticized elsewhere; instead I want to look at what it says and not how it says it. It is not pretentious in the way I’ve described above. Greg Miller supports his claim about Dead Space 2. He says it’s a 9 out of 10, which on their scale means it is Amazing. He thinks it’s amazing and everything he says works to that effect and he supports it with evidence from the game. When talking about the game’s combat flow he gives the example:
Slowing down a Necromorph, blowing off its arm, and using the severed limb to impale the foe on a wall is a thing of beauty that doesn’t get old.
It’s a descriptive, specific moment. The line implies that it happens over and over, but the presentation of this example is so good the repetition doesn’t lose its horrific charm and is emblematic of the other moves you can pull off. It’s better than simply saying the combat doesn’t get old.
I know that “linear” is a bad word in the video game industry, but the package is so well done here that I can’t knock Dead Space 2 for taking me on a very specific ride that’s marked by awesome moments, environments that range from a cheery schoolhouse to pitch black rooms, and sound that’s so well done I’d find myself trying to figure out if it was a monster making its move or my dog rummaging in the living room.
This line goes on and would have been better as two or three sentences, but the point it makes is solid. He says the game is linear and though many do not like linear, the reviewer doesn’t care with regards to this particular title, because of the environments (which he gives examples to show their range and variety), picks out the sounds as integral part of the experience and of course the “awesome moments.” I’m not going to go too far in defending the review for reasons I linked above. It’s slapdash writing that for a site as major as IGN reeks of unprofessionalism. Poor grammar and tense changes plague the thing, but like the Dan Brown line it’s workman like. The review is not exemplar, but it does its job.
And then there is the other type of review, the kind of review that seems just to list a game’s qualities and assign a score. Author Jen from TheGameFanatics wrote such a review on Dragon Age 2. Forget even the writing quality, which is no more than banal, but that by the end of it I couldn’t tell if she like it or not or rather if she would recommend it or not.
The first half of the review is plot summary, but doesn’t say anything about it. She mentions she got a Final Fantasy XII vibe from the story, but what specifically gave her that vibe and if that’s a good or bad thing in her eyes. I don’t know. It says that making friends and gift giving is easier than before, but again is that good or bad. Then it goes on to talk about the features of the game like interface and combat, but it makes no pronouncements about them. It might as well be a features list, because that is what it is, a gussied up features list. When she does give her opinion it’s nearly always negative: confusing and laborious code inputs and installs, annoying popups, poor sound mixing, dated graphics, bunch of glitches and bugs (including a screenshot of one) and she notes two weeks later there still isn’t a patch. That’s quite a lot of complaints. She finally lists a few points she liked, for example the fact the game is never the same twice or that the game offers choice, but what does that mean? How does it make sure it’s the never the same game twice? Ok, it offers choice, but to what degree and how good are they?
Again, there is so little there I couldn’t tell if she would recommend it or not. If she did I figured it would be one of those decent above average, but not exceptional recommendations then I see it got 9 stars. What the hell? There is nothing in the text that warrants the final-word praise like it does.
It’s not the only one either. IGN’s Homefront review makes a lot of declarations like it’s not an elite shooter, or the shooting, voice acting and sound is serviceable, but nothing special. The thing about it, it never says why. I only have Colin Moriarty’s word for it that all of this is the case. He never backs up any of his claims with evidence from the game. At least Greg Miller did in a few spots.
Then we have Susie Lye’s Homefront review at GameNTrain that does what I thought we moved passed, splitting the review into looking at the individual sections (gameplay, story, graphics, sound) in turn. That doesn’t help me if I’m buying the whole product. How much does each of these matter when looked at as a whole? Is sound important like in Dead Space or Silent Hill? Do the graphics detracts from the shooting or can I make out what I’m doing? And what exactly is “Gameplay Overall?”
Or Ken Laffrenier of XboxAddict who doesn’t get to the game in his review until it’s a fourth of the way done. Then he waxes lyrical in such a convincing way, that you know he likes the game, but it doesn’t tell you why you’d like the game. It describes little about the actual game and even less why any of that is good. It comes to a head in a really perplexing paragraph where he explains the story is amazing if you had read the companion novel, which expands on the invasion through the eyes of “an intricate character” that narrates in the game, but I don’t see how between level voice over narration is a good video game story. Also, why is it good if I have to read a supplemental novel to get everything? This isn’t even a right to his opinion thing, it’s just wrong. The game’s story is good, because I read the book? It talks about influences and mentions some stuff that’s in the game, but never seems to say anything about the mechanics; you know the actual things you press buttons to do in the game and never gives qualifying statements. This isn’t just bad it’s baffling.
It comes down to being an honest reviewer. Not just honest with the audience, but honest with yourself. It means not calling a game average and then giving it a 7 or up. 7 out of 10 is not average, not even close. The mathematical average on a 10-point scale is 5. On a scale of 100 it’s 50. You have to be willing to use the full range of scores. The most common numbers you should be giving out if you are a review site is from 4-6. Most games should be in that range. Kill Screen says the range should be between 3-7, but the main point holds. If you are being honest you should recognize most games aren’t amazing or incredible or phenomenal or life altering or “the most important video game of our generation” or bad or terrible or dog piss. Most games are ho-hum, run of the mill, bland, forgettable, in other words: average.
Now with this shocking revelation washing over you, here’s another: reviews are opinions. Reviews are subjective. Subjective does not mean objective. The number attached to the review is not scientific, it is not an objective result derived from critical observation. It is a subjective opinion derived from critical observation. If a reviewer gives a substantially different score from another reviewer it does not mean one is wrong and the other isn’t (if they both supported their arguments). It means they disagree. They have the right to their own opinion, what I’m championing is the assertion that they do not have the right to their own facts. Regardless of anything else, how good the animation is, how deep the story is, how nuance the characters are, how tight the controls are, New Vegas is not a good video game because of the game breaking bugs and coding errors that will not allow it to run. I don’t care how good your game mechanics are if the game freezes up on me consistently and constantly. Your game is broken and is not good.
I will end this with a few reviews sites or in some cases sites that do reviews that are honest. I may not agree with some of them, hell some of the reviewers on the same site do not agree with one another, but they are honest for the reasons I have outlined above.
Game Critics is the most mainstream game review site here. They hit all the major releases and much of the minor ones and unheard of one as well. They use the full scale and are not afraid to exercise that against major release titles like Brad Galloway’s 2.5 for Dragon Age 2. If a reviewer disagrees strongly enough they will do another full review as a second opinion, with a new score. I’ve seen third opinions too. Each review was given a different score and each one was a supported argument.
PopMatters is a site that concerns itself with all forms of popular culture. There is the Moving Pixels blog, which is higher minded and analytical criticism, but they also do reviews. Again these use the full spectrum of the 10-point scale and are backed up arguments. Even if they flounder like their recent Dragon Age 2 review. With regards to support of her score, Kris Ligman defends it in the text. She liked the game despite the flaws it presented even if she is not entirely sure why, but says so. She admits she may not be exactly sure why, but she says so and gives her best estimation. You may not agree with it, but that is the act of an honest reviewer on an honest site.
Yahtzee – love him or hate him – is an honest reviewer. In his very hasty, no pause video review he delivers his opinion in around 5 minutes every week. What is more interesting to note is how his reviews are often received. He is the only reviewer I mention in this post not to use a score and often his watchers are confused as to whether or not he likes a game. This is the viewers’ fault and not his. He is very clear whether or not he like a game, it’s just the gamer audience is so used to the extremes they cannot recognize gradients anymore. Some games he likes a little, some a lot and some not at all. He may not follow the mainstream, but he is always true to his own opinions and always backs them up.
Paste Magazine has a more limited video game section and does less frequent reviews, mostly on high profile releases. They have some of the best-written reviews out there and go beyond simply what the game is, how well it works and how much they like it. They try to explain the game’s appeal and the effect it has on a player. Kirk Hamilton’s Limbo review should be proof enough. It says little on the game itself, but after you read it you know whether or not you want to play it yourself to experience what it has to offer. To keep consistency Kirk Hamilton gave Dragon Age 2 a 4.5, to him a “forgettable.”
Kill Screen has the best spiel on game review scores I might have ever read. I referenced it above, but please read the whole thing here. Now they don’t do the volume that the major mainstream sites do, nor have they focused much on the AAA titles. Their editor-in-chief has said they are not adverse to them; they just haven’t received those submissions yet. They’re focus is mostly on indies and the iOS/Android platforms. I’ve seen their scores go as low as the 20s and the highest I’ve seen to date is a 79 out of 100, which was later changed to a 93 and that was a nothing but praise review, also the only 80+ they’ve published. They have high standards and do not sacrifice them. They want to elevate video games and video game writing so they must hold themselves to a higher standard.
These are the honest sites with well-written reviews. There are plenty of examples of well-done reviews within each of them. Most reviews are subject to the hype. They are influenced by it and tainted by it for one reason or another. The thing is to remember, when the game is no longer new, when the game is years old and the hype has died down, the commercials are no longer on TV and the news/preview/news cycle has stopped, all that’s left are the words. All that’s left are what the critics had to say. I’ve gone back to some of the major sites to see what they had to say on modern classics like Shadow of the Colossus and have been sorely felt wanting by what I found.
You may have found it egregious that a lot of what I had to say focused on the scores a game was given. I did it because that is what the industry, all three sides of it are, are focused on. The developers/publishers makes many of their decisions based on what the critics score it, the average consumer makes his decision or validates it with the scores, and the journalists, as much as they rail against them put a lot of effort into defending them. The score is the thesis in a way and the text is the support for that thesis. If you think a game is a 9.0 then your writing has to support that, just as if you called a game a 1.0, the writing must support that. But most of all raise your expectations to reality. Set the record straight. A 6 or a 7 is still above average and could be that fun game. Save the high scores for something that truly deserves it. And when I mean high I don’t mean 9.0 and above. The inflated review scores are a major part of the problem; so major you could say they are the problem for they cause all the others. 7,8,9 and 10 are all high scores they are just different degrees of high. Arguing the score is pointless, it is his opinion and so long as he supports his opinion it is his. But as it goes, there is opinion and then there is just plain wrong. If the reviewer calls a game mediocre and grants it a 7 or an 8 then yes he is wrong.
You can argue that the 10 point method is not the best way to go and sing the praises of letter scoring or 5 stars, but it all comes down to the same thing: you must be honest and use the full range of what ever scoring method you use or your opinion has no value. Everything is not wonderful, just like everything is not crap. You have to explain yourself, because the explanation is the important part. Not the score and not the ‘your opinion.’ It’s why you have that opinion that matters, because if you tear the game apart the person reading may feel they want to try out the game, because what you didn’t like may appeal to them and vice-a-versa.
You really should pick up A Reader’s Manifesto, it’s a brilliant piece of literary criticism, but more than that it’s criticism about an embedded review culture staked in keeping itself afloat. Myers notes that in the period before he wrote and published it there were strong rise in sales of classic novels, because the reader of quality literature had been burned and knew they could no longer trust any sterling review, because they were all sterling. The writers gained an inflated image of themselves, where in Cormac McCarthy’s case he had produced some great craftsmanship, later seemed to be phoning it in because no one told him otherwise. You tell someone what they are doing is great and wonderful when it’s not, it will not drive them to do better things, constructive criticism will.
The title A Reader’s Manifesto is there to assert its literary origins about the review culture around books and more specifically post-modernism literature that is presently in vogue. But it is more than that. It can speak to any review culture, either as a warning or as a mirror. A Reader’s Manifesto is for review readers as a whole. The problems and arguments may be about books, but the defensiveness, ad hominem attacks and step-by-step analysis of the response to any challenge to embedded elite reflects on all of us.If people could be counted on to vote in their own best interests, there would be no Tea Party movement, for if the economic agenda embraced by Tea Partiers — a vastly pro-corporation, government-killing plan — were ever to be enacted, Tea Partiers would find themselves among the people most hurt by it.
To hear Tea Party activists tell it, they seek to save future generations from the crushing demands of big government. Yet the agenda they advocate, dictated by the big-money players behind the muscular interest groups that keep the movement growing, will likely render the Tea Partiers themselves the economically squeezed subjects of a corporate state, one in which the elderly will be left to scrounge for crumbs, small businesses will be crushed by lack of capital, and their own ground-level online organizing supplanted by the networks built by giant, corporate-funded astroturf groups.
As George Lakoff and Drew Westen remind us, people don’t vote on the facts: they vote on emotion, according to Westen, and their notion of morality, according to Lakoff. The resentment of Tea Partiers toward liberals, East Coast elites, the poor and people who don’t look like them has been effectively marshaled in service of a "free market" ideology cleverly packaged as "freedom." Never mind that free markets are anything but free for ordinary people. The packaging strikes the necessary emotional and moral chords: Free markets = freedom = liberty = endowed by the Creator, as written in the Declaration of Independence by the founders. It’s the perfect exploitation of the worldview of conservative middle-class white people — all in the service of enriching the super-rich at the expense of their unwitting, patriotic ground troops.
Casting themselves as an organic uprising in opposition to a federal government they see as the greatest threat to their freedom, Tea Party supporters conveniently look past the likely consequences of the no-holds-barred, anti-regulatory aims of Rupert Murdoch and David Koch, the billionaires whose dollars grease the skids on which the Tea Party movement rides. Murdoch leads News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, the movement’s evangelists. Koch is a principal in Koch Industries, the second largest privately held corporation in the U.S., and heir to its fortunes.
The billionaires give the activists lots of entertainment to distract them from this reality, especially in the form of sideshows, such as Glenn Beck’s travesty at the Lincoln Memorial, designed to fan the flames of racial resentment while making Tea Partiers feel holy about it. At other times, the demonization or infantilization of the nation’s first black president serves up the same charge of adrenaline to the fearful, angry throngs who seek to blame their troubles on anyone other than the corporatist manipulators in whom they’ve placed their trust.
How else to explain the embrace of the billionaires’ agenda by the middle-aged, middle-class folks of the Tea Party movement — the very ones likely to find themselves screwed by it? Here we examine five positions advanced by Tea Party leaders, and what they would mean for Tea Party supporters.
1. Ending Social Security. Rep. Michele Bachmann, doyenne of the congressional Tea Party Caucus, has outlined a plan for an abrupt phase-out of Social Security. Speaking before an audience of Tea Party supporters at the RightOnline conference convened in July, Bachmann referred to Social Security and Medicare as "welfare" that had seen its day. The event was convened in Las Vegas by the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, whose board is chaired by David Koch. There, more than 1,000 Tea Partiers — the majority of whom are over the age of 45 — sat in rapt silence as Bachmann outlined a plan to end Social Security for all those who will be under the age of 65 at the time her potential dream Congress enacts the legislation.
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The growth of the federal debt and deficit require a drastic cutback in federal spending, Bachmann said. "Spending comes first, so we have to cut it first," she explained, speaking of her plan to devastate Social Security. "And in my opinion, it’ll take us about a long weekend to get that done, and then we’ll be fine."
For those between the ages of 55 and 65 at the time Bachmann’s Kill Social Security Plan hypothetically passes into law, there would be a means-tested program for "those who truly need it — the truly disadvantaged, those who truly can’t go forward." For everybody else, there would be unspecified "alternatives and adjustments." Those under the age of 55 would apparently be squat out of luck, regardless of how truly disadvantaged they are. From the assembled Tea Partiers, not a discouraging word was heard, even as Bachmann outlined a plan to essentially rob them of the money they’ve been putting into the system all their lives.
According to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted in April, 46 percent of Tea Party supporters fall into the 45-64 age group. (Untouched by the Bachmann plan would be the 29 percent of Tea Party supporters the poll cited as being over the age of 64.) The same survey revealed that among 47 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters, either they or a member of their household was receiving Social Security retirement benefits. When asked whether the outlay for programs such as Social Security and Medicare are worth the taxpayer expense, 62 percent said they were.
What to do with all those freed-up dollars? Why not give them back to the corporations and wealthy individuals who bankroll the Tea Party movement? Segueing out of her nuking of the social safety net for the nation’s elderly — and stealing the payroll taxes of all those Americans who paid into Social Security over the course of their lifetimes but would never see a dime of their contributions come back to them under her plan — Bachmann launched into a pitch for a corporatist agenda that began with her call for a roll-back of the corporate tax from its current 34 percent to 9 percent, which, according to Bachmann, would make it "one of the lowest in the industrialized world."
Actually, make that possibly the lowest in the world (excluding the handful of mostly broken nations that have none), never mind "industrialized." I mean, even Kazakhstan and Burkina Faso have higher corporate tax rates than 9 percent. And India, where all the good jobs are said to be going? Try 43 percent.
Bachmann also called for zeroing out the estate tax — even for the very wealthiest Americans — and repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, a bill passed in the wake of the Enron scandal that sets standards for corporate accountability. What would that mean for Americans under the age of 64 whose retirement savings would be entirely invested in the private sector after the demolishing of Social Security? That the same kinds of accounting tricks and corruption that destroyed the retirement savings of thousands in the Enron caper would become standard operating procedure. Sorry, Tea Partiers — you’re screwed.
2. Ending Medicare: See No. #1, Ending Social Security. "Within seven [years], Medicare is dead, bankrupt, broke — broke," Bachmann told the Tea Partiers. Her solution? End it for everybody but "the truly needy and the truly disabled." (I shudder to think what constitutes "truly needy" in the Bachmann moral universe.) Her solution? You can buy your own health insurance policy on the private market with pre-tax dollars. Sure, you’re 70 years old: How much do you think an insurance company is going to charge you for your coverage? Pre-taxed or not, you’re going to need a whole lotta dollars to make that one work for you.
But Bachmann’s fans likely found comfort in her sunny optimism. "It is possible for every American to be able to retire a millionaire," Bachmann told the Tea Partiers. "It’s entirely possible to do that if you plan early and you put away money — and there are alternatives that we can put forward." Just what those "alternatives" might be were left to the audience’s imagination.
3. Opposition to Internet Freedom (aka Net Neutrality). Earlier this month, news media, ranging from mainstream to righty to lefty, breathlessly reported that leaders of 35 "Tea Party" groups signed a letter to the the Federal Communications Commission in opposition to any efforts made by the FCC to "regulate the Internet." At issue is Internet freedom and potential regulations that could prevent Internet providers from saddling small-time Web sites unable to pay for an added jolt of Web juice with slower loading speeds for their sites than, say, big-money players like Google. (This is the crux of the issue in the Google-Verizon deal.) Now, Tea Party supporters fancy themselves to be rugged individualists, dedicated to the preservation of individual freedoms. But it wasn’t until the big-money groups that bankroll the national organizing of the Tea Party movement began garnering opposition to Internet freedom that you began to see any of those quaint, homely signs carried at Tea Party rallies dedicated to the subject.
Tea Party activists pride themselves on their movement’s apparent leaderless state, reveling in the homegrown, local character of ground-level Tea Party groups, which often organize on hastily organized listservs and homemade local Web sites. But should they succeed in halting the FCC’s net neutrality plan, they may find themselves with no decent option for Web-based organizing other than the big networking sites built by the national money groups that form the Tea Party Inc. uberstructure. So much for self-agency.
And what of those "35 Tea Party groups" whose leaders signed that letter to the FCC? Well, 24 of those entities are either part of or affiliated with Americans For Prosperity. Among the signatories was AFP president Tim Phillips, as well as the directors of 22 state chapters of Americans For Prosperity — each counted as a separate "Tea Party group." In addition, the signature of AFP policy director Phil Kerpen (who is also a columnist for Murdoch’s FoxNation) appears with the affiliation, "director, NoInternetTakeover.com." Also present was Linda Hansen, who leads the Wisconsin Prosperity Network and is the author of a "worker education" program that is a project of the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, and promoted by John Fund and Stephen Moore of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.
Others signatories aren’t leaders of Tea Party groups at all, but heads of the old corporatist, anti-government groups such as Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and David Keene of the American Conservative Union. There are even a couple of stalwarts of the old New Right: Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute.
Bottom line for Tea Partiers: deviate from the AFP/Ayn Rand line on any issue, and you could see your little homemade Web site begin to load verrrry slowwwly.
4. De-Funding Public Education. While it’s common knowledge that Tea Partiers hate all things government (except their personal Social Security checks and Medicare reimbursements), they hold a special contempt for public school teachers. This stems from a number of causes, but mostly from the fact that teachers are unionized government workers who have authority over one’s children for a good chunk of the day. The very fact of their unionization implies a different value system from that of the Tea Partiers, who fear that value system having an influence on their children. Teachers tend to be more liberal than the general population. And to the worker wed to the private enterprise system, a teacher’s deal can look pretty sweet by comparison: It generally comes with a pension, tenure and the prospect of early retirement.
That’s why even candidates like Sharron Angle, the GOP/Tea Party contender for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat, can call for the elimination of the Department of Education and still be taken seriously by the Tea Party faithful. And that’s why calling the federal jobs bill passed last month a "teacher bailout" was an effective means of summoning Tea Party opposition to the bill that provided $26 billion in aid to cash-strapped states to maintain all manner of services and programs, including money to prevent some 300,000 teacher lay-offs.
For the billionaires of Tea Party Inc., gutting public education is just another way to grab more marbles for themselves by marginalizing unions and shrinking the overall size of government — not to mention the convenience of having a gullible and uneducated population to snooker down the road. They have little need for an educated workforce in the U.S., since they’ll offshore whatever jobs they can.
Yet, according to the New York Times/CBS News poll, 65 percent of Tea Party supporters with children under the age of 18 have those children enrolled in public schools. And although parents of school-age children account for only 20 percent of Tea Party supporters, it’s safe to assume that a sizable number of the older people who comprise the bulk of the Tea Party have grandchildren in public schools. The education those children receive will clearly suffer if schools are forced to lay off significant numbers of teachers but, for Tea Partiers, that fact pales beside the prospect of sticking it to the teachers they’ve been taught to resent. Better to short-change one’s own kids than to keep one more teacher employed, despite all the rhetoric about the Tea Party movement being the guardian of the legacy owed to those yet unborn.
5. Opposition to Wall Street Reform and Financial Reform. Perhaps the most confounding aspect of the Tea Party agenda is its opposition to reform of Wall Street and banks. Even as Tea Party leaders and activists rail against the bailouts of U.S. automakers, and the minimal assistance offered homeowners with underwater mortgages, Tea Party leaders and those who follow them voice hostility toward any and all measures that would demand increased accountability from purveyors of financial instruments or the credit-card industry, like those contained in the financial reform bill passed by Congress in July (a bill that liberal critics regard as rather toothless).
In her speech to Tea Party supporters at the RightOnline conference, Michele Bachmann described the recently passed financial reform bill as nothing more than a punitive measure against Wall Street, when the real culprit in the nation’s financial woes was the Housing and Community Redevelopment Act passed in 1977. Another particular object of scorn by the Tea Party set is the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection created by the bill.
Financial reforms such as those signed into law by President Barack Obama last month are designed to benefit the middle class, where 50 percent of Tea Party supporters locate themselves, according the the New York Times/CBS poll. The reforms are expected to be especially good for small businesses, whose fortunes Tea Partiers often claim to care most about.
Failure of Logic, Rule of Emotion
So, how do they do it, those unscrupulous billionaires? How do they get everyday Americans to embrace an agenda that runs counter to their own interests? Their mouthpieces — people like Bachmann and Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck — couch it all in the language of heroic patriotism, with the Tea Partiers cast as patriots at war with people set to defile the founders’ dream of America. Do that, and a billionaire will find himself the general of an army of ground troops ready to do battle in his service, despite his unwillingness to share the spoils of his war on everyday Americans.
In her speech to the Tea Party faithful in Nevada, Michele Bachmann neither began nor ended her speech with her plan to rob the Tea Partiers (and the rest of us) of their Social Security. She began with a sustained attack on the nation’s first black president (who was portrayed as immature, greedy, incompetent and corrupt). Her plan was explained just before she wrapped up the speech, which she ended with the truly poignant patriotic story of the sinking of an Army transport ship, the Dorchester, in World War II. Bachmann recounted how four Navy chaplains went down with the ship after giving their life jackets to younger soldiers. She made a point of citing the last names of two of them: Washington |
destroy the Borg central node, severing all branches of the Collective from each other and limiting their future threat.
In David Mack's novel trilogy Star Trek: Destiny, set over a year after Star Trek: Nemesis, the Borg stage a massive invasion of local space. Due to Kathryn Janeway crippling their infrastructure in "Endgame", the Borg fear for their survival and attempt to exterminate the Federation and its neighbors. They destroy the populations of numerous Federation worlds before being dismantled by the Caeliar, the advanced species that spawned them. The crews of the Enterprise-E, the Titan, and the Aventine had made contact with the Caeliar, learned of their role in the creation of the Borg, and convinced them to end the Borg once and for all.
In the Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover comic, Assimilation2, the Borg join forces with the Cybermen. When the Cybermen subvert the Collective, the Enterprise-D crew work with the Eleventh Doctor and the Borg, restoring the Borg to full strength and erasing the Borg/Cyberman alliance from existence.[16]
Writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens developed an unproduced idea for an episode which would have featured Alice Krige as a Starfleet medical technician who encounters the Borg and is assimilated – thereby becoming the Borg Queen.[17]
In the video game Star Trek: Armada, the Borg invades a Dominion cloning facility to create a clone of Jean-Luc Picard to create a new Locutus.
In video games [ edit ]
The Borg appear as antagonists to the player in the following Star Trek videogame titles:
Activision planned to release Star Trek: Borg Assimilator, in which the player would play a Borg, but later canceled the game.
Critical reception and popular culture [ edit ]
The depiction of the Borg cube in "Q Who" garnered the episode an Emmy Award nomination.[18]
TV Guide named the Borg #4 in their 2013 list of the 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.[19]
The phrase "resistance is futile" became prevalent in popular culture from its use in the television show TNG.[20][21][22][23]
The Borg uttered the phrase in several Star Trek episodes and the film Star Trek: First Contact (which used the phrase as the tagline for the 1996 film). Patrick Stewart's delivery of the line, as Locutus, in "The Best of Both Worlds" was ranked no. 93 in TV Land's list of "The 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases".[24] It was used as the title for an episode of the TV series Dexter.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Q Who, colored red-on-black rather than white-on-black of this version, to the left of Commander Riker as the away team walks into the Borg nursery. The insignia appears at about 35:00 in the episode, colored red-on-black rather than white-on-black of this version, to the left of Commander Riker as the away team walks into the Borg nursery.
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]October 8, 2012 Comments (2) inspiration, Interviews
It is not a race, but one of the most definitive displays of personal perseverance and endurance. The goal? To climb as many 14ers as one can, travelling on foot, in 60 hours. No course markings, no water or food stashes in the woods. It is human against 60 hours, and 14 mountains that rise above 14,000’ in elevation.
According to Matt Mahoney’s Website, “Nolan’s 14 is a run over the 14 summits over 14,000 ft. in Colorado’s Sawatch Range, from Mt. Massive to Mt. Shavano in either direction. You can choose your own route between summits, but the most practical routes have been estimated to be 88 to 106 miles with 44,000 ft. of climb. Cutoff is 60 hours to the last summit.”
http://mattmahoney.net/nolans14/
Since 1999, only seven people had completed the journey to all 14 peaks in 60 hours. On September 3rd, Eric Lee of Boulder, CO became number eight. This is an event that tends to live under the radar in ultra and trail running circles. It is usually only discussed in passing, and with a true sense of disbelief. Most times, only mentioned in discussions including the Barkley Marathons. It is legendary in peak-bagging and mountaineering circles, where many deem it impossible or deny it even exists.
But then there is Eric Lee
Eric is a Lab Manager at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He works at the University of Colorado Denver and lives and trains in Boulder. A peak-bagger turned Ultra-runner, Eric is more than at home in the Mountains. I am humbled and most appreciative that Eric took time out of his busy schedule to talk a little bit about his recent Nolan’s 14 success. I, of course, could have asked quite a few follow up questions through-out; but statistics show internet readers having a short attention span.
Sherpa John: Eric, Thank so much for taking the time to talk to us about your Nolan’s 14 Adventure.
Eric Lee: I’m honored that others would take an interest in my journey along Nolans 14.
SJ: So tell us a little about your decision to take on Nolan’s 14. This has been a work in progress being that you first attempted the 14 in 2008.
EL: When I first moved to Colorado in 2006 I was more peak bagger than ultrarunner, having only run one ultramarathon. As I ventured more and more into ultra distances, I happened to learn of Nolans 14. The fantastical notion of climbing the 14 Sawatch 14ers in one push, was both fantastical and intriguing. It would combine my love of the mountains with the new world of ultra distance running that I was slowly being sucked into. The first three times I set out along the Nolans course (2008, 2009, 2011) I did not intend to finish all 14, but each time I gained some valuable knowledge about the route and myself.
SJ: So what would you say was the toughest aspect of the planning process for this kind of adventure?
EL: For me the toughest part of the planning was trying to workout a training schedule around working 50 hours-a-week and commuting back and forth from Boulder to UC Denver. To put in 70-80miles and 20-30k of elevation a week takes up a lot of time, and trying to schedule it around life took complete dedication to the goal.
SJ: It looked as though you had an amazing crew out there for the weekend, what challenges did they face and how did they cope through all they had thrown at them through the weekend?
EL: I was very fortunate to be surrounded by so many amazing people during my 2012 Nolans attempt. Without them the journey, and completion, would not have been possible. The hardest part for them, besides the sleep deprivation, was trying to coordinate and time when I was going to be at crew points. Whenever you’re climbing in the mountains for that long it can become very hard to guestimate times. I had pre-determined splits, but those can drastically change during the course of a 60 hours run. Through Mt Yale (#10) I was within 1h of my ETA for all trailheads, then it all went to hell on Mt Princeton.
SJ: Everyone always asks.. “How do you train for something like that?”
EL: It comes down to two simple principles, time on feet and efficiency of elevation gain. Where most people set weekly mileage goals, I set weekly elevation gain goals; starting with 10k ft/wk in January and capping out at 25k ft/wk in July. I am very fortunate to live in Boulder, where steep hills are right out our backdoor, so getting in 6-8miles with more than 3000ft of gain was the norm for a weekday run. I’ve always enjoyed the steep and technical, so it wasn’t too much of a departure from my usual training, just more focused. Then when the mountains melted out early in May, I spent every single weekend above 10,000ft running, hiking, and climbing big mountains. By the time all the training was done I’d covered 1,800miles and 500,000ft of elevation gain.
SJ: Now you did most of this adventure (if not all of it) with a pack on. What did you carry in your pack throughout and how much would you estimate that it weighed? And did you take this into account during your training?
EL: I carried my ultimate direction pack for the entire trek, and definitely factored this into my training. For many of my mountain runs, up high and local, I carried the same gear I was planning to take with me on Nolans 14. Not only to get used to the gear, but to get my legs used to carrying a few extra pounds. Being a mountaineer/peak bagger my philosophy in the mountains is to always be self-sufficient, meaning I am capable of spending a night out if something goes horribly wrong. I don’t agree with the current ethic some of the other ultrarunners turned mt runners utilize of carrying nothing, and being prepared for nothing, but to each his own. In my pack I carried 2L of water, 600-2000 kcal of food, a rain shell, light gloves, arm warmers, my little camera, my SPOT locator, a space blanket, small pocket knife, whistle, a few first aid items, an emergency light, and a trash bag. At most my pack weighed 10-12lb.
SJ: Tell us about your darkest moment on the adventure. When were you most down and out? What was going on in your head and how did you get through it?
EL: By far the hardest and darkest moment for me was the second night on Mt Princeton. While I was doing well fatigue wise, my lungs were severely constricted slowing me to a 1mi/h stumble above treeline as a cold wind numbed my extremities. I would stagger forward a few steps, using my hands for balance, then have to rest. I felt completely decrepit and at that point was not sure if I’d be able to finish, despite how strong I’d moved for the first 10 peaks. I would constantly have to remind myself to take the route one section at a time, and having my friend Pete along for that leg was definitely a huge help mentally. In the end, as I descended the back side of Princeton into Grouse Gulch I began to feel better and stronger, which raised my spirits.
SJ: Was it ever your goal to break the FKT for this adventure?
EL: Yes, my initial goal/hope was to both finish and to set the FKT. While I knew it was something I was physically capable of, I knew that it would also take a perfect run for me to do so.
SJ: You said in one of your reports, “legs can give out on you, your lungs can give out, route finding issues, sleep deprivation, altitude sickness, physical bonks, bad weather, missed crew resupplies.” Of this list, what went well and what was truly challenging during the 57 hours you were out there?
EL: For me all of the items listed went fairly smoothly. I had two times where I had to wait for crew for maybe 5-10min, but the weather, my legs, the lack of sleep, and route finding were all a non-issue for the most part. What really slowed me, from Mt Princeton on, was some altitude induced lung inflammation/constriction. Basically, above 12,500ft, my lungs capacity would shrink up and I could only get in very shallow inhales, thus cutting my oxygen consumption and causing my pace to suffer.
SJ: You’ve been running Ultra’s since 2006 and in that time have amassed an impressive resume. What’s next for you?
EL: I just signed myself up for the inaugural IMTUF100 in Idaho on Oct 6th, 2012 (Update: Eric finished in 3rd!). For next year I’m looking forward to hopefully running both the Hardrock 100 and the Ultra Tour du Monte Blanc, two races that I’ve had very poor luck with in the lotteries. The idea of following Homie’s lead and making an attempt at CaveDog’s Colorado 14er record has also definitely crossed my mind, buy that is at least a few years away.
SJ: Do you have any desire to attempt the Barkley after your Nolan’s Adventure? You are now a part of a list of storied Barkley Veterans who have tried and succeeded on Nolans after all.
EL: The thought has definitely crossed my mind, and the Barkley is something that has intrigued me for years. I even got an offer from a friend in Boulder that he’d pay my entry fee (all $1.60) if I signed up next year. One of these years I will toe the line in Frozen Head and give it a go, though not sure about next year.
SJ: What advice would you give anyone who was thinking about taking on a journey run of this magnitude of other?
EL: Do your homework and be prepared. So many people want to rush into big events now-a-days, whether it be 100 milers or long mountain runs. What I’d say is build up to it. For me, the journey of getting to the point of actually being able to complete Nolans 14, was just as enjoyable and rewarding as the event itself. Training is not work, it should be play.
SJ: Eric, Thanks so much for your time.
EL: Thank you John, it was my pleasure to share my insight and thoughts on Nolans 14, and hopefully inspire someone else to take on this fantastic route.
SJ: To read Eric’s fascinating account of his Nolan’s 14 Adventure, CLICK HEREA Vancouver limousine company operator who had his teen employees touch, shave and wax his genitals has been sentenced to almost two years in jail.
Robert George Maley, 59, was convicted in November 2013 of one count of sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation. He was sentenced Thursday morning in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
Maley met the three victims at a karate school attended by his son and hired them to work at Classic Limousine, a company he ran out of his home in Vancouver.
Maley was an exhibitionist who wore a pair of cutoff sweat shorts that exposed his genitals and engaged his young employees in sexualized conversations.
An 18-year-old girl testified at trial that she was forced to shave and wax Maley’s genitals multiple times and that once he grabbed her hand and guided it up and down his private parts until she pulled away.
A 16-year-old girl shaved his genitals in his office at his request and also masturbated him on multiple occasions.
He got sexual satisfaction by exposing himself to his female teen employees
He invited a third girl, also 16, to touch his genitals but she refused.
Maley had claimed that the shaving and waxing was voluntary and non-sexual.
Justice Lance Bernard, in convicting Maley, said he had groomed his victims and created a sexualized work environment.
“He got sexual satisfaction by exposing himself to his female teen employees,” Bernard said in his decision last year.
At a sentencing hearing in May, Crown asked for a prison sentence of 2 1/2 to three years, while defence argued for a 90-day intermittent sentence followed by three years of probation.
Bernard sentenced Maley to 22 months in jail, followed by three years of probation.Attorney general Loretta Lynch says the Obama administration’s position has not changed despite her predecessor’s recent interview
The “possibility exists” that Edward Snowden could make a deal with the US Justice Department and return to his home country, former US attorney general Eric Holder says.
Asked by Yahoo News in a Monday interview if the Justice Department might be open to a plea bargain that let the NSA whistleblower come back from Moscow, Holder said: “I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with. I think the possibility exists.”
The former attorney general, who left the Obama administration in April, also said that Snowden’s revelations to the Guardian and the Washington Post of mass US and UK surveillance had “spurred a necessary debate”.
“We are in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures,” Holder said.
Holder, who has returned to Washington law firm Covington & Burling, has previously said the US would be willing to “engage in conversation” with Snowden about returning to face charges, but the new comments appear to go slightly further.
But a spokeswoman for Loretta Lynch, Holder’s replacement, told Yahoo News the Obama administration’s position had not changed. “This is an ongoing case so I am not going to get into specific details but I can say our position regarding bringing Edward Snowden back to the United States to face charges has not changed,” Melanie Newman said in an email.Five academics have developed a Tor alternative network that can handle up to 93Gb/s of traffic while maintaining privacy.
The HORNET system is more resistant to passive attacks than existing anonymity networks like Tor and delivers faster node speeds for a "practically unlimited" number of sources.
It is the brainchild of leader researcher Chen Chen of Carnegie Mellon University, together with Daniele Enrico Asoni, David Barrera, and Adrian Perrig of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and George Danezis of University College London.
"Unlike other onion routing implementations, HORNET routers do not keep per-flow state or perform computationally expensive operations for data forwarding, allowing the system to scale as new clients are added," the team wrote in the paper HORNET: High-speed Onion Routing at the Network Layer (PDF).
"HORNET offers payload protection by default, and can defend against some global observation attacks.
"It is designed to be highly efficient: instead of keeping state at each relay, connection state (such as onion layer decryption keys) is carried within packet headers, allowing intermediate nodes to quickly forward traffic for large numbers of clients"
The team contends HORNET is as low-latency as existing anonymity protocols like Dovetail [PDF] without the "significantly degraded security guarantees" in which endpoints can be de-anonymised when attackers such as nation states have global data collection abilities.
Targeted attacks by those who control more than one node on a path will still hose the activist, journalist, or criminal through confirmation attacks, but HORNET does raise the bar for secretive mass surveillance since spy agencies would need to control a "significant percentage of ISPs" across geopolitical boundaries, while keeping the whole operation quiet.
HORNET's speed is possible in part through the use of symmetric cryptography for data forwarding that does not require per-flow state on intermediate nodes. "This design enables HORNET nodes to process anonymous traffic at over 93 Gb/s [and] scale as required, adding minimal processing overhead per additional anonymous channel," the team says.
The researchers developed HORNET after pursing a system that would be the minimal mechanism to frustrate pervasive surveillance.
They say the platform paves the way for internet-scale anonymity through which small trade-offs in packet header size greatly benefit security and retain high performance.
Full technical details are available in the paper. ®Roberto Jimenez, new Espanyol player
22/06/2016
He becomes the first signing for the season 2016-2017 and he comes from Olympiakos
RCD Espanyol and Olympiacos CF have reached an agreement for the transfer of goalkeeper Roberto Jimenez (Madrid, 10.02.1986), who will become the first signing of Espanyol for the 2016-2017 season. Roberto will sign for three seasons with the blue and white team. He will join Espanyol's discipline from the second week of July.
Roberto is a goalkeeper with great professional experience. After making his debut in the First Division with Atletico Madrid, the Madrilenian defended the goal of Gimnàstic de Tarragona. Afterwards he played for Recreativo Huelva before returning to Atletico Madrid and make the leap to Benfica. However, it was in R. Zaragoza where he lived his best professional stage and played more regularly. His good performances caught the attention of Olympiakos, club that signed him in the campaign 2013-2014.
Pending relevant medical review and the final signing of the contract, Roberto will be presented Wednesday at the Auditorium of the RCD Stadium at 18.30pm. Only the media accreditated by the club will have access to the presentation. The supporters will have access to the stadium to greet our new player at 7 pm.Senate President Stanley Rosenberg promised that lawmakers will not further delay the opening of marijuana retail shops after the legislature's approved six-month extension.
“We need to get that up and running on time," Rosenberg said on Boston Herald Radio's “Morning Meeting” show with Jaclyn Cashman and Hillary Chabot. "We made a commitment, we said we would not delay more than six months."
Rosenber said retail pot shops have the potential to open sooner than the July 2018 deadline if lawmakers feel they are fully prepared by an earlier date, but there is no urgency to do so.
“The important thing is to get it right like we did with casinos,” Rosenberg said. “I hope we won't take it right to June. But if we do, we're still going to get it right and we're going to be on time because we're not going to do another delay.”
The committee has been taking a meticulous look at the law to ensure an efficient rollout and is discussing potential structure changes.
“One of the questions that the legislative committee on marijuana is looking at is 'is three the right number?,' " Rosenberg said. "They could propose to add another one or two (commissioners).”
Rosenberg said they are taking a look at what areas of expertise are necessary for the committee and said there is potential for the department to be run much like the gaming commission, with various “department heads” who all bring a “specific skill set and expertise.”
He added that, "the committee is going to make recommendations on governance. It's a fair question to raise and ask, 'is this the right structure that was in the bill?' But the treasurer's office, they have so much knowledge and so much capacity here, I can't imagine that they won't be playing a role in this."
Rosenberg also said the treasurer's office has “built up too much knowledge and capacity” to be set aside.
On the new health care bill which will be voted on tomorrow, Rosenberg spoke about the importance of working with Washington following Gov. Charlie Baker letter that claimed the statet could lose as much $4 billion in federal aid by 2022.
"We have to work with all of the other states and get Washington to come to their senses about what they're doing here," he said. "They cannot afford to do this. Millions and millions of people are going to lose their health insurance.
As a Democrat, he says he has been working with Republicans to gain support.
“You'd be surprised at how much reaching across the aisle can work.”On October 1, 2015, fibromyalgia will finally be recognized as an official diagnosis in the new ICD-10 list of codes being adopted across the U.S. This is the final culmination of the advances over the last decade in the medical community’s understanding and acceptance of fibromyalgia as a real disease.
For the past 30 years, every U.S. hospital and doctor’s office has used the ICD-9 list of codes to indicate a diagnosis for all patient encounters. This list does not include a specific diagnosis code for fibromyalgia. Instead doctors have had to use the code “Myalgia and myositis, unspecified (729.1),” which includes any disorder causing muscle pain or inflammation. Muscle pain is definitely a part of fibromyalgia, but there are other important symptoms and unique features that make it a distinct entity, including non-restorative sleep, fatigue, and foggy thinking. In the new system, fibromyalgia finally gets its own diagnostic code: “Fibromyalgia (M79.7).”
This is a huge bureaucratic stamp of approval that legitimizes fibromyalgia as a real, distinct entity. It will make winning a disability case for fibromyalgia easier. A few years ago, I was testifying in support of one of my patients, and the opposing lawyer said to me, “How can you say fibromyalgia is real when it doesn’t even have its own diagnosis code?”
The new code will also enable more accurate studies of fibromyalgia treatment outcomes, as the data for many of these observational studies are gathered by tracking diagnosis codes. Without its own diagnoses code, fibromyalgia studies have been hampered by watered down data from the inclusion of patients that did not actually have fibro, but some other illness causing muscle pain.
And most important of all, it puts the word “fibromyalgia” into the official health care lexicon, and doctors can no longer say, “Fibromyalgia does not exist.”
Editor’s Note: Ginevra Liptan, MD is board certified in internal medicine. She has been an associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University, her articles about fibromyalgia have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals, and she is the recipient of a Gerlinger Foundation Research Award.
Dr. Liptan has extensive clinical, personal and research experience with this illness. She has a compassionate, knowledgeable approach utilizing cutting-edge treatments, effective alternative therapies and prescription medications. Learn more about her Functional Fibro Treatment Approach by clicking here.MANLY’s five senior players have salary sacrificed nearly $3 million over the past five years to ensure this great Sea Eagles side stays together.
Brett Stewart, Glenn Stewart, Kieran Foran, Steve Matai and Anthony Watmough have accepted substantially less money to stay at Brookvale because the club was struggling with salary cap constraints.
The players are understood to be upset and angry they have been painted by some club officials and fans as being greedy.
Glenn and Brett Stewart, Watmough, Matai and Foran have rejected big offer from rival NRL clubs to help retain a team that has made four grand finals in seven years.
The players agreed during different stages that if one stayed, the others would remain. It was a pact.
MANLY PLAYERS DEMAND EXPLANATION
That is the bond they have among each other — the same bond which has driven Manly into the semi-finals for nine successive years.
Players are now stunned some fans have turned on them for wanting to leave the club.
Watmough and Brett Stewart have requested a release, Matai has already sought a release, Foran is under contract until the end of next year while Glenn Stewart was forced out to South Sydney.
Players argue they could have bought real estate if they hadn’t sacrificed the money. The heart and soul of Manly, the five have played 961 games between them at Brookvale.
Since arriving at Manly, Brett Stewart has scored 142 tries, Watmough has run for 31,228 metres, Glenn Stewart has made 5762 tackles, Foran has 86 try-assists while Matai has made 123 linebreaks.
Players will pocket the money through back-ended deals but have still lost out big-time by deferring representative bonuses and salary cap increase windfalls.
A MILLION REASONS WHY CHOC WILL STAY
Glenn Stewart, Steve Matai and Anthony Watmough. Source: News Limited
One source close to the club said: “The players could have ignored the club’s request and taken the full amount. But they didn’t, they stayed so the core of this side could stay together.
“They would often talk and say: ‘If you stay, I’ll stay’.
“There were increases in the cap too where the players could have earned more but they didn’t. It’s wrong that they are being called greedy.
“That is the last thing they are. The fans used to love them now it seems the they don’t because the club is coming out and badmouthing them. These blokes have always done the right thing by the club.
“They helped build this club after the Northern Eagles folded. There are some players who have re-signed at the club who haven’t bought into the culture.”
Players also remain frustrated at the club’s board, which is fractured. They say some board members are “blow-ins who don’t get the culture”.
Senior players are also filthy that only one faction on the board wanted to retain Glenn Stewart. Players are aware which directors wanted him out. The district club continue to vote as a bloc with minor shareholders Quantum at board level.
Manly is unlikely to release Watmough and Brett Stewart, who does however continue to be linked to Canterbury.
However Bulldogs coach Des Hasler said: “Those players are contracted. It is very difficult to negotiate and we wouldn’t enter into anything like that when players are under contract.”This Phoenician city, where a triad of deities was worshipped, was known as Heliopolis during the Hellenistic period. It retained its religious function during Roman times, when the sanctuary of the Heliopolitan Jupiter attracted thousands of pilgrims. Baalbek, with its colossal structures, is one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture at its apogee.
The complex of temples at Baalbek is located at the foot of the south-west slope of Anti-Lebanon, bordering the fertile plain of the Bekaa at an altitude of 1150 m. The city of Baalbek reached its apogee during Roman times. Its colossal constructions built over a period of more than two centuries, make it one of the most famous sanctuaries of the Roman world and a model of Imperial Roman architecture. Pilgrims thronged to the sanctuary to venerate the three deities, known under the name of the Romanized Triad of Heliopolis, an essentially Phoenician cult (Jupiter, Venus and Mercury).
The importance of this amalgam of ruins of the Greco-Roman period with even more ancient vestiges of Phoenician tradition, are based on its outstanding artistic and architectural value. The acropolis of Baalbek comprises several temples. The Roman construction was built on top of earlier ruins which were formed into a raised plaza, formed of twenty-four monoliths, the largest weighing over 800 tons.
The Temple of Jupiter, principal temple of the Baalbek triad, was remarkable for its 20 m high columns that surrounded the cella, and the gigantic stones of its terrace. The adjacent temple dedicated to Bacchus is exceptional; it is richly and abundantly decorated and of impressive dimensions with its monumental gate sculpted with Bacchic figures. The Round Temple or Temple of Venus differs in its originality of layout as well as its refinement and harmonious forms, in a city where other sanctuaries are marked by monumental structures. The only remaining vestige of the Temple of Mercury located on Cheikh Abdallah Hill, is a stairway carved from the rock. The Odeon, located south of the acropolis in a place known as Boustan el Khan, is also part of the Baalbek site, and considered among the most spectacular archaeological sites of the Near East.
Baalbek became one of the most celebrated sanctuaries of the ancient world, progressively overlaid with colossal constructions which were built during more than two centuries. Its monumental ensemble is one of the most impressive testimonies of the Roman architecture of the imperial period.
Pre-Hispanic City of TeotihuacanGrant Road's and city landmark Irani cafe, B Merwan and Co, which had completed 100 years of operation this month, will down its shutters by March
Grant Road's and city landmark Irani cafe, B Merwan and Co, which had completed 100 years of operation this month, will down its shutters by March
For those who love the vintage aura of the city and the nostalgic blood that flows within its veins, it was a time of pride last summer when Sassanian Boulangerie, the buzzing Irani cafe at Dhobi Talao, completed 100 years. This was a landmark for Mumbai’s diverse culinary history, more so, because barely a handful of these idyllic Irani cafes remain at corners of the city.
One such landmark, B Merwan and Co, outside Grant Road station, completed a 100 years as the calendars flipped to 2014. The sad ending to this fairy tale story though is that the cafe will be downing its shutters in March. Merwan, as its patrons commonly refer to it, has always been the go-to place for the common man, for a quick bite. The cafe is known for its mawa cakes and such is the demand that they are usually wiped off its shelves by afternoon.
Unlike other Irani cafes in the city, which offer a lot, apart from dishes including kheema pav, special biryanis and even Chinese food, to keep up with the competition, Merwan has stuck to its roots and only offers quick preparations, selling omlettes, egg fries and bun maska with tea. The cafe also serves as a provision store.
Having dropped by the cafe on several occasions to savour their best sellers the generously buttered bun, chai and pudding, cost just Rs 25. This time around, as we approached the counter to pay our bill after our snack, our worse fear about this landmark came true.
Co-owner Sarosh Irani confirmed the news of the cafe’s shutting down, “There are two months to go still, and yes, we will be shutting down in March.” When we prodded a bit for more details of what would rise in place of the building, he said, “We aren’t aware of what will happen yet; talks are still on about the next course of action. One never knows...”
City historian Deepak Rao, an avid fan of Irani cafes in the city shed some perspective about the cafe’s relevance to the area, “The building that houses the cafe is as old as the cafe; and Grant Road being a bustling place, Merwan has always served as an important landmark in the city. Its signboard, wooden chairs, marble-top tables all of it, has been intact since it opened its shutters.
Grant Road is one of the oldest stations in the city, and there was a time when there would be a Hack Victoria (horse-driven carriages) and a taxi stand outside the station. Trains were known to stop at the station, just a little bit longer so people could buy items from Merwan.”Ahead of the Mountain West Conference's meeting of athletic directors and presidents in Phoenix this weekend, CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd says that we can expect the conference's powers-that-be to pick up the expansion discussion once more.
If Dodd's sources are to be believed, the Mountain West is interested in expanding its footprint into Texas, with much of the attention centered on Rice University and the University of Texas-El Paso. Rice, based in Houston, is generally regarded as one of the top academic institutions in the country, having ranked in a tie for 18th in the most recent National University Rankings from U.S. News and World Report (and 5th among those in the FBS).
On the field, 2014-15 has treated the Owls' various programs roughly, but many of them have had a recent history of success: Before the football team fell to 5-7 this season, David Bailiff's team enjoyed an unprecedented three-year streak of reaching bowls and won the C-USA title in 2013, their first outright claim in nearly fifty years. The men's and women's basketball teams reached postseason tournaments in 2011-12, and Wayne Graham's baseball teams have been an NCAA power since at least the turn of the 21st century.
UTEP's recent accolades as an institution for higher learning may come as more of a surprise, but as Dodd notes, Washington Monthly ranked the campus 10th in its most recent iteration. More specifically, UTEP ranked #1 with regards to social mobility and has done so four years in a row.
As far as its athletics are concerned, UTEP's football suffered a similar downturn to 5-7 in 2015, but it comes on the heels of a New Mexico Bowl berth in 2014. The men's basketball team, under head coach Tim Floyd, made the NIT last season and the CBI the year before that, in 2013-14, while the women's team suffered a narrow loss in the NIT championship that same season.
As Dodd notes, however, there's a large gap between talks and action, and his sources say that no action is imminent. There are financial stipulations in expanding from 12 schools to 14, and there are always other rumors to consider, such as the never ending "will they or won't they" regarding BYU.
Even Alex Nicolas from Miner Rush, SB Nation's UTEP-centric, sounds lukewarm on the possibility, referring to the latest round of rumor as a "here-we-go-again moment". Though a conference switch makes geographic sense for both schools, a more agreeable television deal (which Dodd mentions expires after this academic year) may convince them to stay.December 11, 2016
A staple for Mexican food in San Diego for nearly two decades, El Zarape will unveil its sister restaurant El Zarape Mexican Eatery in the former Casa Adams space at 3038 Adams Avenue in North Park on December 12.Maritza Briceño opened the original El Zarape on Park Boulevard in University Heights in 1997. Along with her husband, the couple opened El Zarape Taqueria in Normal Heights in 2010, but that location is in the process of being sold and, although unaffiliated, will continue to operate under the same name."This is an exciting time for Mexican cuisine in San Diego," said El Zarape owner Maritza Briceño. "El Zarape Mexican Eatery emulates what has made El Zarape a staple in San Diego with a new revamped and refreshed aesthetic reminiscent of my need for improvement and growth. I am trying to encapsulate the vibrancy and growth of Adams Avenue through a cult classic establishment that wants to create a brand representative of our traditional flavors with new age fare and modernity."The new North Park El Zarape eatery offers a more modern decor than the original. Its condensed menu features El Zarape's much loved dishes, alongside new sought after menu offerings such as bowls, street tacos and TJ dogs, with vegetarian options including potato and soy chorizo rolled tacos and veggie burritos. El Zarape Mexican Eatery is also incorporating a weekend brunch that will serve off-the-menu items (like breakfast carne asada fries!) with an opportunity to quench your thirst with micheladas and Mexican mimosas |
ates me through the bad parts of this trip :).
If you’ve enjoyed reading this then checkout my site 121degrees for more info and subscribe to this blog for more entries along the way!
I also want to divert the interest this trip generates towards helping out a charity that made a big differance to some friends of mine. Samuels Children Charity are a Lewes based charity providing support to families throughout the UK who are currently affected by childhood cancer. I hope to raise the sum of £5,000 from people who hear about this trip to help them continue their work, and to also keep me motivated throughout the challenges this trip will provide! If you’d like to see how the fundraising is going (or even better would like too donate!) then click here.Russia's Internet blacklist, which can blackhole websites for reasons ranging from copyright infringement through to drug-related information, has welcomed its highest profile addition. Russia's telecoms watchdog has confirmed that Facebook has been added to the list leaving the site just 72 hours or face being blocked by Internet service providers.
The idea that sites that do not comply with the Russia’s laws should be blocked is not new. Russia has been operating a national website blacklist since late 2012 and it currently contains hundreds of websites, from those promoting drug taking and suicide to those offering child pornography.
But while blocking the most offensive of websites receives little opposition from the public, Russia’s fledgling and largely unpopular anti-piracy law also introduced provisions for sites carrying infringing content to be blocked at the ISP level.
Introduced to a wave of controversy on August 1, the legislation allows for sites that merely link to infringing content to blocked if they do not take action within 72 hours of a complaint. Blocked sites are all placed on the national blocklist where they stay until action is taken, whether that’s removing copyrighted files or complying with some other law.
Yesterday the list enjoyed its most high-profile addition yet after complaints were made about content located on one of Facebook’s countless pages. Telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor confirmed that the site had already been added to the blacklist and would be given three days to remove the yet to be detailed content.
Following speculation that the problem lay with an advert for ‘smoking blends’ on the site, Roskomnadzor said that it had also received complaints about other material and Facebook’s webhosts had been informed of the pending block. Facebook said it was not informed of any problems but the site is expected to do whatever is necessary to rectify the issue.
Artem Kozlyuk, head of RosKomSvoboda, an organization that monitors Russia’s blacklist, told TorrentFreak that in addition to sites being officially added to the blacklist, many thousands of websites are being blocked illegally due to broad IP address-based filters.
“99% of sites currently blocked in Russia are illegally being subjected to blocking,” Kozlyuk explained.
“At the moment, in quantitative terms, it’s more than 30,000 sites, but decisions under the law have only been issued against 450 of them. The remaining sites are being blocked just because they are on the same IP address as those carrying the illegal material.”
Kozlyuk says that the collateral damage extends far and wide, including operating system sites, libraries, publishing houses, plus forums and personal blogs of all kinds. With Russia set to broaden its new anti-piracy law, complaints are only likely to rise meaning that more blockades will be introduced and more sites will become blocked unfairly.
Meanwhile, a petition which gathered 100K signatures against the anti-piracy law looks set to fall on somewhat deaf ears. During a press conference yesterday it was made clear that the State Duma would not be withdrawing the legislation.
Minister of Culture Vladimir Medina said that canceling the law is out of the question.
“If we understand that there is private property, then intellectual property is the same. It is embedded with the blood, sweat and tears of the author. If we deny there is intellectual property, we are depriving the author of the opportunity to live,” Medina said.Anna doesn't know what she's doing here.
Well, she knows what she's doing here—her older brother Hans, star of the high school football team, has decided to throw a New Year's party at the house while their parents are out for the weekend—but now she's beginning to doubt just a little more than his sanity.
Like why she's still here.
Why she's pushing a red cup around the counter instead of bringing herself to drink its contents. Why she's sitting alone in the kitchen, while music blares in the living room, their mother's favorite porcelain lamp is most likely teetering dangerously close to the edge of the only table in the room, and an awful lot of shouting, singing, and dancing is to be heard courtesy of the guests. But this 'guest' term, apparently, is to be taken lightly as many of their high school classmates have marched themselves right through the front door without a proper invitation.
Anna sighs.
She's become quite good at this, actually—sighing every moment the minute hand on the clock has moved exactly ten times. She's been keeping track, so she also knows that there's only half an hour left till midnight.
Till next year…
Another sigh.
But this time, Anna's startled. So much so that she nearly jumps. Because while her own sigh has yet to escape her lips, she's fairly certain that she can identify the sound of another terribly bored soul from miles away (even if the music is so loud that she can't hear herself think). And so she turns, then, still not having let out her breath, to find someone behind her who she recognizes all too well…
Aside from being the source of the foreign sigh, the mere presence of the person standing behind her is enough to terrify her even further, because she just so happens to be the girl that Anna's had a crush on the entire three semesters of her first two measly little years of high school. With two more years to go, she'd been positive that she would never catch the attention of the beautiful, blonde senior Elsa Winters. Yet, here she is. With her sparkling blue eyes focused on none other than Anna's own.
Anna lets out her breath then, suddenly, in a rush of air, and then takes in another huge breath because after the realization that Elsa Winters is even looking at her, she also realizes that breathing might be necessary in order to avoid passing out before she gets a chance to talk to her. Though on second thought, maybe she'll let Elsa do the talking. Seeing as her blabbering mouth will only do her in. Or is that weird? Just sitting here and waiting for the blonde to speak? That'll make her seem too expectant. Or antisocial? Well, not quite. But…unfriendly. Yep, that's the adjective she's looking for—it will definitely make her seem cold if she just sits here with a blank look on her face; it'll practically be an invitation for the senior to just walk off in the other direction—
"Hi."
Anna's racing thoughts come to a halt almost instantaneously, but having been so lost in the midst of them, she doesn't really know if the blonde's comment is directed at her, or the other kid who she could have sworn passed through the kitchen to reach his destination of the living room.
"Hi-hi me?" Anna asks tentatively.
Elsa smiles, "Yes, you."
Anna loves that smile, the subtle curve of the lips turned upward on one side. But she can't focus too much on it because she knows she can get lost studying every little detail of the senior's face. So instead, she speaks again; the first words that come to her mind, "Oh, well in that case…hi."
There's a pause then, and the clock over Anna's head ticks once more.
"Mind if I sit down?" Elsa asks.
Anna shakes her head, probably a few more times than necessary, before answering, "No, of course not."
There's plenty of room at the virtually vacant island counter, and with three chairs lined up along this side alone (including Anna's) there's plenty of room for the blonde, who slides easily into the seat next to Anna. And in the small amount of time that it takes for Elsa to situate herself on the seat, Anna becomes ever so increasingly aware of how loud her beating heart sounds—or, hell, how loud her breathing sounds. Because Elsa is now only a foot away from her, the closest Anna's ever been to her, and it's making her a lot more nervous than she ever thought it could.
Taking a breath that she hopes is effective in being both inconspicuous and calming, she brings a hand to the end of one of her two red braids, focusing her attention on the single plait rather than the beautiful girl next to her. Because staring is weird. And Anna's going to do everything in her power to seem normal from this very moment, until Elsa leaves her house.
"So," Elsa speaks again, "Did you have any intentions of drinking that?"
It takes a moment for Anna to realize that the blonde is talking about the red cup that's loosely positioned in her other hand. She's forgotten all about it, so actually she's quite lucky she hasn't spilled it yet.
"Oh," Anna says simply, "Not really."
And if she had any intentions of drinking it before, she certainly doesn't have any now. She knows that at any given moment she can make a fool out of herself sober so alcohol, she's sure, won't do anything in her favor.
"Then I say we get out of here."
Anna does a double take now, staring at the senior with wide eyes and a shocked look on her face. Because did she just say…we…and—
Elsa laughs (which is quite possibly the most wonderful sound the redhead has ever heard) before she says, "God, you make it seem like I'm asking you to leave the country. But clearly, you're having just about as much fun as I am. Isn't there anywhere else around here we can go?"
Anna shrugs, forcing herself to think levelly, "The basement, maybe?"
"Sounds good to me," Elsa says, "Anything's better than this music."
Anna nods, getting up from her chair. The whole idea of this—of Elsa Winters just wanting to spend time with her for no apparent reason at all—is still only beginning to sink in. And it seems to be greatly impeding the time it normally takes for her to answer questions or comments in a socially acceptable timeframe. But she's working on it, one small step at a time, and is proud that she's able to come up with something cohesive before they make it to the basement door: "Yeah, this kind of music really isn't my thing. Hans just plays whatever he wants. Actually, he planned this whole party. I didn't even know about it until this morning."
And while the sentences are short, Anna's message has been clearly delivered. No rambling has ensued, and the redhead gives herself a mental pat on the back. If only she can keep this up for the rest of the night…But she can't get her hopes up, she knows. And not just for her unusually sane manner of speaking, either; she doesn't know how long Elsa plans to stay.
What Anna does know though is that she plans not to waste any second of an opportunity she never thought she'd get before. So she opens the basement door for Elsa, and lets the blonde walk through first, biting back a smile when Elsa adorably, and somewhat shyly, ducks her head in what can only be acknowledgement of Anna's favor. Then in order to finally shut out the obnoxious music, she closes the door behind them, which temporarily leaves them both in the dark because dammit! Where is that light switch when she needs it?
Quickly, Anna uses her right hand to feel along the wall for the small switch, and when she finds it she breathes a sigh of relief.
"Well, that's better," Elsa comments jokingly, "I can see again."
Anna only nods, even though she's not sure that the senior can see her. But it doesn't quite matter, because Elsa's already headed down the steps, and Anna's following closely behind her. She tries not to notice how well the jeans that the senior is wearing clearly define the curve of her hips, or how tantalizingly low the back of her shirt is cut—leaving a large portion of her back exposed as her single braid is over her shoulder. But Anna's efforts to look elsewhere go to waste, as her own blue eyes are drawn to the blonde until she joins Elsa at the bottom of the stairs.
Conveniently enough, now that they're on the rug, Anna can let her eyes wander to the newly finished basement. It's actually a sight that she's only been met with a few times before: the fresh coat of white paint on the walls, the French doors that they'd added (with the house positioned on a hill, the back of the basement is level with the backyard), and the new furniture—dark to stand out against the stark white of the walls. The entire basement is lit adequately enough, considering all the problems they'd had with the electric. That had been the cause of all the renovations in the first place. Actually, when considering that fact, having the basement redone has been a hell of an experience, and Anna almost laughs remembering this...
But of course Elsa doesn't know any of this, nor does Anna plan to tell her any of this—why would the blonde ever want to talk about basement renovations?
No one does, Anna reminds herself. Because she knows that there are definitely other topics to start conversations with, even if at the moment her mind is coming up blank.
"It's nice down here," Elsa says, once again pulling the redhead out of her thoughts, "Comfortable. Kind of cozy, actually. And it definitely blocks out that music, so it's officially my favorite place in your house."
I think you'd like my room, Anna almost says. But the thoughts that follow it, which consist of 'Elsa' and 'her room'—specifically her bedroom—are not ones that her mouth will let her just speak casually (innocently) without infiltrating her thoughts with ulterior messages and meanings. So instead she settles for, "I like it too."
"Well I'd hope you would. It's your house after all."
For some reason, although she knows the senior is only joking, she blushes anyway at the silliness of her comment and looks away. And after that, she doesn't quite know what else to say, so she asks something that's been nagging at her ever since Elsa commented about the music.
"So from what you told me, you don't really seem like someone who likes big parties," Anna says, putting all of the pieces together to make what is hopefully the correct assumption, "So what exactly brings you here?"
"Well, as far as parties go, you're absolutely right about that," Elsa answers, "I usually try to avoid them at all costs. But technically, I'm here with Jack."
And Anna swears the world suddenly comes crashing down on her—though her reaction is irrational. What truthful facts has she ever stumbled upon to lead her to the conclusion that the most beautiful girl in the entire school is single? Right now, though, it's all too much for Anna to handle, so she just stands there for a decent minute before echoing, "Jack?"
"Yeah, Jack," Elsa is completely oblivious to Anna's inner turmoil, "I'm sure you've seen him around school. He's a junior. Tall. He loves that blue hoodie that he wears about three days a week."
By Anna's lack of reaction, Elsa assumes that the redhead still has no idea who she's talking about (though in reality, Anna's still too stunned to say anything else), and feels as though she needs to paint such an accurate mental portrait of Jack that she describes every other detail about him. Then she points to the platinum blonde braid that falls over her left shoulder, which confuses Anna ever so slightly, before she says, "And his hair is even whiter than mine. Though I don't quite know how that happened. Guess the gene runs in the family?"
Wait. Runs in the family?
…
Oh.
Oh.
So Jack is…related to Elsa?
"Is he your brother?" Anna asks.
"Cousin," Elsa states simply, "But we look so much alike that most people think we're siblings."
Hearing the confirmation that Elsa and Jack are relatives (and are therefore related to each other in no other possible way besides family), Anna almost feels relieved. But, again, she knows that she can't get her hopes up. Just because Elsa's not here with Jack doesn't mean that no one else in the picture. And she's getting a little ahead of herself anyway, as she normally tends to do—Elsa most likely, like a hundred percent most likely, does not like Anna in the way that Anna likes her…Or maybe ninety nine percent. Because one can never be too sure. Right?
God, she's going to drive herself crazy. And even though she knows that she can dwell on it for another hour, the one and only thing that can shift her attention from one point of focus to another is the very person she keeps thinking about.
"Is that what I think it is?"
The question catches Anna so off guard that she answers with another question, "What?"
"That over there. By the doors," Elsa says, pointing to the far corner of the basement, "You have a piano down here?"
Although Elsa's actions have led Anna to realize that, for about five whole minutes, they haven't left this spot simply because all Anna could remember how to do was panic and be awkward (with a combination like that, walking is completely out of the question), she answers, "Yeah. It was my grandfather's. My mom wanted it down here so that she could play without being bothered by all the commotion. Apparently we're too loud for her or something? Actually, I used to take lessons. But I stopped before I was even in middle school."
Elsa, though listening, seems very interested in the piano.
It's a baby grand, with a sleek black color that gleams because Anna's mother will not let a single speck of dust on its surface. The top is open, revealing the strings, and the ivory keys, though slightly worn with age, are polished to a shine. The piano bench is not the one that came with the piano, also because of age, but it still matches the color of the piano nonetheless.
"Do you play?" Anna asks.
"Yeah," Elsa nods, but then her face seems to contort ever so slightly, her amused expression falling and the corners of her lips suddenly turning downwards.
"What's wrong?" Anna asks hesitantly.
She's not sure if the senior will answer her or not, but is pleasantly surprised when Elsa explains, "I used to take lessons as well. And not just piano, either. Guitar, flute, violin, even singing...And then at the beginning of my senior year—the beginning of this semester—my dad told me that it was time to quit fooling around and focus on my future," instead of looking at Anna, Elsa's gaze falls to the pair of black converse sneakers that she's wearing, "Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. I told him I wanted to go into music. That's the future that I want. So if I can't focus on that, then…I don't really know what he wants from me."
In a way, it pains Anna to see the senior so distraught. But a small, "I'm sorry," is all she can find to say.
"It's not your fault he's so stubborn," Elsa says, sighing.
And now Anna's really thrown for a loop, because she really doesn't know what to say to that; has no other way to fill the silence that's hanging over them. Unless...
It's a crazy thought, and it might be crossing the line but…
"You could play something," Anna says, taking a small leap of faith that maybe, just maybe, the senior might be up for it. But when Elsa doesn't answer, Anna rushes to explain: "Well, you don't have to. Not if you don't want to. I don't want to pressure you into anything at all. Sorry. I mean, that was probably weird of me to ask. And I didn't mean for it to sound like that, and—"
"Anna."
Anna clamps her mouth shut abruptly.
Although no one—no one—has ever before been able to stop Anna's rambling, Elsa's managed to do so in less than a minute. And it's simply because Anna is stunned by how damn amazing it sounds when Elsa says her name…
"Yeah?" Anna's voice is incredibly small.
"Please don't apologize for anything," Elsa says, and Anna swears the senior's voice is even softer than her own, "I'd I actually love to play something."
Anna finds that hearing this makes her smile, "Well then I'd love to hear you play."
Side by side, the two of them walk to the piano, Anna barely able to contain her eagerness. Elsa's lithe form slips easily between the piano and the bench, and she perches on the edge so that her foot can reach the pedals below. Her pale fingers come up to rest on the keys, and they hover there slightly. Anna's not sure if it's because Elsa's hesitating, or merely thinking about what she wants to play, but either way it lasts for only a few seconds before those fingers make contact with the keys. And when the senior plays the first few notes, Anna's unsure, at first, as to what the song is.
But then Elsa surprises her again by starting to sing, and her voice is beautiful—unlike anything that Anna's ever heard before.
The song that Elsa has chosen is one that she's altered slightly. Because instead of its normal, slightly fast-paced rhythm, she's slowed it down. And she's also deviating from the normal notes. But the chords and the melodies and the harmonies mesh together in such a wonderfully unique way with Elsa's precision, and it's clear that she's been working on this for a while.
It's 'Latch' by Disclosure. And…it's Anna's favorite song.
It always has been, even though, now, she likes Elsa's version so much better. Because she's lost, listening to that voice.
She wants to listen to it all night. All day. And just…how? How is it that she feel such a strong attraction towards someone who barely even knew she existed before this chance encounter tonight? How is it that such simple little things can make her heart leap, and her head spin? How is it that hearing her sing makes her feel whole and complete, when just yesterday nothing at all seemed to be missing?
When Elsa finishes the song, it takes a moment for her to turn around. But when she does, she speaks again—and her words are far from what Anna could have ever guessed they'd be.
"So, there's something that I need to say, now," Elsa begins, "I didn't know how to say it before, and I guess this kind of helped. Because while I didn't know that you had a piano down here, I did know…that's your favorite song."
Surprised, Anna's eyes widen. But Elsa's not done.
"Anna, even though you think that I might not pay attention, considering how…rarely we interact…there are actually quite a few things about you that I know...Like how you love to read. Or that your favorite color is purple. Or how much you love chocolate, and that sandwiches are your favorite food…" here, Elsa trails off, looking to her hands in her lap, "I mean, maybe it sounds silly that I notice all these things. But the truth is…I've been paying attention for a long time, actually. And I know—I know that you have been, too. So…I guess what I'm trying to say is," Elsa pauses and takes a breath, before bringing her eyes back up to Anna's, which are still as wide as ever, "I think I like you. A lot, actually. And I know, we've never spent much time together. But you're so sweet, and funny, and caring, and just spending time with you tonight has made me realize what I couldn't see before."
Anna is…stunned.
Here she is, all this time, thinking that the senior would never want anything to do with her, has never paid attention to her, has never even glanced her way…
But she's wrong.
She's so very wrong, and she doesn't think she's ever been happier to be wrong in her life.
And she doesn't quite know how to express the overwhelming emotion she feels in words, but she decides that it's okay.
Because although Anna's positively certain that she didn't see it happen, Elsa's now standing in front of her, and it makes abandoning words just the slightest bit easier considering what Anna now feels compelled to do. And frankly, she doesn't know if what she's about to do is something that she should be doing before actually saying something. But hell, Elsa just admitted everything she felt so openly and sat here and played Anna's favorite song…the senior has displayed quite enough courage tonight that Anna's sure she can find her own surge of confidence somewhere.
It's one look into Elsa's eyes, and then to her slightly parted lips that confirms Anna's plan. And before she can lose her nerve, she leans in and kisses the senior, knowing that, if not better than an explanation, it will definitely get her message across without causing multiple extra questions to arise…But all of that doesn't matter at this point.
Not really, anyway.
Because once she's closed the space between them, she can think of nothing but Elsa. How this is everything she's ever wanted, and dreamed of, and somehow, with some twist of fate, it's all happening the way she's never let herself believe it could before.
Elsa's arms are around her waist, now, pulling her in closer. And there are seemingly so many fireworks exploding within her from this foreign yet intoxicating feeling that she completely misses the fact that there are actually real fireworks going off outside, down the street, in her neighborhood, and also quite possibly in her very own backyard…
It's when they finally separate, though, that Anna's ears become fine-tuned to the commotion to be heard nearly every other second, and, automatically, as if they've come to the same realization at the same time, both Anna and Elsa turn their heads towards the door where they're met with the sight of fireworks lighting the sky in all different colors. And for some reason, this makes Anna laugh.
"What?" Elsa asks, a smile coming to her lips.
"I just…I completely forgot that it was New Year's and…well…" Anna's voice grows a little smaller before the confession that she knows will follow, "I've always kind of wanted to have a New Year's kiss."
At Anna's words, Elsa's gaze shifts to the digital clock by the television on the opposite side of the room. She gives the redhead small smile before saying, "Well, almost. Considering it's already a quarter after."
Anna looks to the clock as well, taking in the soft, light green glow of the numbers reading 12:15. And even though she's not entirely sure how time has flown by so quickly, fifteen little minutes doesn't make much of a difference. At least, not when she's standing in front of the most gorgeous, unique, and wonderful girl, who just so happens to like Anna just as much as Anna's always liked her.
And so Anna returns the smile, full of hope for where this new year will lead them both as she answers, "It's certainly close enough for me."
A/n: I was debating on whether or not I wanted to post this. I started writing it a while back, well before I started writing The Perfect Distance. It was half finished, and I rediscovered it as I was going back through the files on my computer before I took it in for repair. So...I decided to finish it. It was actually kind of nice to write something completely different than what I've been focusing on.
But anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it, and thanks for reading!In the past week, the small Denver technology firm at the center of the scandal surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton’s e-mails has received death threats. There have been phone calls from screaming strangers. The company has removed from its Web site biographies of its executives as well as testimonials from some of its customers.
All this because Platte River Networks won a contract in 2013 to provide information technology services to Bill and Hillary Clinton. It included taking possession of the e-mail server the Democratic presidential candidate had used when she was secretary of state.
“We’re normal people. We’re not used to this,” David DeCamillis, Platte River’s vice president, said in the first interview that a company executive has given since it turned over Hillary Clinton’s server to the FBI last week.
DeCamillis said the firm — named Small Business of the Year in 2012 by the Denver Chamber of Commerce — has gone through a sudden and unpleasant crash course in the world of presidential politics.
DeCamillis said that no one at the company had any clue about what might result from accepting the contract. If they had, he said, “we would never have taken it on.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton responded to reporters in Las Vegas on Tuesday over the controversy surrounding her personal e-mail server. Clinton reiterated that she did not send or receive any classified material from her personal account. (AP)
“No one knew,” he added. “It was an e-mail server, that simple.”
[Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server turned over to FBI]
Unlike virtually everything else to do with the Clintons, there is no obvious connection between the Denver company and the former first couple.
Platte River Networks’ top executives have donated no money to political candidates. The company is not a federal contractor, and DeCamillis said it does not typically work for political campaigns. Records show that Platte River did not work for Hillary Clinton’s campaigns. The company was paid $990 in 2005 by the campaign of Rutt Bridges, a Democrat who was briefly a candidate for Colorado governor.
DeCamillis referred most questions about the specifics of the company’s relationship with the Clintons and the actual setup of the server to Andy Boian, a public relations manager brought on last week to help Platte River deal with its newfound fame.
Boian said Bill and Hillary Clinton hired Platte River in June 2013 — four months after Clinton stepped down as secretary of state — after the company submitted a proposal for IT work to the high-powered couple. Boian said he did not know how Platte River learned about the opportunity.
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, declined to comment on questions about the company and its selection.
Social video captured a smiling Hillary Clinton biting into a grilled pork chop on a stick at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines Aug. 15. (gene5335/Instagram)
Jim Zimmerman, who worked as a field engineer at Platte River from 2010 to 2013, said he recalled a staff meeting where company executives announced they had won the Clinton contract. They told employees that it was a “private job” and asked that they keep word of the work quiet.
Zimmerman said the executives did not describe how their Denver company had won the work, but he noted that they seemed pleased.
“Who wouldn’t be?” he said. “We were a small company.”
No clearance
How Platte River was selected is one of a number of unanswered questions about how Hillary Clinton chose to safeguard records that, it is now clear, included sensitive information.
The intelligence community’s inspector general has said that two of the e-mails contained top-secret material, the highest level of classification, and should not have been stored on a private server. State Department officials have said that hundreds more could contain classified material.
[What you need to know about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails]
DeCamillis said that the company has undergone various background checks for clients in the past but that he did not think any of its employees held formal government-issued security clearances.
A spokeswoman for an agency within the Defense Department that vets companies for security clearances said her office has not extended one to Platte River Networks.
DeCamillis also said the company has never had a federal government contract. He said the company has about 300 clients and offers full-time services to about 100 of them, 85 percent of which are located within an hour of the company’s Denver office.
He said the company employs a number of security measures to protect the data of its customers, including a firewall and anti-virus software. “We treat every customer with the same level of technical expertise, security and redundancy,” he said.
Platte River representatives have said the company took Clinton’s server from her Chappaqua, N.Y., home in June 2013, transferring it to a secure facility in New Jersey.
Last week, an attorney for the company said the server was “blank” when it was turned over to the FBI. Attorney Barbara Wells also said that at one point, data from the server was “migrated” to another server for the purpose of making the transition to Platte River.
But Boian, the public relations manager, said he could no longer be confident that Wells’s information about the server being blank had been accurate.
He added: “I don’t have any information that the server was wiped. Nor do I have any information to suggest it wasn’t.... The information I have for sure is that the server itself, when it migrated from Chappaqua to the data center, it was installed at the data center and left alone.”
Hillary Clinton would not say whether the server had been wiped when she was asked about the issue after a town hall in North Las Vegas on Tuesday. “What, like with a cloth or something?” she said. “I don’t know how it works at all.”
With members of Congress and the FBI probing the security of Clinton’s e-mail system, the company will probably have to answer those kinds of specific questions in coming weeks. Last week, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent Platte River a letter requesting detailed information about the company’s interactions with the Clintons. He asked for a response by Aug. 25.
Clinton provided the State Department with 30,000 of her e-mails in December. She has said she chose not to keep 31,000 more that she sent and received as secretary of state, deeming them to be entirely personal in nature. It is unclear whether the FBI could recover some of those e-mails from the server to examine whether they were truly personal. It is also unclear whether the FBI will try to do so. Officials have said that the probe is preliminary and that Clinton is not a target of the inquiry.
[Clinton’s team went from nonchalant to nervous over e-mail controversy]
‘Don’t want all this’
Platte River was founded in 2002 by two tech workers from Denver who joined forces after their company was bought out. “There was a revolving door of both customers and staff, and they felt like they could do a better job than what their company was doing,” DeCamillis said of company founders Treve Suazo and Brent Allshouse.
He said Platte River has grown steadily since then. Aside from the Chamber of Commerce award, the company was named a runner-up in the IT Services category in this year’s Colorado Business Magazine “Best of Colorado” listing. An editor there said the award was based on reader votes.
In Colorado, the company is being sued by another firm in federal court over an odd mix-up that resulted in the disconnection of nearly 400 phone lines in June 2014.
In the case, which is unrelated to that of the Clintons, some of the lines were redirected to an insurance firm, including the help line of another tech firm. According to court records and the chief executive of that tech firm, its customers included users at the Defense Department and a White House office who for a time were unable to reach them for assistance.
In court, Platte River has denied that it was at fault. DeCamillis referred questions about the lawsuit to Boian, who did not respond to a query about the litigation.
DeCamillis said the company does not blame the Clintons for the current situation. “We would never blame a client,” he said. But he does fear the impact of the scrutiny on clients and on the small company’s employees. “They’re good, hard-working people,” he said. “They don’t need all this. They don’t want all this.”
Tom Hamburger, Karen Tumulty and Alice Crites contributed to this report.Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters was born and raised in Oakland, and he’s glad to see fellow Oakland native Marshawn Lynch come out of retirement to play with the hometown Raiders. Glad, in part, because Peters looks forward to hitting Lynch.
Peters was back in Oakland for a football camp on Saturday, and he told the San Jose Mercury News that he and his teammates plan to put a whupping on Lynch.
“It’s going to feel good for him,” Peters said of Lynch’s homecoming. “It’s going to be a good feeling, It’s going to be a good feeling for Oakland. But when we come here, we’re going to beat the dog [expletive] out of him.”
Peters and the Chiefs visit Oakland for a Thursday night game on October 19.PHOTOS: Chinese Buddhist Monk Is Mummified And Covered In Gold
Enlarge this image toggle caption Chinatopix via AP Chinatopix via AP
In the southeastern Chinese city of Quanzhou, a well-known Buddhist monk named Fu Hou has been mummified and encased in gold leaf.
According to The Associated Press, it's "a practice reserved for holy men in some areas with strong Buddhist traditions" and was done to honor Fu Hou's dedication to the religion.
Li Ren, the Chongfu Temple's abbot, said that after the 94-year-old's death in 2012, "the monk's body was washed, treated by two mummification experts, and sealed inside a large pottery jar in a sitting position," according to the wire service.
Video published by The Daily Telegraph showed the "Open Cylinder" ceremony when the monk was removed from the pottery jar in January. The newspaper reported that thousands gathered for the event, and the video showed men cutting off the material wrapped around the monk's body.
The abbot told AP that the body showed "little sign of deterioration apart from the skin having dried out." The wire service reported that "the local Buddhist belief is that only a truly virtuous monk's body would remain intact after being mummified."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Chinatopix via AP Chinatopix via AP
The monk's body was then sterilized and painted. The final step — gilding with gold leaf — started on March 16, according to The People's Daily.
Li Ren said the golden statue "is now being placed on the mountain for people to |
31
2016 2016 2015 2016 2015 Net interest income $ 5,072 $ 4,924 $ 4,887 $ 19,923 $ 18,724 Non-interest income
3,673
3,777
3,160
14,392
12,702 Total revenue
8,745
8,701
8,047
34,315
31,426 Provision for credit losses
548
556
509
2,330
1,683 Insurance claims and related expenses
585
692
637
2,462
2,500 Non-interest expenses
4,848
4,640
4,911
18,877
18,073 Income before income taxes and equity in net income of an
investment in TD Ameritrade
2,764
2,813
1,990
10,646
9,170 Provision for income taxes
555
576
259
2,143
1,523 Equity in net income of an investment in TD Ameritrade
94
121
108
433
377 Net income – reported
2,303
2,358
1,839
8,936
8,024 Preferred dividends
43
36
26
141
99 Net income available to common shareholders and
non-controlling interests in subsidiaries $ 2,260 $ 2,322 $ 1,813 $ 8,795 $ 7,925 Attributable to:
Common shareholders $ 2,231 $ 2,293 $ 1,784 $ 8,680 $ 7,813 Non-controlling interests
29
29
29
115
112
The following table provides a reconciliation between the Bank's adjusted and reported results.
TABLE 3: NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES – Reconciliation of Adjusted to Reported Net Income
(millions of Canadian dollars) For the three months ended For the twelve months ended
October 31 July 31 October 31 October 31 October 31
2016 2016 2015 2016 2015 Operating results – adjusted
Net interest income $ 5,072 $ 4,924 $ 4,887 $ 19,923 $ 18,724 Non-interest income1
3,654
3,777
3,209
14,385
12,713 Total revenue
8,726
8,701
8,096
34,308
31,437 Provision for credit losses
548
556
509
2,330
1,683 Insurance claims and related expenses
585
692
637
2,462
2,500 Non-interest expenses2
4,784
4,577
4,480
18,496
17,076 Income before income taxes and equity in net income of an
investment in TD Ameritrade
2,809
2,876
2,470
11,020
10,178 Provision for income taxes3
572
597
417
2,226
1,862 Equity in net income of an investment in TD Ameritrade4
110
137
124
498
438 Net income – adjusted
2,347
2,416
2,177
9,292
8,754 Preferred dividends
43
36
26
141
99 Net income available to common shareholders and
non-controlling interests in subsidiaries – adjusted
2,304
2,380
2,151
9,151
8,655 Attributable to:
Non-controlling interests in subsidiaries, net of income taxes
29
29
29
115
112 Net income available to common shareholders – adjusted
2,275
2,351
2,122
9,036
8,543 Adjustments for items of note, net of income taxes
Amortization of intangibles5
(60)
(58)
(65)
(246)
(255) Fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available-for-sale
securities portfolio6
16
–
21
6
55 Impairment of goodwill, non-financial assets, and other charges7
–
–
–
(116)
– Restructuring charges8
–
–
(243)
–
(471) Charge related to the acquisition in U.S. strategic cards portfolio
and related integration costs9
–
–
(51)
–
(51) Litigation and litigation-related charge(s)/reserve(s)10
–
–
–
–
(8) Total adjustments for items of note
(44)
(58)
(338)
(356)
(730) Net income available to common shareholders – reported $ 2,231 $ 2,293 $ 1,784 $ 8,680 $ 7,813
1 Adjusted non-interest income excludes the following items of note: fourth quarter 2016 – $19 million gain due to change in fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available-for-sale securities portfolio, as explained in footnote 6; second quarter 2016 – $58 million loss due to change in fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available‑for‑sale securities portfolio; first quarter 2016 – $46 million gain due to change in fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available‑for‑sale securities portfolio; fourth quarter 2015 – $24 million gain due to change in fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available-for-sale securities portfolio; $73 million difference of the transaction price over the fair value of the Nordstrom assets acquired, as explained in footnote 9; third quarter 2015 – $21 million gain due to change in fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available-for-sale securities portfolio; second quarter 2015 – $17 million gain due to change in fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified available-for-sale securities portfolio. 2 Adjusted non-interest expenses excludes the following items of note: fourth quarter 2016 – $64 million amortization of intangibles, as explained in footnote 5; third quarter 2016 – $63 million amortization of intangibles; second quarter 2016 – $69 million amortization of intangibles; $111 million impairment of goodwill, certain intangibles, other non-financial assets, and other charges, as further explained in footnote 7; first quarter 2016 – $74 million amortization of intangibles; fourth quarter 2015 – $73 million amortization of intangibles; $349 million due to the initiatives to reduce costs, as explained in footnote 8; $9 million due to integration costs related to the Nordstrom transaction, as explained in footnote 9; third quarter 2015 – $70 million amortization of intangibles; $39 million recovery of litigation losses, as explained in footnote 10; second quarter 2015 – $73 million amortization of intangibles; $337 million due to the initiatives to reduce costs; $52 million of litigation charges, as explained in footnote 10; first quarter 2015 – $73 million amortization of intangibles. 3 For a reconciliation between reported and adjusted provision for income taxes, refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures – Reconciliation of Reported to Adjusted Provision for Income Taxes" table in the "Income Taxes" section of the MD&A. 4 Adjusted equity in net income of an investment in TD Ameritrade excludes the following items of note: fourth quarter 2016 – $16 million amortization of intangibles, as explained in footnote 5; third quarter 2016 – $16 million amortization of intangibles; second quarter 2016 – $17 million amortization of intangibles; first quarter 2016 – $16 million amortization of intangibles; fourth quarter 2015 – $16 million amortization of intangibles; third quarter 2015 – $15 million amortization of intangibles; second quarter 2015 – $16 million amortization of intangibles; first quarter 2015 – $14 million amortization of intangibles. These amounts were reported in the Corporate segment. 5 Amortization of intangibles relate to intangibles acquired as a result of asset acquisitions and business combinations. Although the amortization of software and asset servicing rights are recorded in amortization of intangibles, they are not included for purposes of the items of note. 6 The Bank changed its trading strategy with respect to certain trading debt securities and reclassified these securities from trading to the available-for-sale category effective August 1, 2008. These debt securities are economically hedged, primarily with credit default swap and interest rate swap contracts which are recorded on a fair value basis with changes in fair value recorded in the period's earnings. Management believes that this asymmetry in the accounting treatment between derivatives and the reclassified debt securities results in volatility in earnings from period to period that is not indicative of the economics of the underlying business performance in Wholesale Banking. The Bank may from time to time replace securities within the portfolio to best utilize the initial, matched fixed term funding. As a result, the derivatives are accounted for on an accrual basis in Wholesale Banking and the gains and losses related to the derivatives in excess of the accrued amounts are reported in the Corporate segment. Adjusted results of the Bank exclude the gains and losses of the derivatives in excess of the accrued amount. 7 In the second quarter of 2016, the Bank recorded impairment losses on goodwill, certain intangibles, other non-financial assets and deferred tax assets, as well as other charges relating to the Direct Investing business in Europe that has been experiencing continued losses. These amounts are reported in the Corporate segment. 8 During 2015, the Bank commenced its restructuring review and recorded restructuring charges of $337 million ($228 million after tax) and $349 million ($243 million after tax) on a net basis, in the second quarter and fourth quarter of 2015, respectively. The restructuring initiatives were intended to reduce costs and manage expenses in a sustainable manner and to achieve greater operational efficiencies. These measures included process redesign and business restructuring, retail branch and real estate optimization, and organizational review. The restructuring charges have been recorded as an adjustment to net income within the Corporate segment. 9 On October 1, 2015, the Bank acquired substantially all of Nordstrom's existing U.S. Visa and private label consumer credit card portfolio and became the primary issuer of Nordstrom credit cards in the U.S. The transaction was treated as an asset acquisition and the difference on the date of acquisition of the transaction price over the fair value of assets acquired has been recorded in Non-interest income. In addition, the Bank incurred set-up, conversion and other one-time costs related to integration of the acquired cards and related program agreement. These amounts are included as an item of note in the U.S. Retail segment. 10 As a result of an adverse judgment and evaluation of certain other developments and exposures in the U.S. in 2015, the Bank took prudent steps to reassess its litigation provision. Having considered these factors, including related or analogous cases, the Bank determined, in accordance with applicable accounting standards, that an increase of $52 million ($32 million after tax) to the Bank's litigation provision was required in the second quarter of 2015. During the third quarter of 2015, distributions of $39 million ($24 million after tax) were received by the Bank as a result of previous settlements reached on certain matters in the U.S., whereby the Bank was assigned the right to these distributions, if and when made available.
TABLE 4: RECONCILIATION OF REPORTED TO ADJUSTED EARNINGS PER SHARE (EPS)1 (Canadian dollars)
For the three months ended For the twelve months ended
October 31 July 31 October 31 October 31 October 31
2016 2016 2015 2016 2015 Basic earnings per share – reported $ 1.20 $ 1.24 $ 0.96 $ 4.68 $ 4.22 Adjustments for items of note2
0.03
0.03
0.19
0.20
0.40 Basic earnings per share – adjusted $ 1.23 $ 1.27 $ 1.15 $ 4.88 $ 4.62
Diluted earnings per share – reported $ 1.20 $ 1.24 $ 0.96 $ 4.67 $ 4.21 Adjustments for items of note2
0.02
0.03
0.18
0.20
0.40 Diluted earnings per share – adjusted $ 1.22 $ 1.27 $ 1.14 $ 4.87 $ 4.61
1 EPS is computed by dividing net income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of shares outstanding during the period. 2 For explanations of items of note, refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures – Reconciliation of Adjusted to Reported Net Income" table in the "How We Performed" section of this document.
TABLE 5: NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES – Reconciliation of Reported to Adjusted Provision for Income Taxes
(millions of Canadian dollars, except as noted) For the three months ended
For the twelve months ended
October 31
July 31
October 31
October 31
October 31
2016
2016
2015
2016
2015
Provision for income taxes – reported $ 555
$ 576
$ 259
$ 2,143
$ 1,523
Adjustments for items of note: Recovery of (provision for)
income taxes1,2
Amortization of intangibles
20
21
24
89
95
Fair value of derivatives hedging the reclassified
available-for-sale securities portfolio
(3)
–
(3)
(1)
(7)
Impairment of goodwill, non-financial assets, and other charges
–
–
–
(5)
–
Restructuring charges
–
–
106
–
215
Charge related to the acquisition in U.S. strategic cards
portfolio and related integration costs
–
–
31
–
31
Litigation and litigation-related charge(s)/reserve(s)
–
–
–
–
5
Total adjustments for items of note
17
21
158
83
339
Provision for income taxes – adjusted $ 572
$ 597
$ 417
$ 2,226
$ 1,862
Effective income tax rate – adjusted3
20.4 %
20.8 %
16.9 %
20.2 %
18.3 %
1 For explanations of items of note, refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures – Reconciliation of Adjusted to Reported Net Income" table in the "How We Performed" section of this document. 2 The tax effect for each item of note is calculated using the statutory income tax rate of the applicable legal entity. 3 Adjusted effective income tax rate is the adjusted provision for income taxes before other taxes as a percentage of adjusted net income before taxes.
Return on Common Equity
The Bank's methodology for allocating capital to its business segments is aligned with the common equity capital requirements under Basel III. The capital allocated to the business segments is based on 9% Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) Capital.
Adjusted return on common equity (ROE) is adjusted net income available to common shareholders as a percentage of average common equity.
Adjusted ROE is a non-GAAP financial measure as it is not a defined term under IFRS. Readers are cautioned that earnings and other measures adjusted to a basis other than IFRS do not have standardized meanings under IFRS and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar terms used by other issuers.
TABLE 6: RETURN ON COMMON EQUITY
(millions of Canadian dollars, except as noted)
For the three months ended
For the twelve months ended
October 31
July 31
October 31
October 31
October 31
2016
2016
2015
2016
2015
Average common equity $ 66,769
$ 64,595
$ 62,157
$ 65,121
$ 58,178
Net income available to common shareholders – reported
2,231
2,293
1,784
8,680
7,813
Items of note, net of income taxes1
44
58
338
356
730
Net income available to common shareholders – adjusted
2,275
2,351
2,122
9,036
8,543
Return on common equity – reported
13.3 %
14.1 %
11.4 %
13.3 %
13.4 % Return on common equity – adjusted
13.6
14.5
13.5
13.9
14.7
1 For explanations of items of note, refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures – Reconciliation of Adjusted to Reported Net Income" table in the "How We Performed" section of this document.
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN 2016
Announced Acquisition of Scottrade Bank
On October 24, 2016, the Bank announced an agreement to acquire Scottrade Bank, a federal savings bank wholly-owned by Scottrade Financial Services, Inc. (Scottrade), for cash consideration equal to the tangible book value of Scottrade Bank at closing, subject to certain adjustments. As of September 30, 2016, Scottrade Bank's tangible book value was approximately US$1.3 billion. TD Ameritrade also announced an agreement to acquire Scottrade for cash and TD Ameritrade shares. Subject to completion of the acquisitions, TD and TD Ameritrade have agreed that TD will accept sweep deposits from Scottrade clients. Pursuant to its preemptive rights and subject to any required regulatory approval, the Bank intends to concurrently purchase US$400 million in new common equity from TD Ameritrade in connection with the proposed transaction. As a result, the Bank's anticipated pro forma common stock ownership in TD Ameritrade is expected to be approximately 41.4%.
The transaction is subject to the concurrent closing of the TD Ameritrade/Scottrade transaction as well as receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2017. The results of the acquired business will be consolidated from the date of close and will be included in the U.S. Retail segment.
HOW OUR BUSINESSES PERFORMED
For management reporting purposes, the Bank reports its results under three key business segments: Canadian Retail, which includes the results of the Canadian personal and commercial banking, wealth, and insurance businesses; U.S. Retail, which includes the results of the U.S. retail and commercial banking operations, wealth management services, and the Bank's investment in TD Ameritrade; and Wholesale Banking. The Bank's other activities are grouped into the Corporate segment.
Results of each business segment reflect revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities generated by the businesses in that segment. Where applicable, the Bank measures and evaluates the performance of each segment based on adjusted results and ROE, and for those segments the Bank indicates that the measure is adjusted. For further details, refer to the "How the Bank Reports" section of this document, the "Business Focus" section in the 2016 MD&A, and Note 1 of the Bank's Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended October 31, 2016. For information concerning the Bank's measure of adjusted return on average common equity, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, refer to the "How We Performed" section of this document.
Effective the first quarter of 2016, the presentation of the U.S. strategic cards portfolio revenues, provision for credit losses (PCL), and expenses in the U.S. Retail segment includes only the Bank's agreed portion of the U.S. strategic cards portfolio, while the Corporate segment includes the retailer program partners' share. Certain comparative amounts have been recast to conform with this revised presentation. There was no impact on the net income of the segments or on the presentation of gross and net results in the Bank's Consolidated Statement of Income.
Net interest income within Wholesale Banking is calculated on a taxable equivalent basis (TEB), which means that the value of non-taxable or tax-exempt income, including dividends, is adjusted to its equivalent before-tax value. Using TEB allows the Bank to measure income from all securities and loans consistently and makes for a more meaningful comparison of net interest income with similar institutions. The TEB increase to net interest income and provision for income taxes reflected in Wholesale Banking's results are reversed in the Corporate segment. The TEB adjustment for the quarter was $86 million, compared with $95 million in the fourth quarter last year, and $79 million in the prior quarter.
TABLE 7: CANADIAN RETAIL
(millions of Canadian dollars, except as noted)
For the three months ended
October 31
July 31
October 31
2016
2016
2015
Net interest income $ 2,551
$ 2,519
$ 2,497
Non-interest income
2,599
2,622
2,500
Total revenue
5,150
5,141
4,997
Provision for credit losses
263
258
221
Insurance claims and related expenses
585
692
637
Non-interest expenses
2,250
2,133
2,143
Net income $ 1,502
$ 1,509
$ 1,496
Selected volumes and ratios
Return on common equity
41.5 %
41.9 %
42.3 % Margin on average earning assets (including securitized assets)
2.78
2.79
2.84
Efficiency ratio
43.7
41.5
42.9
Assets under administration (billions of Canadian dollars) $ 345
$ 337
$ 310
Assets under management (billions of Canadian dollars)
268
265
245
Number of Canadian retail branches
1,156
1,152
1,165
Average number of full-time equivalent staff
39,149
38,852
38,782
Quarterly comparison – Q4 2016 vs. Q4 2015
Canadian Retail net income for the quarter was $1,502 million, an increase of $6 million compared with the fourth quarter last year. The increase in earnings reflects revenue growth and lower insurance claims, largely offset by higher non-interest expenses, the impact of a higher effective tax rate and higher PCL. The annualized ROE for the quarter was 41.5%, compared with 42.3% in the fourth quarter last year.
Canadian Retail revenue is derived from the Canadian personal and commercial banking, wealth, and insurance businesses. Revenue for the quarter was $5,150 million, an increase of $153 million, or 3%, compared with the fourth quarter last year. Net interest income increased $54 million, or 2%, reflecting loan and deposit volume growth, partially offset by lower margins. Non-interest income increased $99 million, or 4%, reflecting wealth asset growth, higher fee-based revenue in personal and commercial banking, and changes in the fair value of investments supporting claims liabilities, partially offset by lower insurance premiums. Margin on average earning assets was 2.78%, a 6 basis points (bps) decrease, reflecting the low interest rate environment and competitive pricing.
Average loan volumes increased $17 billion, or 5%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, reflecting 4% growth in personal loan volumes and 10% growth in business loan volumes. Average deposit volumes increased $26 billion, or 10%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, reflecting 7% growth in personal deposit volumes, 13% growth in business deposit volumes and 19% growth in wealth deposit volumes.
Assets under administration (AUA) were $345 billion as at October 31, 2016, an increase of $35 billion, or 11%, and assets under management (AUM) were $268 billion as at October 31, 2016, an increase of $23 billion, or 9%, compared with the fourth quarter of last year, both reflecting new asset growth and increases in market value.
PCL for the quarter was $263 million, an increase of $42 million, or 19%, compared with the fourth quarter last year. Personal banking PCL was $245 million, an increase of $17 million, or 7%, reflecting higher provisions in the auto lending portfolio in the current quarter. Business banking PCL was $18 million, an increase of $25 million, primarily reflecting higher commercial recoveries in the prior year. Annualized PCL as a percentage of credit volume was 0.28%, or an increase of 3 bps. Net impaired loans were $705 million, a decrease of $10 million, or 1%. Net impaired loans as a percentage of total loans were 0.19%, compared with 0.20% as at October 31, 2015.
Insurance claims and related expenses for the quarter were $585 million, a decrease of $52 million, or 8%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, reflecting more favourable prior years' claims development, less severe weather conditions and a change in mix of reinsurance contracts, partially offset by unfavourable current year claims experience and changes in the fair value of investments supporting claims liabilities.
Non-interest expenses for the quarter were $2,250 million, an increase of $107 million, or 5%, compared with the fourth quarter last year. The increase reflects business growth, higher investment in technology and higher employee-related expenses including revenue-based variable expenses in the wealth business, partially offset by productivity savings.
The efficiency ratio for the quarter was 43.7%, compared with 42.9% in the fourth quarter last year.
Quarterly comparison – Q4 2016 vs. Q3 2016
Canadian Retail net income for the quarter decreased $7 million compared with the prior quarter. The decrease in earnings reflects higher non-interest expenses, mostly offset by lower insurance claims. The annualized ROE for the quarter was 41.5%, compared with 41.9% in the prior quarter.
Revenue increased $9 million compared with the prior quarter. Net interest income increased $32 million, or 1%, reflecting loan and deposit volume growth, partially offset by lower margins. Non-interest income decreased $23 million, or 1%, reflecting changes in the fair value of investments supporting claims liabilities, partially offset by wealth asset growth. Margin on average earning assets was 2.78%, or a 1 bp decrease.
Average loan volumes increased $5 billion, or 1%, compared with the prior quarter, reflecting 1% growth in personal loan volumes and 2% growth in business loan volumes. Average deposit volumes increased $10 billion, or 4%, compared with the prior quarter, reflecting 2% growth in personal deposit volumes, 6% growth in business deposit volumes and 6% growth in wealth deposit volumes.
AUA were $345 billion as at October 31, 2016, an increase of $8 billion, or 2%, and AUM were $268 billion as at October 31, 2016, an increase of $3 billion, or 1%, compared with the prior quarter, both reflecting new asset growth and increases in market value.
PCL for the quarter increased $5 million, or 2%, compared with the prior quarter. Personal banking PCL for the quarter decreased $3 million, or 1%, reflecting lower provisions in the auto lending portfolio in the current quarter. Business banking PCL increased $8 million. Annualized PCL as a percentage of credit volume was 0.28%, or flat. Net impaired loans decreased $27 million, or 4%. Net impaired loans as a percentage of total loans were 0.19%, compared with 0.20% as at July 31, 2016.
Insurance claims and related expenses for the quarter decreased $107 million, or 15%, compared with the prior quarter reflecting less severe weather conditions, changes in the fair value of investments supporting claims liabilities and more favourable prior years' claims development, partially offset by unfavourable current year claims experience.
Non-interest expenses increased $117 million, or 5%, reflecting business growth, higher investment in technology and higher employee-related expenses including revenue-based variable expenses in the wealth business.
The efficiency ratio for the quarter was 43.7%, compared with 41.5% in the prior quarter.
TABLE 8: U.S. RETAIL1
(millions of dollars, except as noted)
For the three months ended
October 31
July 31
October 31
Canadian Dollars
2016
2016
2015
Net interest income $ 1,832
$ 1,755
$ 1,658
Non-interest income
592
591
492
Total revenue – reported
2,424
2,346
2,150
Total revenue – adjusted
2,424
2,346
2,223
Provision for credit losses
193
168
174
Non-interest expenses – reported
1,499
1,372
1,442
Non-interest expenses – adjusted
1,499
1,372
1,433
U.S. Retail Bank net income – reported2
608
663
486
Adjustments for items of note, net of income taxes3
Charge related to the acquisition in U.S. strategic
cards portfolio and related integration costs
–
–
51
U.S. Retail Bank net income – adjusted2
608
663
537
Equity in net income of an investment in TD Ameritrade
93
125
109
Net income – adjusted $ 701
$ 788
$ 646
Net income – reported
701
788
595
U.S. Dollars
Net interest income $ 1,396
$ 1,354
$ 1,260
Non-interest income
452
456
373
Total revenue – reported
1,848
1,810
1,633
Total revenue – adjusted
1,848
1,810
1,689
Provision for credit losses
146
130
133
Non-interest expenses – reported
1,142
1,058
1,096
Non-interest expenses – adjusted
1,142
1,058
1,089
U.S. Retail Bank net income – reported2
465
512
368
Adjustments for items of note, net of income taxes3
Charge related to the acquisition in U.S. strategic
cards portfolio and related integration costs
–
–
39
U.S. Retail Bank net income – adjusted2
465
512
407
Equity in net income of an investment in TD Ameritrade
71
97
84
Net income – adjusted $ 536
$ 609
$ 491
Net income – reported
536
609
452
Selected volumes and ratios
Return on common equity – reported
8.3 %
9.5 %
7.1 % Return on common equity – adjusted
8.3
9.5
7.8
Margin on average earning assets4
3.13
3.14
3.08
Efficiency ratio – reported
61.8
58.5
67.1
Efficiency ratio – adjusted
61.8
58.5
64.5
Assets under administration (billions of U.S. dollars) $ 13
$ 13
$ 12
Assets under management (billions of U.S. dollars)5
63
71
77
Number of U.S. retail stores
1,278
1,267
1,298
Average number of full-time equivalent staff
26,103
25,998
25,250
1 Certain comparative amounts and ratios have been recast to conform with the revised presentation, which includes only the Bank's agreed portion of revenue, PCL, and expenses for the U.S. strategic cards portfolio and was adopted in the first quarter of 2016. For further details, refer to the "How our Businesses Performed" section of this document. 2 Before the equity in net income of the Bank's investment in TD Ameritrade. 3 For explanations of items of note, refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures – Reconciliation of Adjusted to Reported Net Income" table in the "How We Performed" section of this document. 4 The margin on average earning assets excludes the impact related to the TD Ameritrade insured deposit accounts (IDA) and the impact of intercompany deposits and cash collateral. In addition, the value of tax-exempt interest income is adjusted to its equivalent before-tax value. 5 On August 30, 2016, a sub-advisory agreement with respect to $14 billion in assets was terminated, of which $3 billion were withdrawn before October 31, 2016, with the remainder to be completed by December 8, 2016. The revenue and net income associated with the terminated sub-advisory agreement is not significant to the wealth business in U.S. Retail.
Quarterly comparison – Q4 2016 vs. Q4 2015
U.S. Retail net income for the quarter was $701 million (US$536 million), which included net income of $608 million (US$465 million) from the U.S. Retail Bank and $93 million (US$71 million) from the Bank's investment in TD Ameritrade. U.S. Retail reported earnings increased US$84 million, or 19%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, while adjusted earnings were up US$45 million, or 9%. U.S. Retail Canadian dollar reported earnings were up $106 million, or 18% and adjusted earnings were up $55 million, or 9%. The reported and adjusted annualized ROE for the quarter was 8.3%, compared with 7.1% and 7.8%, respectively, in the fourth quarter last year.
The contribution from TD Ameritrade of US$71 million was down US$13 million, or 15% compared with the fourth quarter last year, primarily due to reduced trading volumes and higher operating expenses, partially offset by higher asset-based revenue and favourable tax items.
U.S. Retail Bank reported net income for the quarter increased US$97 million, or 26%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, due to higher loan and deposit volumes, fee income growth and a charge related to an acquisition in the strategic cards portfolio in the same period last year, partially offset by higher expenses. U.S. Retail Bank adjusted net income increased US$58 million, or 14%.
U.S. Retail Bank revenue is derived from personal and business banking, wealth management services, and investments. Revenue for the quarter was US$1,848 million. Reported revenue increased US$215 million, or 13%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, while adjusted revenue increased US$159 million, or 9%. Net interest income increased US$136 million, or 11%, reflecting higher loan and deposit volumes and higher deposit margins, partially offset by loan margin compression. Margin on average earning assets was 3.13%, a 5 bps increase, primarily due to higher deposit margins, the December 2015 Fed rate increase (the "rate increase"), and favourable balance sheet mix, partially offset by lower loan margins. Reported non‑interest income increased US$79 million, or 21%, reflecting customer account growth, and the positive impact from an acquisition in the strategic cards portfolio, partially offset by unfavourable hedging impact. Adjusted non-interest income increased US$23 million, or 5%.
Excluding an acquisition in the strategic cards portfolio, average loan volumes increased US$12 billion, or 9%, compared with the fourth quarter last year due to growth in business and personal loans of 14% and 4%, respectively. Average deposit volumes increased US$20 billion, or 9%, reflecting 6% growth in business deposit volumes, 9% growth in personal deposit volumes and a 12% increase in sweep deposit volume from TD Ameritrade.
AUA were US$13 billion as at October 31, 2016, an increase of 11%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, primarily due to an increase in private banking balances. AUM were US$63 billion as at October 31, 2016, a decrease of 17%, primarily due to net outflows from institutional accounts.
PCL for the quarter was US$146 million, an increase of US$13 million, or 10%, compared with the fourth quarter last year. Personal banking PCL was US$105 million, a decrease of US$14 million, or 12%, primarily related to release of South Carolina flooding reserve. Business banking PCL was US$40 million, a US$4 million increase, or 11%. PCL associated with debt securities classified as loans was US$1 million, an increase of US$23 million, due to a recovery in the same period last year. Net impaired loans, excluding ACI loans and debt securities classified as loans, were US$1.5 billion, an increase of US$10 million, or 1%. Net impaired loans, excluding ACI loans and debt securities classified as loans, as a percentage of total loans were 1% as at October 31, 2016, a decrease of 8 bps compared with last year. Net impaired debt securities classified as loans were US$641 million, a decrease of US$157 million, or 20%.
Non-interest expenses for the quarter were US$1,142 million. Reported non-interest expenses increased US$46 million, or 4%, compared with the fourth quarter last year, primarily due to business initiatives including store optimization, volume growth, investments in front line employees and additional charges by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, partially offset by productivity savings. Adjusted non-interest expenses increased US$53 million, or 5%.
The reported and adjusted efficiency ratios for the quarter were 61.8%, compared with 67.1% and 64.5%, respectively, in the fourth quarter last year.
Quarterly comparison – Q4 2016 vs. Q3 2016
U.S. Retail earnings decreased US$73 million, or 12%, compared with the prior quarter. U.S. Retail Canadian dollar earnings decreased $87 million, or 11%. The annualized ROE for the quarter was 8.3%, compared to 9.5% in the prior quarter.
The contribution from TD Ameritrade decreased US$26 million, or 27%, compared with the prior quarter, primarily due to higher operating expenses, lower trading volumes and a favourable tax item in the prior quarter.
U.S. Retail Bank net income for the quarter decreased US$47 million, or 9%, compared with the prior quarter, due to higher expenses and PCL, partially offset by higher revenue.
Revenue for the quarter increased US$38 million, or 2%, compared with the prior quarter. Net interest income increased US$42 million, or 3%, primarily due to higher loan and deposit volumes. Margin on average earning assets was 3.13%, a 1bp decrease compared with the |
Republic and joined the HC Vitkovice system. He's been better than a point per game player during his time in the Czech Junior Leagues, including 18 points in 10 games in the Under 20 league this season. His performance earned him a promotion to Vitkovice's Extraliga team :
Australia's Nathan Walker made history on Sunday when he played for Vítkovice, becoming not only the first Australian to play in the Czech Extraliga, but to play in any European professional hockey league.
Like the Hungarian crew, Walker is the best hope for an Australian to play in the NHL. Though the odds are against all four of them, the story of being the first of your countrymen to play on the world's biggest stage is a great one. They could each become the most meaningful of athletic figures in their entire country. They are underdogs in the most significant sense of the word and it comes through in Walker's own words.
"I hope to play the NHL, but it remains to be seen."
Hockey fans hope so too, if only to root for the biggest of underdogs.Officers killed the ISIS jihadist in Subirats, a town 30km west of Barcelona, after receiving a tip-off from a local woman tonight. Mossos d'Esquadra, the region's police force, launched the high-profile manhunt for the Morocco-born terrorist after last week's terror attack. The 22-year-old abandoned his rented van and fled on foot after ploughing into a busy crowd on Las Ramblas on Thursday afternoon.
Over the weekend, officials admitted they had no idea where he was, sparking rumours he could have crossed the Spanish border into France. Police chief Josep Lluis Trapero told a press conference yesterday: "We don't have any specific information on this but it cannot be ruled out. "If we knew that he was in Spain and where, we would go after him. We don't know where he is." Mr Trapero also said the Daesh militant may have changed his appearance and tried to disguise himself with a beard.
GETTY•SG Barcelona terror suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub has been shot dead
Barcelona: The tragic victims of the Ramblas terror attack Sun, August 20, 2017 The cowardly terror attack in the Catalonian city of Barcelona has left 13 dead and 100 injured. These are the victims named so far Play slideshow PA 1 of 8 Julian Alessandro Cadman
A female neighbour in Subirats believed to have called police this afternoon after spotting a man she thought was Abouyaaqoub. He ran towards an area of vineyards after she shouted at him to ask what he was doing, according to Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia. It is not yet known when the ISIS terrorist arrived in Subirats, which has a population of just 3,000, or how he evaded police for so long.
SG Armed police raced to the scene in Subirats, around 30km from Barcelona
His mother Ghanno Gaanimi had urged Abouyaaqoub to give himself up yesterday. She said: "He must go to the police, he must hand himself in. He is better off in prison than being dead. It's wrong to kill people. I am not to blame for this." His cousin added: "This has shocked us like everyone. We had no idea this was about to happen. They're such normal kids. They had such a normal life. "Islam is a religion of peace and love. Islam does not tell us to kill."
SG Police in Catalonia launched the manhunt for the ISIS jihadist on ThursdayThe Beta of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (“SP1”) enables System Center customers to jointly evaluate System Center 2012 with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. The Beta is for evaluation purposes only and not to be used in production as described in the EULAs associated with the product. No license keys are required to do this evaluation. The Beta includes updates and enhancements to the following System Center 2012 components:
Virtual Machine Manager Improved Support for Network Virtualization Extend the VMM console with Add-ins Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
Configuration Manager Deployment and management of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Distribution point for Windows Azure to help reduce infrastructure costs Automation of administrative tasks through PowerShell support Management of Mac OS X clients and Linux and UNIX servers Real-time administrative actions for Endpoint Protection related tasks
Data Protection Manager Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0 Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes Uninterrupted protection for VM live migration
App Controller Service Provider Foundation API to create and operate Virtual Machines Support for Azure VM; migrate VHDs from VMM to Windows Azure, manage from on-premise System Center
Operations Manager Support for IIS 8 Monitoring of WCF, MVC and.NET NT services Azure SDK support
Orchestrator Support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party Manage VMM self-service User Roles Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds
Service Manager Apply price sheets to VMM clouds Create chargeback reports Pivot by cost center, VMM clouds, Pricesheets
Server App-V Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server
For all the details and a download link please see the following: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34607
J.C. Hornbeck | Knowledge Engineer | Management and Security Division
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The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/Photo by: Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette Channing Murray Foundation and the Red Herring restaurant on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana.
URBANA — Members of the Channing-Murray Foundation board of governors are trying to remain positive after becoming crime victims earlier this week.
After a rummage sale last Saturday that raised a needed infusion of cash to make improvements at the Red Herring Restaurant at 1209 W. Oregon St., U, someone stole the profits — all $1,230 of it.
And whoever did it was likely someone with ties to the building, since Urbana police could find no evidence of a break-in.
Sgt. Dan Morgan said the money was discovered missing Sunday morning from a cash box in a room that had been locked.
"There are numerous people who could have keys, including people who are no longer there," said Morgan, who added that investigators have no leads, "not even a little bitty one."
But the president of the nonprofit foundation board said the locks have been changed and the number of keys being distributed limited.
"It's very frustrating, especially for folks like me who took 20 or more hours of time organizing and working the sale," said Rachel Lauren Storm of Urbana, president of the board of governors.
Because of the theft and because there were many things unsold from last weekend, Storm said, the sale will be held again this Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with discounts offered in the afternoon.
Items that folks would like to donate will be accepted from noon to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the foundation building on West Oregon Street.
The money made last weekend was intended for small capital improvements to the vegan restaurant at the community center run by the Unitarian Universalist community.
Storm said the restaurant has been a drain on the resources of the foundation for some time and foundation members are trying different ways to raise money to improve conditions there. Other money-raising efforts include an online Kickstarter campaign and a direct appeal to the foundation's membership for cash donations.
"Channing-Murray has been very generous to the community in offering low rates on the rental of the building," she said. "We try to be one of the core places within Champaign-Urbana where people can meet others who care about social justice issues."
Anyone who might have information about the theft of the money should call Urbana police at 217-384-2320 or Champaign County Crimestoppers at 217-373-8477. Information may also be sent anonymously online at http://www.373tips.com or by cellphone text message by sending CCTIP plus the information to CRIMES (274637).Woods wasn't too shabby. He stirred up a big gallery on a glorious summer day in New England with six straight birdies, which featured four putts of at least 12 feet and flop shot executed so perfectly that it cleared a steep bunker and landed in an area of the green no larger than a hula hoop. His lone bogey on the final hole gave him a 7-under 64, putting him in a three-way tie for third with Jeff Overton and Ryan Moore.
The average score was just under 70 on a perfect day for scoring, except for the deceptive wind that swirled through the trees.
Rory McIlroy struggled off the tee, though he judged one of the lies in the rough beautifully on the ninth hole, a 7-iron into tap-in range that led to a 65.
Noh stole the show, even if hardly anyone was paying attention or was not really sure who he was.
"Some people say Kevin Na, like, 'Go Kevin,' " Noh said.
The 21-year-old from South Korea won his first Asian Tour title at age 17, and he chose to come over to America this year to ease his travel. He made it through Q-school in December, and on Friday turned in his strongest PGA Tour round to date.
"Everything good today," Noh said.
He went to work with Foley in May, mentioning the roster of clients as one of his reasons -- Woods, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose.
"He's a good kid," Mahan said after a much-needed 68. "If Foley says, 'Do this 1,000 times,' he'll go home and do it 1,000 times."
The start was more meaningful for Overton, whose game has practically disappeared since he played on the Ryder Cup team two years ago. He is No. 83 in the FedEx Cup standings, and only the top 70 advance next week to the third playoff event at Crooked Stick in Indiana -- his home state.
"I'm constantly getting a lot of great text messages and people say, 'Hey, we're really excited to see you at Crooked Stick,' just the whole Hoosier nation," Overton said. "It's just going to be fun if I can get into the event."
He had his own birdie streak, only on the opposite end of the course from Woods. Overton made five straight birdies through the 16th hole, and then added one more birdie on the 18th hole for a 64 that put him atop the leaderboard with Woods from the morning session.
Woods played with Barclays winner Nick Watney and Brandt Snedeker, two players who are trying to make enough of an impression on Davis Love III to be selected as Ryder Cup captain's picks on Tuesday. Snedeker scrambled his way to a respectable 69. Watney, who has never finished higher than 33rd on the TPC Boston, never looked comfortable in his round of 72.
Dustin Johnson, another candidate to get one of the four Ryder Cup selections, opened with a 67.Story highlights Edward Brunton hanged himself with a belt in a closet in 2009, coroner spokesman says
The closet protected his body from rapid decomposition, coroner says
Neighbors thought his home was abandoned; its yard was overgrown
Brunton was estranged from his family and friends, and no one reported him missing
In an empty, dusty house, a boy stumbled upon a classic horror movie scenario this week: A mummified corpse hanging by the neck from a belt.
And officials say it had been there for five years.
Until the boy made his way inside the ramshackle house in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday, neighbors didn't think anyone lived there, said Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.
They thought the house was abandoned, and it looked that way.
The front door was papered with citations for the overgrown yard, and no one came and went from the address. The home was unfurnished.
Inside, however, was the body of Edward Brunton, who hanged himself with a belt in a closet in 2009, according to Betz.
Betz puts Brunton in his late 40s at the time of his suicide.
The closet shielded his body from rapid decomposition, animals and insects, resulting in the mummy-like condition the boy found it in.
"Because of the location where he was found, it was relatively protected, sunlight-protected, temperature-protected and low humidity," coroner Kent Harshbarger told CNN affiliate WDTN.
Brunton had little time to forge friendships with neighbors; he had purchased the home just months prior to his death. He also was estranged from his family and friends, thus no one ever reported him missing, Betz said.
The boy's mother, Michelle McGrath, went into the house to investigate. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she entered the room that housed the closet.
"When I crossed the threshold of the room, is when I smelled it," she said.
She called the police.
Authorities found identification documents on Brunton's body. His estranged brother, who still recognized him, confirmed it was him.By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard
The Giants recently re-signed right-handed pitcher Ryan Vogelsong to a one-year, four million dollar deal, a move that added depth to the rotation but also muddled the fifth starter situation. Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Tim Hudson, and Jake Peavy are all slotted into their spots in the rotation. This leaves Ryan Vogelsong, two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, and possibly even long reliever Yusmeiro Petit to duke it out for the final spot.
Lincecum has been pitching more like his French Bulldog, Cy, than Cy Young in recent years, but that didn’t stop the Giants from handing him a prodigious two-year, $36 million dollar deal after 2013. Will Vogelsong’s fresh deal stop the Giants from giving Lincecum another chance?
Spring Edge
Tim Lincecum is historically terrible in Spring Training. Absolutely, horrifyingly terrible. There’s no getting around it. In 2009’s Cactus League, a season in which he later went on to win the Cy Young, he posted a 4.03 ERA. That was his best career Spring Training figure by a half a run.
Maybe Arizona’s heat has something to do with his struggles in the spring, or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe eating In-N-Out like a horse over the offseason didn’t help, even though he still can’t get any bigger than a high school freshman. Whatever the reason is, his 5.75 ERA in 144 career innings in the Cactus League won’t strike fear into the heart of Vogelsong, or opposing hitters for that matter.
Vogelsong is a great competitor, and that certainly showed in the playoffs, as the Giants have not lost a game in October with the righty on the hill. That should help him separate himself from Lincecum in spring training, when the Giants will presumably hold a competition for the last starting spot. Lincecum’s more laid-back, easy-going demeanor may endear him to his teammates and fans, but he does not quite have the same spirit that Vogelsong does: I wouldn’t want to be near Vogelsong on game day. Lincecum has been the best pitcher in baseball in the past despite being so lackadasical, but this relaxed demeanor could come back to bite him here. Vogelsong will certainly have the competitive edge—he has historically been far superior in Spring Training—during the heat of the competition for the starting job: he made the big league club in 2011 because of his breakout performance in Scottsdale.
Performance
Lincecum is like ordering food from that sketchy-looking Chinese restaurant down the street: you never know what you’re going to get. It could be the best food you’ve ever had, or you could end up hospitalized with food poisoning. Vogelsong is the antithesis of Lincecum, steady but never all that flashy, a consummate pro.
However, Lincecum wasn’t this tumultuous for the whole season. As of July 20, 2014, Lincecum had a 3.68 ERA, only allowing opposing hitters to hit.229 off of him; he even pitched an incredible no-hitter against the Padres. His 3.59 xFIP seemingly backed his performance up, but he faltered after this hot start. The dog days of summer took Lincecum back to Scottsdale, and he posted a 7.59 ERA the rest of the way, partially due to an inflated 4.01 BB/9. Also, Lincecum may have lost some gas as the year went on, seeing a slight dip in fastball velocity from 89.8 to 89.0 MPH. If Lincecum can get it together in Spring Training, he may get a chance to take a spot in the rotation.
Nevertheless, Vogelsong also held his own last season, and he did so consistently. He made 32 starts last season, posting an even 4.00 ERA. Vogelsong never was dropped out of the rotation, unlike Lincecum. He may have less potential for improvement next season, but he also has less potential for regression. He posted a 3.85 FIP last season, and he never really fell into the ruts that Lincecum is susceptible to.
Yusmeiro Petit could also be a dark-horse candidate for the job. He may be better suited for the bullpen than Vogelsong, but he held his own on the mound last season. He did have cringeworthy splits last season, posting a 5.03 ERA as a starter, but a miniscule 1.84 ERA as a reliever. However, as I previously argued, Petit’s struggles as a starter last year may simply have been poor luck.
From the linked article:
“Petit’s rapid decline was largely due to a decrease in luck, not skills as a starting pitcher. Opposing hitters actually hit line drives more frequently against Petit as a reliever (22.4% vs. 20.2%). However, Petit was a victim of an inflated 13.1% HR/FB rate, compared to an unsustainable 2.1% as a reliever. Even his infield hit percentage spiked as a starter, sitting at 7.6% compared to 4.8%. Petit threw the ball seemingly just as well, if not better, as a starter, but got nothing to show for it, shown by his 3.01 xFIP. Balls simply were placed better with him as a starter, in part fueled by an inflated.309 BABIP (vs..261).”
Petit may be a great long reliever, but Lincecum could also fit well into that role. Lincecum warms up very quickly, and he performed very well when it mattered during the Giants’ 2012 title run. The Giants did not commit very much to signing Vogelsong, and therefore they should not feel financially pressured to insert him into the rotation without merit. In addition, Vogelsong, the ultimate team player, would not whine about a demotion to the bullpen.
No pitcher stands out in this group of three, so it all comes down to who is pitching well at the time. Lincecum may not impress in the spring, but if his performance ticks up in the regular season, Bochy will have no qualms about re-inserting him into the rotation. Bochy can use all three of these hurlers in tandem, riding the hot hand. Bochy is much more likely to use Petit out of the ‘pen than Vogelsong, but that won’t stop him from starting Petit over the veteran pitcher. Preferably, Bochy would like to find one consistent starter before the season starts, so that they can work themselves into a rhythm. However, with so much depth, one of these starters will likely pitch well enough to emerge as the superior pitcher. You can never have too much depth, especially with Tim Hudson’s age and injury history. The Giants will find a solid fifth starter: it’s just a matter of who and when.
Stats and info courtesy of ESPN, MLB.com, FanGraphs, and Baseball-Reference.
Cover Image: By james_in_to on Flickr (Original version) UCinternational (Crop) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsSlipper unfazed by dumping calls
Posted
There is growing discontent within the electorate of Fisher on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, with the performance of sitting Liberal National Party (LNP) Member Peter Slipper.
Mr Slipper could face disciplinary action over his decision to invite Labor Minister Kevin Rudd to the Sunshine Coast last Friday.
The visit was on the same day former Liberal prime minister John Howard was in town to launch the campaign of an LNP state candidate.
Many Fisher branch members are angry and want Mr Slipper replaced at an early preselection.
One member has also labelled Mr Slipper's allegations of branch stacking against his preselection rival Mal Brough as pathetic and toxic.
The Maleny LNP branch has called an emergency meeting for December 3 but Mr Slipper is not worried.
"I'm always happy to front LNP members and I believe that I have the continuing support," Mr Slipper said.
"I am prepared to face members of the LNP at a preselection whenever the party organisation deems it appropriate."
Mr Slipper will not rule out remaining as an independent if he loses preselection.
Topics: liberal-national-party, maroochydore-4558The Archbishop of Washington on Easter Sunday said that he was concerned that Catholics would be shunned for opposing same sex marriage — and that it was gay and lesbian Americans who need to “make room” for the very people discriminating against them.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Cardinal Donald Wuerl how the church would react to gay and lesbian members who wanted to get married if the U.S. Supreme Court found that state and federal bans on same sex marriage were unconstitutional.
“The Catholic Church also reminds all of us there is a moral law, they are the commandments of God and we have to do our best to live by them,” Wuerl insisted. “The church is probably — with 20 centuries of experience — the most understanding of the human condition of any institution. But at the same time, it does remind not only gay people but heterosexual people, straight people, you’re not supposed to be following a moral law apart from what Christ has said to us.”
“What would you say to that good, gay Catholic?” Wallace pressed. “You would allow him to continue in the church, but you would not recognize his marriage?”
“But we do that same thing with people who are married, divorced and remarried,” Wuerl pointed out. “We say, you know, you’re still part of the family, but we can’t recognize that second marriage. It’s never been a great problem. It’s painful for all of us to have to realize that making our way through life is difficult and that we can’t always be as perfect as we like to be.”
The cardinal added that the definition of “marriage” was “when a man and woman commit to each other for the rest of their lives and generate and educate children.”
“Once you change that arbitrarily, there’s going to be downstream from that all kinds of questions,” he warned. “We’re going to have to deal with them one by one as we come to them. And that’s why the church keeps saying, make room for everyone’s faith.”
“The only thing I worry about is someone saying to me, ‘You, because you believe that sex is intended for marriage and because you believe that marriage is indissoluble and because you believe that marriage is between a man and a woman that somehow you don’t belong here, that somehow this is bigotry or this is hate speech.’ That’s what I worry about. There has to be room enough in a society as large, as free as pluralistic as America to make space for all of us.”
Watch this video from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast March 31, 2013.
(h/t: Talking Points Memo)The decision by the Target Corporation to join Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, and other retailers and end health-insurance coverage for part-time employees brings both good news and bad for those hoping that ObamaCare would survive its disastrous rollout and emerge as a permanent part of the American economic and political landscape. The good news is that by dropping 10 percent of its part-time employees from its company insurance, the retailing giant has delivered a significant number of its 361,000 total employees into the ObamaCare insurance exchanges since they have no other option and many will be eligible for subsidies. Since a majority of them may be relatively young and healthy, they could help bolster the anemic ObamaCare enrollment figures and help redress the imbalance created by the disproportionate number of older and sick people on the new plans.
The bad news is that the thousands of Target employees who’ll now be forced to choose between ObamaCare and no coverage at all are not likely to be happy with either option. Unlike the poor and those with pre-existing conditions who understandably view the ACA as a godsend, these new recruits will be saddled with coverage that, even if it is not more expensive is, unlikely to be as good as the insurance they had with their employer. In other words, Target’s decision, like those of many other large businesses that are laying off workers or reducing others to part-time status because of the higher costs of meeting ObamaCare’s new standards, means that the number of Americans who will lose the coverage they had because of the new law is growing.
As Bloomberg reports, the Target decision is directly related to ObamaCare:
The law doesn’t require most companies to cover part-time workers, and offering them health plans may disqualify those people from subsidies in new government-run insurance exchanges that opened in October … The health law requires all companies employing 50 or more people to offer health insurance to those working at least 30 hours a week starting in 2015. Those that don’t comply may be liable for fines of as much as $3,000 per worker. … The move should also reduce the cost of Target’s health benefits.
We already knew that the bland assurances the American public heard repeatedly from the president in his notorious “If you like your health-care plan, you can keep your health-care plan” were patently false. The administration tried to weasel its way out of that lie by claiming that the numbers of those who couldn’t keep their coverage or their doctors were negligible. It soon became clear that several million people who privately purchased insurance would be thrown off their old plans and forced into new ones that were not only more expensive but failed to offer the coverage they wanted. Others lost their doctors as a result of the changes.
But what most of us didn’t realize was that ObamaCare’s negative impact would go far beyond the private insurance market. As the Target decision illustrates, the law’s regulations will force companies to make decisions that will place heavy economic burdens on many of their employees and cause others to lose their jobs entirely or their hard-won full-time status. And that, in turn, means that the pool of ObamaCare losers is increasing so rapidly and precipitously that they’re well on their way to vastly outnumbering those who are better off because of the law’s passage.
Nor is it clear that even more moves such as that of Target, which will push thousands of consumers into the ObamaCare exchanges, will be sufficient to fill them with enough young and healthy people to ensure that the system becomes fiscally sound. With enrollment still millions short of the number needed to keep the scheme afloat, the prospect of federal bailouts for the system creates the likelihood that new battles will keep ObamaCare on the political front burner in a way that could fatally handicap Democrats in the midterm elections.
Democrats have assumed all along that once implemented, ObamaCare would be too popular to be repealed or even modified. Republicans shared the same assumption and even now many worry that no matter how grievous the impact of the law on the American economy, it will be impossible to rescind coverage from those who have gained it via ObamaCare.
But what neither party anticipated was the emergence of an entirely new demographic—the millions upon millions of ObamaCare losers—whose anger over the law could well be a game-changer. More corporate decisions such as Target’s that have the potential to increase the size of this group is bad news indeed for ObamaCare and the Democratic Party that, without a single Republican vote, foisted it upon an unwilling public.Abstract Most research in biology is empirical, yet empirical studies rely fundamentally on theoretical work for generating testable predictions and interpreting observations. Despite this interdependence, many empirical studies build largely on other empirical studies with little direct reference to relevant theory, suggesting a failure of communication that may hinder scientific progress. To investigate the extent of this problem, we analyzed how the use of mathematical equations affects the scientific impact of studies in ecology and evolution. The density of equations in an article has a significant negative impact on citation rates, with papers receiving 28% fewer citations overall for each additional equation per page in the main text. Long, equation-dense papers tend to be more frequently cited by other theoretical papers, but this increase is outweighed by a sharp drop in citations from nontheoretical papers (35% fewer citations for each additional equation per page in the main text). In contrast, equations presented in an accompanying appendix do not lessen a paper’s impact. Our analysis suggests possible strategies for enhancing the presentation of mathematical models to facilitate progress in disciplines that rely on the tight integration of theoretical and empirical work.
The efficient exchange of new findings and insights between empirical and theoretical approaches is critical to a range of scientific disciplines, including nuclear physics (1), physical chemistry (2), neuroscience (3), epidemiology (4), ecology (5), and atmospheric science (6). In evolutionary biology, for example, the integration of empirical and theoretical work is essential for understanding how natural selection shapes organisms and their interactions (7⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓–16). Most biological research is empirical, yet empirical studies rely fundamentally on theory for generating testable predictions and interpreting observations. In return, empirical data provide both tests of established theory and guidance in the development of new models.
However, the importance of presenting theory in sufficient technical detail can sometimes conflict with the need to communicate the essence of a model in a clear, accessible manner. Concise and precise description of the structure of a mathematical model demands the use of equations, but such technical details might deter a broad audience of scientists doing largely empirical research. A cursory reading of the biological literature reveals that many empirical studies build largely on other empirical studies, with little direct reference to relevant theory. This observation suggests a breakdown of communication that may impede scientific progress.
To explore the extent of this problem, we systematically investigated how the use of mathematical equations affects the scientific impact of studies in ecology and evolution. We examined the use of equations and obtained citation data for all papers (total n = 649; Dataset S1) published in 1998 in the top three journals specializing in ecology and evolution: Evolution, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, and The American Naturalist. We find that heavy use of equations reduces citation rates, because papers with a high density of equations per page attract fewer citations from nontheoretical papers. Our results suggest possible strategies for enhancing the presentation of mathematical models to facilitate progress in disciplines that rely on the tight integration of theoretical and empirical work.
Results To quantify the technical level of any theory presented in the articles, we counted equations, inequalities, and other mathematical expressions (hereafter referred to simply as “equations”) in the main text and any printed appendixes. We divided this count by the number of pages to give a measure of equation density, which ranged from 0 to 7.29 equations per page (mean ± SEM: 0.43 ± 0.04) and was uncorrelated with the length of the article (r 647 = 0.056, P = 0.151). To assess impact, we obtained citation data for these articles from the Science Citation Index Expanded on the Thomson Reuters Web of Science in May 2011, excluding any self-citations (i.e., citing papers for which one or more of the author surnames matched one or more of the author surnames for the cited paper). The number of citations varied widely, ranging from 0 to 374 with a mean ± SEM of 44.80 ± 1.98 citations (excluding self-citations). Controlling for a significant positive effect of paper length (Table 1, All citations), the use of equations has a striking influence on this measure of impact. Equation density negatively affects citation rates, leading on average to 22% fewer citations for each additional equation per page (Table 1, All citations). Table 1. Variables affecting the number of citations by all papers, nontheoretical papers, and theoretical papers We might expect this effect to be driven largely by a reduction in nontheoretical citations. To investigate this hypothesis, we searched for the term “model*” (excluding some common empirical uses such as “experimental model*”) in the title or abstract of the citing articles and used the presence of this term as a proxy for whether the citing paper was a theoretical one. This search identified 6,229 (22.2%) of the 28,068 citing articles as “theoretical.” We validated our proxy by examining a randomly selected subset of 200 citing articles, which showed that 84.5% were correctly classified as theoretical or nontheoretical. As expected, the negative effect of equation density is strongest for nontheoretical papers, which provide 27% fewer citations for each additional equation per page (Table 1, Nontheoretical citations). Articles less than 10 pages long with up to 0.5 equations per page are just as well cited as those with no equations, but increasing the equation density to more than one equation per page more than halves the number of nontheoretical citations (Fig. 1A). In contrast, longer papers (>9 pages) receive more citations when they are completely equation-free, but beyond this difference, there appears to be no effect of quantitative changes in equation density (Fig. 1A). Statistically, however, the effect of equation density on nontheoretical citations was consistent across papers of different lengths (nonsignificant interaction term; Table 1, Nontheoretical citations). Fig. 1. Equation-dense articles receive fewer citations from nontheoretical articles but not from other theoretical articles. The graphs show the mean (±SEM) number of citations by nontheoretical papers (A) and theoretical papers (B) for cited articles of differing length and number of equations per page (for the main text and appendixes combined). For illustration purposes only, the number of equations per page was binned into the ranges shown on the x axis; note that the data were not binned for the statistical analysis. Controlling for a significant effect of the journal of publication, there was no main effect of equation density on citations by theoretical papers (Table 1, Theoretical citations). We did, however, record a significant positive interaction between equation density and the length of the cited paper. This interaction occurs because papers of 10 pages or more have increased citation success when they contain more than 0.5 equations per page (Fig. 1B), implying that long, equation-dense papers are more likely to be cited by other papers presenting theoretical work. Next, we distinguished between equations presented in the main text and those presented in an appendix. The overall number of citations decreases with the density of equations in the main text, each additional equation per page leading to a 28% drop in citations (Table 2, All citations). In contrast, equations presented in an appendix have no impact on citation rates (Table 2, All citations). Again these effects are largely driven by citation patterns in the nontheoretical literature. Citations by nontheoretical papers decrease by 35% for each additional equation per page presented in the main text (Table 2, Nontheoretical citations). For papers less than 10 pages long, the citation count more than halves when the main-text equation density is increased from 0.5 or less to more than one per page (Fig. 2A), whereas for longer papers (>9 pages), any equations in the main text appear to reduce citation success. Additional equations in the appendixes, however, have no effect on nontheoretical citation rates (Table 2, Nontheoretical citations and Fig. 2B). Citations by theoretical papers are unaffected by the density of equations in either the main text or the appendixes (Table 2, Theoretical citations), but the interaction between the density of main-text equations and the length of the paper was close to significance (P = 0.074), again suggesting that long, equation-dense articles garner more citations from other theoretical papers. Table 2. Variables affecting the number of citations by all papers, nontheoretical papers, and theoretical papers, with equations in the main text distinguished from those in an appendix Fig. 2. Equations presented in the main text reduce citations from nontheoretical articles, whereas equations presented in an appendix do not. The graphs show the mean (±SEM) number of citations by nontheoretical papers for cited articles of differing length and number of equations per |
under the “Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations,” a set of rules that fall under the Fisheries Act and were enacted earlier this year, the federal environment department “cannot authorize” the type of wastewater deposit Montreal is planning to undertake. The Fisheries Act also prohibits unauthorized deposits of potentially harmful substances that can taint water where fish live.
Johnson stopped short of saying that the federal government has the power to stop the city from proceeding, saying the two levels of government are in communication.
The reason for the raw sewage dump is because a snowmelt collector near the Bonaventure Expressway needs to be moved. The Wellington collector feeds into a major sewer line, and all the pipes leading to that line need to be drained. Once the sewers are clear, construction crews will dismantle the existing snowmelt collector and build a new one.
Quebec's environment ministry approved the plan earlier this year. Environment Minister David Heurtel said this week he was led to believe there was no other way to clear the sewer lines when the plan was approved.
Environmentalist and Green Party candidate Daniel Green says there are agreements in place between Ottawa and Quebec concerning the river and waste water. The question is which level of government takes precedence.
“Ultimately it would be a judge that would have to decide that in a court of law. This is why we are looking at possible legal action to try to have this out before the discharge begins,” he said.
But as far as the opposition at city hall is concerned, the Coderre administration has a big hurdle to jump.
“They need to have both authorization and we know that the federal one, they didn't receive the federal authorization,” said Projet Montreal councillor Sylvain Ouellet.
According to Environment Canada’s website, wastewater is Canada’s biggest source of water pollution. More than 150 billion litres of untreated and undertreated wastewater is dumped into the country’s waterways every year. City officials have said the amount of untreated waste flowing into the river is negligible compared to the amount of water that flows through the St. Lawrence.
People are being asked to avoid the water on the southeast shores of the island from Oct. 18, when the operation was slated to start, to the 28. In the Old Port that restriction will last until Nov. 15.Montreal Canadiens forward Brandon Prust has avoided a suspension for his post-game comments regarding referee Brad Watson, according to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
Following a first-period roughing minor, Prust was assessed an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct after an exchange with Watson.
“I thought the original call was kind of soft and I let (Watson) know on the way to the penalty box,” Prust told reporters after a 6-2 loss Sunday. “He kept provoking me. He came to the box and called me every name in the book.
“He called me a piece of you know what, an [expletive], coward, said he’d drive me right out of this building. I wasn’t looking at him. He teed me up. That’s the ref he is. He tries to play God. He tries to control the game and he did that tonight.”
Prust was all over the score sheet in Game 2. In addition to registering an assist, the 31-year-old finished the game with 31 total penalty minutes of and received a game misconduct after knocking over Lightning goalie Ben Bishop and getting into a fight late in the third period.
As Prust left the ice, he threw his elbow pad at Steven Stamkos on the Lightning bench who in return threw it into the stands.
The Canadiens trail the series 2-0 as the action heads to Tampa for Game 3 Wednesday and Game 4 Thursday.Image by Lia Kantrowitz
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It seems like scientists have been working tirelessly this year to reduce human interaction in almost everything we do, from pizza delivery to Uber rides, and now even realistic sex machines aren't far from becoming a reality. But unfortunately experts in the robosex industry have some fears that banging bots will be so good that it'll ruin people's lives, the Daily Star reports.
Robotics experts and sex therapists are worried that a future of Ex Machina–style humanoid fuckbots ready and willing to dote on our every need could turn the masses into sex-addicted maniacs—people may find it difficult to stop taking part in the high-tech carnal pleasure palace and actually detach from the dolls.
"Sexbots would always be available and could never say no, so addictions would be easy to feed," Joel Snell, a research fellow at Kirkwood College, told the Daily Star. "People may become obsessed by their ever faithful, ever pleasing sex robot lovers. People will rearrange their lives to accommodate their addictions."
It seems a little far out to imagine that sticking your junk into an incredibly elaborate masturbation machine will actually be detrimental to society on a large scale, but Snell might have a point.
"Robotic sex may become better than human sex," he added. "Like many other technologies that have replaced human endeavors, robots could surpass human technique."
Read: We Got a Bunch of People to Draw Us Their Ideal Sex RobotsNew federal protections for transgender Canadians are about to become law after a strong show of support for the landmark legislation in the Red Chamber.
Sixty-seven of the 81 senators in attendance voted in favour of Bill C-16 Thursday evening, finally disposing of a bill that has been before Parliament for more than a year. The legislation overwhemlingly passed the House of Commons last November, and now awaits royal assent.
The bill updates the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include the terms "gender identity" and "gender expression." The legislation also makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression. It would also extend hate speech laws to include the two terms, and make it a hate crime to target someone for being transgender.
Critically, the bill also amends the sentencing principles section of the code so that a person's gender identity or expression can be considered an aggravating circumstance by a judge during sentencing.
"This bill is not only about the protections it provides, but also the message that Parliament is delivering to all Canadians about the need to treat everybody equally," Independent Alberta Senator Grant Mitchell, a longtime advocate for trans rights, said after the bill's passage.
"Transgender and gender-diverse people deserve to know that they are welcome and accepted, embraced and protected, and that in Canada they are free to be their true selves."
A smattering of Conservative senators voted against the legislation, including Manitoba Senator Don Plett. who has railed against it as a threat to free speech. Plett, who has led the charge against similar legislation in the past, was fearful that the bill would force him to use gender neutral pronouns when addressing trans people, a fear supporters of the bill say is unfounded.
Voted against <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/C16?src=hash">#C16</a>: Tkachuk, Martin, Neufeld, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorHousakos">@SenatorHousakos</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DonPlett">@DonPlett</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BettyUngerAB">@BettyUngerAB</a>, Doyle, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorEnverga">@SenatorEnverga</a>, Ngo, Beyak, <a href="https://twitter.com/denisebatters">@denisebatters</a> —@JPTasker
There were also lingering concerns that the term "gender expression" was too vaguely defined in the legislation, and an oft-repeated contention — a largely refuted myth — that the legislation will allow men to pose as women to attack them in bathrooms.
"As a woman, why you would support Bill C-16 when feminists have fought for so many years to protect women from the violence perpetrated against them by men. This will allow men to go into women's change rooms and bathrooms across the country," Conservative Ontario Senator Lynn Beyak said before voting against the bill.
The bill was vigorously debated at the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee, where senators heard from trans people who said the legislation will protect their vulnerable community but also from some, including feminists, who said the legislation would be a threat to spaces reserved for what they call "female-born women."Speedo’s cutting edge new Nemesis Fins are making waves in the swimming world. The most comfortable fitness and swim training fin on the market, Speedo’s new Nemesis Fin was designed using biomimicry and inspired by the pectoral fin of the Humpback Whale.
The scalloped outer edge of the fins, like that of the Humpback Whale, creates greater surface area for water to pass over versus a smooth, straight edge. This technology creates enhanced propulsion, allowing the swimmer to push more water during kicking drills and training sets.
“The Nemesis Fin is a comfortable, lightweight fin that encourages athletes to engage their hip flexors, quads and hamstrings during their kick,” says Canyon’s Swim Club Head Coach Coley Stickels. “One of the best features of the fin is that the swimmer must work hard in order to maximize propulsion. The open heel and flexibility of the fin allows for a more natural kick motion that mimics a true in water feel.”
The medial edge openings are larger on the bottom-side and smaller on the top-side, creating a valve effect, in which water is captured on the underside and forced through the smaller opening to create more resistance is created on the down-kick; and flow channels on the top and bottom of the fins help guide water in the proper direction, helping to medially rotate the foot into the correct orientation for maximum kick efficiency.
Made with Injection Molded EVA (IME VA) Foam, the fins are naturally buoyant, aiding the swimmer with an elevated body position, keeping hips and feet in a more streamline position – all helping to improve efficiency, your swim technique, and to help you swim faster.
It was all of this unique, cutting-edge technology that caught the eyes of the editors at Outside, who named the Nemesis Fins the “Coolest New Gear of 2014,” an honor bestowed on only five other products (out of hundreds) that debuted at August’s much-anticipated Outdoor Retailer Summer Market show in Salt Lake City.
Read more about the 2014 Outside Gear of the Show Awards, and what the editors at Outside had to say about the Nemesis Fins here.
Other editors have also taken note – the Nemesis Fins are featured in the August 2014 issue of Triathlete magazine and written up online at Gizmodo.com, one of the leading gear and tech sites on the web.
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Update, Aug, 14, 3:30 p.m. EST: House Bill 214, an identical measure to Senate Bill 8, which requires Texas women to pay a separate insurance premium for coverage of non-emergency abortions, has passed the Senate and is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
Texas’s Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick forced a 30-day special session of the state Legislature starting July 17. It was, he said, to pass the state’s infamous bathroom legislation that would prohibit transgender people from using the bathroom that best aligns with their gender. But, considering it is Texas, and conservative lawmakers in the state are infamous for their efforts to curb abortion access, it’s no surprise that the special session includes multiple bills aimed at limiting women’s reproductive rights.
The state has long been an epicenter of the abortion wars—Roe v. Wade was first filed there. And the landmark Supreme Court ruling from June 2016, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, focused on a Texas omnibus law known as HB 2 that required physicians to have admitting privileges at local hospitals and clinics to be outfitted like hospitals. The justices struck down the law in a 5-3 vote, but not before HB 2 had shuttered more than half the 40 abortion clinics in the state that were still open in 2013, the year the law was signed.
Three new abortion bills under consideration are on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s list of must-pass legislation for the session. Senate Bill 4 would ban state agencies from signing contracts with health care groups that provide abortions; Senate Bill 8, would require a separate premium for insurance coverage for non-emergency abortions (with no exception for rape or incest survivors); Senate Bill 10 would require abortion providers to submit detailed reports on any abortion complication directly to the state within 72 hours.
Also up for discussion is Senate Bill 73, which would require providers to report to the state health commission whether a minor who underwent an abortion had parental consent or a judicial bypass. State law already requires providers to report any abortion procedure involving a minor.
House Bill 86, which would revoke the medical licenses of any doctor who performs an abortion in Texas with narrow exceptions for the life of the mother and the fetus, is also up for debate during the special session, but it is largely considered symbolic because it could not withstand a constitutional challenge.
Of those under consideration in the Senate, only SB 8 has not yet passed through the full chamber, while the other three have already passed on to the House. The bills’ opponents argue that so far, the special session is nothing more than what they’ve come to expect from Texas’s conservative Legislature.
“To be completely clear, all of these bills that are being addressed in this special session are for no other purpose than to further chip away at women’s access to reproductive health care, period,” said Dana Kusnir, a Dallas-based abortion provider and a member of Physicians for Reproductive Health.
For instance, while SB 10 author state Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) says the legislation “is just, literally, a medical data reporting bill,” Kusnir argues it’s much more than that and is “a ridiculous waste of time.” According to current state law, a report already must be submitted to the Department of Health 30 days after any complication from an abortion procedure occurs—never mind that complications from abortion procedures are extremely rare. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, only 25 complications were reported out of more than 50,000 abortions in Texas. After the low rate was brought up on the floor, Campbell responded by saying that “the percentage is so small that we are doing something wrong.”
The current law, though, simply requests basic data in the reports: the date of the abortion, the type of abortion performed, a description of the complication. The only personal information currently required is the number of live births the patient has previously had. Campbell’s bill takes the reports a step further to also require information on the patient’s race, marital status, state and county of residence, and the number of prior abortion procedures she’s undergone. The report also must be submitted by the physician personally, rather than by a member of the clinic’s medical staff. Doctors who fail to comply would be fined $500 for each day that passes the 72-hour deadline. Kusnir notes that the increased hoops the bill requires doctors to jump through are reminiscent of the vast—and illegal—regulations in HB 2.
Meanwhile, the intentions behind SB 4 are also not immediately obvious. Although Planned Parenthood is not explicitly mentioned in the bill, which seeks to ban county and city government agencies from contracting with abortion providers and their affiliates, Republican lawmakers have acknowledged that only Planned Parenthood clinics would be affected by this legislation. According to state and federal law, it is already illegal to use government dollars to fund abortion procedures, but SB 4 would also prohibit financial contracts, such as lease agreements, between government agencies and Planned Parenthood clinics. Only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s medical services are abortion procedures, according to their most recent annual report; the rest spans contraceptive services, cancer screenings, STD testing, and general well-woman exams. A majority of Planned Parenthood patients live on or below the federal poverty line.
“Should our tax dollars…fund the culture of death that the abortion industry promotes?” state Sen. Don Huffines (R-Dallas) asked as SB 4 was being discussed.
Other Republican state senators tweeted their support during the floor discussion of SB 4 using the hashtag #GoFundYourself. This isn’t the first time an effort to financially cripple Planned Parenthood has worked its way through the Texas Legislature. In 2011, Texas lawmakers passed their 2013 budget, which banned Planned Parenthood from receiving funds through Healthy Texas Women, the state’s women’s health program. Texas also cut family planning funding by two-thirds that year, as Jia Tolentino notes in The New Yorker.
But the news for Texas women out of the special session isn’t all bad. The state has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, according to research from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and last week, the Senate extended the funding for the Task Force on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity through 2023. It’s a rare bright spot for women’s health in an otherwise bleak two weeks. But then again, there are two more weeks left in the session."I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. And, as a consequence, I think we've got an obligation to future generations to do something about it." So spoke newly re-elected President Barack Obama at a press conference on November 14 when questioned by a reporter.
So what is Obama going to do about it? Probably not much, because it conflicts with other priorities such as jobs and growth—and there's nothing better for jobs and growth than a good old-fashioned fossil fuel energy boom.
Or is there? Despite the International Energy Agency's optimistic projections, the U.S. will not produce more oil than Saudi Arabia within a decade—unless Saudi Arabia deliberately decides to hold back oil (as pointed out by the inestimable Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations.) And the U.S. could only become energy self-sufficient if one counter-balances continuing oil imports from places like Canada (hello Keystone!) with increased exports of natural gas, as the IEA assumes.
Either way, that sounds like bad news for combating climate change, and it is. Burning all that fossil fuel leaves the world on a trajectory to "lock-in" temperature increases of more than two degrees Celsius in global average temperatures—and that's not even the worst case scenario. After all, last year set yet another record for global emissions of CO2.
Part of that is because world leaders, like Obama, are hedging their bets—pushing low carbon technologies such as nuclear or renewables but also clearing the path for expanded production of fossil fuels like coal and gas. In fact, the only thing standing in the way of Obama's "all of the above" strategy, which would mean burning even more fossil fuels in the future, is one thing—water.
Water is becoming the critical constraint for the development of a lot of these energy products. For example, fracking the Bakken shale in North Dakota for oil becomes impossible if there isn't enough water around. Already energy—both electricity generation and fossil fuel production—accounts for 15 percent of total world water use, a percentage that may grow without innovation in technology. And although there's plenty of water around for things like the tar sands in Canada, there isn't necessarily enough water for new tar sands mines in eastern Utah. After all, that mine, the first in the U.S., received a pollution permit because the powers that be judged that there wasn't enough groundwater around there to pollute anyway. And water scarcity is a big part of the reason the Obama administration's Department of Interior has scaled back plans for oil shale on public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
Regardless, the oil shale will still be there, waiting to be extracted and burned. According to the IEA, it will have to stay in the ground to have any credible chance of restraining global warming to no more than a two-degrees-C rise in average global temperatures. In fact, the world can only burn about a third of the fossil fuels still out there if it is to stay on the right side of the two-degrees threshold.
There is hope. Renewables—wind and hydropower, mostly, but also solar—look set to continue to grow, potentially becoming the second-largest source of electricity in the world as soon as 2015, according to some IEA projections. And the U.S. economy is, in the jargon, de-carbonizing, or reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by our collective economic activity. U.S. oil use peaked in 2006 and has declined ever since. Renewables have doubled thanks to Obama's stimulus and other policies. Coal plants are shutting down and natural gas plants are firing up. The question is whether Obama's all-of-the-above strategy turns the natual gas bonanza into a bridge to a zero-carbon future, or a prop for the full-carbon economy.
More hope comes from Obama's new fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, which are going to further drive down oil imports as the U.S. car fleet gets more and more efficient. That kind of efficiency—if repeated and extended worldwide—could go a long way toward buying time to combat climate change. That time could be extended even further if Obama and other world leaders followed through on promises to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, which now constitute more than half a trillion dollars per year, according to the IEA. Furthermore, as Obama noted at the press conference on November 14 there are ways to make "short-term progress in reducing carbons [sic]" like eliminating methane leaks from natural gas pipelines and coal mines.
The world is going to need that extra time, especially given the absence of a commitment to CO2 capture and storage technology. Still, there's no time to dilly-dally: the planetary thermostat for the next millennia is being set in these early decades of the 21st century.
But the President has other items on his agenda first: tax and immigration reform, among others. Obama wouldn't even have addressed climate change without a direct question on the subject, given his impending visit to storm-tossed New York City, from a reporter. "I think the American people right now have been so focused and will continue to be focused on our economy and jobs and growth, that if the message is somehow we're going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don't think anybody is going to go for that," Obama said. "I won't go for that," he added, putting action off for "coming months and years." The planet does not have the luxury of that kind of time for Obama's promised "wide-ranging conversation" or "education" of the public.
The President may be aware that "what we do now is going to have an impact and a cost down the road," he's just not capable of doing much about it other than the kinds of things he has already done—new fuel efficiency standards for cars and the federal government, and the like.
I told you so.
Image: Obama enters press conference on November 14. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.(Adds details on sanctions, paragraphs 4-6)
NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley does not believe new U.S. sanctions on Russian oil company Rosneft will affect a pending deal between the two companies, the bank’s chief financial officer said on Thursday.
The bank’s management is moving ahead with plans to sell the majority of its global physical oil trading operations to Rosneft later this year, CFO Ruth Porat said in an interview.
“Recognizing the guidance was just released last night, we don’t believe it applies to our transaction,” she said. “We continue to do all the work necessary for closing by the end of the year, obviously subject to regulatory approval.”
Her comments come a day after the U.S. government imposed its toughest sanctions yet on some of the key players in the Russian economy over what Washington says is Moscow’s reluctance to curb violence in Ukraine. The move closed off medium- and long-term dollar funding to Rosneft, the country’s second-largest gas producer Novatek and its third-largest bank, Gazprombank.
The measures stopped short of freezing the companies’ assets, restricting the short-term funding the companies need for day-to-day operations or stopping U.S. firms doing business with them.
But they had raised some doubts about whether mounting political tensions with Moscow could complicate the bank’s deal to sell the majority of its global physical oil trading operations to Russia’s largest oil producer.
The Wall Street bank agreed to the sale in December before Russia launched an incursion into Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
It recently submitted the transaction for review by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), an inter-agency executive branch panel that examines foreign investment for potential threats to national security. (Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Josephine Mason; editing by Franklin Paul, Tom Brown and Matthew Lewis)A couple of local nonprofits that are headquartered in the Richmond District shared some exciting news over the holidays.
The Internet Archive, located at Clement & Funston and the keeper of the internet’s history along with millions of digital books and assorted media, received a healthy donation of bitcoin this week.
The anonymous Pineapple Fund, whose mission is to donate $86 million in bitcoin to charity, gave $1 million of it to the Internet Archive. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that recently skyrocketed.
“We so admire this donor using Bitcoin as the currency of giving this season, and are honored to be the recipients of such a gift. Whoever you are, you are doing a world of good. Thank you,” wrote the IA on their blog.
Another neighborhood charity, the Western Neighborhoods Project outsidelands.org ), announced last month that they will be moving into a new storefront headquarters in 2018.
The WNP’s mission is to preserve the history of the city’s western neighborhoods, and one of their latest projects has been to digitize a massive collection of historical photographs that were donated to their organization. Visit opensfhistory.org to check them out but be prepared to get sucked in!
After relocating from the Sunset to the Richmond District a few years ago, WNP will move once again into a new street-level space at 1617 Balboa sometime in 2018 (formerly the home of “Pace”).
“To have an open, accessible, and inviting home for history has long been our dream,” WNP wrote on their website. “But our monthly expenses will increase and we need new carpeting, lighting, signage, chairs…a screen? So while it is exciting to take this step, it is also a little scary.”
WNP is thankful for any donations, large or small, to help them get their new space opened which will be a great place to host their history events. Click here to donate to WNP
Sarah B.Why should stupidity be illegal?
Posted
Until Australia's laws catch up with the language of the internet, our keyboard culture makers run the risk of being harassed by lawyers every time they Photoshop an image for laughs, writes Dan Ilic.
Next year I will officially have been a "comedian" for 10 years. In that time, I have found there is rarely a simpler comedy treat than swapping the faces of two people in a photo, especially if they're a mix of gender or race or whatever.
My favourite in recent times was a promotional still for the James Bond film Skyfall. Judi Dench's sour intensity was swapped with Daniel Craig's blue steel of avant-garde perplexity. Hilarity ensues. People emailed it, posted it, shared it, zipped it, unzipped it, liked it, tweeted it, and perhaps even maybe... just maybe... Google+ed it.
Why?
Because that sh*t cray.
It's a man dressed as a woman, and a woman dressed as a man. Get it? There's nothing to "get" really. It's not satirical. It doesn't "say" anything in particular.
It's just funny. Because it is.
Luckily for the creator of that Bond image, its origin was probably outside Australia. It was most likely one of the creative petri dish forums of the internet, like a Reddit, a 4Chan, a Something Awful or something else where like-minded creative people spend their days mashing up culture to tell stories and, mostly, make each other laugh. There's no profit motive, there's no business plan, there are only ideas designed to titillate an audience of keyboard culture makers.
But, the origin is important for no other reason than the complexity of the copyright laws of that nation. Under Australia's fair dealing laws there is nothing to stop the creator of that image from being chased by lawyers threatening nasty legal proceedings.
Being charged for the creation of pointless comedy is something I know a bit about - people have wanted to sue me over the years for my jokes.
I've received cease and desist letters, I've had parodies taken down (then, after investigation, reinstated), and I've suffered the full brunt of the Australian media. At times it felt like the whole world was out to get me for a harmless joke. Thankfully, Australia's fair dealing laws protect the kind of work that I make. Under fair dealing for satire and parody, I can use a reasonable amount of other people's content to do so. However, to make a simple joke that doesn't really say anything, like putting Dench's face on Craig's body, the law says I can't be that stupid.
I say the law is a little bit bullshit. Sometimes, believe it or not, comedians have to be stupid. But it's not just us comedians - it's anyone who is fluent in Photoshop and shares their stories over the internet.
For much of the 20th century storytelling has been commodified. Ever since the wax cylinder came into being, companies have been packaging and selling stories. But now, thanks to democratisation of technology and platforms for sharing, the market for anyone with the tools and skills to tell stories is flattening out. The distance from storyteller to audience is as short as it has been since the campfire was invented.
Believe it or not, before culture became commodified in the 1800s with the wax cylinder, people used to tell stories to each other, sing to each other, gather in public places and debate, share ideas, comment, criticise, and yes, even troll each other. Campfire yarns, music, theatre, plays, skits, jokes, ideas were all at once transient works to be remixed and spun by the storyteller. An original idea is a misnomer - every idea is built upon hundreds of others.
What we are seeing, thanks to the internet, is a return to the culture of people telling their own stories, and sharing their own songs. The campfire is now global. Two generations have now grown up with this as the normal way of things. They make stories and consume stories. And it's competitive - they want to share their idea the fastest, they want their idea to be the best, they want their concept to spread, which means building on the work of others, transforming the ideas of others, twisting the narratives, chopping a head off here, pasting a hat on there, putting text at the bottom - all in a veracious and intellectual way.
This kind of story telling in Australia isn't legal but it happens anyway.
Why? Because no-one knows it's illegal, and no-one cares. It's simply the language of the internet. Two generations of people have grown up with the internet, and laws have yet to catch up and serve them in the right way.
The digital divide isn't about nations, it's about generations. Young people are more connected to other young people in the countries where they live, compared to older people. And the digital divide between young and old is growing.
Fair dealing criminalises digital culture, thus fair dealing discriminates against two generations of young people. Therefore fair dealing is anything but fair.
Fair Use however is totes good. I'd create a LOLcat to demonstrate, but that would just be stupid, and in this country thanks to fair dealing, stupid is illegal.
Dan Ilic is an Australian comedian, writer, performer, actor, broadcaster, and filmmaker. View his full profile here.
Topics: comedy-humour, internet-technology, internet-culture, law-crime-and-justiceMAIDUGURI, Nigeria — When three girls showed up Monday at a camp for people who had fled the militant group Boko Haram, they were welcomed and offered a place to sleep.
But early Tuesday morning, as the first light spread across the sprawling camp, two of the girls blew themselves up with bombs they had been concealing, killing 58 people and wounding 78.
The victims were among the more than 50,000 people who had been forced from their homes by Boko Haram’s rampages, only to be confronted with the same horror in the very place they had sought refuge.
The episode at the Dikwa camp for displaced persons follows a pattern of murderous attacks that Boko Haram has carried out since the Nigerian military began rooting the militants from strongholds across the northern part of the country.With the Feb. 23 trade deadline approaching, HoopsHype wants to keep you updated with the latest rumblings from around the NBA. In addition to checking our rumors page, we’ll be posting weekly notebooks with the latest rumors.
Phoenix Wants a Star or More Assets
Today, I spoke to a general manager who was stunned that the Suns haven’t been talked about more leading up to the trade deadline because they are looking to make a big move.
The GM told me that the Suns would love to package their assets to acquire a star. Keep in mind, this is a team that has all of their first-round picks, incoming first-rounders from the Miami Heat (in 2018 and 2021), and a roster full of young players such as Devin Booker (20 years old), Alex Len (23), TJ Warren (23), Brandon Knight (25), Marquese Chriss (19), Dragan Bender (19) and Tyler Ulis (20) among others that could be packaged in a trade. Much like the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets, this is a team that has the ability to put together a very interesting package.
If the Suns aren’t able to add a star (since that’s always easier said than done), executives expect them to double down on their rebuild approach and try to accumulate more young pieces and draft picks.
They have veterans such as Eric Bledsoe (27), Jared Dudley (31), PJ Tucker (31), Tyson Chandler (34), Leandro Barbosa (34) and Ronnie Price (33). If Phoenix can net a young player or pick for some of those players, rival executives believe they will likely do so.
Cavs Will Be Aggressive, But Carmelo Anthony Likely Isn’t In the Mix
The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to be aggressive prior to the trade deadline. But before getting into what the Cavs are looking to do, let’s make one thing clear: There is very, very little chance Carmelo Anthony will join Cleveland. Those “talks” were overblown, according to sources.
However, the Cavs are weighing trade options because they know beating a historically stacked Golden State Warriors team won’t be easy. Cleveland also has to take down teams like the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards – all of whom are looking stronger lately.
While Cleveland held a free-agent workout for point guards recently, a trade for a reserve point guard is still a strong possibility. There are a number of players who fit that bill on the market right now (such as Lou Williams, Darren Collison and Shelvin Mack). The Cavs don’t need a big, splashy move like some of the teams mentioned in this notebook, but keep an eye on them because executives say they are indeed looking for ways to upgrade their roster in anticipation for another clash with Golden State.
Ibaka May Re-Sign With Toronto
As the Orlando Magic were weighing their options when it came to a Serge Ibaka trade and different destinations were being reported, sources close to the big man said that his preference was to join the Toronto Raptors.
Ibaka is an unrestricted free agent this summer, but this may not just be a half-season rental for Toronto. Ibaka is a good fit with the Raptors and, after years of making deep postseason runs in Oklahoma City, he has the chance to contend once again with Toronto.
Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri spent the last few years trying to add a power forward prior to each trade deadline, but he never found the right deal. Ujiri even showed interest in Ibaka in the past, so this move isn’t a shocker.
Now that the Raptors have finally landed their big man – and one that fits very well since he can block shots and shoot out to three-point range – they will want to sign him to long-term deal. As of now, that certainly seems possible.
The Wizards Are Buyers
The Washington Wizards have been playing excellent basketball lately, winning 14 of their last 16 games. They are now the third seed in the Eastern Conference, and rival executives say that they are a buyer as the trade deadline approaches.
Washington obviously doesn’t want to mess up the good thing that they have going, but if the Wizards’ front office finds a deal that can solidify the team as a contender, they’ll pull the trigger on a trade.
Several executives say that Tuesday’s events – Kevin Love’s surgery and Serge Ibaka being traded to Toronto – make a Wizards’ trade even more likely.
A reactionary move wouldn’t be a surprise if the Wizards suddenly see a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals or, better yet, the Finals as realistic.
The Lakers Have Shopped Lou Williams
Teams that are looking for a reserve point guard (hello, Cleveland!) are in luck. That’s because there are a number of such players on the market at the moment.
In this recent video, I mentioned that the Los Angeles Lakers may look to trade Lou Williams and/or Nick Young. On Tuesday, a general manager confirmed that the Lakers have, in fact, shopped Williams and seem likely to move him prior to the deadline.
As previously mentioned, the Lakers have a lot riding on this year’s lottery, so moving Williams increases the likelihood that they keep their 2017 and 2019 first-round picks, gives the younger backcourt players more minutes and brings in assets (such as another young player or a pick).
This year, Williams is averaging 18.4 points, 3.1 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals in just 24.2 minutes, while shooting 44 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from three-point range. Buyers who want some instant scoring off their bench will be calling about him.
Portland Wants to Accumulate Picks, Save Money
Needless to say, it’s extremely unlikely that the Portland Trail Blazers will trade Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum. With that said, the rest of their roster may be available for the right offer.
One general manager said that the team is trying to accumulate draft picks |
ogram in 2014 was "within the range of normal," Bornstein wrote.
The letter from Bornstein is much more straightforward and professional than one he wrote for Trump in December 2015, in which he bizarrely proclaimed that Trump "would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." Bornstein admitted last month he had written the letter in five minutes while a limo sent by Trump waited outside.
The more comprehensive release from Trump comes a day after his rival Hillary Clinton released a letter from her doctor explaining her recent health history. The Democratic nominee's own health has been under scrutiny as she's been recovering from a bout of pneumonia. Clinton is set to return to the campaign trail today after a three-day absence, and her physician wrote that she is "recovering well with antibiotics and rest."
In the press release with Trump's medical results, his campaign took a veiled shot at Clinton, noting the Republican was healthy enough to campaign "uninterrupted."
"We are pleased to disclose all of the test results which show that Mr. Trump is in excellent health, and has the stamina to endure — uninterrupted — the rigors of a punishing and unprecedented presidential campaign and, more importantly, the singularly demanding job of President of the United States," the email said.
Trump also took a swipe at Clinton's health during a rally in Canton, Ohio, on Wednesday night, telling the crowd, "You think Hillary would be able to stand up here for an hour and do this? I don't think so."Google/Screenshot Google's self-driving cars have travelled 1.2 million miles in full autonomy on public roads, the company announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Because all of its vehicles share their driving data, that means that each car has accrued approximately 90 years of driving experience.
While the cars have encountered some unusual real-life situations — like a woman in a wheelchair chasing a goose in the road — Google also sets up its own "diabololical testing areas" to test their smarts.
Jaime Waydo, who heads up engineering for Google's self-driving cars initiative, says that her team is constantly coming up with new scenarios to try to teach the vehicles safety abilities.
For example, it has placed a porta-potty on the side of the road, which the car will recognize as a stationary object. But then, as the car approaches, a person will step out of it.
Then, there was another test where Google made someone leap out of a truck-bed while it was moving in front of the self-driving car.
Both times, the car managed to avoid hitting the person. In those tests, and in every other one, the cars send their data from the interaction to a "scenario database." Google can run its self-driving car software through all its real-life scenarios using that data.
Seperately, Google also tests the hardware of its cars by sending them through hot chambers, cold chambers, and rain booths, to make sure that the hardware can withstand real-world conditions.
Waydo also shared a story about how recently one of her friends who lives in Mountain View, where Google has been testing its cars on public roads, thanked her profusely after watching the car seemlessly stop as a child ran out in front of it.
"He told me, 'The presence of your car in my neighborhood makes my neighborhood safer,'" Waydo says. "Things like that are why we come to work every day. It's amazing."Except for people afraid of heights, no one has any reason to worry about the coming wave of new towers.
When Nicolai Ouroussoff got a look at the building that Jean Nouvel designed for New York City back in 2007, he called it "the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation." The architecture critic for The New York Times at the time, Ouroussoff name-checked the heavyweights in his review: Cass Gilbert, who designed the Woolworth Building; the Chrysler Building's William Van Alen; the god Mies van der Rohe. Even the 19th-century English art critic John Ruskin is summoned in praise of Nouvel. The skyscraper in question, 53 W. 53rd Street, adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art, isn't finished yet. Construction has only just begun. But history has already vindicated Ouroussoff's untethered praise. If New Yorkers once saw their skyline as the great citadel of capitalism, who could blame them? We had the best toys of all. But for the last few decades or so, that honor has shifted to places like Singapore, Beijing and Dubai, while Manhattan settled for the predictable.
Perhaps that’s about to change. It's no longer a question. There's now a date set for the return of new New York architecture: 2018.
That's the year that Nouvel's MoMA Tower at 53 W. 53rd Street, a Hines development, is scheduled to be completed—along with quite a few other projects in Midtown. CityRealty just released the rendering above to promote 53W53 and showcase what Manhattan will look like in 2018, once the many projects currently under construction or in development around Central Park are completed. Not all of them are so beloved as Nouvel's tower. "One57 is Exhibit A in what we should be able to prevent," writes Michael Kimmelman, the present-day architecture critic for The New York Times, in a stern note last December. That project's architect, Christian de Portzamparc, like Nouvel, is a Pritzker Prize–winning designer. Rising 1,000 feet over Central Park at 157 West 57th Street today, One57 boasts penthouses that are reportedly selling for as much as $90 million—but it is not more admired for beating 53W53 to the punch. "It's anybody's guess how the building got past the drawing board," Kimmelman writes.
The CityRealty rendering includes these two projects and at least two-dozen more, most of them supertall skyscrapers clustered around Midtown's much-maligned Billionaire's Row. These aren't the finest renderings of the individual projects made to date, not by a long shot, but they do convey the scale of the skyscraper boom taking shape in New York right now.
While few of these projects have yet to arrive, they are already changing Manhattan in measurable ways. New York Daily News reporter Katherine Clarke runs down how Midtown residents are making way for the future now. Don't pity the millionaires being displaced by the billionaires too much: Some long-term residents are looking to sell their moderately priced (million-dollar) condos to "buyers who’ve been lured to the area by the dazzling new towers but can’t quite afford the price tags."
Clarke's report sounds a lot like filtering at work. Economic success drives metropolitan movement, and in Midtown Manhattan, economic success at the global level is creating the conditions whereby many who are not billionaires stand to gain. Increasing the supply at the luxury level, even at the stratospheric level, can help workers and residents of many different classes to move on up. Filtering is one reason why no one should fear the skyscraper boom: Eventually, it can help create the conditions of a more affordable New York. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... Many critics don't see how building luxury pieds-à-terre for foreign billionaires helps anyone at all. The developer Ofer Yardeni is one of many who thinks that this unprecedented scale of luxury development indicates a residential bubble that is ready to pop. The Municipal Art Society has emerged as a locus of dissent regarding the cultural changes that a skyscraper boom augurs, especially regarding uses around Central Park.
Billionaires Row has its problems. Namely, no one has figured out how to capture enough of the wealth that billionaires from Russia, China, Brazil, and other places are parking along the park. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was correct to greet with glee the prospect of billionaires buying up penthouses in Manhattan, but the scheme to redistribute foreign mega-wealth to local residents and infrastructure has hit a hitch. These non-U.S. owners may have to pay property taxes, but they still pay relatively less in total taxes than their American counterparts. New York City still needs to find a way to tax these penthouses back down to Earth. Maybe the city should assess property taxes that ascend along a vertical axis. But the wrong lesson to take away from the developments in Midtown would be to prevent skyscrapers from turning up in other places.
That's especially critical for the next wave of building. While construction in Midtown has been defined by the emerging super-skinny supertall-tower typology—with relatively little square footage and few units—there are many more towers on the horizon in New York. The second wave of the skyscraper boom includes more modestly scaled towers, most of them about 600 feet in height, in places like Williamsburg, Long Island City, and Hudson Yards.
These buildings promise to increase residential housing at many scales, including rental housing, but they face long odds from incumbent homeowners and residents. Protests over the Domino Sugar factory development in Williamsburg have mostly subsided, but elsewhere—in Queens, Brooklyn, and in Harlem and on the Upper West Side—objections to planned developments still stand.
Such developments don't challenge the skyline the way that new supertall skyscrapers do (or the way that critics fear that they do). The key to building a more affordable New York by 2018 will be supporting the construction that complements the supreme-luxury residential towers in Midtown: Residential and rental buildings with some affordable-housing set-asides, yes, but also more condos. Rezoning Hudson Yards to allow more residential construction would be a start. Eliminating the punitive state limit on residential density would be even better. But acknowledging that increasing the supply—even high in the sky—can boost fortunes for everyone is crucial to the debate.FBI, Secret Service probe hate fax sent to Jackson Lee Obama, Jackson Lee receive racist threats
Secret Service, FBI investigating faxed cartoons
Beneath a headline which included a racial epithet referring to African-Americans, the one-page cartoon showed two L-shaped lynching posts with "Sheila Jackson Lee" written on one cross bar and "Hussein Obama" written on the second cross bar. The president's full name is Barack Hussein Obama.
The return address on the fax said: "Defecating on Obama."
"We are aware of the cartoon, and we are taking appropriate measures," said Secret Service Special Agent Robert Novy, a spokesman for the agency. "Being a protective intelligence matter, the Secret Service has no further comment."
Jackson Lee said she received the cartoon in her congressional office in Houston.
"We have gotten this sort of thing on a regular basis in the past, but I thought this had a heightened level of provocativeness," she said.
Glenn Rushing, Jackson Lee's chief of staff, said the cartoon arrived by fax in the district office on Saturday - a day after the congresswoman delivered remarks on the House floor questioning whether Republicans were showing "disrespect" toward the president during debt-deficit negotiations because of his race.
Rushing said he referred copies of the threatening pictorial to the House sergeant at arms, former U.S. Secret Service Agent Wilson "Bill" Livingood; U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan; and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Jackson Lee defended her remarks on the House floor on Friday in which she questioned "the maligning and maliciousness (toward) this president" by Republicans during hard-nosed negotiations over raising the federal debt ceiling.
"Why is this president being treated so disrespectfully?" asked Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. "I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president - only this one, only this one - has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one. Read between the lines."
stewart.powell@chron.comFor a former community organizer, President Obama certainly seems to support anti-democratic activity with zeal—from his disproportionate use of Executive Orders, to this most recent action:
According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center,
At approximately 11:30 am EDT [Thursday], the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House “We the People” website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for “maintenance” following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign.
The Wired article is also well worth a read, “Court Demands TSA Explain Why It Is Defying Nude Body Scanner Order.”
A year ago, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia “ordered TSA ‘to act promptly’ and hold public hearings and publicly adopt rules and regulations about the scanners’ use, which it has not done.”
The three-judge appellate court, which is one stop from the Supreme Court, said that the Transportation Security Administration breached federal law in 2009 when it formally adopted the Advanced Imaging Technology scanners as the “primary” method of screening. The judges—while allowing the scanners to be used—said the TSA violated the Administrative Procedures Act for failing to have a 90-day public comment period, and ordered the agency to undertake one.
Another agency above the law—and no wonder: it avoids the unpleasant task of defending the indefensible—including avoiding the awkward question of the machines posing serious health risks—that compliance would involve, and faces no negative consequences for its continuing to be a scofflaw.
The petition, even if allowed to remain on the White House website, would have made no difference anyway. Achieving the requisite number of signatures only requires the TSA to respond to the petition. Their response to a similar petition last September is here. Among other useful information, it states:
Our Nation is safer and better prepared today because of these and other efforts of the Department of Homeland Security, TSA, and our Federal, state, local and international partners. TSA is constantly identifying ways to continue to strengthen security and improve the passenger experience and appreciates the feedback of the public.
Never mind that there’s no evidence for this contention, and multiple outrages that dispute it. Bottom line is: “Go away. We’ll do what we want.”
Tags: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Civil Society, Constitution, Defense, EPIC, Personal Liberty, Presidential Power, Surveillance, Transportation, tsaRecently the Z-Wave Alliance got in touch with Automated Home and offered us some one on one time with their Chairman, Mark Walters. We chatted about the next generation of Z-Wave, other wireless technologies and the chances of an overriding standard for the smart home.
The Seattle based executive has been involved in home automation for over 20 years. Like many of us, Mark started off building his own home automation system as a hobby before taking a job at Leviton back in the days of X10.
Later he moved to work for Z-Wave inventors, Zensys who were subsequently bought by Sigma Designs in 2008. His role is now Z-Wave Alliance Chairman, responsible for heading up the group of around 250 companies that make up the industry body.
Z-Wave Plus – The Next Generation
Every Z-Wave device is powered from a chip made by Sigma Designs. This “self source” model has led some to question the competitiveness of the system but Mark points out they still have to compete directly with other technologies in their sector. In addition a second supplier, Mitsumi, now makes the chips under license, although they mainly serve the Asian market.
Keen to point out that interoperability is one of Z-Wave’s biggest strengths, especially when compared to ZigBee, Mark explained the protocol stack is fixed, it cannot be changed by group members. While there have been 8 or 9 protocol releases going back to 2002, all new versions have always been backwards compatible.
The previous generations of Z-Wave chips had only 32kB of memory, meaning manufacturers often had to choose which features to include in their modules and which to leave out. The new 500 SoC brings advanced features and a number of significant improvements.
For starters the onboard memory has been quadrupled to 128kB allowing manufactures to include the complete Z-Wave feature set in their latest designs. Indeed they must include them all to be Z-Wave Plus certified. The 500 series features a 3 channel radio with improved range and the chip as a whole is 40% more power efficient that its predecessor.
Smart home security issues have been mounting in the news of late and the 500 has upgraded security features including hardware support for AES-128 encryption, replacing the software only support of previous generations.
Mark confirmed the first new Z-Wave Plus product has just passed certification. He expects to see around 30 ‘Plus’ products available by the end of quarter 2 this year and predicted that in just 18 months time 85% of products on sale will be Z-Wave Plus. For the end user this means…
Greater Minimum RF Range requirements for all products
Better defined expected behavior for more consistent user experience
Better defined technical capabilities enabling more reliable and easier to set up networks
Backwards compatibility with previous generations of z-wave products is maintained
By the Numbers
Next we asked for some insight into what was leading the adoption of the technology around the world.
Residential security systems are the biggest driver in America. 2013 saw 6 million homes in the USA installing or upgrading their security system to a Z-Wave panel with the top selling products being Z-Wave door locks.
The driving force is convenience and ‘what can I do with my smartphone’. It’s becoming a status symbol.
Numbers are hard to come by in the fragmented European market but Mark gave us a ball park figure of half a million Z-Wave devices sold in Europe last year. All this means that Z-Wave sales have more than doubled for each of the past three years. Impressive.
The Wireless Future
There are challenges ahead for Z-Wave, not least the threat from other wireless technologies on the horizon, Bluetooth LE, 6LowPAN and in particular 802.11ah Wi-Fi. It also operates on a sub-1GHz frequency so shares the advantageous signal propagation characteristics of Z-Wave and will no-doubt be built into our home routers over time. Mark is sceptical though and doesn’t see it as an impending threat and believes if it ever catches up to Z-Wave it will take a long time.
The spec won’t even be finalised until the end of 2015. And it has taken us 10 years to build our ecosystem to it’s current success.
He added that he’d be surprised if 802.11ah was able to deliver on everything that’s been promised so far whilst maintaining a battery life comparable to Z-Wave.
So how about the chances of a home automation standard for information interchange emerging in the industry. His answer was forthright…
Its all a mess right now, but a standard is not going to appear.
Despite our optimism about the Allseen Alliance, Mark simply does not see commercial companies being able to put their own interests far enough aside to make it a reality.
Z-Wave Means Interoperability
From a pragmatic point of view, Z-Wave certainly does appear to be gaining in popularity. Just have a look around at the selection of Z-Wave modules available in the off the shelf home automation market compared to ZigBee for example and you’ll see what we mean.
A clear strategy on interoperability has been key to that success and with the launch of Z-Wave Plus, that backwards compatibility has been retained whilst introducing an upgraded feature set that takes Z-Wave into the next generation.
z-wavealliance.org : Z-Wave Plus : More Z-Wave Articles
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With two sentences, Hillary Clinton ripped the heart out of Donald Trump’s campaign by pointing out that she has gotten more votes in 2016 than the Republican frontrunner.
Video:
Transcript via Face The Nation:
DICKERSON: Speaking of winning in November, the Republicans seem to have all of the enthusiasm. More people are turning out for their primary process, much more than Democrats. Won’t that hurt in the battle in November? CLINTON: Well, I don’t know exactly what that means. I have gotten more votes than anybody running on either side. I have gotten more votes than Donald Trump, although I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear that. And we have gotten it from a wide, broad base. In fact, I have gotten — in the Democratic primary election, I have gotten more white voters, except for the state of Vermont. All told, I have had more support from white voters. So, I feel really good about where our campaign is and where it’s going.
With two sentences, Hillary Clinton shattered one of the biggest myths of the 2016 election.
Hillary Clinton is correct. She has gotten more votes than Donald Trump overall, and in states like Virginia, Georgia, and Texas. Hillary Clinton has gotten the most votes of any of the 2016 candidates. The Republican enthusiasm that the media claims is fueling Trump’s campaign is a myth. Voters are turning out on the Republican side because they have a more competitive primary. Republican voters are also turning out because most of them are trying to stop Donald Trump.
The media keeps hyping their Trump ratings meal ticket as a viable general election candidate, but the raw vote totals suggest that there is a significant chance that Donald Trump will get beaten badly in November. Trump is winning because the Republican Party is a fractured mess that is at war with itself.
Clinton ripped the heart out of the Trump campaign by pointing out that she is getting more votes than he is. If matched up head to head in November, the odds are good that Hillary Clinton will continue to get more votes than Donald Trump.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:A visitor strolls past a memorial arranged for the 16-month-old gorilla Kabibe at the San Francisco Zoo on Nov. 13, 2014, after the gorilla died in an accident Nov. 7. A visitor strolls past a memorial arranged for the 16-month-old gorilla Kabibe at the San Francisco Zoo on Nov. 13, 2014, after the gorilla died in an accident Nov. 7. Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Investigator: S.F. Zoo enclosure where gorilla died is unsafe 1 / 15 Back to Gallery
The San Francisco Zoo enclosure where a 16-month-old endangered gorilla was fatally crushed under an electric door is outdated and unsafe and should be replaced, the lead investigator into the death said Thursday, raising further questions about conditions at the zoo.
The western lowland gorilla, named Kabibe, darted back under the downward-closing door Nov. 7 after being moved into her night quarters. One focus of the investigation is whether the zookeeper, after activating the door, followed protocol and kept her hand on an emergency stop button designed to prevent accidents.
But Dr. Terry Maple, a gorilla expert hired by the zoo to look into the death and help fix any problems it exposed, said a person using the control panel with the emergency button would not have a clear, unimpeded view of all of the doors — or of the enclosures behind them. And the doors aren’t designed to stop when they hit something, like garage or elevator doors.
“When you look at (the location of the control panel), you can see it’s not perfect,” said Maple, an environmental psychologist and biologist who once chaired the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits facilities including the San Francisco Zoo. “It can be a lot better. We think it’s time to build a new holding facility.”
'Not easy to do’
Maple said watching each of the doors from the control panel is “possible to do, but it is not easy to do.” He said he will recommend that the zoo scrap the 30-year-old gorilla enclosure and install a state-of-the-art system that would be safer for the apes and could include a portable system for operating the doors, allowing workers to look directly into the cages.
“Sometimes traumatic events lead to big changes,” Maple said in an interview with The Chronicle. “What we are going to do is look at the modern technology, and examine these options. I’m presenting these to the zoo, and will let them decide how to move forward.”
He said the zoo needs a “cutting-edge solution that everyone in the zoo world would look at as the next wave.”
Zoo officials would not respond to questions Thursday about the gorilla exhibit. But the exhibit’s night quarters have a history of mechanical failures and safety issues, including an incident two years ago when a gorilla was injured by an electric door, according to zoo records obtained by The Chronicle.
On July 16, 2012, an adult gorilla named Monifa had her right hand pinched under a door, cutting the base of all four of her fingers, according to a zoo report. She was treated by veterinarians, and mechanics adjusted the door — which was not the same one that killed Kabibe.
On March 4, 2013, the same door that injured Monifa jammed and had to be pried open with a crowbar, records show. The same door then unexpectedly collapsed earlier this year. “Electric door 5 crashed down in AM while securing gorillas,” stated a Feb. 22 report. “No one injured just upset by noise.”
Read Full ArticleMelania Trump billboard removed in Croatia after legal action threatened
CLOSE These billboards, advertising for English classes in Zagreb, Croatia and featuring First Lady Melania Trump were yanked Tuesday. Elizabeth Keatinge (@elizkeatinge) has more. Buzz60
A billboard showing first lady Melania Trump next to the phrase "just imagine how far you can go with a little bit of English" was removed Tuesday in Croatia after Trump's Slovenian lawyer threatened a lawsuit.
The billboards were advertisements for the English language school Američki Institut, but images Tuesday showed the signs blank.
Cars drive behind a huge billboard for the 'American Institute' promoting its English language courses with a photo of first lady Melania Trump, in downtown Zagreb, Croatia on Sept. 16, 2017. (Photo11: EPA)
Trump's lawyer Natasa Pirc-Musar told the Associated Press that she was "satisfied with the fact that the school admitted that they violated the law and that they are ready to remove the billboards." Pirc-Musar also said she was still considering other legal options.
School spokesperson Ivis Buric apologized for the billboards and said they were meant to be positive, the Associated Press reported. Buric also called the ads "very successful" because they attracted so much publicity and said the school plans to build more without Trump's picture.
Cars drive past the empty advertising space from which a billboard depicting the first lady Melania Trump was removed, in Zagreb, Croatia on Sept. 19, 2017. (Photo11: AP)
This is not the first time an image of the first lady has created a legal stir in Europe.
In November, Pirc-Musar issued a statement saying it was against Slovenian copyright law to use Trump's face on billboards and items for sale, Politico reported. Many in Trump's hometown of Sevnica were cashing in by using Trump's face on their goods.
"Judicial practice in Slovenia is clear: the use of the name, surname and photo of someone for commercial purposes without approval is not allowed," Pirc Musar told the Associated Press in December. However, no legal actions had been taken.
Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2xfYrnGDon't feed the wildlife — that's the message Parks Canada is sending out to the public today.
There has been a growing number of incidents of people feeding wildlife in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay, according to Parks Canada.
So much so that the public is being asked to report any incidents, and to include details like licence plate numbers and video of any offenders.
Parks Canada released one such video today in an effort to spread awareness on the issue. The footage captured last year along the Icefields Parkway, or Highway 93, led to charges that went to court in June 2014.
In the end, the offender received a $1,000 fine.
"We are sharing the... video that helped lead to these charges in order to educate people about why the feeding of wildlife is dangerous for both people and animals, as well as to seek public support in the reporting of wildlife feeding incidents, which may further deter this unlawful behaviour," said Parks Canada in a release.
Anyone who witnesses a similar incident is asked to report it to 1-888-WARDENS.Texas in NWO bullseye as Jade Helm 2015 looms on the horizon
(INTELLIHUB) — Speculation and actual evidence has been released in the last two days that has many believing that Texas is under attack with weather manipulation technology. (also known as HAARP)
Some believe the reason for this attack is to soften up the area in advance of Jade Helm 2015 going live. The following article, originally published by All News Pipeline, details the evidence and speculation that HAARP like tech is being used on Texas.
Unfortunately, Intellihub News has no way to fully confirm the below information as we do not run a HAARP monitoring website. (where a good chunk of the below information comes from)
Feel free to comment below the article with your opinion on this startling information.
Texas In NWO Bullseye – Weather Attack Round 2 Softening Up Texas For Jade Helm 15 As Perfect Storm Strikes – ‘Lots Of Things Lining Up’
By Stefan Stanford | All News Pipeline
Now that we know that weather warfare is an absolute, 100% proven fact as shared in this May 26th story by Susan Duclos, we see today that the state of Texas is getting ready to be pummeled by round 2 of blatant weather warfare attacks, leaving Texas once again in the globalists bullseye.
The Geoengineeringwatch.com website of Dane Wigington has a long list of documents that anyone can now access that prove weather modification and weather warfare is well documented and this extensive list of weather engineering patents should be enough to convince every last sceptic out there that not only does weather modification and warfare exist but that there are HAARP facilities located across the entire planet as seen in the image below.
Photo: geoengineeringwatch.org
With tropical storm Bill preparing to slam Houston and Dallas, bringing flooding to east Texas and much of the Gulf of Mexico coast line in the next several days, we see a long trail of potential destruction in the NOAA precip forecast stretching from Texas through the Ozarks and into the mountains of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and parts of West Virginia although Texas will clearly take the blunt end of what’s coming.
What mainstream weather experts have to say about this storm is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s troubling:
While tropical storms usually gather power from the warm waters of the ocean and then weaken once they move over land, NASA-funded research has shown some storms can actually strengthen over land by drawing from the evaporation of abundant soil moisture. The phenomenon is known as the “brown ocean” effect. ” All the things a hurricane likes over the ocean is what we have over land right now.”
According to the National Weather Service:
“The system is going over areas that are already ‘sensitive’…It’s kind of a perfect storm. There are a lot of things lining up.”
Once a ‘weather warfare/weather modification’ skeptic, that time was long ago after learning about a 1996 research paper submitted to the Air Force called “Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025” as well as a global agreement by members of the United Nations NOT to use weather warfare that was dated ALL THE WAY BACK in 1976.
Weather warfare facts won out over the ‘weather conspiracy theory’ that the mainstream wants us to believe: no weather modification exists and one must be a ‘tin-foil-hat wearing chemtrail conspiracy theorist’ to believe that it did. After what we’ve watched in the past 3 weeks, try to tell Texans that.
Some have been warning of the dangers of weather warfare for many years now despite being attacked and ridiculed.
Why might the NWO globalists target Texas using weather warfare? Let us count the ways.
Texas has decided to challenge the Federal Reserve and is demanding their gold back. Look at what the central banks do to entire country’s that buck the system.
As ANP reader says:
“Texas the next Libya? Greg Abbott may be next in line for the Muammar Gaddafi treatment. Then the Feds can install a figurehead “Ambassador to Texas” to oversee running arms to ISIS “rebels” trying to overthrow Bobby Jindal.. I’m sure John McCain already has a photo op planned. Deja vu all over again.”
Texas has always been a strong, self-reliant state that many experts believe would do quite well independent of the rest of the United States. They have their own power-grid and have long-held views of distrust towards the DC establishment.
Jade Helm 15 has come right out and labeled Texas a ‘hostile territory’ and with the pre-placement of FEMA and emergency response teams due to the apocalyptic Texas weather PRIOR to the official onset of JH15, all of their equipment and personnel are being put into place.
Remember what happened to New Orleans residents after Katrina: gun confiscation there is a proven fact and as Police State USA reminds us, the incremental subverting of the right to bear arms is already underway across the country via legislation and outright attacks upon US Veterans to take away their legal rights to own guns after serving in US wars across the world.
Just think about it; somewhere in a room far away, evil plotsters have figured out a devious, ingenious way to inflict maximum damage and harm upon practically anything they want to and the death and destruction that follows will all be blamed upon ‘an act of God’, the weather.
Some believe that the Fukushima earthquake was caused by HAARP and with the evidence that the extreme weather in Texas 3 weeks ago and today is artificial, weather warfare is quickly mounting.
The videos below take a look at what we believe is an attempt to ‘soften up’ Texas prior to Jade Helm 15 by inflicting a sort of ‘grey terror’ upon the people of Texas and America. The ‘grey terror’ being used is the weather. Call us ‘tin-foil-hat wearing chemtrail conspiracy theorists’ if you want to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGI_exuJSQM
Photo: Photo: Trill Report/YouTubeThe dismal state of transgender incarceration policies
We evaluated the current transgender and gender non-conforming policies of 21 states in terms of PREA standards, World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, and correctional staff training and treatment of transgender individuals. All but one come up short.
by Elliot Oberholtzer, November 8, 2017
In the summer of 2013, Chelsea Manning’s high-profile incarceration and subsequent pardon brought the existence of trans women in prison into the mainstream discourse. Activists like Janet Mock and CeCe McDonald have courageously spoken out about their experiences while incarcerated. But while their high-profile cases have resulted in greater awareness about the criminalization of trans people — particularly trans women of color — and the abuses the mass incarceration system heaps upon them, there is very little discussion of actual policies. Advocacy groups and departments of corrections alike are operating with almost no information in this area, leaving incarcerated trans people without resources and at the mercy of widespread ignorance.
To begin to bridge this research gap, the Prison Policy Initiative has conducted a review of the current transgender/gender non-conforming policies1 of 21 states.2
Most states’ policies are sparse, and convey a clear discomfort with and ignorance about the trans community. We have, however, identified one state’s policy as representing current best practices in the field: the Delaware Department of Corrections policy. This two–part policy, revised in 2016 in response to an ACLU lawsuit, sets an informed and comprehensive standard.
In this post we review the scope of the gaps and inadequacies in states’ transgender incarceration policies, hold up suggestions from Delaware and other leaders in the field as partial solutions, and make recommendations for further research that is desperately needed in this area.
PREA Requirements
The starting point for most state policies on trans care and rights is the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Passed in 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was a sweeping reform designed to acknowledge and address the widespread sexual abuse happening in prisons and jails nationwide. In 2009, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission identified transgender people as a population at high risk of experiencing assault and violence while incarcerated. In 2012, the commission finalized national standards for the prevention of sexual assault in prison, including several guidelines addressing transgender issues (see sidebar).
PREA Guidelines The PREA guidelines for transgender care are narrow and focused on protecting trans people from physical abuse by fellow incarcerated people and by correctional staff. The PREA guidelines for transgender care are narrow and focused on protecting trans people from physical abuse by fellow incarcerated people and by correctional staff. The PREA standards establish that: Individuals must be screened upon intake for risk factors for experiencing abuse, including whether they identify as trans.
When an individual identifies as trans, the facility must assess them on a case-by-case basis to decide housing (i.e. whether they belong in a men’s or women’s facility), and an individual’s views regarding their own safety must be seriously considered in housing decisions.
Trans people cannot be placed in segregated housing or solitary confinement for their own protection without their consent, or unless it is the only available option.
Trans people must be given the opportunity to shower separately.
Correctional staff may not physically search trans people to determine their genital status; all examinations must be conducted by a medical professional as part of a broader medical exam.
Facilities must train correctional staff in how to search and communicate with trans people respectfully.
When reviewing an incident of rape or sexual assault, staff must review whether the incident was motivated by various factors including gender identity and/or transgender status.
Though the PREA standards do not address many of the issues most salient to trans incarcerated people, such as access to medical care, they do provide a minimum baseline for protection and respect. However, many state policies fall short of even this bare minimum. In the table below, we have summarized 21 states’ policies’ level of compliance with the PREA standards regarding transgender individuals.
PREA Compliance by State
Only one state’s policies — Pennsylvania’s — fully match the PREA standards in all particulars, and no particular standard is universally present. This means that while a trans person incarcerated in Delaware should be able |
pro-market, not pro-business, agenda fails to find much representation. Businesses—in particular, large businesses—often use their political muscle to restrict new entries into their industry, strengthening their positions but putting customers at a disadvantage. A pro-market policy, by contrast, favors competition, new entries to markets, equal starting points, and firms competing with one another on an even footing. But who will back such a policy? Not the traditional pro-business forces, obviously, and not the antibusiness ones either, which have little interest in free markets.
A pro-market, not pro-business, movement could redefine the political landscape, however. Consider, for instance, the problem of growing income inequality. Currently, the two approaches are either to deny the problem or to try to diminish it through taxation and redistribution—redistribution that reduces the incentives to create wealth to begin with. It’s as though you were to play a round of golf and then, at the end of the game, add strokes to the most successful players. What golf actually does, of course, is equalize the starting points of the players by imposing handicaps. That’s an approach that, if we imitated it in our economy, could make markets more inclusive and reduce income inequality.
A primary target for such handicapping would be the school system. Ragged Dick could rise to respectability by learning the three Rs with the help of a roommate; today, the education required to enter the middle class isn’t so easily obtained. In the math tests conducted by the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, American kids score only 29th out of 41 developed nations, barely above Portugal. True, they do a bit better in reading (19th place). But it’s troubling that the United States is among the top 12 nations for the variability of scores, alongside countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Tunisia. High variability means that a share of the population performs significantly subpar. This group is denied its chance at the American dream before its members even start working. Clearly, we need a better school system, particularly for the poor, and the best way to create one is to provide lower-income kids access to better schools through a voucher program or other choice initiatives.
Another policy that could help would be a reform of the way corporations are taxed. Rather than helping new entrants, the current system taxes them heavily while offering sizable loopholes for large, politically connected incumbents. At 35 percent, the U.S. statutory corporate tax rate is one of the world’s highest. But this rate is often avoided by the largest firms. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek study, from 2005 to 2008, Boeing paid only 3.2 percent of its income in taxes, while Amazon paid 4.1 percent. Reducing the rate but enlarging the base is a quintessential pro-market, not pro-business, policy.
These are just two examples of what a meritocratic, pro-market perspective could bring to the political debate. Such a perspective is necessary to preserve broad support for the system that, with all its defects, has made America rich.Obama is a socialist/fascist; Sonia Sotomayor is a racist, and La Raza is the KKK; there’s an evil plot against Republican car dealers. The GOP is sounding a bit, well, demented these days.
But here’s the thing: it always did. A few trips down memory lane:
Senator Tom Coburn:
In a tape recently released by Brad Carson, Coburn’s Democratic opponent for the Senate race there, Coburn is heard warning the good clean citizens of Oklahoma of the great lesbian threat to their state. On the tape, Coburn tells how a campaign worker form Coalgate, Okla., told him that lesbianism is “so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom.”
Senator James Inhofe:
Why did the UN cook up the idea of global warming? To “shut down the machine called America.” In fact, we learned, global warming is a plot to destroy the US economy and to initiate one-world government–a goal not only of the UN but of the American political left more broadly. Establishing his Christian credentials, Inhofe invoked Romans 1:25 (For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever) to suggest that taking steps to ameliorate global warming would constitute a form of idol worship.
We’re not talking fringe activists here; we’re talking U.S. senators. The truth is that lunatics have been running this particular asylum for years. But in a classic case of emperor’s new clothes, it wasn’t acceptable to notice this until the lunatics lost power.Hello,We're pleased to announce the release of Python Tools for Visual Studio - Beta 2 available here http://pytools.codeplex.com/releases/view/63597. This release is a minor update which fixes the top reported customer problems reported on CodePlex, crashing bugs reported via Watson, as well as a number of issues discovered via our internal testing. Included in these fixes are better support for IronPython fixing issues with both the WPF designer as well as Silverlight debugging, numerous small improvements to the debugger, auto-indent, an updated installer which supports both per-user and per-machine installs, fixes for source control support, and much more. This release doesn't include any major new functionality and instead just focuses on stabilization and bug fixing.We'd like to thank all of the users who took the time to report issues and feedback: 42K, asqui, btribble, enniot, eyeofhell, fergalmoran, gnezim, Haozes, impulse9, jodNi, JohnMueller, loocas, nriley, pegorov, pkohut, proofy, pymab, reckoner1, sinsanity, slideomix, stjohnburn, TheBits, Zooba, and Zugzwang.A complete list of bugs fixed:Unhandled exception on interpreter/file mismatchExecute File in repl does not work for CPython 3.2Crash while parsing frozenset generatorCPython 3.2 64-bit repl won't open: "Parameter 'String' cannot be null."Lambdas with multiple parameters as an argument affects highlighted parameterRun-in-repl for custom interpreter deadlocks devenv.exeDeleting a file or folder does not remove reference from.pyprojCustom interpreter changes require VS restartBuildRelease.ps1 script breaks without TFS accessString and operator/opening colouringTooltips do not look at tokens to the right of the mouse cursor.pyw source code files not treated as python source codeAutoindent still works within multiline stringsReferenced folders/files are not validated on project load"If you change a file name extension..." message on renaming folders/modulesSet as Startup file does not provide full/sufficient pathHex view does not work when debuggingCtrl+W,# shortcuts don't work with code window openMSI installer built from repository not workingDon't assume "param=None" means type(param) is NoneTyperepl continues indent into resultUndeletable indent in replCrashes Visual Studio on certain kind of code in python fileInstall/uninstall release affects experimental instance of VSAutocomplete of member function calls via self.xyz shows self parameterProject menu does not contain "Add..." items if a folder is not selectedNo auto-indent after "else: #comment"Auto dedent on 'pass'Exception tracebacks are displayed twiceException tracebacks include "internal" frameCyrillic text in docstring brakes tooltip"operator" color can't be changed from "fonts and colors"Cannot view children of a set() in debuggerParameter Intellisense not started by commaCtrl+Shift+Space to display parameter tooltipHighlight matching bracketsProject Debug Properties can only be updated onceProfile Project ignores debug propertiesFailure in Python parser: System.ArgumentNullExceptionwin32com module doesn't show up in intellisense databaseIntellisense is not work?Breakpoints not hit sometimesCrash/hang on typing in Python interactive windowWindowsInterpreterPath replaces PathEnvironmentVariableFile > Source Control > Change Source Control... results in an errorRestart required between change default interpreter for colouring and run-in-replBetter analysis of relative importsFixed issues with programs involving a large number of threadsFix Silverlight debugging w/ IronPythonFix profiling on some 64-bit Python versionsImprove Unicode support on Python 3.x debuggingMPI debugging selects compute nodes by defaultImprove display of Unicode strings in the debuggerImproved repr of byte strings, Unicode strings, complex numbers when used as default value for a parameterFix issue with breakpoints not being hit sometimes--Support the Python Software Foundation:Hawaii's governor on Tuesday signed two bills committing the state to fulfilling provisions of the Paris climate agreement less than a week after President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the deal.
"Hawaii and other Pacific Islands are already experiencing the impact of rising sea levels and natural disasters," Gov. David Ige (D) said in a statement. "That’s why my administration and the Legislature are already taking concrete steps to implement the Paris Accord."
One of the measures, S.B. 559, is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state by reducing overall energy use and implementing new sources of renewable energy. That bill also calls on the state to try to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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The other bill, H.B. 1578, authorizes the creation of a task force charged with identifying agricultural and aquacultural practices that could improve soil health and reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere.
Several governors and mayors last week vowed to implement policies in line with the Paris accord despite of Trump's decision to abandon the deal.
Hawaii became the first state to adopt laws in a show of compliance with the accord, which aims to limit the global temperature rise and curb the effects of climate change by calling on countries to cut carbon emissions and adopt clean-energy technologies.
In a speech announcing the withdrawal last week, Trump argued that the Paris accord would kill jobs in the U.S. and stymie economic growth, saying that he would try to negotiate a new deal.
That idea, however, was quickly shot down by European leaders, who said the Paris accord would move forward regardless of U.S. participation.You would expect Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to splash out on expensive gadgets and toys for their large brood, but the couple has simply opted to splash out on Liverpool football kits for their six children. The couple has spent a great deal of time in the UK this year and it seems they picked up a love of football while here, in particular Liverpool player Steven Gerrard and have decided to buy their children a hoard of memorabilia. “They rang the club shop and spent hundreds. Son Maddox is a big fan and his favourite player is Steven Gerrard,” a source told The Sun, before adding that the Hollywood couple ordered several shirts, mugs, caps and tracksuits. Angelina is believed to have developed a passion for the team in 2002 when she and eldest son Maddox, 11, spent time in the Merseyside where she was filming a movie.Games have come a long way from the primitive controls that dominated some of the earlier 90s games, and the dated visuals that technology back then was able to muster, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that games nowadays are better for the advancements, some games this gen prefer to choose a safe path instead of venturing into new territories, sticking to themes that have been milked dry, and that’s what made most of the offerings from this gen (or the last gen, sadly) mundane. Broken Age defies that however, and it defies it in the most original and outstanding manner possible, by tapping into what made old 90s games so enjoyable.
One of the (now) many successful crowd funding stories, Broken Age was advertised on Kickstarter by Double Fine Productions, the development team that brought us gems like The Cave, Stacking, and the mostly underrated (and a personal favorite) Brutal Legend. Also if you’ve been following Double Fine for a while you’d know about Tim Schafer, the guy who brought us the outstanding Monkey Island series back in the 90s with Lucas Arts, and Grim Fandango.
Broken Age is mainly a point and click adventure game, very reminiscent of Schafer’s earlier work. If you’re not into these types of games, I still strongly urge you to give Broken Age a go, and I will elaborate as to why in the following few paragraphs.
Plot:
Broken Age follows the stories of two individual teenagers, Vella and Shay, Vella lives in Sugar Bunting, a village of bakers who are about to have their maidens feast in which maidens picked from each village are sacrificed to a gargantuan beast called Mog Chothra so that Mog doesn’t destroy the village. This has been the tradition for so long, though Vella’s grandfather tells her stories about how the village used to be a village of heroes and not a village of bakers, evident by the family’s last name as well, which is Beastender. To be sacrificed in the maidens feast is the greatest of honors a teenage girl can bring to her family, and Vella is destined to be sacrificed to Mog Chothra.
Shay lives in a spacecraft, seemingly the only person on board of it, with an overly motherly computer who watches his every step and makes sure Shay is safe and well, he always has the same exact routines, he wakes up, has breakfast, and goes on “missions” that the computer controlling the ship deem safe enough for him, and he’s gotten very sick his life and is always feeling like a prisoner.
Gameplay:
Broken Age’s gameplay draws direct inspiration from old point and click adventure games, and that adds so much nostalgic value to it. You click anywhere to move around, and click on some things to interact with them. Some items can be taken and used somewhere else in the game, or can be combined with other items to make something more useful for solving a certain puzzle. Speaking of puzzles, the game is basically made out of them, but nothing is absolutely mind bending that will leave you days trying to figure out what to do, which is okay for such a lite game.
Moreover, the ability to seamlessly switch between Shay or Vella any where in the story is a very welcomed addition to the genre, if, for example you’re stuck in a puzzle as Vella, you can just leave that part for the time being and continue Shay’s adventure. Though at times this made me feel that I progressed much farther in one’s story than the other, but for fear of spoiling anything, I’ll just let you know that this particular event is handled well in the game.
Visuals:
The game doesn’t just stop at offering an engrossing story or nostalgic gameplay, it also offers visuals so charming that I personally can’t think of another game developed within the last few years with a similar visual style, the entire art work for the game is mainly hand drawn which that made me genuinely want to stop at certain places and just stare at everything.
Audio:
Broken Age features voice actress Masasa Moyo who did certain voices in Bioshock Infinite as well as Batman: Arkham Origins, Final Fantasy XIII and a myriad of other well known games, along with Elijah Wood voicing Shay, Jack Black, and Will Wheaton!
And with such a strong voice cast, the game’s music is equally good and gripping, ranging according to the scene, from cheerful music in Sugar Bunting to space age music on Shay’s end, along with variations to suit the game’s environment.
Re-playability:
I found myself wanting to play through Broken Age again immediately after I beat the first act just to re-live that wonderful adventure again, and I’m pretty sure most people who will play, or have already played it share the same feelings.
Final Verdict:
The game is one of the most charming and beautiful games compared to mostly anything that came out in 2013, and a wonderful way to kickstart 2014. Broken Age released on the 28th of January, I wholeheartedly recommend everyone to try this game.A useful find from Paul Joseph Watson:
Trump opposed NAFTA 23 years ago. pic.twitter.com/FDFudC5dUD — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) September 28, 2016
Here's a link to Business Conference Draws Bigwigs,, by Tim Epperson, Lodi News-Sentinel, October 25, 1993.
A screenshot of the full story is below.
Here's the money quote:
Trump, who apparently spoke ardently against the plan, said it would only benefit Mexico. Speakers such as Gerald Ford, [George H. W. ] Bush and [Jack] Kemp agreed with former Chrysler Chief Iacocca that the agreement would improve lifestyles in Mexico, greatly reducing illegal immigration into the United States. "Our future lies south of the border," Bush said. “NAFTA is bigger than jobs. it's bigger than trade, it's vital to U.S. growth.'"
If Bush, Senior meant that America's future lay south of the border, he was wrong. If he meant that the Bush family's future did, he may have been right. See Steve Sailer's GOP Hispano-Pander Failing – Except Maybe For Bush Dynasty, from the first term of Bush II, and The Bush Dynasty’s Central Project Since 1953: Integrating Mexico Into The North American Economy, from the middle of Jeb's campaign debacle.Is Kasab ghost haunting Sanjay Dutt in Mumbai jail?
India
oi-Nairita
Mumbai, May 20: Sanjay Dutt has been shifted from the Anda Cell (egg-shaped cell) where he was lodged initially after surrendering before TADA court on May 16. It was learnt that the Bollywood actor felt suffocated in the prison where Ajmal Kasab was housed before his execution.
Lawyers and family members of Dutt appealed the court to shift the actor from the "haunted" prison as Dutt has not been convicted in "terror act", rather he has been convicted in "arms act".
53-year-old Dutt was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case for possessing illegal weapons. Of the total term of five years, Dutt has already served 18 months in jail two decades ago and the Supreme Court, in its order of March 21, asked him to serve another 42 months.
The Bollywood actor was the second victim who felt suffocated in the anda cell once shared by Kasab. Earlier Sayed Zabiuddin alias Abu Jindal, one of the main accused of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, had asserted that Kasab's ghost was haunting him in prison. Jindal, who was deported from a Gulf country and later was arrested in India, too was lodged in the same prison in Arthur Road Jail.
Jindal also had threatened to start hunger strike and would continue it until the jail authorities move him out of solitary confinement which according to Jindal is making him "lose mental balance".
"In spite of my repeated requests, I have not been examined by a psychiatrist. As a result, I will be going on indefinite hunger strike, until I am shifted out of solitary confinement," said Jindal in an application which was submitted before the Special MCOCA Court.
Jindal claimed that Kasab's ghost haunts him in his dream and hence he has been suffering from sleepless nights. Citing the sudden changes in Jundal's attitude, a court in Mumbai ordered police to take him for psychiatric treatment.
Jindal, who hails from Georai area of Beed district in Maharashtra, was the Hindi tutor of 10 terrorists who carried out the audacious attack in Mumbai in 2008. Kasab was one among those ten militants.
The 25-year-old Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab was executed at Yerwada Jail in Pune on Nov 21. Nobody representing Pakistani authorities or Kasab's family had demanded his body. Hence, his body was buried in the jail premises.
OneIndia NewsTennessee quarterback Justin Worley was the latest to fall victim to No. 2 Ole Miss and the Landshark defense. The senior was sacked seven times during his team’s 34-3 loss at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday. Worley also threw three interceptions and a season-low 191 yards on 19-of-34 passing.
Worley came out of the game for good with less than seven minutes left. Coach Butch Jones said he considered inserting backup QB Nathan Peterman earlier, but felt Worley gave the team the best chance to score.
“I landed on my shoulder and got banged up a little bit,” Worley said after the game, according to 24/7 Sports. “I always hate coming out of the game,” Worley said. “At that point, I don’t know if I would have been very productive, other than handing the ball off.”
Six different Rebels recorded sacks on Saturday. Marquis Haynes finished with a team-best 2.5. Deterrian Shackelford, Robert and Denzel Nkemdiche and C.J. Johnson each had a sack, while Channing Ward recorded an assisted sack.
Ole Miss has 18 sacks through seven games this season. The Rebels are averaging 2.7 per game and rank No. 41 overall.
Tennessee’s offensive line has allowed 30 sacks this season and is averaging 4.3 sacks allowed per game. The Vols rank No. 123 overall in sacks allowed, tied for second worst in the FBS.Ford Motor Co. rolled out sweeping plans Wednesday to expand into robo-taxi fleets and other autonomous-car services, the latest in a series of technical ventures unveiled before an annual meeting with investors who have largely kept the company's stock in neutral.
The No. 2 U.S. auto maker says the move into new business services will deliver 20% profit margins once rolled out -- far higher than the low single-digit return typical for car manufacturers -- and help it pivot to services less exposed to the U.S. auto industry's boom-bust cycles.
Ford, a traditional car and truck manufacturing coming off record 2015 profits, is in a technological arms race with rivals including General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Co., which have recently announced significant investment on the road toward driverless cars.
Ford expects total company profits next year will decline amid heavy investment in new areas but will rebound in 2018 as Ford takes several steps to improve its core automotive business, such as expanding its highly lucrative performance-car lineup and improving profitability on low-margin small cars.
Ford expects autonomous vehicles could account for 20% of U.S. vehicle sales by the end of the next decade and the first deployment will be in geo-fenced urban areas, such as New York City and Metro Detroit.
Write to Christina Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.comLast February, comedian Steve Hofstetter's wife suggested they take a trip to New Orleans. "She's a big fan of 'Pitbulls & Parolees,'" Hofstetter said, referring to the Animal Planet television show set partly in the 9th Ward. "But she's also never been to New Orleans. She was like, 'You should get a gig down there so we can go.'"
Hofstetter, who is 34 and lives in Los Angeles, liked the idea. Unfortunately, as he explained to his wife, New Orleans doesn't have a full-time comedy club. Comics in town for films or TV pilots occasionally show up at open mic nights at the House of Blues or Howlin' Wolf. When comedian Hannibal Buress passed through the city this spring, several locals recalled, he performed for drink money at the New Movement Theater, a small improvisation and sketch comedy venue on Burgundy Street.
Hofstetter promised to call a few places, but he had low expectations. "I thought, 'We'll probably have to wait 'til somebody opens a club," he said.
So when a man purporting to open a new comedy club in New Orleans followed him on Twitter the next day, Hofstetter was intrigued. From its Twitter profile, Hofstetter learned that the Lucky Comedy Club was scheduled to open in early May. "Presenting The Best Comedians in The World 6 Nights a Week," the profile read.
In addition to doing stand-up, Hofstetter co-owns small comedy venues in Louisville, Ky., and Indianapolis. He got on the phone with the New Orleans club's owner, offering advice on how to book comedians and negotiate with talent agents.
Soon, the owner, who identified himself as Chris Simon, had reached out to some of the biggest names on the national stand-up scene. Marc Maron, Damon Wayans and Jeff Ross were all offered opening week slots, Hofstetter said. So were Tom Arnold and Tom Green. By mid-March, a dozen comedians had marked performances at the Lucky Comedy Club on their website calendars. Some had even purchased flights to New Orleans.
But over the next few months, what at first seemed like a legitimate business venture turned out to be something less. In April, Simon stopped tweeting and returning emails. Comedians who'd been booked could find no evidence online of the club's existence. In May, when one of them confronted Simon in an email, he received a disturbing response: Chris Simon, the email said, had recently committed suicide.
Who Chris Simon really was remains a mystery to comedians in New Orleans and across the country. Was he a con artist? A pathological liar? A comedy-obsessed businessman who got in over his head? And why did he claim to be opening a comedy club in New Orleans?
Steve Hofstetter, a comedian, author and columnist based in Los Angeles, said he spoke to Chris Simon for nearly 30 hours on the phone. "Starting a comedy club can be tough," he said. "I wanted to help him out."
The story of the Lucky Comedy Club began with a string of ambitious tweets on the night of Feb. 27. They said the club had already "Secured some Big Names" and would soon "take New Orleans by Storm."
Comedians immediately responded. "Excited to hear there's a new comedy club in New Orleans," Joe DeRosa wrote minutes later on Twitter. "(F)inally a full time standup club in New Orleans," wrote John Roy.
After following the club on Twitter, Theo Von, star of the hidden-camera game show "Deal With It" and creator of the prank texting website cranktexts.com, said he received a direct message asking if he'd like to perform at the club in May. The gig didn't pay much, Von said, but money wasn't the main draw.
"I never get to perform in New Orleans, since there aren't any clubs," said Von, who lives in Los Angeles but grew up on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. "It seemed like a perfect opportunity for my friends to come and see me."
Chris Trew, a comedian and co-founder of the New Movement, first heard about the Lucky Comedy Club during a Mardi Gras party. "It was the talk of the local comedy scene," he said. A few days later, he began corresponding with the club's proprietor, who suggested Trew as the host for opening weekend.
The existence of such a club would pose competition for the New Movement, which raised $50,000 on Kickstarter last month for a new location on St. Claude Avenue. All the same, Trew wanted it to succeed. "Every great comedy scene has a club presence that can bring headliners in for shows," he said. "I was like, 'The more we can do to boost the club scene, the better.' I couldn't wait to support it."
Comedians have numerous opinions about why New Orleans does not have a comedy club. But most agree that a two-hour comedy show holds less appeal than the multitude of other nightlife attractions that the city offers.
"The last thing tourists in New Orleans want to do is sit in a comedy club," said Bill Dykes, a Louisiana stand-up comedian who recently moved to Los Angeles. "They want to get drunk, listen to music, flash their boobs and eat as much as possible. A comedy club doesn't integrate with the fabric of things down there."
The Lucky Comedy Club would not have been the first of its kind, however. Ellen Degeneres got her start at the Comedy Corner, a French Quarter club that opened in 1980 on Dauphine Street and featured an X-rated show on Saturday nights. It closed two years later.
Today, the local comedy scene is on the rise. Venues like the Hi-Ho Lounge, Carrollton Station and the House of Blues host weekly open mic nights. Zach Galifianakis and comedian Tig Notaro have performed at La Nuit, a Freret Street comedy theater that offers improv workshops and puts on the occasional burlesque show.
But a full-time comedy venue has remained out of reach. Andrew Polk, a local stand-up comedian who produces shows around town, said the actor Jim Belushi and his manager visited New Orleans last year to determine whether a comedy club could succeed in the area.
"They were talking about Metairie and Kenner, charging $40 a ticket," said Polk, who'd briefed Belushi on the city's comedy landscape. So far, nothing has come of it.
Theo Von, star of the hidden-camera game show "Deal With It," says that pranking people for a living makes him wary of strangers. "I could tell there was something shady about that dude," he says of his phone call with Simon.
Whatever hopes the Lucky Comedy Club inspired were always tempered by suspicion. On Feb. 28, Alysia Wood, a Los Angeles-based comedian originally from Baton Rouge, received an email from Chris Simon. He offered her $700 to appear as a "Featured Comic" for the grand opening on May 8, 9 and 10.
Wood was flattered. But she questioned his word choice. "Nobody says 'featured comic,'" she said. "You could tell he didn't know the market or the business." Wood was equally perplexed by Simon's intent to host comedians six nights a week. "The only clubs I know that do comedy that often are in L.A. and New York, and one in Seattle," she said. "It was a pretty lofty goal!"
During this time, Steve Hofstetter said he spent around 30 hours on the phone with Simon, far more than any other comic. He gathered from these conversations what he believed to be personal details about the man.
Simon's phone had a 409 area code, for instance, which covers the Galveston and Beaumont, Texas, areas. Hofstetter found this consistent with Simon's story of being from a town outside Houston. (The number has since been disconnected.) Simon also mentioned that he had moved to New Orleans some years ago, Hofstetter said, and now held season tickets to the Saints football games.
Over time, Hofstetter put together a profile of a lonely guy in his mid- to late 40s, not currently dating. "Sometimes he'd call just to talk," Hofstetter said, adding that Simon often spoke about falling asleep to TV's late-night comedy talk show "Chelsea Lately." "To me, that is the mark of the single man," Hofstetter said
But there were things Hofstetter never resolved. The name "Chris Simon" was plain enough to be untraceable online. He also lacked a website or Facebook page that might have shed light on his personal life. And beyond vague allusions to a background in real estate development, he gave no specifics about his profession.
Yet based on the man's questions and level of interest, Hofstetter believed he genuinely intended to open the club. He told Hofstetter that it would be located at 1615 Canal St., a nondescript one-story building at the intersection of North Robertson Street, and that construction was underway. If Hofstetter never looked too deeply into Simon's story, it was because he saw no reason for deceit.
"He wasn't making any money out of this," Hofstetter said. "I didn't see an angle, beyond this guy wanting to build a comedy club for New Orleans."
Alysia Wood, a comedian in Los Angeles who grew up in Baton Rouge, says New Orleans has always had trouble attracting tourists for comedy shows. "You've got the world's best jazz musicians playing down the street for free." (Photo by Shannon Casey Splain)
To recruit comedians to his club, Simon made some generous offers. For Rich Vos, a well-known comedian from New Jersey, he promised to cover booking fees and airfare, as well as hotel and ground transportation costs. Vos responded by buying a plane ticket and scheduling a performance at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., for the following night.
But as opening week approached, Simon grew increasingly elusive. Despite promises to create a website, he had yet to do so. Vos and other comics who'd turned down gigs in other places to perform at the Lucky Comedy Club were getting nervous. When they requested an update in late March, Simon broke a week of silence to say that his father had just passed away.
The confession bought him some time. "I felt bad for the guy," Alysia Wood admitted. "I asked him to keep me posted."
More time went by with no news. Then in early April, Simon surprised Hofstetter by announcing he was coming to Los Angeles. Hofstetter, who had upcoming shows in Ventura and Santa Barbara, offered to introduce him to some local club owners. Simon readily agreed.
But the two never met. As Hofstetter described it, a series of mishaps allegedly befell the mysterious club owner, wiping out the long-anticipated meeting. "At one point, he said he'd been walking barefoot through the hotel lobby when he cut his foot on some glass," Hofstetter said. "He said he couldn't walk after that."
On the day Simon was scheduled to leave Los Angeles, Hofstetter got an idea that, in retrospect, seemed obvious: He called the Studio City Hotel, on Ventura Boulevard, where Simon supposedly was staying. "I asked the receptionist to connect me to Chris Simon's room," Hofstetter recalled. "She told me, 'I'm sorry, sir, but no one by that name has checked into this hotel.'"
As unlikely as the Lucky Comedy Club might have sounded, the idea of a club in New Orleans presenting world-class comics six nights a week was enticing enough for many to suspend their disbelief. After all, the two show rooms Simon described -- a 600-seater and a 200-seater -- could have collectively generated as much as $1 million a year for performers, Hofstetter estimated. "There are probably 100 full-time comedy clubs around the country," he said. "When a new one comes into play, it's a big freaking deal."
Following Hofstetter's non-encounter with Simon in Los Angeles, though, comedians who had been holding out faith in the club quickly lost it. As Wood put it, "We started calling each other, like, 'You didn't hear this from me, but that comedy club in New Orleans isn't real."
On April 15, Simon emailed Hofstetter to say that, with comedians backing out, he had "no choice but to push back the Opening by a month or two." He added: "I am going to honor my commitments to the Comics who are still booked so nobody loses Money as I owe them that much."
Some were not convinced. After months of requesting a deposit to cover his airfare, Rich Vos was fed up. In a May 3 email, he wrote: "If you don't send me the money I'm losing on the flight I will go on the radio and blast your name."
Ninety minutes later, Vos received this response:
Mr Vos,
Chris recently committed Suicide and we are just in the last 24 hours beginning to sort thru Emails and Contracts. I apologize for delay but if you will give us about 7 or 8 days we will be Emailing and Contacting Everyone and anyone who has purchased Airfare for a Date they were booked for New Orleans will be asked to send a Receipt and will be reimbursed.
Thank You,
Mike Walsh
Alarmed, Vos forwarded the email to Hofstetter. Hofstetter recognized the random capitalization. He immediately assumed that "Mike Walsh" -- a similarly common and difficult-to-trace name -- was in fact Chris Simon. He figured Simon had invented the suicide excuse to get out of reimbursing comedians for the cost of plane tickets or hotel rooms.
John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner's office, says he has no records of anyone by the name of Chris Simon having died in the past year.
Rich Vos, a comedian who appears regularly on the radio show Opie and Anthony, wound up performing at the Shamrock, a bar in Mid-City, after he learned the Lucky Comedy Club did not exist. "I still want my money back," he says.
People involved in the Lucky Comedy Club mystery have various hunches as to who Chris Simon really is. Like many others, Hofstetter sensed that Chris Simon -- or the person pretending to be him -- might have had a mental disorder. But for Hofstetter, the most likely scenario was also the least sensational.
"I think he's a lonely guy who loves comedy so much he figured he'd try to open a club," Hofstetter said. "All of a sudden, he's emailing and talking to all these comedians he sees on TV. But then he realizes he's in way over his head, and so he's forced to disappear again."
In early July, a reporter sent a request for comment to the Yahoo email address used by both Chris Simon and Mike Walsh. Minutes later, Mike Walsh responded. He said he was a friend of Simon's, and that he had been asked to settle Simon's business affairs. "I had no prior knowledge that he was even attempting to open this club," Walsh wrote. "I still at this moment have been unable to piece everything together."
When asked why the Orleans Parish coroner had no records of Chris Simon dying in New Orleans, however, Walsh stopped responding to emails.
Among all the people who communicated with Simon, whether by phone, email or Twitter, Larry Rudman might be the only one with no connections to the comedy industry. As the head of marketing for Irish Channel Funding LLC, Rudman oversees the building at 1615 Canal St., where Simon supposedly intended to open his club.
The building sits behind two stately palm trees on the edge of the city's biomedical corridor. The front half houses a therapy center for recovering addicts. The back belongs to Travelers Aid International, an 160-year-old organization that once helped stranded travelers and now serves the broader mission of aiding people in crisis.
Last winter, Rudman said, he received a phone call from a man interested in opening a comedy club in the building. "I told |
while you’re working there on your time off. You quit the job and went full bore.
No, we set that thing up while I was still the receptionist. And within a few months, I left the desk. So…
How did the idea of Sleight come about?
So I’ve been obsessed with magic forever and started playing around with it when I was 12. And we wrote it as a short film three years ago. Just because we found this kind of cool, natural intersection between crime and magic. They utilize some similar skill sets. But in everything that we write, we like to infuse sci-fi where possible, so we’re kind of looking for the best route into that. And the sort of telekinesis, the electromagnetic thing that we wound up with just seemed like if we’re gonna shoot a movie for a price, what is a power that is not gonna be insanely expensive? He can’t float, he can’t fly, he can’t do these other things, he’s not gonna be able to glow, so telekinesis, cool, yeah, we can hang things from strings and remove the strings in post. So that’s sort of where we wound up. But then also to it’s always part of what I’m trying to do and tell representative stories and specifically, tell genre in different worlds and different environments. That became an important piece of the process also.
And you made this film for very little money.
Tiny, six dollars, yeah.
I think people are gonna see the trailer and they see Blumhouse, and even though it’s Blumhouse, Blumhouse films are sometimes made for millions of dollars. You were working with less than even a million, can you talk about that?
Yeah, we are… So we shot this movie for well…. First, I guess the disclaimer is that it is this very interesting thing that we’re struggling with now in getting released because the movie does have some scale. And any time we tell people we shot this for significantly under a million dollars they are surprised. But you also don’t wanna sort of curb people’s expectations and diminish the scale of the movie by being like we shot it for 10 dollars. So it is this kind of interesting balance to find. But…
You know Slash Film, those film geeks love hearing—
We shot this for very, very low six figures. Barely six figures. So what that requires obviously is a lot of planning. You don’t have a lot of time to shoot. We shot the movie in 16 days. And we knew what the budget was going into the process, so we were able to sort of write for what we knew our resources would be. Obviously, we wanted to push it another 15, 20 percent so there was some level of ambition to the project. But shooting that fast is not always fun.
That amount of time is what some TV shows do for one episode, right?
Yeah. I mean some and it’s great that we had even someone like Dule who is used to that speed. But I think the biggest bummer in shooting a movie that quick is as a director you really wanna give your actors time. And not that they can’t do it in the amount of time, but just as a professional courtesy, if they wanna do one more take because they feel like they got it 93 percent and they can give you the 100 next time, you’re like well we gotta move, because we’re only allowed to be here for six more minutes. Because that’s all, we can afford to be here for. That always is a bummer. But I have no ego about making movies, but I would like to not be shooting eight pages a day.
Yeah, well after this I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that again.
That’d be so nice."Scottish realism" redirects here. It is not to be confused with the art movement, see Scottish art
Scottish Common Sense Realism, also known as the Scottish School of Common Sense,[1] is a realist school of philosophy that originated in the ideas of Scottish philosophers Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, James Beattie, and Dugald Stewart during the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment. Reid emphasized man's innate ability to perceive common ideas and that this process is inherent in and interdependent with judgement. Common sense therefore, is the foundation of philosophical inquiry. Though best remembered for its opposition to the pervasive philosophy of David Hume, Scottish Common Sense philosophy is influential and evident in the works of Thomas Jefferson and late 18th-century American politics.[2][3]
History [ edit ]
The Scottish School of Common Sense was an epistemological philosophy that flourished in Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.[4] Its roots can be found in responses to the writings of such philosophers as John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, and its most prominent members were Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid and William Hamilton. Philosophically, Scottish Realism served as a rebuttal to scepticism while keeping with the influential teachings of Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon.[4] While largely understated for many years,[4] the influence it had on philosophers elsewhere in Europe, not to mention in the United States, is of a considerable magnitude.
One central concern of the school was to defend "common sense" against philosophical paradox and scepticism. It argued that common-sense beliefs govern the lives and thoughts even of those who avow non-commonsensical beliefs and that matters of common sense are inherent to the acquisition of knowledge. The qualities of its works were not generally consistent; Edward S. Reed writes, e.g., "[Whereas] Thomas Reid wished to use common sense to develop philosophical wisdom, much of this school simply wanted to use common sense to attack any form of intellectual change."[5]
Teachings [ edit ]
The Scottish School of Common Sense was founded by Reid in opposition to Descartes's Theory of Ideas.[6] But the epistemology of sense experience led John Locke and David Hume to a skeptical philosophy that realists found absurd and contrary to common experience. Thus Hume and his sceptical argument would serve as the primary foil to the development of Reid's philosophy. Under the tutelage of George Turnbull, Reid embraced the tenets of Providential Naturalism and its four interconnected tenets; using these as the basis for his refutation of the theory of ideas.[6] Reid painstakingly developed his treatise An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense over the course of 40 years, often seeking the input of his contemporary philosophers within the Scottish Enlightenment including Hume.[6]
Reid articulated the basic principle of Common Sense Realism:
"If there are certain principles, as I think there are, which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them — these are what we call the principles of common sense; and what is manifestly contrary to them, is what we call absurd."[7]
Scottish Common Sense Realism is rooted in Aristotelian thought and advocates an empirical and scientific philosophy wherein trust of our senses is implicit and necessary.[8]:148 The principles of common sense are fundamental to our accumulation of knowledge of both metaphysical and physical constructs.[4] However, observation alone cannot account for all knowledge, and truth can be garnered by reflection.[8]:149 In Reid's own words:
"I can likewise conceive an individual object that really exists, such as St. Paul's Church in London. I have an idea of it; I conceive it. The immediate object of this conception is 400 miles distant; and I have no reason to think it acts upon me or that I act on it."[9]
The school taught that every person had ordinary experiences that provided intuitively certain assurance of a) the existence of the self, b) the existence of real objects that could be seen and felt; and c) certain "first principles" upon which sound morality and religious beliefs could be established. These principles laid the foundation for Reid's influential theory of perception.
In practice, philosophers of the Scottish school offered scientific explanations to historical events and advocated an unprejudiced and inter-disciplinary approach to education, free from religious and patriotic biases.[10][11]
Theories of perception [ edit ]
Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart offered related theories of perception rooted in Scottish Common Sense Realism. According to Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale University, Reid's philosophy can be non-contentiously reduced to four basic precepts:
"(1) The objects of acts of perception are external objects-That is, mind-independent spatially-located entities; (2) The necessary and sufficient condition for perceiving an external object is that the object cause in one a conception thereof and an immediate (non-inferential) belief about it; (3) We human beings are so made that, in perception, the external object causes a conception of, and an immediate belief about, itself, by way of causing a sensation which in turn causes ('suggests') the conception and immediate belief; (4) The sensation may cause, and often does in fact cause, the conception and belief without one's being sufficiently attentive to the sensation for a belief about it to be formed in one."[12]
Dugald Stewart's theory of perception acknowledges a great influence from Reid whose philosophy he termed "fundamental laws of belief.".[13] However, Stewart proffered a more moderate approach to realism and his theory of perception emphasized the utility of the senses.[13]
Influence [ edit ]
Common Sense Realism not only dominated Scottish thought in the 19th century, it had a major influence as well in France, the United States, and other countries. Victor Cousin (1792–1867) was the most important proponent in France. Reidian thought was the "orthodox philosophy of colleges and universities"[14] in the early 18th century and provided an intellectual bedrock for the Age of Enlightenment.[4]
The Founding Fathers [ edit ]
Common Sense Realism swept American intellectual circles in the 18th century.[16]:181 Reid's philosophy was pervasive during the American Revolution and served as a stabilizing philosophical influence.[16]:180 Hailed by some as the "father of modern psychiatry,"[16]:173 Benjamin Rush's tutelage at the University of Edinburgh imbued him with strong realist tendencies which influenced much of his scientific and political work including his moral opposition to slavery.[16]:174 Evidence of the influence of Scottish Common Sense realism can readily be found in the philosophy of both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Adams compared the contributions of Dugald Stewart favorably to works of Aristotle and René Descartes.[16]:170 Scotsman and signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon presided over Princeton University; students under his tutelage included 12 state governors, 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention and future president James Madison.[16]:171 His education at the University of Edinburgh made him a strong proponent of the Scottish Enlightenment and Realism. James McCosh (1811–94) continued the influence of Scottish Realism at Princeton when he became president of the university in 1868, reviving its influence as a major stronghold of the movement. Noah Porter (1811–92) taught Common Sense realism to generations of students at Yale.
Fundamentalism [ edit ]
Princeton Seminary in the 1800s
Scottish Realism greatly influenced conservative religious thought and was strongest at Princeton Seminary until the Seminary moved in new directions after 1929. The Princeton theologians built their elaborate system on the basis of "common-sense" realism, biblicism and confessionalism.[17] James McCosh was brought from Queen's College, Belfast, to Princeton College's Chair of Moral Philosophy and Presidency because of his book "The Method of Divine Government," a Christian philosophy that was precursory to Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" (1859). The Princeton Theologians followed McCosh to adopt a stance of theistic evolution. They tried to persuade John Gresham Machen (1881–1937), a leader of the Fundamentalists in the 1920s, but he would not stand with McCosh, nor could he stand for the shift the school was making. Therefore, he and a number of other Princeton faculty members left and started Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1929. This, however, did not stop McCosh from moving forward. It was his goal to develop Princeton as a Christian university in North America, as well as a forefront intellectual seminary of the Presbyterian Church. The faculty of the College and Seminary included both evolutionary thinkers and non-evolutionary thinkers. Much evangelical theology of the 21st century is based on Princeton theology and thus reflects Common Sense Realism.[18] New Testament scholar Grant Osborne concludes that Scottish Common Sense Realism influenced biblical hermeneutics, that the surface level understanding of Scripture became popular, and individualistic interpretations abounded.[19]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
S. A. Grave, "Common Sense", in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Paul Edwards (Collier Macmillan, 1967).
, ed. Paul Edwards (Collier Macmillan, 1967). Peter J. King, One Hundred Philosophers (2004: New York, Barron's Educational Books), ISBN 0-7641-2791-8.
Further reading [ edit ]
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. "The Scottish Philosophy and American Theology," Church History, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Sep., 1955), pp. 257–272 in JSTOR
Vol. 24, No. 3 (Sep., 1955), pp. 257–272 in JSTOR Cuneo, Terence, and René van Woudenberg, eds. The Cambridge companion to Thomas Reid (2004)
(2004) Graham, Gordon. "Scottish Philosophy in the 19th Century" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009) online
(2009) online Haakonssen, Knud. "Scottish Common Sense Realism" in Richard Wightman Fox and James T. Kloppenberg, eds. A companion to American thought (1995) pp 618–20
(1995) pp 618–20 Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture (2006) excerpt and text search
(2006) excerpt and text search Noll, Mark. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Eerdmans, 1994. (see chapter 5 for influence of SCSR on fundamentalism)
. Eerdmans, 1994. (see chapter 5 for influence of SCSR on fundamentalism) Rosenfeld, Sophia. Common Sense: A Political History (Harvard University Press; 2011) 346 pages; traces the history of common sense as a political ideal since England's Glorious Revolution (1688).
(Harvard University Press; 2011) 346 pages; traces the history of common sense as a political ideal since England's Glorious Revolution (1688). Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology. Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-521-53930-7
Primary sources [ edit ]Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Dec. 18, 2014, 11:30 PM GMT
When shopping for a safe car for their teens, parents might want to aim for the newest model they can afford, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that that almost half of the teenage drivers killed on the roads in the past few years were driving vehicles that were 11 or more years old and lacking key safety features found in newer models, according to the study, published online in the journal Injury Prevention.
“We know that many parents cannot afford a new vehicle,” said the study’s lead author, Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “Our message to parents is to get the most safety they can afford.”
McCartt and her coauthor analyzed data from 2008 to 2012 from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which included information on 2,420 drivers ages 15 to 17 and 18,975 drivers ages 35 to 50.
Among the teens who died, 64 percent were in a car, 29 percent in a mini or small car, and 35 percent in a mid-size or larger car. Most of the teen drivers who were fatally injured — 82 percent — were in vehicles that were at least 6 years old, while 31 percent were in vehicles 11 to 15 years old. For comparison, fatally injured teens were almost twice as likely as their middle-aged counterparts to be driving a car that was 11 to 15 years old.
The most startling statistic: Nearly half of the teens who died — 48 percent — were in a vehicle that was at least 11 years old.
What the researchers don’t know is what percentage of teens drive older vehicles. So they can’t say that the data prove that older vehicles are increasing the risk of death in teenagers.
Still, there’s good reason to suspect that teens would be safer in newer cars, says Tony Fabio, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the graduate school of public health and director of the Center for Injury Research Community Action at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Fabio is unaffiliated with the new study.
“We know that teens are less likely than adults to be wearing seat belts and that may be partially because they are driving older cars in which the belts may not work as well,” Fabio said. “And you have to think about that in the context of an older car that might not have an air bag.”
And while the study doesn’t prove that older cars are less safe, it does suggest they are, Fabio says, adding “almost any major public health victory started out with a study that just suggested something wasn’t safe.”
Ultimately, McCartt said, though newer model cars tend to have more safety features, protecting your teens is not as straight forward as just steering clear of older vehicles. “We did find older vehicles that met our safety criteria,” she said.
Still, it’s a rare older vehicle that has electronic stability control — an important safety feature that helps drivers keep control in extreme maneuvers, McCartt said. “That’s something that is standard on new cars since it was a requirement starting in 2012,” she added.
To help parents figure out which vehicle might be best for their teens, the IIHS came up with a list of safe cars which it posted on its website:
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicles-for-teensFacing legal threat, German fact-checking project goes offline
Much like U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the German right-wing populist party has a rocky relationship with the media.
The party, ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD), recently decided to bar a range of individual journalists as well as the entire German public broadcasting sector from a congress of European right-wing populist parties. Its functionaries and supporters regularly dismiss the news media as “Lügenpresse,” a term used to denounce the media in Nazi Germany.
Party leader Frauke Petry prefers the term “Pinocchio press,” which carries less historical baggage while conveying the same sentiment.
In that light, many saw the headlines in mid-June of 2016 with some degree of Schadenfreude: “Study exposes Petry as the least truthful politician in talk shows,” wrote Die Welt. “Petry is the Pinocchio among talk show guests,” said Zeit Online. “Petry lies the most,” wrote Hannoverische Allgemeine.
But does she?
It was a good idea, in principle. Students from the Cologne School of Journalism analyzed every statement made by seven politicians on four major political talk shows over a four-month period. On that basis, they calculated the percentage of incorrect statements for each politician and published their results as Faktenzoom, an online ranking that identified Petry as the least truthful politician.
The party was quick to dismiss the ranking as yet another example of the dishonesty of the media. “If that is the future of German journalism, then we have to worry even more about this sector than we already do,” Petry wrote on her Facebook page on June 15.
Her complaints were not entirely unjustified. Fast-forward seven months, and Faktenzoom is offline. In late December, a German court prohibited the school from disseminating the ranking. A defamation trial looms unless it will be changed or retracted by Jan. 23. What went wrong?
“I think our students did a thorough job,” said Ulric Papendick, the director of the Cologne School of Journalism. “There were some errors, but these errors were corrected immediately and in a transparent manner.”
In spite of these corrections, Petry remained at the top of the ranking. It turns out there’s another thing she has in common with Trump: a love of litigation.
After Petry’s case, the higher regional court of Cologne ordered Faktenzoom to refrain from disseminating two specific verdicts, as well as the overall ranking. Key to the court’s decision was Faktenzoom’s practice of rephrasing statements for the sake of clarity.
For example, when Petry claimed that an “upper limit” for refugees coming to Germany was called for within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the formulation Faktenzoom put on its site read “The SPD calls for an upper limit.” Faktenzoom rated this statement as false. But while such a limit is not an official party line, individual party politicians, such as the mayor of Regensburg, did indeed call for it.
Carsten Brennecke, Petry’s lawyer, has more qualms with the project.
“It can’t be proven that the school intentionally damaged my client,” Brennecke said. “But if you look at the way the study was conducted, you get the impression that everything was done to ensure Petry would end up topping the ranking.”
The Faktenzoom team rejects this allegation, insisting that they treated all politicians the same way. But while there is no evidence for intentional discrimination against Petry, their methodology has been criticized for featuring problematic elements.
The team categorized all statements as “checkable,” “common knowledge,” “platitude” or “uncheckable.” Only statements deemed “checkable” were verified. But according to media expert Stefan Niggemeier, the criteria for this categorization were quite vague, making the selection of statements excluded from the analysis look a bit arbitrary.
For example, Faktenzoom considered the claim that “there were 2.5 million refugees in Turkey in January” by Conservative politician Armin Laschet as common knowledge. The Left’s Katja Kipping’s statement that “you can’t force a refugee to apply for asylum” was considered a platitude. Petry’s claim that “Turkey spends five per cent of the costs per refugee that we spend in Europe” was deemed as uncheckable. Moreover, a large number of statements were excluded because the Faktenzoom team didn’t find sources to either prove or disprove them.
“In our view, this artificial exclusion of various correct statements is what led to our client’s negative result in the first place,” said Brennecke.
Faktenzoom’s raw data doesn’t seem to indicate that methodological choices affected Petry more than other politicians. However, the project does highlight the challenge of quantifying the truth in a comparable way across different politicians.
Faktenzoom did try to circumscribe the sample it would choose from for its analysis clearly: All claims made in talk shows over a certain period of time.
However, while not all factually incorrect statements are equivalent, they all counted the same when it came to calculating the percentages for the ranking. For example, Faktenzoom deemed false a claim by conservative politician Markus Söder that only 400 out of 16,000 refugees had been relocated in Europe by Feb. 18 — when the actual number was 583. While inaccurate, the correct number still essentially supported Söder’s overall argument that progress on the EU’s relocation scheme was painstakingly slow.
“Looking back, calculating these percentages and using a ranking might be seen as problematic,” says Papendick. “But it certainly wasn’t our objective to identify or expose the biggest liar in German politics. We stated quite clearly that we don’t accuse any politician of intentional lying. The idea was just to examine how often they deviate from the facts.”
Prominent media organizations ran the Faktenzoom results without any caveats about the methodology, however.
“Some media are obviously willing to spread the most outlandish nonsense in order to discredit the AfD,” Petry wrote in her June Facebook post.
An ironic complaint coming from a party whose functionaries have also struggled with the facts. But not an entirely unjustified one, at least in this case.
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Printby Donald C. Morton
The coincidence of the current plateau in global surface temperatures with the continuing rise in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has raised many questions about the climate models and their forecasts of serious anthropogenic global warming.
This article presents multiple reasons why any future increase in temperature should not be regarded as a vindication of the current models and their predictions. Indefinite time scales, natural contributions, many adjustable parameters, uncertain response to CO 2, averaging of model outputs, non linearity, chaos and the absence of successful predictions are all reasons to continue to challenge the present models. This essay concludes with some suggestions for useful immediate actions during this time of uncertainty.
1. Introduction
What if the global climate began to warm again? Would all the criticisms of the climate models be nullified and the dire predictions based on them be confirmed? No one knows when the present plateau in the mean surface air temperature will end nor whether the change will be warmer or cooler. This essay will argue that the climate models and their predictions should not be trusted regardless of the direction of future temperatures.
Global temperatures usually are described in terms of the surface air temperature anomaly, the deviation of the temperature at each site from a mean of many years that is averaged over the whole world, both land and oceans. The plots in Fig 1 show how this average has changed since 1880 while the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) has steadily increased. The temperature rise from 1978 to 1998 has stopped, contrary to expectations, as shown in Fig. 2 from the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2013). Some climatologists like to claim this discrepancy is not sufficient to invalidate their theories and models, but the recent proliferation of papers trying to explain it demonstrates this plateau is a serious challenge to the claims of global disaster.
In this essay I will refer to the present leveling of the global temperature as a plateau rather than a pause or hiatus because the latter two imply we know temperatures will rise again soon. Also I prefer to describe CO 2, methane (CH 4,), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), ozone (O 3 ), and the chlorofluoro carbons (CFC’s) as minor absorbing gases rather than greenhouse gases because glass houses become hot mainly by keeping the heated air from mixing with cooler air outside rather than by absorption in the glass. Atmospheric absorption by these gases definitely does warm the earth. The controversy is about how important they are compared with natural causes. We must remember the effect of CO 2 is proportional to the logarithm of the concentration while CH 4 and N 2 O contribute according to the square root of concentration but are less abundant by factors of 200 and 1200 respectively. The CFC’s act linearly but the ones still increasing have less than a millionth the abundance of CO 2.
IPCC (2013) prefers the term projections rather than predictions for future changes in temperature, but everyone who wishes to emphasize alarming consequences treats the projections as predictions so I will do so here.
Fig. 1. Global Average Temperature Anomaly (°C) (upper), and CO 2 concentration (ppm) on Mauna Loa (lower) from http://www.climate.gov/maps-data by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The CO 2 curve is extended with ice-core data from the Antarctic Law Dome showing a gradual increase from 291 ppm in 1880 to 334 ppm in 1978. See ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/antarctica/law/law_co2.txt.
Skeptics have used this continuing plateau to question whether CO 2 is the primary driver of climate, so if temperatures begin to rise again, we can expect many claims of vindication by those who have concluded human activity dominates. An increase is possible as we continue adding CO 2 and similar absorbing gases to the atmosphere while natural variability or a continuing decrease in solar activity might result in lower temperatures. It is a puzzle to know exactly what physical processes are maintaining such a remarkable balance among all the contributing effects since the beginning of the 21st century.
Here then are some reasons to continue to distrust the predictions of climate models regardless of what happens to global temperatures.
2. Time Scales
How long do we need to wait to separate a climate change from the usual variability of weather from year to year? The gradual rise in the global surface temperature from 1978 to 1998 appeared to confirm the statement in IPCC2007 p. 10 that, “Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations”. Then in 2009 when the temperature plateau became too obvious to ignore, Knight et al. (2009), in a report on climate by the American Meteorological Society, asked the rhetorical question “Do global temperature trends over the last decade falsify climate predictions?” Their response was “Near-zero and even negative trends are common for intervals of a decade or less in the simulations, due to the model’s internal climate variability. The simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends for intervals of 15 yr or more, suggesting that an observed absence of warming of this duration is needed to create a discrepancy with the expected present-day warming rate.”
Fig. 2. Model Predictions and Temperature Observations from IPCC (2013 Fig. 11.9). Beginning in 2006, RCP 4.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5) labels a set of models for a modest rise in anthropogenic greenhouse gases corresponding to an increase of 4.5 Wm-2 (1.3%) in total solar irradiance.
As the plateau continued climatologists extended the time scale. Santer et al. (2011) concluded that at least 17 years are required to identify human contributions. Whether one begins counting in 1998 or waits until 2001 because of a strong El Niño peak in 1998, the 15- and 17-year criteria are no longer useful. To identify extreme events that could be attributed to climate change in a locality, the World Meteorological Organization has adopted a 30-year interval (https://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/climate_variability_extremes.php) while the American Meteorological Society defines Climate Change as “Any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate elements (such as temperature, pressure or winds) sustained over several decades or longer” (http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Statistics). Now Solomon, as reported by Tollefson (2014), is saying that 50 to 100 years are needed to recognize a change in climate.
The temperature curve in Fig. 1 does have a net increase from 1880 to 2014, but if we are free to choose both the start date and the interval, wide ranges of slopes and differences are possible so any comparison with climate models becomes rather subjective. If we do not understand the time scale, even if it differs from place to place, we cannot distinguish between the natural variations in weather and a climate change in which we want to identify the human component.
3. Natural Versus Anthropogenic Contributions to Climate Change
Among the multitude of explanations for the temperature plateau there are many that are based on natural causes not fully incorporated in the models. These effects include
a decreasing concentration of stratospheric water vapor that slowed the rise in surface temperatures (Solomon et al. 2010),
decadal climate variability (IPCC2013 SPM-10),
uncertainties in the contributions of clouds (IPCC 2013 9-3; McLean 2014),
the effects of other liquid and solid aerosols (IPCC 2013 8-4),
El Niño warming and La Niña cooling in the South Pacific Ocean (de Freitas and McLean, 2013 and references therein; Kosaka and Xie, 2013),
a multidecadal a deep ocean sink for the missing heat (Trenberth and Fasullo, 2013; Chen and Tung, 2014),
the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (Tung and Zhou, 2013),
a multidecadal climate signal with many inputs propagating across the Northern Hemisphere like a stadium wave (Kravtsov et al. 2014),
SO 2 aerosols from moderate volcanic eruptions (Neely et al., 2013, Santer et al., 2014),
aerosols from moderate volcanic eruptions (Neely et al., 2013, Santer et al., 2014), a decrease in solar activity (Stauning 2014), and
aerosols in pine forests (Ehn et al. 2014).
Also, as proposed by Lu (2013) and Estrada et al. (2013), there could be an indirect human effect of reduced absorption by CFC’s resulting from the Montreal Protocol constraining their use. It is not the purpose of this essay to discuss the merits of specific hypotheses, but rather to list them as evidence of incompleteness in the present models. For example Fig. 3 shows the dominance of El Niña warming events from 1978 to 1998 that could account for some of the temperature increase after 1978 as well as the 1998 spike.
When the rising temperatures of the 1980’s coincided with an increasing concentration of CO 2, the model makers assumed that human activity was the primary cause, never thoroughly investigating natural contributions. The next step is to assess which ones are significant and add them to the models. Climate predictions without accounting for the relative importance of natural and human effects are useless because we cannot tell whether any proposed change in human activity will have a noticeable effect.
Fig. 3. Multivariate index for the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean from the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The index combines sea surface air pressure, the components of the surface wind, sea and air surface temperatures and the cloudiness fraction. The upward-pointing red areas indicate El Niño warming intervals and the downward blue ones La Niña cooling.
4. Parameterization in Place of Physics
One often sees the claim that the climate models are based on solid physical principles. This is true in a broad sense, but there are many phenomena that are too complicated or have too small a scale for direct coding. Instead each General Circulation Model (GCM) presented by the IPCC depends on hundreds of parameters that are adjusted (tuned) to produce a reasonable match to the real world. According to IPCC2013 (9-9), ” The complexity of each process representation is constrained by observations, computational resources, and current knowledge.” The availability of time on supercomputers limits the ranges of parameters and the types of models so subjective choices could have influenced the available selection.
IPCC2013 (9-10) further elaborates the challenges of parameterization stating, “With very few exceptions modeling centres do not routinely describe in detail how they tune their models. Therefore the complete list of observational constraints toward which a particular model is tuned is generally not available.” and “It has been shown for at least one model that the tuning process does not necessarily lead to a single, unique set of parameters for a given model, but that different combinations of parameters can yield equally plausible models.”
Parameters are necessary in complex climate modeling, but they have the risk of producing a false model that happens to fit existing observations but incorrectly predicts future conditions. As noted below in Sect. 9, a model cannot be trusted if it does not make correct predictions of observations not used in determining the parameters.
5. Uncertainty in the Climate Sensitivity
The contribution of CO 2 to global temperatures usually is quantified as climate sensitivity, either the Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) or the Transient Climate Response (TCR). ECS is the increase in the global annual mean surface temperature caused by an instantaneous doubling of the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 relative to the pre-industrial level after the model relaxes to radiative equilibrium, while the TCR is the temperature increase averaged over 20 years centered on the time of doubling at a 1% per year compounded increase. The appropriate perturbation of a climate model can generate these numbers once the parameters are chosen. The TCR is a more useful indicator for predictions over the next century because reaching equilibrium can take a few hundred years.
IPCC2013 Table 9.5 quotes a mean TCR = 1.8º (1.2º-2.4º) C and ECS = 3.2º (1.9º-4.5º) C with 90% confidence intervals for a selection of models. This ECS is close to the most likely value of 3º and range of 2.0º to 4.5º adopted in IPCC2007 SPM-12, while IPCC2013 SPM-11 widened the range to 1.5º to 4.5º C, presumably in recognition of the temperature plateau. IPCC2013 SPM-10 admitted there may be “in some models, an overestimate of the response to increasing greenhouse gas and other anthropogenic forcing (dominated by the effects of aerosols)”, but retained the alarming upper limit of 4.5º C from IPCC2007.
Alternative estimates are possible directly from the observed changes in temperature with the increasing concentration of CO 2. Huber and Knutti (2012) obtained TCR = 3.6º (1.7º-6.5º 90%) consistent with the models, but others derived lower values. Otto et al. (2012) reported TCR = 1.3º (1.2º-2.4º 95%), ECS = 2.0º (1.2º-3.9º 95%), Lewis and Curry (2014) derived TCR = 1.33º (0.90º-2.50º 95%), ECS = 1.64º (1.05º-4.05º 95%), and Skeie et al. (2014) found TCR = 1.4º (0.79º-2.2º 90%), |
they put the lid on me like a boiled egg."
In another interview, Baker said Sir Alec Guinness's decision to appear in Star Wars convinced him to sign up.
"I thought if Alec Guinness is in it, he knows more than I do about filming, that's for sure. It must be a decent film otherwise he wouldn't be in it."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Baker was a guest at the premiere of the latest Star Wars film in London last year
Writing on Twitter, Hamill said: "Goodbye #KennyBaker A lifelong loyal friend-I loved his optimism & determination He WAS the droid I was looking for!"
Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the three Star Wars prequels, tweeted: "So sorry to hear about this. It was lovely working with Kenny."
The studio behind the original Star Wars films, 20th Century Fox, posted a still of R2-D2 and C-3PO and said: "Rest in peace, Kenny Baker, the heart and soul of R2-D2."
Actor Daniel Logan, who played Boba Fett in 2002's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, tweeted: "So sad to hear one of my dearest friends passed away. Rest in peace Kenny Baker. Love you. Will miss you!"
In a statement on starwars.com, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said: "There is no Star Wars without R2-D2, and Kenny defined who R2-D2 was and is."
Baker was a consultant on the last Star Wars production - The Force Awakens - but British actor Jimmy Vee was already lined up to take on the role of R2-D2 in the next film, due for release in 2017.
Image copyright Daniel Logan/Twitter
Comedy act
Despite the fame R2-D2 brought him, Baker told the BBC in 2001 that his own favourite screen role was as Fidgit in 1981's Time Bandits.
The comic fantasy about a boy who joins a group of time-travelling dwarves who hunt for treasure to steal starred Sean Connery and John Cleese.
"The director Terry Gilliam's such a nutcase, he's so enthusiastic, you can't help enjoy it. It was just a fun film to make," Baker said.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption In 1978 the footprints of R2-D2 and C-3PO were left outside Graumann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood
A father of two, Baker's wife Eileen died in 1993.
On his website, Baker also recalled working with comedians including Ken Dodd, Little and Large, Russ Abbot, Ben Elton, Dick Emery and Dave Allen and once meeting Laurel and Hardy.
He became part of a musical comedy act called The Mini Tones and later performed with his friend Jack Purvis in nightclubs.
Both men went on to appear in the original Star Wars film which was shot at Elstree studios in 1976, with Purvis playing the chief Jawa.
In 1978, as R2-D2, Baker put his footprints into concrete outside Graumann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Baker also appeared on screen in Mona Lisa, Amadeus, and The Elephant Man.The manhunt for murder suspect Christopher Dorner led to two separate shootings involving two newspaper deliverywomen and a driver Thursday morning. Police opened fire when they noticed trucks matching the description of Dorner'sapproached the home of an LAPD officer who's named in the suspect's manifesto. Conan Nolan reports from Torrance for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Feb. 7, 2013. (Published Friday, Feb. 8, 2013)
Two women delivering newspapers in Torrance were wounded and another person was shot at on Thursday by police in cases of mistaken identity in a search for a fired LAPD officer wanted in a deadly revenge rampage in which he allegedly targeted law enforcement and their families.
The three victims were driving in dark-colored pickup trucks that matched the description of former Officer Christopher Dorner’s, police said.
Police were posted on protective duty outside the home of one of those officers Thursday morning when they became suspicious of a driver moving through the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck.
Driving a blue pickup truck with its lights off, the newspaper carriers slowly approached the officer’s house before dawn in the 19500 block of Redbeam Avenue.
Neighbors of Ex-Officer Wanted in Murders Told to "Stay Inside or Leave"
A resident near 4931 Sharon Dr. in La Palma – the last known address of Christopher Jordan Dorner, wanted in connection with a double murder in Irvine – said when investigators descended on the neighborhood, she was advised to stay indoors or leave altogether. Robert Kovacik reports from La Palma for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2013. (Published Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013)
Police fired at the truck, thinking it was Dorner's. The truck was riddled with more than 15 bullet holes in the back windshield and tailgate.
One woman was struck in the hand and is expected to recover; the other was shot in the back and her condition was unknown late Thursday. Both were taken to the hospital.
Two blocks away from where that shooting occurred, Torrance police shot at another driver travelling in a pickup truck 25 minutes later.
Ex-LAPD Officer Threatens Former Colleagues in Manifesto: Police
Apparently disgruntled over his termination from the force, Christopher Jordan Dorner wrote a manifesto that appears to lay out a plan for targeting those involved in his firing. Police said the 11,000-word letter implicates Dorner in the murders of a couple in Irvine. Kim Baldonado reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2013. (Published Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013)
While responding to the first officer-involved shooting, a Torrance police cruiser collided with a truck that resembled Doran’s. The incident occurred near Beryl Street and Flagler Lane in Redondo Beach, on the border with Torrance.
"Shortly thereafter, shots were fired," said Sgt. Chris Roosen, with Torrance Police Department. "The officers believed that the person involved was Christopher Dorner."
Bullets flew through the windshield, missing the driver.
Disgruntled Ex-Officer Wanted in Irvine Double Murder
Irvine police revealed Wednesday that a former LAPD officer is suspected of killing an Irvine couple. Christopher Jordan Dorner is apparently targeting LAPD personell who were involved in his termination from the force, and their families. Vikki Vargas reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2013 (Published Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013)
Neither shooting involved Dorner, 33, who remains at large, police said.
Roosen said police believed Dorner was headed to an officer’s home close to where the shootings happened.
A neighbor said she’d seen at least eight squad cars staked out near the officer’shome. Another said he was rattled but understood the officers’ actions.
"It’s scary," said resident Dan Lankford, "but... if you have a high-ranking officer that is in the neighborhood and a vehicle that matches that description and the killings that are going on, I could see how it’d be easy to jump to a conclusion."
The manhunt for Dorner – whose 11,000-word online manifesto names several of his former colleagues as targets – had Southern California law enforcement on edge.
Dorner is accused of killing three people – including a police officer – and wounding two others.House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (center) meets with staff while checking on his vote count on Dec. 11, 2014, in his Capitol office. (Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)
A group of House Republicans got a surprise pep talk Monday from their missing man: Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who continues to recover from a gunshot wound suffered in last month’s baseball-practice shooting.
Scalise called in to the weekly Republican whip team meeting Monday evening and, according to several attendees, shared encouraging news: He has started the physical recovery process and could be transferred soon from Medstar Washington Hospital Center, where he has been hospitalized since the June 14 shooting, to a specialized rehabilitation facility.
There was no word on when Scalise might return to work. A spokesman, Chris Bond, said Scalise told the whips that “he is looking forward to working through the rehab process and returning to the Capitol once he is ready.”
Scalise has undergone a series of operations to address the wound to his hip, most recently a July 13 surgery to combat a “deep tissue infection.” Doctors at that time said he remained in fair condition.
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Several members who participated in the call said Scalise sounded ready to get back to work.
“It was absolutely awesome,” said Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a deputy whip. “It sounded like Steve — always the entertainer, always the encourager. He sounded great. He can’t wait to get back with us is what he said.”
“He’s got a long rehabilitation ahead of him,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who was on the scene for the shooting. “His voice was strong, and his spirits seemed very, very positive. It was uplifting to hear him.”
Scalise’s call came on the same day the House passed the Wounded Officers Recovery Act, a bill allowing payments to seriously wounded Capitol Police officers from a fund currently intended for the families of officers killed in the line of duty. Monday was also the 19th anniversary of the killing of Capitol Police officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, who were shot dead by a mentally ill man near an entrance to the Capitol.
On the call, Bond said, Scalise expressed his appreciation for the two Capitol Police officers in his personal detail — David Bailey and Crystal Griner — who were wounded as they fended off shooter James T. Hodgkinson. “Crystal and David,” he said, “saved our lives.”Some media would rather defend posting sex videos of 5 year olds’ over a scapegoated conservative.
Jimmy Page Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 21, 2016
A.J. Daulerio when he was asked on video by Hogan’s lawyer, “Can you imagine a situation where a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy?”
Daulerio answered “If they were a child.”
“Under what age?” attorney Charles Harder pressed.
“Four,” he said.
“No four-year-old sex tapes, OK,” Harder said.
That was some of the testimony given to a hearing into the actions of Gawker media as part of Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against them for leaking part of his own sex video.
When Gawker media was facing bankruptcy there was a well of support for Gawker and claims of how this was a blow for free speech or a blow for journalists ability to do their job. Which apparently now includes any aspect of peoples private lives they can get their hands on.
People (and I’ll be polite and not call people out for it here but you know damn well who you are) defended Gawker. People were happy to defend this company and those words at the start of this as part of the first amendment and Free speech.
Yet recently Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos was banned from twitter and those same people were cheering it of defending the decision. So what did he do that was so bad? Well see if you can find it.
Image courtesy of IE_5 onReddit
So Not exactly what he’s been accused of it seems as the accusation against Milo was he was some harbinger of mass hatred being wrought upon people. That he controlled some army of evil monsters and set them on people like some kind of Bond Villain. Yet as you can see here there’s little of that just a few disparaging remarks it’s not as though he asked people to go and attack Leslie Jones. I mean who would do a thing like that?
So the question is what does trying to incite harassment mean under Twitters ruling on this issue? What other things could count as “trying to set your fans on someone” to incite harassment.
How many of these would count?
Or how about when Movie Bob decided to take a @ conversation and start quote tweeting me to his followers?
Now here’s the thing I don’t want to see either of the two above banned despite often having disagreements with them on Twitter and Bob having previously said I wasn’t entitled to his attention.
So my stance towards Milo is I may not agree with him on everything either. Hell I bet I’d disagree with Milo more than I’d agree the thing is I don’t see any more reason for Milo to have been banned than any number of other people or even Leslie Jones Herself here.
@Jack in making this decision seemingly only did so to make a scapegoat out of Milo. Banning Milo has been nothing more than a symbolic gesture. What do I mean?
Well lets take a look at the actual Racist Tweets Leslie Jones received and in case you nee it spelling out. TRIGGER WARNING RACISM oh and Also I do NOT condone or agree with any of the sentiments expressed in them.
Well surely @elbmuhoreh was banned for that right? Well as of writing this No @Jack has done nothing and their account still exists have a look for your self
Surely this is just a one off though right Twitter totally acted in some of the other cases right?
Seems @evyarb9000 is still not banned as of writing this
@Depforce7 still on Twitter as of this piece being written
@FuggingBelb still on twitter as of writing this
@0ddsauce still on Twitter
I will give @Jack some credit. 2 accounts I checked did say it was suspended so well done out of 10 accounts checked 2 had been suspended. 5 shown above had faced nothing and 3 more I checked had changed their @ so I but their original @ that sent the abuse wasn’t banned.
So Twitter banned only 20% of those actually responsible for sending abuse even now days on from it. But they were quick to ban Milo. Quick to ban someone to appease people. Quick to make someone plenty of people likely to back Leslie Jones disliked.
All twitter did was ban Milo to placate people and stop them being angry. He was a scapegoat to stop To hide how twitter is taking no action.
I’m sure those who have read this and looked for themselves will happily be joining me in asking @Jack what the hell he thinks he’s playing at. For scapegoating and then hiding the trending hashtag as even people who may not be fans of Milo have seen as a disturbing move.
Also to the “journalists” who have celebrated Milo being banned or excused Twitters actions I have this to say. Suggesting private companies have no obligation to uphold civil liberties is a dangerous precedent to set. It means if some company refuses to cater a party because they wouldn’t cater a gay wedding. Well you just told them it’s ok to discriminate like that. You just told them it’s ok because peoples civil liberties don’t matter in private companies. Or how about when Pharmacies refuse to give or even stock or sell birth control to people? Well you just told said places its well within their rights because they don’t have to respect peoples rights as that only applies between the government and people.
So to the media and commentators presently wringing their hands trying to justify Milo being banned. Think long and hard. If you defended Gawker and their claims it’s free speech to publish sex videos of 5 year olds but decided to condemn mild criticism from a conservative journalist as worthy of a ban. I’d say you might want to think of what kind of future you’re making by arguing that sex videos of children have more right to be posted online than Milo has a right to be even slightly critical of people on Twitter.
What kind of precedent are you also setting in regards to corporations and how they believe they can act towards people.
One final thing to @Jack and Twitter as a company. There are others starting to come up alternatives to Twitter. Do you really want to test peoples resolve, I seem to remember another company called Myspace seeing other start ups as no threat, and they didn’t manage to suggest a people with certain views weren’t welcome. They weren’t trying to make symbolic gestures to hide their lack of action against the actual people sending abuse.
So will you address #Freemilo or does #jesuisMilo need to have a second run and you can play whack a hashtag for as long as people want to keep this going? Or am I going to be the next one banned in the hopes to keep this quietThe leading candidates in the race to fill the Alabama seat in the U.S. Senate vacated earlier this year by Jeff Sessions have joined elected officials across the state in condemning the Saturday violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Violence broke out there Friday night and throughout the day Saturday during protests led by far-right white supremacists and neo-Nazis and counter-protests.
One woman was killed and others injured when an Ohio man drove a car into a crowd at an event protesting the white supremacist gathering Saturday. The driver, 20-year-old far-right protester James Alex Fields Jr., was caught by authorities and charged with multiple crimes connected to the incident, including the second-degree murder of 37-year-old counter-protester and paralegal Heather Heyer of Virginia.
President Donald Trump issued remarks Saturday at one of his properties in Bedminster, N.J.
"We have so many incredible things happening in this country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad," he said.
On Twitter, Trump offered his "[c]ondolences to the family of the young woman killed today, and best regards to all of those injured, in Charlottesville, Virginia" and said that the federal government "will provide whatever assistance is needed."
Many observers and politicians - including some prominent Republicans - criticized Trump Saturday for not specifically condemning white supremacy and neo-Nazism.
The top three candidates in Tuesday's U.S. Senate special election GOP primary all issued statements condemning the violence in Charlottesville. Their remarks, like Trump's, did not call out white nationalists by name, unlike those of some of their Democratic challengers.
U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks wrote the following on Twitter Saturday evening: "I join @POTUS - we're all Americans first & there's no place for this type of violence. We must stand united and oppose hatred and bigotry."
Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, issued the following statement via Facebook Sunday morning: "The violence and hatred behind the events in Charlottesville is unacceptable and must be stopped. These inexcusable acts will only cause more violence and division in our communities. Now is the time to turn to God and ask Him to change hearts and heal our land. My prayers go out to those innocent victims involved."
And Sen. Luther Strange, the former state attorney general selected by former Gov. Robert Bentley to fill in for Sessions until the special election to replace him, said the following on Facebook Saturday evening: "I am deeply saddened by what I saw in Charlottesville today. The violence and despicable attacks are inexcusable. I stand with President Trump and leaders from both parties condemning these actions and encourage Americans to stand together in opposition to those who encourage hate or promote violence."
Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney and leading candidate in the Democratic primary to fill the Senate seat, issued an in-depth statement via email Saturday night:
"As people of conscience, I believe we have an obligation to work against hate and call [it] out when we see it. We have seen hate the past two days in Charlottesville," he wrote, adding later, "I am personally disappointed that President Trump has not issued a strong condemnation of the white supremacists and neo-Nazis responsible for these events... This is not who we are as Americans - and I applaud and join the vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans who reject and condemn these actions."
Michael Hansen, an environmentalist running in the Democratic primary, condemned the far-right rally in strong terms Saturday.
"This is downright frightening and should be alarming to every single decent human in this country. White nationalists are marching, emboldened by Trump. Don't let the tiki torches fool you - this is evil on the march. #NotMyAmerica," he wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby appeared not to have made a public statement on the events as of 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
But other Alabama politicians did speak out against the violence in Charlottesville.
Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat, issued a statement by email Saturday:
"I am deeply disturbed by the act of terror which was committed Saturday in Charlottesville," she said. "As a nation, our message must be clear: racism, white supremacy, and violence will not be tolerated. I send my prayers to the victims in Charlottesville, their families, and the first responders who are working to keep their community safe."
Rep. Bradley Byrne, a Republican, issued the following statement on Facebook Saturday: "I join President Donald J. Trump and other leaders in strongly condemning the violence and hate we are seeing in Charlottesville. As Americans, we must stand united and make clear our vehement opposition to this type of hatred and bigotry."
Rep. Martha Roby, a Republican said on Facebook Saturday night she is "appalled by the unspeakable bigotry and violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville. This kind of hatred is against our American values and has no place in our great country. I'm thinking about and praying for those hurt by the unnecessary violence today."FAST Racing NEO was a standout title on the Wii U eShop late last year, but Shin'en Multimedia encountered some delays releasing its planned update - the challenge of a global roll-out played a factor. The good news is that the update is coming very soon - on 18th May - and will make some tweaks to how we play online, in particular.
The update will take the game to version 1.1 and Shin'en is calling it 'Vertigo'; the changes are all about improving performance and the user interface. The developer gave us the following images and breakdown of the improvements that'll come.
Online: Improved stability
Online: You can now choose a preferred speed league
Online: Player tags are now shown
Online: Player country flags are now shown
General: Mini Map for all tracks available while playing
General: Improved loading speed for many tracks (especially from external USB devices)
For players that like pushing the boundaries in tracks general stability improvements are welcome, while an on-screen mini-map will help those of us with more limited abilities. More control in choosing online races, too, will let players tackle higher speed classes against others.
Are you planning to fire up FAST Racing NEO for some races once the update drops? Let us know.The Cowboys have released the first 3 of their 11 cuts today. As reported by Tim Macmahon on twitter.
The Turk is making the rounds in the Valley Ranch locker room. QB Nick Stephens, OG Dennis Godfrey, LB Deon Lacey got visits so far. — Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) August 27, 2013
Mike Fisher adds a 4th name to the list, TE Colin Cochart
Cut-day #cowboys heading to Garrett office: G Godfrey, QB Stephens, TE Cochart @1053thefan. — Mike Fisher (@fishsports) August 27, 2013
Stephens' release means that everyone's favorite UDFA QB, Alex Tanney, will probably play every snap in the final pre-season game against the Houston Texans, meaning they aren't trying to hide Tanney's talents from the rest of the league.
That's 4 down and 7 more to go to meet the 3 PM Central time Dead line to trim the roster to 75 players.
Who will be next?
[UPDATE] Next is WR Eric Rogers, via Tom Orsborn:
Eric Rogers just turned in his playbook. Guess his one good week in Oxnard wasn't enough. — Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) August 27, 2013
Stick with BTB throughout the day for updates as soon as they come available.
[UPDATE] More guys out include Jared Green and Brett Maher:
Maher, Godfrey and Stephens saying their goodbyes. Jared Green and Eric Rigers, too. — Carlos A. Mendez (@calexmendez) August 27, 2013
[UPDATE] WR Anthony Amos was also cut.
The following Cowboys' were released: Godfrey, Stephens, Green, Rogers, Amos, Lacey & Cochert. Crawford is headed to IR. More cuts coming. — Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) August 27, 2013
[UPDATE]CB Brandon Underwood was also cut.
Add K Brett Maher and CB Brandon Underwood to the list of cut players. — Todd Archer (@toddarcher) August 27, 2013
More from Blogging The Boys:
// -->Looking at ESPN’s player rater for starting pitchers reveals a shocking name: Ervin Santana. At the time of this writing, he’s sitting well above Clayton Kershaw for the #1 spot, boasting a 0.77 ERA and 0.66 WHIP through his first five starts of the season. After a career of being known as good-but-not-great, it’s shocking to see Santana seemingly peak in his 13th season on the hill and I wanted to dive into what he was doing to make it work. Santana gave us yet another superb outing on Tuesday night when he faced the Texas Rangers and I sat down to dissect how he did it. Here’s the GIF Breakdown of that start featuring 18 HD GIFs.
To start all GIF Breakdowns, we look at the pitcher’s strikezone plot:
It’s a very interesting plot. Santana loves throwing his heater high-and-tight to left-handers and we’ll bring it up often. He also has a good skill of keeping his Slider over the the lower third of the plate when he wants to, as well as burying it in the dirt on command. The Biggest wild card was his Changeup, which worked well at some points and other times had a mind of its own.
This year, I’m going to be doing my breakdowns a little differently. Instead of focusing on a starter’s arsenal pitch-by-pitch, I’m going work through the game at hand, showing how they work through batters and traveling through the innings. Let’s get to it.
First inning – 15 Pitches, 12 Strikes, 1 Hit, 0 Runs
Right from the beginning, we see Santana’s plan of attack for the night: Nail the high-and-inside corner to left-handed batters. The plan got him to 1-2 before allowing a heater to tail back to the middle of the plate. In the following GIF to Shin-Soo Choo notice the location of the previous pitches – all Fastballs – before Choo is able to sneak the ball into right-field for a single:
Get used to this because one common theme through the evening was Ranger batters failing to get lift on Santana’s heater, hitting plenty of groundballs on pitches that found the middle of the plate. Whether we can call this luck for Santana or an attribute of ability is another question, but it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow during the course of this outing and carry some belief that he’ll get punished in future outings.
Carlos Gomez stepped up to the plate next and was quickly met with Santana’s best pitch, his Slider. Great movement here and Santana leaned heavily on his breaking ball against right-handers, using them to start at-bats and as he prefered putaway pitch in deep counts:
We’re going to talk about this a lot, but for now, let’s move on after Gomez tried to bunt for a hit and was barely thrown out via a great play by Miguel Sano.
As with Choo, Santana stuck with his gameplan against Nomar Mazara nailing a pair of Fastballs high-and-tight to get to 0-2:
Santana really did a great job of preventing batters from getting their arms extended on his pitches. Mazara is clearly struggling to assess if these pitches were strikes and the best he could do was foul it off weakly down the right-field line.
Before the at-bat ended, Choo made a poor decision on the basepaths leading to a easy caught-stealing for the Twins and emptying the bases. With two outs now, Santana induced this groundout on a 3-2 heater located in a spot that you’d think would render a different result:
Santana had a bit of luck go his way this game – three total baserunning blunders and a good amount of mistake pitchers that went unpunished – and I wouldn’t call this a good first inning despite facing the minimum batters.
Second Inning – 11 Pitches, 7 Strikes, 0 Hits, 0 Runs
Santana impressed me to start the second inning. Sure, he missed with his first two pitches to Mike Napoli, getting behind 2-0 quickly, but he came back and earned a pop-up with a nice 2-0 Slider followed by a great heater inside that badly jammed Napoli:
With left-handers, Santana mixes both his Changeup and Slider, though the former needs a bit more polish. Against the second batter of the inning, Santana threw a total of three Changeups to Rougned Odor. The first two were pretty atrocious – the first falling well outside the zone followed by a mistake down the middle at 2-0 that Odor lined just foul. The third, however, wasn’t where Santana wanted it, but it was perfect as it started in the zone and fell out in a hurry to induce a whiff and strikeout of the Rangers’ second basemen:
Next up was Elvis Andrus who was met with a Fastball right down the middle of the plate that he was prepared for…and chopped to third base for an easy putout. It’s a bit of a head scratcher as not only was it poorly located but Andrus looked ready to attack it before it left Santana’s hand. I have to attribute a bit of luck here for Santana and it adds to the thought that Santana won’t get the same results on other evenings:
Third Inning – 17 Pitches, 10 Strikes, 1 Hit, 0 Runs
The best at-bat of the entire game would be against Joey Gallo to lead off the game. Despite missing for the first two pitches, Santana kept with his gameplan, firing heater-after-heater up-and-in, adding in a Slider as well to earn his second strike. Then when finally ahead, he changed eye-level completely, burying a Slider in the dirt where Gallo wasn’t ready to properly assess the pitch given the new location. It’s a very interesting sequence as even going down 2-0 helped Santana in a way – having four pitches thrown in the same location makes the Slider that followed even more effective. As long as he can get the two strikes after, that third one is a near guarantee:
Funny enough, just after discussing how it’s not the worst thing ever to get down 2-0 to a batter, Jonathon Lucroy made Santana pay for a poorly placed 2-0 Fastball down the middle of the plate and laced it to center field. It really comes down to being able to not make those mistakes and continue nibbling as opposed to giving in to what the batter is looking for.
Just like with Napoli from before, Santana featured a good Slider down-and-away against a right-hander to get his first strike following it with a 1-1 Fastball under the hands for an out. If he can do this all the time, it should work, though that of course hinges on consistent command and having another option when they see it again next time through the lineup:
Santana stuck to the normal approach with Choo next, including a check-swing foul on a well spotted Fastball high-and-tight (I’ve used that phrase often for good reason). However, he struggled to put him away and turned to his Changeup to get the final out. While it technically worked, Choo smoked the pitch and its location deserved the hard contact. There’s a definite weakness here and I don’t expect it to go so smoothly in the future:
Fourth Inning – 18 Pitches, 10 Strikes, 0 Hits, 1 Walk, 0 Runs
The inning started with a quick 3-0 count to Carlos Gomez on outside pitches that Santana couldn’t nail the edge with – pitches that he’s been getting swings on against left-handers but not with right-handers. He climbed back 3-2 but followed with a Slider that floated well up and out of the zone for an easy take and a walk.
After Mazara fouled off a pair of heaters that he would love to have back – slightly elevated in the middle of the zone – Carlos Gomez tried to steal second base with a ball in the dirt and got thrown out making it the second time the Rangers ran themselves into an out. More great luck for Santana.
Back to Mazara. Now a 2-2 count following two poorly executed Sliders in the dirt, Santana turned to the Changeup, missing his spot outside, but still down and deceptive enough to induce a whiff from the struggling Mazara. It was a near carbon-copy of the pitch we saw against Odor earlier, miss-and-all:
With two outs, Santana got ahead of Mike Napoli quickly with a good Slider and high heater, but struggled to put him away. Finally a 2-2 Changeup did the deed via a groundball, though its location in the middle of the zone with lackluster movement screams mistake and Santana got away with another one:
Fifth Inning – 16 Pitches, 11 Strikes, 1 Hit, 1 Run
In the fifth, it looked like Santana wanted to change his approach a little bit, a wise move given he’s deep into the second turn of the lineup at this point. The first two pitches against the left-handed Odor here were supposed to be outside, and aimed for the away Fastball again at 2-1. Eventually, this 3-2 Fastball missed its spot and landed in the wheelhouse for Odor, but he rolled over it for an out. As you watch this GIF, check out the spray of pitches from this at-bat (all Fastballs). There were supposed to be four Fastballs away and two high-and-tight and clearly Santana is losing a step.
Santana picked it up in this at-bat with Andrus, sticking once again to the Slider for a strike + Fastball inside mentality that he loves so much against right-handers. After Andrus worked the count deep, Santana executed his best Changeup of the night – down in the zone and looking like a meatball Fastball out of the hand:
It’s a great pitch, just unfortunately not one that I believe Santana can execute at will. It worked here – he reluctantly used it after already throwing five pitches in the at-bat – but I think he himself understands that it’s close to a coin-flip if it’s going to come out well.
Another concerning area with Santana is about his overall stuff. While his arsenal isn’t bad in any way, it’s also not so overpowering that when his command isn’t spot on, he can be taken advantage of. Take for example this pitch to Joey Gallo that the slugger sent to the right-field seats:
It’s not necessarily a bad pitch – it wasn’t middle-middle and hit the inside corner – but heading inside against a lefty and not getting it elevated is a tough game to play against power lefties and Santana paid the price. Can’t really fault Santana too much for this, but it does emphasize the importance of jamming left-handers both up-and-in with his heater.
He rebounded against Jonathon Lucroy with – you guessed it – an 0-0 Slider for a strike followed by a Fastball in that jammed him for a quick out. There really is a system here for Santana that has been working.
Sixth Inning – 16 Pitches, 10 Strikes, 1 Hit, 0 Runs
Rua got the message Santana has been sending – first pitch Sliders to right-handers – and started the inning with a smoked line drive down the left-field line on the first pitch. But again, fortunate favored Santana as Rua was thrown out by a mile heading to second as the ball caromed right back to the left-fielder for an easy strike to second. The luck continues.
Nothing new with Choo, outside of a poorly thrown CH right in the middle of the zone that Choo didn’t capitalize on and connected for a weak foul ball. Otherwise it was your standard at-bat, albeit ending with a walk as Santana just missed the lower part of the zone with a 3-2 Fastball.
Slider away for strike one, Fastball in for strike two against Carlos Gomez. Shocking. An overthrown Slider in the dirt put the free swinger away, but it’s nothing to write home about.
The final pitch of the sixth was one of the more interesting pitches of the game. Nomar Mazara had a nice 2-1 count and was expecting your standard high-and-tight heater from Santana. He got it, gave a mighty swing despite being well off the plate inside, and sent the ball for a ride:
Some might see that as fortunate, after all it was almost a HR. I see that as a shock this wasn’t a 3-1 count risking walking another batter making it a jam in the sixth and possibly getting pulled a batter later as his pitch count sits in the mid 90s. Instead, he gets out of the sixth and sees the seventh. That’s just how 2017 has been going for Santana.
Seventh Inning – 9 Pitches, 7 Strikes, 0 Hits, 0 Runs
Santana was able to sneak a first pitch Fastball for a strike to Napoli as the slugger expected a Slider, but on the 1-1 pitch Santana threw a terrible heater right down the middle and Napoli lined it…right to Miguel Sano. Talk about being in favor of the Baseball Gods:
Next up was a strikeout to Rougned Odor that doesn’t deserve your attention. Odor went chasing a heater up and out of the zone on a clear mistake pitch from Santana. So it goes.
The final batter of Santana’s start was Elvis Andrus, who took a first pitch Slider for a strike (the man is clockwork) then popped up the next one when Santana doubled down on the pitch:
Final line – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. 64-102 strikes, 17/24 First Pitch Strikes
I have mixed feelings about this outing from Ervin |
passively supported the more militant actions that took place. (...)»
***
« It is interesting that, when you talk about the arson at the hotel, you wonder whether it was worth risking someone being hurt for our actions. Asking this question in such a generalised way disturbs me. In fact, a lot of the actions we do, (as with many other less political things in life) mean taking that risk. When we take a stand against militarism and social control we are taking on some of the best resourced and most brutal military and public order institutions in the world. Every time we take our critique to the streets, especially if we do not restrict ourselves to passively parading, there is a risk that we, our companions, the cops, or someone else might get hurt, arrested or emotionally impacted by the events of the day. Any participant in a demonstration should be aware that whatever our actions, there is always the risk that we will be attacked by the police (who did not hesitate to gas and beat up non-violent demonstrators that same morning in Strasbourg). However, the situations we are willing to create and the risk we are willing to take on in each context should never be considered self-evident and beyond question. Our ethics, the levels of repression we will have to face, and the support we can expect to receive depends on it.
This is a deep and complex issue, but maybe we can try to approach it by breaking it down into “simpler questions”. For example, it is possible to say that there is an obvious difference, in terms of relationship to risk, between those of us who choose and prepare for this fight (such as ourselves or the super-protected cops who aim to block us or attack us), and the passer-by or fellow protester who have not chosen these tactics and are not prepared for violent conflict. It is not the same to risk hurting a cop during an action, or even willingly attack them when they block our way, as to risk hurting someone who was there more or less in the wrong place at the wrong time. That does not mean that hurting a cop can be considered an interesting political aim, in and of itself, unless we seek to simply reproduce and reflect the punitive logic of the State.
What it does mean is that decisions and courses of actions that turn our protest spaces into conflict zones require careful consideration. Having diverse blocks in a demo, divided according to the tactic of choice, has sometimes worked quite well in the past. As has using different moments for different types of demonstration. On the other hand it is politically meaningful to have physical conflict coming from everywhere and not being isolated in a separate box. It's also tactically more effective as it is far more difficult for police to contain the chaos, and because it can allow many more people to participate and feel part of conflict. And then there are always the unexpected and spontaneous moments that boil over, with differing success, and which can change the cards on the table despite the best laid plans of mice and men. However, in all these cases, the fact that we reject the political forms of the traditional left, with their empty speeches, pointless demonstrations and persistent avoidance of conflict, that should not also mean that we abandon basic solidarity, which includes protecting the people who are on the same side as us but who do not want to assume such high levels of risk and repression. »
***
« At the Rostock anti-G8 demonstration in 2007, I had to make the heartbreaking decision between going with the black bloc or staying with my close friend who had recently broken his back and could not join in for fear of damaging his spine, and because he was psychologically traumatised by the fact that his body, which had previously been strong and invincible, had now failed him. I went on the black bloc. But it was not an easy choice. It made me realise that our capacity to physically engage in the confrontational parts of the social war is fragile. It reaffirmed the need to search for some kind of long-term radicalisation of our struggles that goes beyond the creation of pseudo-military ghettos or playgrounds for twenty-something revolutionaries. Sometimes it feels like for a 25 year old black bloc activist, being 40 or being physically incapacitated seems far away, improbable or just downright embarrassing. But if that is the case, it seems even more inconceivable that they will reach that age and still be involved in militant struggle.
Risk levels are not simply a question of political ideology. Someone facing jail for other actions, people living without papers, parents with children, or even my grandma may chose to go on a demonstration but try to stay out of trouble. We should not paralyse ourselves and our actions on that basis, because they will never please everybody. However, it is not necessarily “counter-revolutionary” to look for ways in which communities of all ages and backgrounds can come together to fight, and work together to understand our strengths and weaknesses, break barriers, and protect each other against a common enemy.
In terms of our material resistance, we have made some advances in this direction through the collective structures we have developed over the years – legal support, medical teams, collective kitchens, transport infrastructures, camp organisation, communications (such as independent media), and trauma support... These are proof of our capacity to learn from our experiences and grow as a movement. As long as they don't become separate services but remain active in the creation of political content and aims, they are part of our strength. In the light of the Greek rebellion, in a context of growing social discontent, I think the use and proliferation of these self-organised structures is going to become increasingly important.”
***
«(...)In your text, you describe a trap, a paradox, in which the emphatic critique of the alienation of the capitalist “desert” may, in the end, lead to an abstraction of our struggles that empties them of any immediate meaning or tangible aims. The messianic projection that focusses on the distant final aim of a globalised insurrection tends to establish a way of thinking that disregards any in-betweens, processes, concrete victories, demands or specific struggles as boring and necessarily part of a reformist agenda that in the end will only preserve social peace... It is sometimes as if any partial and specific improvements to our lives are suspected of setting back the collapse of the system.
By finding reformist citizenship in almost all forms of dissent, we end up forgetting all their more conflictual aspects, their strengths, and their potential to evolve, and this leads us to drastically reduce the possible forms of action and alliances available to us. In my opinion, a revolutionary process should, on the contrary, take an interest in other doubtlessly fragmented and incomplete resistances, which can, nevertheless, transform the lives of the people involved. We should understand the forms of radicalisation that these resistances might undergo and how they can link in to a wider perspective. We often need starting points, issues to anchor our resistance, walls to tear down, and small, specific victories... There are many examples of large movements that kept themselves going using this double dynamic. Perhaps some of the most well known include the trajectory of the road protest movements in the UK in the 1990s that moved from single-issue struggles and victories in the field, to a more global anti-capitalist dynamic; or the way the Italian autonomous movement in the 1970's managed to link specific demands and struggles for housing, working conditions, refusals to pay bills etc. with a global revolutionary vision, and, to an extent, managed not to place one in opposition with the other.»
***
« Turning the tactics we adopt to respond to a particular situation into an identity has been a constant problem within parts of the “anti-capitalist” movements: We started to use drum bands (such as the Infernal Noise Brigade in the USA or the Samba Band used on J18 in London in 1999) as a tactic to increase the tension in the atmosphere and out-smart the police by moving crowds, where sound-systems in vans were not flexible or quick enough. Later, people got involved who had not participated in the political/tactical thinking, and the idea was formed that samba music was radical and revolutionary in and of itself, whatever the Samba groups did during the demonstration. The same thing happened to the Clowns... the original clown army idea - whatever you think of it - was at least based on political and tactical thinking, not on idea that clowns are revolutionary whatever the context. It is maybe easier for us to see the abstraction of a tactic from its aims and context in these examples, because we are more critical of the initial tactic, but the same can sometimes be said of more confrontational methods such as wearing balaclavas, burning garbage bins or smashing windows. (Some readers perhaps remember the 4am black bloc that left the Retterlich camp during the 2007 G8, and went out to burn garbage and build barricades in a tiny village miles from anything? I was there, it was deeply depressing!)
But I think that, despite the obvious criticisms of certain postures and gestures, they nevertheless do offer a way to deal with our fear and not give in to it, at a time when there are good reasons to be afraid, and we want to overcome that fear and be able to act.
I am very critical of the current tendency in capitalist society to promote and instrumentalise a victim mentality as though it were the only path to truth. As though recognising domination must, necessarily, cut us off from possible forms of fighting back in a strong and autonomous way. As though our struggle should, paradoxically, only structure itself around our weakness. Of course, we know, and there is no question, that the fetishisation of physical and martial strength is, at best, proto-fascist. But I believe it is necessary from time to time to take a deep breath and to try to seriously believe in our capacity to act, and to be strong and big and wild. That said, for me it is also vital to keep the capacity to laugh (in the privacy of my own head, and amongst ourselves) at our war-like posturing. For me there is a fundamental difference between starting from a position where we believe that it is necessary to go beyond our fears, while being able to laugh and not take ourselves too seriously, and having an uncritical approach to these same, warlike attitudes.
I have seen many new people (of all genders) join our 'gangs' and drop straight into these'macho' roles we use to overcome our fears. Often they learn to position themselves in the power structures we create (and which all too often mimic the power structures we wish to defeat) and they immerse themselves in the hero culture of the “urban guerilla warrior”. (Other examples of this hero culture from our scenes include the “d.i.y. Super-squatter” and the “intransigent political intellectual”). They learn these social roles from the older anarchists and autonomists, who may or may not have a more critical approach to the use of these persona, but who rarely make these criticisms clear or explicit.
Young men are perhaps more likely to uncritically embrace the process of “competing militancies” that is rewarded by social status in our scenes. I suspect this is because (just like in other patriarchal value systems) they probably have most to gain from it. The promotion of political violence plays, sometimes in the extreme, with behaviours that feed off and feed into social conditioning around gender and power, and, to be frank, we run the risk of creating monsters! (...)»
***
«(...)It is not totally true to say that the black bloc only works in “closed and paranoid groups”. Perhaps in Strasbourg, where there was a more marked “affinity group” structure, it was more true than during “spontaneous” riots, as seen for example, in some social struggles in France in recent years, where it has sometimes been quite easy to meet and act together in the heat of the moment. But even in the black bloc in Strasbourg, I know that people who didn't know each other worked together spontaneously on some action or another. An illustration of this is the Thursday demonstration with the people from the local housing estate... Paranoias and closed groups do exist, but they exist in part because of the police, and the probability of infiltration and arrest, at least when dealing with certain types of action. This should not prevent us from actively trying to maintain much more accessible spaces and forms of struggle, but any attempt to be more open and honest and raise questions and reflections about things we do not usually talk about must take place in this context: just as both your text and mine must be written anonymously!
It is therefore difficult to find space for debate in which we don't risk creating splits and disassociations or revealing our weaknesses and other information that could be useful to our enemies. Criticisms, especially self-criticisms of “violence” are hard to hear. They come at a time when we are bombarded constantly with a strong condemnation of any means dubbed “violent” used in confrontation with State and economic violence. We hear over and over again that “violence” is a dead end, that it's contradictory, that it will just attract repression... States are trying to define any action that might weaken those in power as “terrorist”, and to create a dividing line between acceptable, non-violent demonstrators and the “evil hooligans”, “banlieue savages” or “anarcho-autonome”. It is therefore crucial to keep our options open, maintain a variety of tools for struggles and not be reduced to being “totally harmless”. In this context it is logical that we focus on defending the possibilities for and necessity of using violent tactics when necessary. In the face of attacks from all sides, it is natural that we are reluctant to add new doubts. But perhaps we can also hope that “benevolent” critiques from within the movement could help to bring us closer to people who often keep their distance after hitting an intransigent ideological wall.
In this tense atmosphere of sometimes justified paranoia we should not allow ourselves to be painted into corners. There are very few meetings or assemblies in our circles where we haven't taken sides, where we are free to discuss the complex relationships to and thoughts we have about what we do; where we can express the passion and drive as well as the doubt and the sense of futility. We are quick to condemn and quick to label in our desperate hunt for identity and strength, and in this context, most of us are very careful what doubts we will admit to having, because we do believe in confrontation, and we do want to participate in social war, and we don't want to be excluded from this milleu of militants, where one incautious admission or question could have us tarred-and-feathered as a pacifist or a traitor.
However, this radical one-upmanship often proves to be counter productive, if the idea is to overcome our fears in the long term. A high percentage of people quietly disappear from our movements all over Europe. Too many people burn out or give up with their first taste of real fear or repression. This is what can happen when we push our rhetoric beyond what we are really capable of assuming in our actions, and deny or bottle up our fears instead of pushing through them. Until people still talk really big, but increasingly there are mysteriously often not enough people available to follow through with a plan on the night.
Turning the rhetoric of the “world civil war against life” into action means more than simply recreating a momentary image of the glorious, exiting heroic parts of war, like a Hollywood movie. Strategic lucidity demands that we don't simply crystallise our struggle in a series of spectacular, climactic moments, but that we also consider the complexity of steps, preconditions, and encounters that allow these resistances to exist and give them meaning. Without denying the reality of social war, we cannot hide the fact that an increase in violence does not only bring seeds of emancipatory intensity. It also leads to all sides of the conflict closing themselves into sterile and vengeful dynamics. Most wars are, in a large part made up of a lot of boredom, stupidity and random cruelty; often punctuated by fear and even death... These evidences are no more emancipatory than they are attractive and we should neither glorify them nor turn a blind eye to them.
However, we could doubtless paralyse ourselves with self-criticism if we seek too much coherence in our actions, instead of trying to give them most leverage. We're born into a politically individualistic environment with a low sense of collective commitment and collective beliefs, and little faith in the possibility of a revolutionary process, or an alternative social system. But if we manage to rebuild some kind of persistent involvement and strength out of our post-modern fragility, without falling into some of the religious and ideological traps of past revolutionary movements, we may find the subtle balance necessary to keep going in the long term and to avoid the massive burnouts, desertions and side-changing experienced by previous generations. (...)»
Annexe...
This is a communiqué produced by “a few 'rioters' from an affinty group that took part in the black bloc”. It was published on April 8th 2009 along with a “flurry of worthy quotes” taken from the media coverage of the NATO summit. We thought it was interesting to include it as a comliment to the texts published here. It is also available as a brochure in French, together with the media quotes at http://infokiosques.net/spip.php?article684
***
appendix...
« L’insurrection désoriente les partis politiques. Leur doctrine, en effet, a toujours affirmé l’inefficacité de toute épreuve de force et leur existence même est une constante condamnation de toute insurrection »*
Franz Fanon Les damnés de la terre,
[The Wretched of the Earth] 1961.
“Otan en emportent
les black blocks”
(Black Bloc communiqué,
Strasbourg anti-NATO, April 2009)
* Insurrection disorientates all political parties. Their doctrine, has indeed, always affirmed the ineffectiveness of any test of strength a their very existence is a constant denial of all insurrection
1.Events in Strasbourg were relatively easy to predict and probably unavoidable. Nevertheless, as in the aftermath of every counter-summit where people have had a good riot, the great and the good on both the left and right cry foul. Accusations fly that someone must have let the rioters get away with it or incited them. Some even go so far as to suggest that someone Machiavellian was the organising mind behind their actions. All political parties, even on the far-left, are suddenly competing to become the mouth piece for the most disgusting securitarian discourse. Explicitly or implicitly they regret the powerlessness of the police in the face of riotous acts. Finally it is always the same old story, an idea that is, at heart, shared by all of them, from the UMP to the Socialist party, from Attac to the National Front: it is impossible that people could be angry enough to start a riot themselves. These people must have been manipulated in some way.
2.We repeat what was already said in July 2001 following the riots in Genoa during the G8 summit: we don't need leaders to provoke us to revolt and struggle. On Saturday 4th April 2009 in Strasbourg, if we broke shop windows; if we set fires in buildings that serve the State and capitalism, (border control point, banks, a petrol station, tourism office, Hotel Ibis, etc.); If we destroyed video cameras and advertising hoardings; if we attacked the police, it is not because an occult organisation told us to do so, but because we deliberately chose it ourselves.
3.If we were able to act in this way, it is not because the police allowed us to, it is because we were several hundred, or even thousands: the infamous “international black block”! It is because the cops are not totally robots, they are human and they can feel fear too. The police probably could have tried to stop the riots faster, by shooting more at the people than just gas, baton rounds and concussion grenades. However, even in the Sarkozy-esque democracy of France today, it is not yet the done thing to kill demonstrators. On the 8th April 2009 Luc Chatel declared that “the government's priority was to ensure no one died”. We are not yet a sufficient threat to their regime for that.
4.If we only acted in poor neighbourhoods around Strasbourg's industrial port it is because we lacked the strength or finesse necessary to reach the town centre. The police and the army were fiercely protecting the infamous red zone (the town centre and the bourgeois areas of the city). However, no one can seriously believe that we would not have been a lot more formidable if we had made it to those richer neighbourhoods. Despite the media hype, only institutional or commercial buildings were attacked, in the poor areas, things belonging to the local population were left untouched.
Our fight is against power, not against those who suffer as a result of power.
5.The press and politicians try to portray the black bloc as nihilistic and bloody vandals. But the praxis of the black blocs are not limited to acts of destruction (just as our lives are not limited the black bloc, which is just a momentary and contextualised form of protest.) Black blocs practice mutual aid and complicity with all demonstrators in confronting, defending ourselves, and running away from the cops.
In a riot a spontaneous and anonymous solidarity is created, authentic in the sense that no gesture requires anything in return. There are are two worlds that oppose each other in their choices and behaviours: on the one side the determined demonstrators who are here because of their convictions, desires and rage, living truly and freely. On the other side, cops under oath who are here out of a duty to orders and money, who are paid to repress and trained to think as little as possible about what it is that they do (the risk of them resigning would be to high).
6.We are all concerned by what was discussed at the NATO summit in Strasbourg. The post-colonial war led by the Western superpowers, and their internal war against the “enemy within” make us sick. Social control, management of migration flows, reinforcement of the police, improved intelligence and registration of the population... that is what we rose up against.
7.Those in power aim to continue the imposition of capitalist democracy on everyone as the only possible form of social organisation. Despite the shitty lives we live, despite the tottering of the capitalist empire in recent times, revolutionary perspectives seem so far away that we can only even imagine them with difficulty. And yet, the deeply counter-revolutionary resignation or our times is not an inevitability. It is a big challenge to manages to emancipate oneself from capitalism, through struggle and mutual aid, and that emancipation cannot coexist with capitalist and state power.
8.Knowing that another world cannot be possible without the total collapse of the globalised capitalist democratic system; knowing that “all the dominant classes will continue to defend their privileges to the bitter end with dogged perseverance and energy” (Rosa Luxumbourg, What does the Spartacus League Want? 1918), it seem to us that sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction (to cite the sensationalist terms used by the media) at the heart of this world of oppression and social control is not so problematic. In fact, it seems to me that it is not nearly enough.
There is no possibility for revolutionary transformation of this world without a tangible power struggle. It is the task of the dominated to build new bases for social life with out waiting for the consent of our dominators.
9.Recent years have been dotted with uprisings that have clearly worried those in power: riots in poor neighbourhoods in November 2005, the anti-CPE movement in spring 2006, anti-Sarkozy riots around the presidential elections in 2007, the high-school student mobilisations of 2007-2008, and lately the French state expressed their growing concern over the Greek uprising that verged on insurrection.
Just as with the Black Bloc in Strasbourg, the media focused on how young these movements were, as though trying to reduce revolt to a generational phenomena (with all the condescending remarks along the lines of: “ just you wait, in ten years, you will have forgotten all that and you will be resigned to your fate like the rest of us”).
We believe that there is an inherent danger in this attitude that needs to be overcome. An insurrection (not to mention a revolution) cannot be undertaken by the youth alone. Like the class struggle, it should be transversal and lived by all, beyond differences of age, skin colour, gender, trade, etc. In full consciousness of the dominations and oppressions.
10.Although we are clear that overthrowing power will take more than being content to peacefully demonstrate, however many millions of people we may be, we are equally aware that a few thousand people attacking the police and vandalising state or capitalist property will not be enough.
If we were several millions it might look a bit better. All the technologies of repression and control might be not enough to contain the generalised rage.
But until then, what we do is put in place and spread common practices of resistance, specific kinds of solidarity and forms of struggle that are illegal and have a revolutionary perspective... A full kit of ideas for bringing an end to the old world with its technologies from a future that is already rotten.
Somewhere in France, 8th April 2009
A few “rioters” from an affinity group that was
active inside the Black Bloc on the
4th April 2009 in Strasbourg.
This text, like the extracts from responses that follow, is written in the first person, as though it were the thoughts of one person and the responses of a series of others. In fact these people do not exist. All the texts contain many different voices merged together from different languages, countries and political cultures. The first is taken mainly from conversations after the 2009 anti-NATO convergence in Strasbourg and extracts from other writings by different people at different times. The responses are compiled from conversations and correspondences with people who had read it.
These texts were published on Indymedia in July 2009 after wehave burnt everything...Correspondences about revolutionary strategy and emotions(written after the NATO summitin Strasbourg, April 2009)@nti-copyrightCONTENTS:1. letter2. interlude3. responses(selected extracts)4. appendix“otan en emportent les black blocs”(a black block communique, Strasbourg, April 2009)letter...For ten years I have run with the black bloc, seizing every chance, every moment we were strong enough, to run riot and fill the air with the sound of breaking glass and baton rounds, and the heady smells of adrenaline, gasoline, testosterone and teargas. For ten years I have stood up for the “diversity of tactics” and pushed for radicalization: from social movement to social struggle to social war. So this text is difficult for me to write...During the days in Strasbourg I was always in or close to the black bloc-style actions, because that is where my affinity lies. For me it was appropriate to react to Police complicity in yet another death, this time at the G20 demonstrations in London; we were right to be angry at the way the demonstration in Strasbourg was relegated to an abandoned industrial estate and divided by thousands of riot police across the French-German border; I supported the decision to fight the police to try to break out of the space they had pushed us into with their negotiations and their crowd control weapons, and to try to take our actions somewhere more meaningful; and it filled me with joy to see the border post burn.Even the Ibis Hotel action made me smile. It is a more complex issue: I don't think our actions on Saturday (or possibly ever?) are worth risking someone being seriously hurt for. However, I understand that no one was hurt in the action, and it is important to remember that the Hotel was part of the NATO summit, one of five Hotels in Strasbourg publicly set aside to house the thousands of journalists there to cover the “celebrations”, and a place from which police were spying on the demonstrators. So, even if we ignore the fact that Ibis profit from the deportations of sans papier, it is difficult to say that it was not a legitimate target.But despite all that, the experience of that week left me feeling uncomfortable, alienated and confused. We took advantage of a peace march to make it look like war... We used the camp space, ate the food, and shat in the toilets. But, compared to previous self-managed events and camps, our participation in the village life was mostly limited to drinking beer, hiding in closed action meetings, or fighting the cops around the camp-site, building burning barricades, and making it look like war... And through it all I found myself questioning more and more how our actions relate to our politics, ourselves, our interactions and our values.I am not saying that we were wrong to behave the way we did. I have long been critical of the tendency to pour so much energy into building up “activist service industries” (legal support, medical teams, camp organisation, independent media, etc) until there is almost no one left to do the (in the end mostly symbolic) actions. In that sense, Strasbourg was a welcome change. But our arrogance disturbed me. There was no interest in participating, explaining, or at least showing some recognition of being part of a common dynamic, where people focussing on different things makes it possible for the whole action to happen and be powerful. The focus, perhaps the only interest, was in violent confrontation. And we seem to look down on anyone who questions or does not immediately understand why we think and act the way we do.As usual, in the days after the demonstration in Strasbourg, the leaders of the dead-in-the-water political parties of the left denounced and disassociated themselves from the “violent minority” and the pacifists decried their actions “ruined” by hooligans with no political ideas. It is always frustrating to read those comments, and it easily creates the “them and us” divide that enables us to despise the “democrats” and “reformists” who take their symbolic actions and then go back to a comfortable bourgeois life. But at the same time I was embarrassed by the lack of respect or interest shown by the black bloc for the other participants in the anti-NATO actions, particularly because while they could do their actions without us, we could not have done our actions without them.Sure, we are sexy, all dressed in black, striking yet another riot-porn pose for the cameras. But we really were only a small part of a big whole. It is ironic that the black bloc, who criticise the media so much, are also the first to accept the hype that makes breaking windows and burning garbage the only focus of the day. It is important to recognize that if it were not for the infrastructure provided by the camp organizers (which we mostly consumed), if it were not for the extremely hard work done by the legal team, which included negotiations with the police and creating legal and political pressure (which we scorn), and if it were not for the political and physical protection offered by the presence of thousands of protesters many of whom have political views and ways of acting different from our own, it would not have been possible to burn the border, destroy the cameras, or attack the police in the way that we did.I saw groups of pacifists, elderly people, people with children, running terrified from tear gas, flash-balls and stones (because there are always people who don't look who they are throwing at, or idiots who throw from the back and usually just hit the first line of protesters!) And for the first time I wondered what it must feel like to be on the outside of the black bloc.We organised in whispered meetings in small, closed, paranoid groups. If you are not on the inside there is almost no possibility to participate. Yet we take our actions into spaces (like the demonstration) where they directly affect people who have had no opportunity to dialogue, to doubt, to debate or to decide. And we expect them to assume the consequences. We expect them not to publicly criticise, but we give them very little opportunity to criticise in private. We expect them not to disassociate from something they were not, in fact, involved in planning or perpetrating. We expect them to respect our political position and forms of action, while we often behave in ways that suggest we have no respect for or interest in theirs.I am not a hippy. I am not a pacifist. I do not believe the State, the corporations, the Armies and Police, will one day, if exposed to enough information or enough persuasion, be convinced to put down their arms, their power, their assault on the earth and those who populate it. I do not think peaceful protest “works”. Actually neither am I convinced that violent action “works”, since our violence will always be less than theirs by dint of their access to new technologies, manpower and weapons. But I am prepared to do both since struggle we must, or give up.I feel maybe I am older than a lot of the people who were in the black bloc in Strasbourg. I come from the generation that took to the streets and fought for the sheer mad joy of it in the mid-1990s. I guess I come from an age of innocence: before the death of Carlo Giuliani, before they called us terrorists, before all our creativity was swallowed into the meaninglessness of the "mass movement" at the Heiligendamm blockades, or the political emptiness of the ESF. I remember a time when we trusted, and sometimes we even felt like we had something to win. In that context, the “diversity of tactics” meant a willingness to consider all the forms of action available to reach our aims. But for that, we had to have aims...One thing that alienated me in Strasbourg was that I was no longer sure what our aims were. The people involved in black bloc tactics did not seem interested in the blockades of the summit, or in other, less predictable actions; only in the demonstration. According to our own analysis, demonstrations are a poor substitute for “direct action”. But we put our energy into creating the space, or the situation, where we could riot (even if the only place we could do that was in an empty industrial estate miles from anywhere). The success or failure of the action, it seems, can be measured by how many rocks were thrown, how many bins were burnt, how much glass was broken, or how many cops were injured.Riot ceases to be a tactic and becomes an end in itself. We do not need political arguments to defend or define our actions. Our actions are our political arguments: they require no more context than capitalism itself in all its forms, and they speak for and define themselves.Which in some ways is good. Politics should come from the gut, not just from the head. But if we only use poetic, insurrectionist calls to arms such as apell (call) or ai ferri corti (at daggers drawn) to define what we do, then we end up abstracting our actions from reality. When I got home I re-read a book I'd read a long time ago, The Demon Lover: On the sexuality of terrorism, by Robin Morgan (ex-Weathermen). She describes the process of radicalising struggles as:“...leading to an ends-justify-the-means attitude. As abstractions proliferate, the original issues are likely to be forgotten entirely...Rhetoric, 'turf', tools and weapons, uniforms, become fetishes of the manhood identity...The shift from living for a cause – e.g. fighting to enhance quality of living - to dying for a cause now locks into place. Violence. Those who question it are traitors...A politics of hope has become a politics of despair. The goal is now too abstract to be attainable, nor can manhood be satisfied by less. Cynicism sets in, as does the strategy of provocation and polarisation. What once aimed for a humanistic triumph now aims for a purist defeat.The State obliges.”It is a bleak picture she paints, of political violence as a dead-end street; by embracing violence, she says, we condemn ourselves to reproduce patterns of patriarchy, authority and masculine value systems in our actions, collectives and relationships until the bitter end. I rejected this book as pacifist garbage when I first read it, but now it makes me think.Sometimes it feels like our weakness, lack of direction, and lack of advance, creates a culture where we close ourselves into a political aesthetic (not even an ideology!) and limit what we can do, what we can say, and what forms of action are militant enough to be acceptable. We close ourselves off from complexity. We leave no room for doubts or questions. There is no assembly, no forum, no spokespeople, so our only form of political communication is our actions and the images they project. We create ourselves in the image of the black-clad urban guerilla; we give symbolic meaning to what is often only violent indirect action (as opposed to non-violent direct action) by creating the momentary image of the civil war that capitalism wages on life... But we should be able to be honest and sincere about the content of what we do, otherwise we will end up being all about image.Under the shade of an oak tree we talk in whispers. My jaw is tight with the thrill of conspiracy, and with... pride. The secrecy and self importance that surrounds this group is infectious. In my pent up frustration at the ever deepening desert of the existent I am won over by their power, their language, and their arrogant conviction that they are right. My need to do something, anything, is seduced by their militance. I am honoured that they are talking to me, and I want to prove myself worthy of being part of this secret, self-important thing. So I learn fast, to speak this language of violence with confidence and hide my doubts and ambivalence like they do... but today I look at the faces of my compañeros, tight lipped and quick to disapprove, quick to condemn this or that breach of security, failure of militancy, or simple show of weakness. And I find an unexpected, stubborn and anti-authoritarian urge to say out loud “I am scared.”And maybe it is because I am getting older (and I see that the faces around me change: people get tired, burn out, disappear, while the average age of the kids taking to the street stays the same). Or maybe it is because beneath my black hood, and behind my mask, I am still a woman. And, like it or not, as a woman I worked hard for my militant credentials, said the right things, and proved myself time and time again through trial by fire. But the masculine, insurrectionist values of unswerving ideological conviction and willingness to hurt for the cause do not always come naturally to me.And if |
of the largest school districts in the state, said, "So far, the only thing that the legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been marijuana."
The VS Strategies report, based on publicly available data from the Colorado Department of Revenue, shows that $117.9 million in marijuana taxes has been used to fund school construction projects, and an additional $5.7 million was distributed to the Public School Fund in fiscal years 2015-16 and 2016-17. "Schools need to apply for that money," Tvert says. "That money has gone to all sorts of schools – mostly schools that need the money for construction projects."
Bull's quote in Hunt's op-ed came from a public letter he wrote in 2016. He declined to be interviewed.
Hunt also believes that legalization has hurt minority youth, writing:
According to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, arrests in Colorado of black and Latino youth for marijuana possession have increased 58% and 29% respectively after legalization. This means that Black and Latino youth are being arrested more for marijuana possession after it became legal.
"This is a much a broader social issue involving police practices and where police tend to be patrolling, whether police make arrests or they give out warnings," Tvert says. According to the Denver Police Department, arrests for adults of all races was cut in half from 2014 to 2016, the same year the statistic that Hunt references was released.
"He doesn't talk about how many people were found guilty. A lot of those arrests ended with pre-trial diversion," Singer adds.
But for critics, the most questionable information Hunt decided to use in his op-ed was data from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Report, in a study that's been widely criticized by media and public-health officials. Hunt wrote this:
Since legalizing marijuana, Colorado's youth marijuana use rate is the highest in the nation, 74% higher than the national average, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Report. This is having terribly negative effects on the education of our youth.
"Every report needs to be looked at with its own limitations," says Singer. "This study changed its own rules for analysis halfway through the game. There's so many limitations to that study that it's important to look at it in its context. Take a look at our own validated Healthy Kids survey that's national recognized, and see what that shows."
On multiple pages, the RMHIDTA report notes that data from years past, especially those before 2012, is incomplete for studies on marijuana-related traffic fatalities and emergency department visits. Washington Governor Jay Inslee called the RMHIDTA "incomplete and unreliable data that does not provide the most accurate snapshot" in a statement released August 4.
The Healthy Kids Colorado Survey that Singer cites was a CDPHE study conducted from 2009 to 2015 on marijuana use by middle- and high-school students. It found that youth marijuana use remained relatively unchanged during the time span, and that Colorado's youth had a lower rate of current marijuana use than the national average.
In his op-ed, Hunt ignored a few benefits that marijuana has brought Colorado: the $420,000 from local marijuana tax revenue that Pueblo County used to help send 210 kids to college; the 20 percent of the City of Edgewater's budget that came from marijuana taxes in 2016; the Aurora homeless shelter that could open thanks to $900,000 from marijuana tax revenue, part of a $1.5 million plan to use those funds to fight the city's homelessness problem. And don't forget the state's youth dropout prevention program that was partially funded by marijuana revenue.
To be fair, Hunt was speaking from experience when he wrote about his dislike of marijuana. In an interview with Westword in May, Hunt said that he smoked pot in eighth grade, killing his grades and short-term memory in the process. After kicking the habit, he still kept in touch with some of his friends, and has "watched the drug wreak havoc on their lives ever since," Hunt told us.
Does Hunt's bad experience with marijuana outweigh the views of 61 percent of Americans who supported federal marijuana legalization in Quinnipiac's most recent national poll? Not judging from the comments pouring into USA Today, including this from Mark:On September 24, about 2,000 people attended Terrapin Beer Co.’s seventh annual Hop Harvest Festival in Athens, Ga., one of numerous fresh hop celebrations across the country, from the Fresh Hop Ale Festival in Yakima, Wash., to the Long Island Fresh Hop Festival. This year, Terrapin’s So Fresh & So Green, Green was brewed with US Styrian Goldings flown in overnight from the Yakima Valley.
Since premiering in 2010, the beer’s production has increased from a single 100-barrel batch to three times that. And Dustin Watts, Terrapin’s vice president of marketing, thinks the upward trend will continue across the industry. “Bringing it back to the agricultural side of beer and talking about ingredients on a deeper level—it’s the brewery’s perfect chance to tell the farm-to-glass story.”
There is an important distinction between “fresh” and “wet” hops, says Jaki Brophy of the Washington Hop Commission and Hop Growers of America. “Wet hops are just that—wet, unkilned hops. They are picked and then go straight to a brewery and must be brewed 24 – 48 hours max after they are picked,” she says. Fresh hops, on the other hand, have been freshly picked and kiln dried. While both pack a bigger punch than standard whole-leaf hops or pellets, wet hops have a vegetative quality that Brophy describes as tasting “neon green.”
Breweries like Terrapin without an abundant supply of locally grown hops often contract through suppliers like Yakima Chief – Hopunion (YCH), which has a Green Hops program. “YCH saw a big demand push around 2011 – 2013 that has leveled off,” says Brophy. “As more small farms are popping up across the country, it seems that breweries are looking to local sources for fresh hops if they have a good supply.”
That’s easier for many in the Pacific Northwest. “Now, most Oregon breweries, if not all, are brewing fresh hop beers,” says Deschutes brewmaster Veronica Vega. Since 2005, the Bend, Ore., brewery has brewed Hop Trip: A Fresh Hop Pale Ale with Crystal hops from the Willamette Valley’s Sodbuster Farms. In 2012, it introduced Chasin’ Freshies, an IPA brewed with a new varietal (and farm supplier) each season. “Brewing eight different fresh hop beers each year at our pubs also allows us to work with multiple farms and hop varieties from the start of harvest through the end,” Vega says. “Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to really find out what beer styles work best with each hop variety.”
As more breweries showcase fresh hops, expect more experimentation, says Brophy, from “how they alter the fresh hops before brewing with them” to “more beer styles being brewed with wet hops.”
Take Breakside Brewery, in Portland, Ore., for example. Here, brewmaster Ben Edmunds brings liquid nitrogen into the mix—flash freezing and then shattering his wet hops to better expose the lupulin glands. “It’s helped us achieve more varietal-specific aromas and flavors and less vegetal character,” he explains. ■A potential Pac-12 Championship Game preview is on tap on Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City, as Utah hosts undefeated Washington in one of three matchups featuring ranked teams in Week 9.
The Huskies are positioned for a run at a playoff spot, sitting No. 4 in the latest Associated Press poll and one week away from the first set of rankings from the playoff committee. Of course, Washington still has plenty of remaining hurdles on the schedule, but coach Chris Petersen has brought significant improvement to this program in just his third year on the job in Seattle. Barring a surprise or major shake up in the rankings, the Huskies are the Pac-12’s best bet to reach the playoff. This team has cruised to a 7-0 start behind a balanced (and improving) offense, while the defense continues to make its case as the best in the Pac-12. Only one of Washington’s victories was decided by 24 points or less (an overtime win at Arizona), and Petersen’s team thoroughly dominated Stanford and Oregon by a combined score of 114-27.
While all of the attention in the Pac-12 has been focused on Washington and the downfall of Stanford and Oregon this year, Utah quietly continues to impress under coach Kyle Whittingham. The Utes tied for the Pac-12 South division title last year, losing the tiebreaker after a head-to-head defeat against USC. Utah is tied with Colorado at 4-1 in league play so far in 2016, adding extra importance to the Nov. 26 showdown against the Buffaloes in Boulder. Junior college recruit (and former Washington signal-caller) Troy Williams has provided a spark to the passing game, while running back Joe Williams has returned from an early-season retirement to save a rushing attack that was hit hard by injuries. And as usual, Utah boasts one of the Pac-12’s top defenses. The Utes limit opponents to 24 points a game. Utah’s only loss in 2016 was a 28-23 defeat at California, and the Utes have won four games by a touchdown or less.
Washington holds an 8-1 series edge over Utah. The Huskies are 1-0 in matchups against the Utes in Salt Lake City. These two teams have only played three times since 1979.
Washington at Utah
Kickoff: Saturday, Oct. 29 at 3:30 p.m. ET
TV Channel: FOX
Spread: Washington -10
Three Things to Watch
1. Joe Williams Against Washington’s Defense
The return of Utah running back Joe Williams is one of the best storylines from the Pac-12’s 2016 season. The senior was held to 49 yards on 12 carries against Southern Utah and managed only 26 on 10 attempts against BYU in Week 2. Williams decided to retire following the second game but returned to the team after a rash of injuries hit the backfield prior to the game at Oregon State. Over the last two weeks, Williams has rushed for 511 yards and five touchdowns, averaging a whopping 11.5 yards per rush in last week’s win over UCLA. The Utes rank fifth in the Pac-12 by averaging 214.4 rushing yards per game but face a stiff test against Washington’s defense. The Huskies are holding opponents to 145.4 rushing yards per game and just 3.8 yards per carry. Standout rush end/linebacker Joe Mathis is sidelined with a foot injury, but the Huskies have a strong foundation in place in the front seven. Azeem Victor is one of the Pac-12’s top linebackers, with Greg Gaines, Vita Vea and Elijah Qualls anchoring a stout defensive line. Utah’s offensive line has also dealt with its share of injuries this year, but this unit seems to be jelling as the final stretch of the 2016 season approaches. The left side of the line is the strength of this unit, anchored by left tackle Garett Bolles and guard Isaac Asiata.
While quarterback Troy Williams has added more of a big-play element to the passing game, Utah is still a run-first offense and needs to stay out of third-and-long situations. Establishing the run also helps to open up play-action passes. In order to knock off the Huskies, the Utes have to win first downs and get Williams over 100 yards for the third consecutive game.
Related: Predictions for Every College Football Game in Week 9
2. The Quarterbacks
As mentioned in the previous section, Troy Williams has provided a spark for Utah’s passing game. The Utes ranked 11th in the Pac-12 last season, averaging 180 yards per game. Through eight games in 2016, Utah ranks ninth with an average of 218.6 per contest. A deeper look at the numbers shows how much of an impact Williams has made in the passing game. Utah has connected 10 passing plays of 40 yards or more after only connecting on six all of last season. Through eight games this year, Williams has passed for 1,725 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for 145 yards and five scores on 68 attempts. This game is also personal for Williams. He started his career at Washington before transferring to Santa Monica College. Getting revenge against his former team is plenty of motivation for Williams, but this is not an easy matchup for Utah’s passing game. The Huskies rank third in the Pac-12 in pass efficiency defense and have allowed only five passing scores all year. Cornerback Sidney Jones is a lockdown cover option, while safety Budda Baker is an All-American candidate. With Washington likely to stack the box and force Utah’s passing game to win it, can Williams make enough throws (or plays with his legs) to keep the chains moving?
On the other sideline, Washington sophomore quarterback Jake Browning has emerged as a contender for the Heisman Trophy in his second year as the starter. Through seven games this season, Browning has completed 118 of 172 throws (68.6 percent) for 1,709 yards and 26 scores. The sophomore has tossed only two picks and ranks second among Pac-12 quarterbacks with seven passes of 40 yards or more. In addition to Browning’s development, a key reason for the improvement in Washington’s passing offense is the return of receiver John Ross from injury. After missing all of 2015 due to injury, Ross has added a big-play element to this offense (14.3 ypc and nine scores). Utah’s defense will counter with a solid pass rush (22 sacks) and a secondary that ranks fifth in the Pac-12 in efficiency defense. However, the Utes have two big injury concerns. Safety Marcus Williams – one of the Pac-12’s top defensive backs – did not play against UCLA and is likely out for Saturday’s game against Washington. Additionally, cornerback Dominique Hatfield left last week’s contest due to injury. Hatfield is listed on the depth chart for Saturday’s game, so the senior should be available for coach Kyle Whittingham’s defense. No opponent has found the right answers to stop Washington’s passing game this year. The Utes can counter with a strong front four and a secondary that has been opportunistic (14 picks). This matchup favors Browning, but Utah’s defense at home is allowing only 17.3 points a game.
3. Turnover Margin
Considering how dominant Washington has been this year, it should be no surprise the Huskies are a 10-point (or more) favorite in the odds this week. How can Utah close that gap on the scoreboard? Keep an eye on the turnover battle. Washington ranks first in the Pac-12 at plus-14, with only five lost turnovers this fall. Utah isn’t far behind at plus-eight and managed to overcome a minus-three margin in a 20-19 win against BYU in Week 2. The Utes have been plus-three in two games (Arizona and UCLA) and lead the Pac-12 with 22 forced takeaways. Washington has not posted a negative turnover margin in a conference game since Nov. 14, 2015 against Oregon State. In order to knock the Huskies from the ranks of the unbeaten, Utah has to win the turnover battle and force a couple of takeaways from a Washington team that has not lost more than one turnover in a game this year.
Final Analysis
Strange things or upsets always happen on the road in conference play – especially when the home team (Utah) isn’t getting much respect from Vegas. Coach Kyle Whittingham can certainly use the lack of respect as a motivation angle for his team this week. However, the Utes shouldn’t need much motivation with the nation’s No. 4 team coming to town. The road environment in Salt Lake City and defense of Utah should give Washington its share of trouble early. However, quarterback Jake Browning and running back Myles Gaskin eventually settle and put together a few drives at the end of the first half. The Huskes have too much firepower on offense, and the defense keeps Joe Williams under wraps on the ground to take the victory.
Prediction: Washington 30, Utah 20GO TO RPMWEST.COM
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“I’m 41, and I’m single,” Louis C.K. said in introducing himself on Louie (FX, Tuesdays at 11 p.m. ET). He was holding a mic onstage at the Comedy Cellar, where the color of the exposed brick colluded with the lighting so that he took on the purple sheen of an uncommon pigeon. He went on to offer a clarification: “Mmmm—not really single, just alone.” He dragged out that last word with a strain indicating the precise weight of its meaning. Woeful but not self-pitying, his intonation was a generalized metaphysical moan, and it declared that his relationship status coincided with a particular state of being and nothingness. Having suffered the death of much of his optimism, Louis C.K. is feeling alone in the universe.
Indeed, he dwells lavishly on his mortality. The show’s theme song rewrites the chorus of “Brother Louie” so that the mondegreen is actually there—”Louie, Louie, you’re gonna die”—and elsewhere he roars, with a hard chuckle, “There’s never gonna be another year of my life that was better than the year before.” But the wonder of the situation is that there’s something life-affirming in the very way he dwells.
Louis C.K.—or, more precisely, the comic persona we see him deploy in segments of his consistently excellent stand-up act and in uneven short films amounting to blurts of surrealistic autobiography—isn’t especially jaded or anxious. Though his sensibility is streetwise East Coast urban, he’s not a self-dramatizing neurotic like Jerry Seinfeld or Woody Allen. Rather, he’s a regular guy with a lot of well-worn nerves, just a bit more introspective that most.
The crux of the shtick is that he’s free of illusions—wide-eyed and accepting of the cruelty and meaninglessness of it all—but not actually disillusioned. Though he derives a giddy pleasure from hating other people (what’s not to hate?), he is too kind a soul to let himself degenerate into terminal misanthropy (what’s the use?). Though he lacks the smugness of a moralist, his jokes about the privileges he’s lucked into have a moral core. Here is a man who laughs with bitter amazement at the fact that people are starving in the world while he’s driving an Infiniti. In his hands, even a line about having sex with monkeys—a delightfully rude roundabout way to ponder the psychology of desire—turns on a consideration of ethical living that is more than halfway serious. He jokes that his only objection to bestiality concerns the problem of obtaining consent: “If you can get an animal horny, go ahead, man.”
It is as if, beneath the anger that every good comedian must cultivate and cherish, he’s achieved a kind of philosophical peace. Having meditated on the world’s absurd injustices, he greets them with absurdity in kind. In all, the outlook qualifies him as a kind of existential hero.
Louie’s line about his aloneness led straight to the central fact of his nonmarried life: He shares custody of his two young daughters. Despite his copious raunchy material about sex and sexuality and his risky observations about race and racism, this comedian is most daring when approaching taboos about parenting and the way parents are supposed to talk about their kids. His lack of sentimentality is sterling. In a short film imagining an apocalyptically awkward first date, Louie’s sole moment of dignity comes after the date in question, automatically sappy as most of us are, goes, “Awww!” upon hearing that he has two girls. He does good deadpan bafflement in response to her so-cute coos: “What? Have you seen them?”
Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.Editor’s note: It’s an honor to host the following guest post on the perils of science blogging in the modern media age by my distinguished colleague Mary Knudson. Mary is my co-editor for the book, A Field Guide for Science Writers, worked for 17 years as a medical writer for The Baltimore Sun and currently teaches science and medical writing at Johns Hopkins University. As noted in the post below, she is also author of the highly praised book, Living Well with Heart Failure.
When U.S. News and World Report invited me to write a weekly blog on heart failure and other heart issues at its website, I looked forward to building a following of people with heart failure and their families and other members of the public and perhaps some health professionals interested in this growing health problem. My first blog post and an accompanying sidebar on what the blog would be about were ready to go public at usnews.com at 9 a.m. on September 23.
Shortly before that time, by clicking on the titles of the two posts which I found listed on the right side of the page under “recent posts”, I could see the first third of the blog post and sidebar. Surprised to see a number of highlighted words in the text of both the story and sidebar, I hovered over them and was shocked to see what jumped out. First was the picture of a man’s face and the message with it told me to support him for senator. Next out came an ad for baby lotion for diaper rash. And then springing from a word in my story on heart failure was a direct link to a website that sells genetic tests. Whoa! I’m sending my readers to a company that sells genetic tests? A journalist could write a story warning consumers to beware of genetic tests because of their limitations and shortcomings. These links from my story to commercial products were unacceptable to me. I couldn’t have ads jumping out of the words of my blog post. I consider that U.S. News, a well-known weekly news magazine, has crossed the line that is supposed to separate advertising from news and editorial content. I told the magazine this and said not to publish my blog with ads popping out of it. This separation of advertising and editorial content is a long-held tenet of journalism.
I discovered that I had no control over what words in my blog post would trigger sending readers to other sites or what sites they were sent to. I only had access to the first third of my blog posts that were about to go public, so I don’t know how many other ads may have been imbedded in my story without my permission.
I co-authored the recently published book Living Well With Heart Failure, the Misnamed, Misunderstood Condition, which is why U.S. News invited me to blog on heart failure. But I found that the words “heart failure” which likely would appear in each of my blog posts and sometimes more than once in the same post automatically sent a reader to the Cleveland Clinic for an explanation of heart failure. I couldn’t provide my own sidebar on heart failure to link to or choose the site I would send my readers to for more information about heart failure? No. I was told by a producer at U.S. News that the magazine has “a partnership” with the Cleveland Clinic and that all stories across the health section of U.S. News will link to the Cleveland Clinic for certain words including “heart failure.” The producer said the magazine also has “partnerships” with a few other hospitals.
I have two objections to that. One is that U.S. News is well known for its special annual rankings of best hospitals. I would think that the magazine would consider it a conflict of interest to have a partnership with any of the hospitals it ranks. Wouldn’t a partnership between U.S. News and a hospital it ranks, that results in information routinely offered to readers by that hospital on the U.S. News website as part of news content, be interpreted as U.S. News favoring that hospital?
My second objection is that no partnership should overtake a blogger’s right to control what words in her blog will link elsewhere and where they will link. Regarding linking the words “heart failure”, it would not be fitting for me to link to a particular medical center, particularly the Cleveland Clinic. To explain, I was diagnosed with heart failure in 2003 and had a hard time finding good care. Once I did and started getting better, I asked my fourth cardiologist, Edward Kasper, to write a book with me that would alert the public to heart failure and try to find the truth as best we could about all aspects of heart failure. I eventually recovered and have a heart that works normally. Along the way I learned a lot that I wanted to pass on to others and I spent years researching and writing the book with Ed, who happens to be the clinical chief of cardiology at another pretty good hospital, the Johns Hopkins Hospital. U.S. News was running a picture of the cover of our book alongside my first blog post and had embedded in my accompanying bio a link to the book’s website.
I don’t intend to send my blog readers to Johns Hopkins Hospital for an explanation of heart failure, but I certainly didn’t need to send them to the Cleveland Clinic every week. Both Hopkins, rated as the #1 hospital in the U.S. News rankings, and the Cleveland Clinic, whose cardiology division is rated #1, are very visible in the U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings. The Cleveland Clinic touts its rating in huge print on the front of a book it has written on heart failure. I don’t want to get caught up in marketing wars. I just want to provide good information and good analysis about heart matters to my readers. I, like any blogger, should choose what words in my blog will link elsewhere and where they will link.
So, I said no to U.S. News and World Report because I could not accept the conditions they would force upon me as a blogger. I am a journalist. I will not fall in line and become a U.S. News Stepford wife.
I am currently setting up an independent blog HeartSense that will seek to find the truth as best I can about issues involving the heart and patient involvement and I will only create links to places I think will bring more information to readers about the topic I’m writing about. No ads will pop up at my readers.
I will miss not having a national audience for this blog and I do very much wish that there were a national network for health bloggers. My colleague Deborah Blum suggested to me that this might be a smart thing for the Association of Health Care Journalists to create. I agreed and passed the suggestion on to AHCJ leaders. I’ve recently learned that the California-based Reporting on Health is creating a blogging network. I hope that together we find a way to have a strong national network for health blogging that respects and defends the principles of journalism.Lilian Dikmans joins the team of authors at FIGHTMAG
When it comes to grace and excellence, with its foundational techniques in dance genres, the art of Ballet certainly governs the bill. Talking the beauty in the art of fighting, Muay Thai, known as “The Art of Eight Limbs”, similarly appears as the first string. Both disciplines are very technical and require years of training. A blend of two delivers a solid athletic base, furthermore a philosophical background, creating an ultimate beauty. Australian Lilian Dikmans applies such combination as one of the essential elements for success in the development of her career.
“I started Ballet when I was 4, and continued for 8 years up until high school when my academic studies took over,” says Melbourne-born Lilian Dikmans. “I went to classes a few times a week and had yearly exams and performances.”
“Ballet taught me discipline, focus and coordination. I also learnt how to keep my body flexible and strong.”
As many, Dikmans started Muay Thai only for fitness. Four years later she is victorious in three bouts.
“After seeing the fighters training at the gym, I wanted to try stepping it up. So I trained hard and got addicted. I never thought I’d fight.”
“Turning pro this year was definitely an achievement for me. I used to say Muay Thai was my hobby, but it’s a much larger part of my life now.”
The ground of Ballet brought Lilian Dikmans to the field of modelling. This is where she is signed with Vivien’s Models, being active for over a decade.
“I find that they [Muay Thai and Modeling] work quite well together. I do a lot of underwear and activewear work. Muay Thai training keeps my body in shape for that.”
“I focus on larger jobs such as TV commercials, which I think is more lucrative than fashion editorial. I also do a lot of fitness work with brands that want to shoot models who have an athletic background.”
“In addition I’ve been shooting a video content that incorporates Muay Thai and boxing. I would like to do more of this. Exposure in media gives an opportunity to encourage more girls to get into combat sports for fitness and self defense.”
With a degree in Law and Commerce, Dikmans also appears as a blogger, publishing the column called Real Food Healthy Body. A former lawyer now also joins the team of authors at FIGHTMAG.
“Each day is different for me. I’m either on a shoot, teaching at Tribute Boxing or at my computer creating content.”
“My blog has a health and wellness focus. I share recipes, fitness tips, details of my beauty regime. I want to keep developing it, writing more frequently.A.N:I wrote this during 3rd hour Science; can't you tell I was really bored? The first 2 paragraphs I had no idea where I was going with this, and then it just started writing itself...The last paragraph was supposed to make you want to play the game to find out who 'he' is.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
When the world has gone away,
you find the world is dark and gray.
The calm surrounds you, loud and clear,
you cling to that which you hold dear.
--
Your world is gone, there's nothing left,
where it was, there's now a cleft,
and the shadows are there, with no way out,
filling you to the brim with doubt.
--
Then out of the blackness, there comes a book
you open it and take a look
There is a picture, and strange words,
The picture moves, the waves surge
against a dock, a crow's nest floats
(those of which are found on boats)
A giant cog sits upon a hill;
you touch it and it all goes still.
--
The space around you whirls and spins,
you hear a noise, it does you in,
as you open your eyes, you see it all;
You're in the picture, you've answered his call...A pack of wild wolves has been photographed roaming just 30 miles from the German city of Hamburg, in a sign of the species' remarkable comeback in northern Europe.
Just two decades ago there were no wolves in Germany, after they were hunted to extinction in the early years of the 20th century.
But now the population has become so extensive that a trainee forestry official was able to photograph a pack of eight openly wandering a woodland path just 30 miles outside Germany's second largest city.
"The wolves were only 80 meters away from me," Robert de Mol, the 26-year-old trainee, told Bild newspaper. "They weren't afraid, but they were watching me. I was pretty excited."
Wolves were not deliberately reintroduced into the wild in Germany, but returned naturally. They were first spotted in 1998, after they wandered across the border from neighbouring Poland, and have since established a population of some 150 in eastern Germany.
Their numbers are now expanding into western parts of the country. Some 50 are believed to be roaming the state of Lower Saxony in five different packs, and there have been sightings as far west as North Rhine-Westphalia.
Though their presence has angered farmers whose livestock they have killed, there has been relatively little conflict between wolves and humans in eastern Germany so far, where the areas they roam are sparsely inhabited by people.
But their expansion westward means they are moving into more densely populated areas of the country. Over the weekend a wolf was killed by a car on the autobahn south of Hamburg.
"The wolves live here, and multiply," Volker Einhorn, forestry district manager for the area near Hamburg, said. "They see us as guests in their territory, they don't run away.
"Young cubs in particular are curious who is in her living room |
the NHL address" on May 30 that Vanderbeek was working on an "equity raise" for the team that he hoped he could "pull off" in the next few weeks.
Story continues
The Post reports that Bettman and the NHL would likely take over before the August deadline, "to give suitors enough time to study the team's financials and make an offer to lenders before the bankruptcy deadline, according to sources."
This is probably the NHL signaling that taking over the Devils would be the last resort; and not necessarily that any solution to their ownership and debt problems is falling apart.
It's a Plan B... and even then, Vanderbeek could buy himself some time by placing the team in bankruptcy.
Or maybe the NHL just has an league-owned team quota to fill, given that the Phoenix Coyotes look like they're staying under new ownership. You know, at least on this morning.CHANDIGARH: Unable to pay maintenance to his wife, a man has approached a court in Punjab to allow him to sell his one of his two kidneys so that he could pay up.The Ropar resident, who found the sum stipulated by the court way beyond his means, filed an application under section 125 of CrPC (order for maintenance of wives, children) in the court of the judicial magistrate on August 22, seeking permission to sell his kidney to pay Rs 8,000 as interim maintenance to his wife.Narrating his ordeal in the application, he said the court had ordered him to pay his wife a monthly interim allowance of Rs 3,500 under CrPC and another interim maintenance of Rs 4,500 per month under the Domestic Violence Act. Denying any permanent means of livelihood, he said he found it difficult to sustain himself as his small monthly earnings made up for only Rs 3,600 per month.Despite his meagre income, the man tried to pay maintenance to his wife regularly. But, under the circumstances, he is left with no option but to sell his body organs.For those who haven’t been following Juliano Rizzo and Thai Duong, two researchers who developed the BEAST attack against TLS 1.0/SSL 3.0 in September 2011, they have developed another attack they plan to publish at the Ekoparty conference in Argentina later this month – this time giving them the ability to hijack HTTPS sessions – and this has started people worrying again.
Security Stack Exchange member Kyle Rozendo asked this question:
With the advent of CRIME, BEASTs successor, what is possible protection is available for an individual and / or system owner in order to protect themselves and their users against this new attack on TLS?
And the community expectation was that we wouldn’t get an answer until Rizzo and Duong presented their attack.
However, our highest reputation member, Thomas Pornin delivered this awesome hypothesis, which I will quote here verbatim:
This attack is supposed to be presented in 10 days from now, but my guess is that they use compression.
SSL/TLS optionally supports data compression. In the ClientHello message, the client states the list of compression algorithms that it knows of, and the server responds, in the ServerHello, with the compression algorithm that will be used. Compression algorithms are specified by one-byte identifiers, and TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246) defines only the null compression method (i.e. no compression at all). Other documents specify compression methods, in particular RFC 3749 which defines compression method 1, based on DEFLATE, the LZ77-derivative which is at the core of the GZip format and also modern Zip archives. When compression is used, it is applied on all the transferred data, as a long stream. In particular, when used with HTTPS, compression is applied on all the successive HTTP requests in the stream, header included. DEFLATE works by locating repeated subsequences of bytes.
Suppose that the attacker is some Javascript code which can send arbitrary requests to a target site (e.g. a bank) and runs on the attacked machine; the browser will send these requests with the user’s cookie for that bank — the cookie value that the attacker is after. Also, let’s suppose that the attacker can observe the traffic between the user’s machine and the bank (plausibly, the attacker has access to the same LAN of WiFi hotspot than the victim; or he has hijacked a router somewhere on the path, possibly close to the bank server).
For this example, we suppose that the cookie in each HTTP request looks like this:
> Cookie: secret=7xc89f+94/wa
The attacker knows the “Cookie: secret=” part and wishes to obtain the secret value. So he instructs his Javascript code to issue a request containing in the body the sequence “Cookie: secret=0”. The HTTP request will look like this:
POST / HTTP/1.1 Host: thebankserver.com (…) Cookie: secret=7xc89f+94/wa (…)
Cookie: secret=0
When DEFLATE sees that, it will recognize the repeated “Cookie: secret=” sequence and represent the second instance with a very short token (one which states “previous sequence has length 15 and was located n bytes in the past); DEFLATE will have to emit an extra token for the ‘0’.
The request goes to the server. From the outside, the eavesdropping part of the attacker sees an opaque blob (SSL encrypts the data) but he can see the blob length (with byte granularity when the connection uses RC4; with block ciphers there is a bit of padding, but the attacker can adjust the contents of his requests so that he may phase with block boundaries, so, in practice, the attacker can know the length of the compressed request).
Now, the attacker tries again, with “Cookie: secret=1” in the request body. Then, “Cookie: secret=2”, and so on. All these requests will compress to the same size (almost — there are subtleties with Huffman codes as used in DEFLATE), except the one which contains “Cookie: secret=7”, which compresses better (16 bytes of repeated subsequence instead of 15), and thus will be shorter. The attacker sees that. Therefore, in a few dozen requests, the attacker has guessed the first byte of the secret value.
He then just has to repeat the process (“Cookie: secret=70”, “Cookie: secret=71”, and so on) and obtain, byte by byte, the complete secret.
What I describe above is what I thought of when I read the article, which talks about “information leak” from an “optional feature”. I cannot know for sure that what will be published as the CRIME attack is really based upon compression. However, I do not see how the attack on compression cannot work. Therefore, regardless of whether CRIME turns out to abuse compression or be something completely different, you should turn off compression support from your client (or your server).
Note that I am talking about compression at the SSL level. HTTP also includes optional compression, but this one applies only to the body of the requests and responses, not the header, and thus does not cover the Cookie: header line. HTTP-level compression is fine.
(It is a shame to have to remove SSL compression, because it is very useful to lower bandwidth requirements, especially when a site contains many small pictures or is Ajax-heavy with many small requests, all beginning with extremely similar versions of a mammoth HTTP header. It would be better if the security model of Javascript was fixed to prevent malicious code from sending arbitrary requests to a bank server; I am not sure it is easy, though.)
As bobince commented:
I hope CRIME is this and we don’t have two vulns of this size in play! However, I wouldn’t say that being limited to entity bodies makes HTTP-level compression safe in general… whilst a cookie header is an obvious first choice of attack, there is potentially sensitive material in the body too. eg Imagine sniffing an anti-XSRF token from response body by causing the browser to send fields that get reflected in that response.
It is reassuring that there is a fix, and my recommendation would be for everyone to assess the risk to them of having sessions hijacked and seriously consider disabling SSL compression support.Unlike the death of Colten Boushie in Saskatchewan, the 2008 killing of a First Nations man in Lethbridge, Alta., drew little public outcry or media attention — but it broke ground as only the second in the country to warrant stiffer sentencing as a "hate homicide."
After 22-year-old Boushie was shot Aug. 9 in a farmyard near Biggar, Sask., a huge public outcry erupted over the killing and over the racist comments that emerged online. The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations also accused the RCMP of fuelling racial tensions.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and other political leaders made pleas for the racist commentary to stop. The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has also been vocal in its efforts to re-frame the conversation — while pushing the RCMP to investigate Boushie's death as a racially motivated homicide.
That loud public debate is very different from the "deafening silence" that followed the killing of a First Nations man in Lethbridge by a stranger in an unprovoked, racially motivated attack in 2008, says senior appellate counsel Jolaine Antonio.
Senior appellate counsel Jolaine Antonio on George Many Shots' killing: 'I have never had a case that turned my stomach in the same way that this one did.' (Stephen Johnston)
She played a key role in ensuring the death of George Many Shots was considered a hate homicide in sentencing — making it only the second case of its kind in Canada at the time.
"I deal with a lot of blood and gore and violence and brutality," Calgary-based Antonio said of the Many Shots case.
"I have never had a case that turned my stomach in the same way that this one did."
'We do nothing but f**king put up with drunken Indians'
On June 23, 2008, in Lethbridge, Bradley Gray's truck was broken into by a man and a woman of Aboriginal descent, prompting Gray to tell police he was very frustrated with "the Indians in the neighbourhood."
"We do nothing but f**king put up with drunken Indians," Gray said to police. He'd told his friend who came over the same day that he was going to "clean up the neighbourhood."
Gray was also upset that "a native shelter had opened down the street," according to the facts presented in court documents used to support the prosecution's position on appeal.
The thought that Mr. Many Shots was killed for walking down a Canadian street while being the wrong race made me ill and it does to this day - Jolaine Antonio, appellate counsel
Later that same day, George Many Shots and his friend Percy Panther Bone were walking down Gray's residential street together.
The pair had had some drinks but were just chatting with each other when, out of nowhere, Gray — who was drinking beer on his porch with a friend — leapt up and crossed the road.
Gray shoved the two friends into an alley where he beat both of them with his bare hands and stocking feet. Many Shots died from his injuries.
A rare sentencing as a hate homicide
Originally found guilty of second-degree murder, Gray was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
He appealed and the higher court substituted a conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter. The case then went back before the original trial judge for sentencing.
The victim did nothing to provoke the attack, but from the offender's viewpoint was simply interchangeable with any other member of the targeted group - Jolaine Antonio, appellate counsel
Antonio handled the Crown's case as it made its way through the appeal process. She and her team pushed hard, asking for the same sentence Gray faced on his second-degree murder conviction — the maximum sentence for a manslaughter conviction.
They were successful in securing a life sentence — an extremely rare feat for any conviction besides murder, where a life sentence is automatic.
One of the aggravating factors researched extensively by Antonio so that it could be argued at sentencing was that Many Shots' killing was a hate crime.
Hate-motivated crimes deemed to harm entire communities
Two decades ago, Parliament revised the sentencing provisions in the Criminal Code.
Among the changes, "evidence that the offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin" could now be considered an aggravating factor. If this factor is present, prosecutors are able to argue for stiffer sentences.
The reason is that hate-motivated crimes can cause harm to entire communities, not just an individual victim.
"A person cannot modify his race," wrote Antonio in her sentencing factum in 2012.
[Gray] was the victim of petty crime three times in less than two months and the perpetrators were consistently of Aboriginal descent. [He] was simply directing his remarks at those he believes are responsible - Defence lawyer Hersh Wolsh
"Being powerless to change the so-called reason for their victimization leaves victims feeling vulnerable to future attacks.
"The victim did nothing to provoke the attack, but from the offender's viewpoint was simply interchangeable with any other member of the targeted group."
Though Many Shots' killing was clearly motivated by his hatred of Aboriginal people in his neighbourhood, Gray's lawyer attempted to rationalize his client's anger.
"[Gray] was the victim of petty crime three times in less than two months and the perpetrators were consistently of Aboriginal descent," argued the lawyer, Hersh Wolsh.
"[He] was simply directing his remarks at those he believes are responsible.... His description of events, as unrefined as it might have been, cannot be said to reflect racial bias. Both victims were, in fact, Aboriginal."
In the end, the panel of appeal judges found Gray killed Many Shots for one reason; the victim's race.
B.C. hate homicide case provoked bigger outcry
Between 1996, when those Criminal Code changes were enacted, and 2013, when Antonio researched hate-motivated homicides in Canada, there had only been one other case of a hate homicide being recorded.
The first was the case of a Sikh janitor, Nirmal Singh Gill, who was beaten to death by a group of white supremacist skinheads in Surrey, B.C., in 1998.
The media coverage was extensive and the outcry from the community powerful.
By contrast, while Many Shots' friends and family were quoted in local media reports as being outraged by the circumstances of his death and pleased with the life sentence that Gray ultimately received, his case received far less attention than the Surrey homicide and Boushie's killing.
Antonio won't comment on the Saskatchewan shooting because it's still before the courts.
But she can't help but remember Many Shots' tragic death.
"The thought that Mr. Many Shots was killed for walking down a Canadian street while being the wrong race made me ill and it does to this day."It seemed stranger than fiction, as even his lawyer acknowledged, that George Zimmerman's first appearance just days after he was acquitted for the killing of Trayvon Martin would be to rescue a nice family of four from their overturned SUV. But that's what reportedly happened on July 17, leading his defenders to call him a hero and some critics to claim the event was a hoax aimed at boosting his popularity.
It does seem like an odd coincidence: Zimmerman just happened to be on the scene of the crash at the right moment, and happened to have a fire extinguisher with him to put out the flaming car. And now the family he saved abruptly canceled the press conference they had planned to thank Zimmerman. It's all too much to believe for the Zimmerman Rescue Truthers, who emerged immediately after the news broke.
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"Even if we had a videotape of the accident, they would still say it was made up. So you can't really respond to people who just don't want to listen to the truth," Zimmerman defense attorney Mark O'Mara told CNN. "The idea that this was made up -- it's just the same people who refuse to accept the jury's verdict, just want to be angry, just want to hate George Zimmerman, are still going to hate him."
He's probably right. As we've noted, conspiracy theories are basically impossible to stamp out. And in this case, the circumstances are just too weird, and the potential public relations benefit for Zimmerman -- and thus the perceived incentive to stage the scene -- too obvious to explain away for those who are upset about the verdict. Fox News, whose opinion hosts have pretty openly sided with Zimmerman, reported that at an NAACP meeting, "there was a lot -- a lot -- of skepticism, people saying they don’t believe a word of this."
"Zimmerman can pull someone from a burning car, but he can't a push 17-year-old, 150 pound boy off of him?" asked one tweeter. On Twitter, the skeptics appeared to be be predominantly liberal and disproportionately minorities -- the same kinds of people who have been pushing for harsher punishment of Zimmerman all along -- while others questioned the police officers involved.
"There's something fishy about this #Zimmerman Rescue," another person tweeted. "Feels too perfectly timed and convenient."
One blog advancing the conspiracy narrative that went viral posted screen shots of what appears to be the Facebook page of the officer who responded to the crash, which shows that he posted numerous photos and messages supporting Zimmerman days before and after the accident. Most criticized the media and liberals who turned the case into a race issue. "If Trayvon Martin had been killed in Afghanistan, Barack Obama wouldn't even know his name," reads one popular image macro the officer posted. Yet the officer, who posted about other activities of his duty life, didn't post anything about his run in with Zimmerman. The only reference to the accident was a few days later, when he linked to a local news story and wrote, "I sorta made the news..."
That conspiracy blog even claims that it has a source, whom it does not identify, who saw phone records showing that the officer alerted Zimmerman about the crash before authorities arrived so Zimmerman could end up in the police report and look like a hero. We asked the unnamed blogger for more info about his or source, but the blogger didn't respond.
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Theorists have also speculated that Zimmerman might have a police scanner, given his work as a neighborhood watchman and his current fear for his own safety, and that he used it to respond to the crash before authorities could get there.
They also wonder why none of the multiple 9-1-1 calls mention Zimmerman, though some mention two men on the scene, and why O'Mara says his client didn't mention the crash when they met the next day. And why none of the family members in the crash mentioned the crash on their Facebook or Twitter pages. And why are there no photos of the crash? All the data points don't really make sense together -- was the entire crash staged, or did Zimmerman show up to intentionally take credit for saving the family? -- but various skeptics differ on how much of the accident they think was staged.
Still, even O'Mara acknowledged that the whole thing is a bit weird. "I will acknowledge it was coincidental four or five days after the verdict, but it was not set up, or staged. Really, do you think we would’ve set up a family of four on the side (of the road), destroying an SUV?" the defense lawyer told a local TV station.
The family Zimmerman helped save, he said, didn't feel comfortable coming forward given all the heat on Zimmerman at the moment. Indeed, TV news trucks have been staked out near their house, much to their dismay, but in refusing to speak with the press, even just to confirm that Zimmerman was on the scene, they've helped fuel the conspiracy narrative.The right-wing bogeymen known as the Koch brothers have given liberals yet another reason to shake their fists over the billionaire duo’s campaigning spending.
Of the estimated 400,000 political ads that have aired so far in the battle over control of the U.S. Senate, nearly 10% have been generated by the “secretive political network of conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch,” according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The number of Koch-funded commercials is pegged at more than 43,900, based on data the center gathered from Kantar Media/CMAG, an advertising tracking service. That data reflects advertising dollars spent between January 2013 and August 2014.
More than half of this total has been the product of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ primary campaign operation, which has produced more than 27,000 ads that have aired in nine battleground states.
In addition to Americans for Prosperity, the Koch election empire includes American Energy Alliance, Concerned Veterans for America, Freedom Partners, Generation Opportunity and the 60 Plus Association.
The Koch coalition has become the force in conservative campaign circles, having put up twice as many ads as those generated by GOP strategist Karl Rove’s machine consisting of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS.
The Daily Beast reported earlier this summer that the Koch network of groups plans to spend $290 million in support of conservative causes and Republican congressional candidates for the November elections.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
GOP’s Senate Hopes Energized by Koch Network Ad Blitz (by Michael Beckel, Center for Public Integrity)
Koch Brothers Unveil New Strategy at Big Donor Retreat (by Peter Stone, Daily Beast)
Koch Zero? Why Democrats Are Going to Have a Hard Time Enraging People about Campaign Finance (by Chris Cillizza, Washington Post)
Koch Brothers Spent more on 2012 Election than Top 10 Unions Combined (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Koch Brothers Group Boasts Total Control of Iowa and South Dakota Legislatures (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
44 Congressional Darlings of the Koch Brothers (by Matt Bewig, AllGov)Knitting and crocheting require time, patience, talent, and a lot of yarn. The results can be classic and cozy, or uniquely incredible, like these winter hats that will keep you warm and help you to truly stand out.
If you are going to be in freezing cold weather you want to wear a warm hat, heat does escape through the top of your head, just not at the rate science once thought. Until more recent studies surfaced, it was believed that nearly 50% of all body heat escaped through the head. In 2006, researchers disproved this theory, finding only 7-10% of body heat actually exists through your head. Still, a hat can be a very useful tool when it comes to staying warm.
These crafty people have come up with the perfect way to keep warm and make a fashion statement with these 28 cool winter hats.
1. Brain Beanie
Show off your brains with this warm ‘thinking’ cap. You can buy this beanie in different colors on etsy.com.
2. Viking Helmet Hat
That orange beard looks incredibly warm!
3. Deer Antler Snood
Dogs need to keep warm too, and why not add a little festivity to your canine’s wardrobe?!
You can purchase this for your dog on etsy.com.
4. Totoro Hat
A hat and a matching friend will help keep this cute baby warm.
You can buy this adorable baby accessory on etsy.com.
5. Yoda Hat
This baby loves looking like Yoda, or maybe she just loves how warm and soft her hat is!
6. Owl And Wolf
My favorite is the owl, but that wolf is pretty cool too.
7. Crocheted Knight’s Helmet Cap
Love how the mouth guard is optional!
You can purchase on etsy.com.
8. Fox Cowl
This foxy hat is the perfect accessory to keep your head, neck and shoulders from freezing.
9. The Beholder Hat
10. Christmas Tree Hat
Tis the season!
Get festive and buy this hat on Amazon.com.
11. Medieval Hood
Glam, historical, and warm… what more could you want?!
12. Mummy Hat
A warm Halloween costume idea for next year!
This hat is offered for sale on etsy.com.
13. Cthulhu Ski Hat
Rock out with tentacles! Loving the matching gloves to this wild hat/mask!
You can purchase this hat on etsy.com.
14. Crochet Aviator Hat For Baby
I believe I can fly…
You can buy on Etsy.com for your baby.
15. Spock Vulcan Hat
Eyebrows sold separately.
Purchase at etsy.com.
16. Bender Hat
This awesome hat is for sale on Etsy.com.
17. Gimli’s Dwarven Helm
18. Optimus Prime Crochet Hat
This hat is for sale on etsy.com.
19. Mad Scientist Hat
You can turn anyone into a mad scientist with this fun hat.
This hat is for sale on etsy.com.
20. Crochet Peacock Hat
Keep your entire face warm with this colorful peacock hat.
21. Beard Hat
The fastest way to grow a warm beard…
Stuff someone’s stocking with this unique gift offered for sale on beardowear.com.
22. Viking Helmet
Never worry about your lips going cold ever again!
Buy on Etsy.com!
23. Boobie Nursing Hat For Baby
A hilarious way to keep your baby nice and warm, offered for sale on etsy.com.
24. Mask Of Death
Want to stay warm and scare all of your friends, wear this mask.
You can purchase this mask on etsy.com.
25. What A Dear Deer Baby Hat
Purchase for your baby at etsy.com.
26. Michelangelo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Hat
Purchase on etsy.com.
27. Santa Hat
What a great hat for the Ho-Ho-Holidays!
This hat is for sale on Etsy.com.
28. Hat With Slit For Ponytail
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On Thursday the Justice Department announced a new and long-overdue policy requiring the FBI and other federal agents to obtain a search warrant before using stingrays—devices that simulate a cell phone tower in order to track the location of mobile phone users.
The new policy forces prosecutors and investigators not only to obtain a warrant but also to disclose to judges that the specific technology they plan to use is a stingray, as opposed to another surveillance tool.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the US have been criticized for using the powerful technology without a warrant, and for deceiving judges about the nature of the technology they were using to track suspects—telling courts that they planned to use a pen-register or trap-and-trace device to obtain location data on a suspect, rather than a stingray, which is much more invasive. The Justice Department, however, appeared to deny that prosecutors and federal investigators have been using the devices without a warrant in its announcement today.
"While the department has, in the past, obtained appropriate legal authorizations to use cell-site simulators, law enforcement agents must now obtain a search warrant supported by probable cause before using a cell-site simulator."
Stingrays are mobile surveillance systems the size of a small briefcase that impersonate a legitimate cell phone tower in order to trick mobile phones and other mobile devices in their vicinity into connecting to them and revealing their unique ID and location. Stingrays emit a signal that is stronger than the signal of other cell towers in the vicinity in order to force mobile phones and other devices to establish a connection with them and reveal their unique ID. Stingrays can then determine the direction from which the phone connected with them, data that can be used to track the movement of the phone as it continuously connects to the fake tower.
The policy is something civil liberties groups have been seeking for years, but it does not cover local and regional law enforcement, who also use stingrays to track suspects.
Civil liberties groups have long asserted that stingrays are too invasive because they can sweep up data about every phone in their vicinity, not just targeted phones, and can interfere with their calls.
Justice Department and local law enforcement agencies have refused to confirm that the devices can interrupt cell service for anyone in their vicinity. But earlier this year, this issue was confirmed in a warrant application requesting approval to use a stingray, in which FBI Special Agent Michael A. Scimeca disclosed the disruptive capability of the devices to a judge.
“Because of the way, the Mobile Equipment sometimes operates,” Scimeca wrote in his application, “its use has the potential to intermittently disrupt cellular service to a small fraction of Sprint’s wireless customers within its immediate vicinity. Any potential service disruption will be brief and minimized by reasonably limiting the scope and duration of the use of the Mobile Equipment."
The new Justice Department policy around the use of stingrays allows for exigent circumstances or exceptional circumstances, whereby law enforcement agents can use the devices without a search warrant in emergency situations when obtaining a warrant is not practical. But the DoJ will be required to track and report the number of times the technology is deployed under these exceptions.
Equally important to the new notification and warrant requirement, the policy also now requires federal law enforcement agents to delete all data the stingray collects "as soon as" it has located the device it's tracking. This is particularly important in light of the fact that the devices collect data on all mobile devices in their vicinity, not just the mobile phone law enforcers are tracking. The Justice Department also plans to implement an agency-level auditing program to sure that data is being deleted according to the new policy.
The Justice Department addressed another issue around the use of the devices by asserting that the cell-site simulators "may not be used to collect the contents of any communication in the course of criminal investigations. This means data contained on the phone itself, such as emails, texts, contact lists and images, may not be collected using this technology." Although law enforcement agencies have long insisted that the devices do not collect the contents of communication, questions have remained about whether they are capable of intercepting such data and, if so, whether they can be abused for this purpose. The new policy makes it clear that the devices should not be configured for intercepting data.
Although the new policy is something civil liberties groups have been seeking for years, the new federal policy does not cover local and regional law enforcement, who also use stingrays to track suspects. Also, although the policy means that the Justice Department will now be more carefully tracking the number of times federal agents use stingrays, there is currently no law requiring the agency provide an annual report to Congress about their use—which the agency is currently required to do with regard to wiretapping and the use of national security letters.By Max Bibeau | USA
A new bill was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Trump on August 22nd that compromises homeowner’s right to privacy in certain parts of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
The law in question is a simple law regarding the foundation of a Metrorail Safety Commission. The bill cites the millions of people “the safety of whom is paramount” as the primary reason for the creation of a new Commission. The commission would have basic oversight over the Metrorail, to ensure that it meets safety standards.
One clause buried in the seemingly harmless legislation appears to be some cause for concern. The clause lies under the “Powers” section of the bill, and reads:
“(b) Enter upon the WMATA Rail System and, upon reasonable notice and a finding by the chief executive officer that a need exists, upon any lands, waters, and premises adjacent to the WMATA Rail System, including, without limitation, property owned or occupied by the federal government, for the purpose of making inspections, investigations, examinations, and testing as the Commission may deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this MSC Compact, and such entry shall not be deemed a trespass. The Commission shall make reasonable reimbursement for any actual damage resulting to any such adjacent lands, waters, and premises as a result of such activities;”
Essentially, any homes that the chief executive officer of the Commission deems that a “need exists” anywhere near the Rail System, can be warrantlessly searched. This power is given to the commission “without limitations,” and can be used “as the Commission may deem necessary.” This vague phrasing is leaving a few representatives in shock, such as a Republican Representative from Michigan, Justin Amash. Amash took to Twitter to express his shock.
Only 5 of us voted against bill allowing govt to enter/search private property in parts of VA, MD & DC w/o warrant. https://t.co/SVhTWqbPaB — Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 18, 2017
In the vote held on whether or not to pass the legislation, 399 Representatives voted yea. Only 5 voted nay. 1.1% of House Representatives voted against the piece of legislation. Those who voted nay were Representatives Amash, Jones, Massie, Mooney, and Sanford, all of whom are Republicans.
You can read the full text of the bill HERE.
You can find more information on the Congressional Vote HERE.
Max Bibeau is a Senior Editor for 71 Republic. You can contact him through email at [email protected], or follow him on Instagram with the handle @_maxbibeau.
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Like this: Like Loading...Synopsis
Weak widespread (polygenic) selection is a mechanism that acts on multiple SNPs simultaneously. The aim of this paper is to suggest a methodology to detect signals of polygenic selection using educational attainment as an example. Educational attainment is a polygenic phenotype, influenced by many genetic variants with small effects. Frequencies of 10 SNPs found to be associated with educational attainment in a recent genome-wide association study were obtained from HapMap, 1000 Genomes and ALFRED. Factor analysis showed that they are strongly statistically associated at the population level, and the resulting factor score was highly related to average population IQ (r=0.90). Moreover, allele frequencies were positively correlated with aggregate measures of educational attainment in the population, average IQ, and with two intelligence increasing alleles that had been identified in different studies. This paper provides a simple method for detecting signals of polygenic selection on genes with overlapping phenotypes but located on different chromosomes. The method is therefore different from traditional estimations of linkage disequilibrium. This method can also be used as a tool in gene discovery, potentially decreasing the number of SNPs that are included in a genome-wide association study, reducing the multiple-testing problem and required sample sizes and consequently, financial costs.
Results
Tables 1a and 1b report frequencies of alleles associated with higher educational attainment (“beneficial” for short) for the 14 populations of 1000 Genomes and the 11 HapMap populations (list-wise deletion of missing data). Frequencies of the 10 SNPs were averaged for each population, so as to obtain a single reliable value (or polygenic score) that also avoided the problem of multiple comparisons. The polygenic score is reported in the last column. The results are similar across the HapMap and 1000 Genomes data sets: East Asian populations (Japanese, Chinese) have the highest average frequency of “beneficial” alleles (39%), followed by Europeans (35.5%) and sub-Saharan Africans (16.4%).
{snip}
Discussion
The national ranking for scores on standardized tests of educational attainment closely mirrors the gradient observed in frequencies of genes associated with this construct. East Asians have the highest frequencies of alleles beneficial to educational attainment (39%) and consistently outperform other racial groups both within the US and around the world, in terms of educational variables such as completion of college degree or results on standardized tests of scholastic achievement. Europeans have slightly lower frequencies of educational attainment alleles (35.5%) and perform slightly worse in terms of educational attainment, compared to East Asians. On the other hand, Africans seem to be disadvantaged both with regards to their level of educational attainment in the US and around the world. Indeed, Africans have the lowest frequencies of alleles associated with educational attainment (16%).
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: The full study is available at the original article link below.]
Original Article
Share ThisAlmost everything about the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative (CNCI), established by National Security Presidential Directive 54 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, is classified.
But following a classified March 2008 hearing on the subject, Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee teased out a few unclassified details about the effort.
“The response (pdf) includes information on the National Cyber Security Center, how privacy will be protected under the CNCI, how success of the initiative will be measured, and how the Department views the private sector’s role in the initiative,” the Senators noted in a news release. “The Department chose to redact information relating to contracting at the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD). The senators have asked DHS explain their reasons for the redactions.”
See also “DHS stays mum on new ‘Cyber Security’ center” by Stephanie Condon, CNET News, July 31.
And see, relatedly, the record of a May 21, 2008 hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee on “Implications of Cyber Vulnerabilities on the Resilience and Security of the Electric Grid” (pdf).Get the biggest Arsenal FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger left a family stunned when he wrote a letter of condolence after the death of a lifelong supporter.
John Cook died in March this year at the age of 75 after battling pneumonia.
Then out of the blue his wife Helen received a letter from the Gunners’ manager.
Mr Wenger learnt of John’s death after an interpreter for top Premier League clubs was contacted by his son Dean.
In the letter Mr Wenger said: “It was with great sadness that we learned recently of the death of John, and on behalf of us all at Arsenal Football Club, I do extend to you our sincere condolences.
(Image: Cascade)
“Although I did not have the privilege of knowing John personally, I am aware he enthusiastically followed the fortunes of this team, and we are extremely grateful for this.
“I know words mean so little at times such as these, but I wish you to know our thoughts are with you at this very sad and difficult time.”
Mrs Cook described the letter as “lovely”.
She added: “The interpreter knew John and when my son told her he had died, she wrote to Arsene Wenger and told him.
(Image: Getty)
“It was really nice. I was quite shocked to receive it – I was taken aback.
“John was a lifelong fan – he had always supported Arsenal.
“At one point he worked for West Ham, but he still supported Arsenal.
“It is nice to hear someone who is a popular name doing something like this.
(Image: Cascade)
“I |
article “The Israel Lobby and US foreign policy.” Mearsheimer and Walt argue, “No lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical.”
They argue that “in its basic operations, it is no different from interest groups like the Farm Lobby, steel and textile workers, and other ethnic lobbies. What sets the Israel lobby apart is its extraordinary effectiveness.” According to Mearsheimer and Walt, the “loose coalition” that makes up the lobby has “significant leverage over the Executive branch,” as well as the ability to make sure that the “lobby’s perspective on Israel is widely reflected in the mainstream media.”
They postulate that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in particular has a “stranglehold on the U.S. Congress.” due to its “ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it.”
Additionally, Mearsheimer and Walt criticize what they call misuse of “the charge of anti-Semitism,” and argue that pro-Israel groups place great importance on “controlling debate” in American academia; they maintain, however, that the lobby has yet to succeed in its “campaign to eliminate criticism of Israel from college campuses” (U.S. Congress Bill HR 509).
They conclude by arguing that when the lobby succeeds in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East, then “Israel’s enemies get weakened or overthrown, Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding, and paying.”
And it is within this paradigm that the vast majority of elected officials have formed their foreign policy perspectives in terms of the Middle East, and in particular, Palestine. One of the most unfortunate side-effects of the Obama presidency and his continuation of the American Israel-right-or-wrong stance is that it has all but silenced the usually more vociferous anti-occupation voices in the Congressional Black Caucus.
Conclusion
This conflict, although removed from this writer by culture and miles, feels personal. At my core I believe in peace; I believe that a non-violent resolution has to be found. I have grown up, lived and worked in places where success or failure was sometimes measured by how many funerals I did or didn’t have to go to.
Yes, I believe that there is a tremendous asymmetry of power between the sides (with Israel holding the overwhelming majority of the cards), and the Palestinian deaths and injuries are exponentially greater, there are innocents on both sides who should not suffer. Simply put … peace matters.
And yet, I cannot swallow; I can’t sing the Israel is never wrong refrain. I wonder, will any president or leading American or Western political figure ever utter the words … Israel you are wrong? The media, no matter where they stand on the ideological scale, begin the conversation with the presupposition that Palestine is wrong and Israel is justified and so what essentially gets discussed is not the flouting of international law by Israel or their various human rights abuses, but rather how long and how hard should Israel shell Gaza.
The American and Western media, for all intents and purposes, has been consistently hypnotized by the shiny object of buzzwords such as “terrorists” and “militants” by pro-Israeli voices which have effectively made them parrots of Israel’s and their governments’ policies instead of the assessors of them.
And against this backdrop, who weeps for the mangled and scarred bodies of Palestinian mothers and fathers, sons and daughters? Against this setting, who cries for the starvation and deprivation of the people of Palestine? Who speaks for them?
The reality of the 45-year-old brutal occupation and ongoing Israeli domination over Gaza doesn’t approach a whisper in the American conversation; meanwhile, every retaliatory and outdated rocket that falls near Israeli soil is treated as Hiroshima reborn while the slaughter and terror in Gaza is treated as just deserts or a fleeting afterthought.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Steve Kerr took time to email back three disappointed fans who were upset the Golden State coach rested his regulars Friday night at Denver before battering the Knicks 125-94 on Saturday night.
"There's two really good sides to the story," Kerr said. "Nobody's wrong here.... I can't argue with them."
Editor's Picks Strauss: Why rest is now the story for Warriors Sitting atop the West standings, there's fewer reasons now for the Warriors to emphasize winning over rest and playoff preparation, Ethan Sherwood Strauss writes.
One of the emails Kerr received was from a family that drove from South Dakota to the Mile High City with high hopes of seeing All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson lead the Western Conference's top team. Instead, those two rested along with center Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala.
Kerr also received a "couple of catcalls, a couple boos during the introductions" from the stands. He hadn't heard anything from the league about his decision Saturday, when Golden State played its fifth game in seven days, with two of those having been away.
"I heard from some fans. I received a few emails, stories about driving in from a long distance off and spending a lot of money on tickets," Kerr said. "I have great sympathy for those people. I really do. It's a tricky one. It's something that I think Adam Silver is trying to address through the scheduling shuffling that he's talking about.
"It's real important, because our fans deserve to see the best product out there. If somebody spends a lot of money, they deserve to see the best players, the guy that they came to see. On the other hand, as coaches we have to do what's best to prepare our teams for a really long year."
Kerr still would prefer to start the season 10-12 days early around Oct. 20, cutting down on the eight preseason games and month of training camp. He also noted that in every other sport, players get days off.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr sympathizes with fans who were disappointed by his decision to rest his starters Friday in Denver. At the same time, he is preparing his team to be fresh come playoff time. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Golden State had its five-game winning streak snapped in the 114-103 loss to the Nuggets, then returned home to begin a six-game stretch at Oracle Arena. Even Denver heard from angry fans on Twitter, such as one father who rented a suite for his son's birthday because the boy loved Curry & Co. By the second half, he had turned his attention to cheering for the Nuggets.
Kerr -- who noted the rest was as much mental as physical -- made a point to respond to the fans via email, and one who received a nice note got back in touch with the Warriors to let them know how surprised and appreciative he was to hear from the first-year coach.
"He's great. He's very engaging. He's a normal guy," Bogut said of Kerr's gesture. "We're definitely not used to that in a head coach."
Bogut understands that kids might have one chance -- one ticket all season -- to see an NBA game live, and that they'd want to see the best matchups.
But Kerr is preparing his team to be fresh come playoff time for what the franchise hopes is a deep run.
"It's tough, if I was a kid and had one ticket to go to and guys rested," Bogut said. "It's just a part of the grueling NBA season. It's unfortunate for the fans who were a little [ticked] off by it, but we have aspirations to go deep in the playoffs and to get to the end, we have to do what's best for our side."At least four top officials of Toronto's SickKids Foundation have left the charity – including the highly paid president – creating a leadership gulf the agency says it hopes to fill as soon as possible. Michael O'Mahoney, an American hired five years ago as president of the foundation – the fundraising arm of the Hospital for Sick Children – will attend divinity school to pursue his goal of becoming a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, board chair Patsy Anderson said yesterday. He will continue to live in Canada and stay on as a paid consultant of the foundation.
Michael O'Mahoney is leaving top job at SickKids Foundation. (May 20, 2004) ( STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO )
His exit follows that of at least three other senior officials who have left the charity in recent months. "It would be a very real misrepresentation to say (conditions at the foundation) are chaotic," Anderson said. "(O'Mahoney) is a terrific guy. We had a great run with Mike." Anderson said O'Mahoney doubled the size of the foundation's revenues in his time at the helm.
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A Star review of salaries at the foundation shows they have been growing steadily under O'Mahoney, with wages that are unusual in the Canadian charity world. Its top 10 officials (including the president) earned more than $2.8 million in salary and benefits last year, according to the most recent information available. The year before, the top 10 earned $2.2 million. In the year ending March 31, 2008, O'Mahoney, 51, was paid $624,103 in salary and benefits, more than the president of the Hospital for Sick Children itself. Among the five vice-presidents of the foundation in that same year, one was paid more than $500,000; the others between $200,000 and $250,000. Another five executives listed as directors (in such areas as marketing) were paid between $124,000 and $160,000. Anderson defended the salaries, saying SickKids Foundation has a more "complex" business model than similar sized charities that pay executives far less. The president of World Vision Canada, for example, earns a salary of roughly $175,000.
Though thousands of volunteers, who are committed to helping sick children, raise money in schools, walkathons and other ventures, Anderson said the myriad of "business lines" the foundation executives manage requires them to hire an elite group of fundraising professionals to oversee the various programs. Beyond senior executives, the foundation now has 85 employees making more than $50,000, up from 33 at that level just two years before.
Article Continued Below
Anderson says the board has no plans to rein in salaries. "Our philosophy is we hire for excellence in fundraising and marketing," she said. O'Mahoney did not respond to interview requests. His last day on the job falls at the end of January. Prior to joining SickKids, he had fundraising posts at charities in Washington and Philadelphia. Usually, the only way for the public to obtain charity salaries is to ask the charity itself. Most charities won't divulge this information. (World Vision takes the position that donors deserve to know). However, charities that do business in the United States must disclose salaries, and since SickKids falls into that category, the Star was able to obtain the information. The figures in this story relating to SickKids Foundation salaries are in U.S. dollars. Depending on when the money was paid, and given fluctuating currency rates, the amount in Canadian dollars will be higher or lower. Anderson said O'Mahoney doubled the foundation's donated revenue in his five years, from $45 million to just under $100 million in the most recent year. But the Star found expenses are also increasing, and some of the paid fundraising initiatives deliver less than 50 cents on the dollar. The foundation's overall administration expenses soared to $6 million annually, three times what they were five years ago, according to statements filed with Canada's charity regulator. In addition to executive fundraisers, the charity uses a series of paid fundraising firms to conduct direct mail, street and other campaigns. Last year, the foundation reported to the charity regulator that one campaign raised $8.3 million, but $4.7 million was retained by the professional fundraisers, meaning each donated dollar ended up as 44 cents. In stories published in 2007, the Star found that SickKids Foundation was using commission-based fundraisers. O'Mahoney said he ordered the discredited technique, which the regulator does not approve of, but dropped it after the Star brought it to his attention. Anderson said they have hired an executive search firm to find a replacement for O'Mahoney. Others who have left include the vice-president of strategic communications and the vice-president of strategic partnerships. O'Mahoney will be paid as a consultant to help the foundation grow its international strategy for fundraising, Anderson said. Kevin Donovan can be reached at (416) 869-4425 or kdonovan@thestar.ca.Throw out your composite cables
Remember that standard definition video cable you found in the Wii's retail box? Toss that out: It's junk. The Wii isn't a high-def game console, but that's no reason to settle for outmoded video input. Upgrading to component cables makes games noticeably sharper; just make sure you hop into your Wii's settings menu to enable 480p output.
Protip: If your TV is too hip for component cables, search out the Wii2HDMI dongle. It does exactly what it says it does: drags your Wii into the modern paradigm of home theater cabling.
Buy better controllers
Speaking of substandard equipment that came in the box, we need to talk about the Wii Remote. This white wand may have ushered in a new era of motion-controlled gaming, but it's actually the least advanced motion controller of its generation. Nintendo eventually tried to fix this with the Wii Motion Plus, an uncomfortable gyroscope attachment that hung awkwardly from the controller's expansion port. Toss these out too -- Nintendo's newer Wiimotes come with the extra sensor baked in. They're compatible with the Wii U, too, should you ever want to upgrade.
Protip: If you have even a passing interest in Nintendo's Virtual Console, take a look at the Classic Controller Pro. It doesn't have any fancy motion controls, but it's compatible with every classic on the Wii Shop Channel.
Leverage the library
The Wii U may be facing a drought of AAA releases, but its predecessor was flush with them. The Wii has a killer collection of first-party titles, including two Legend of Zelda games, both Super Mario Galaxy titles, the fantastic Metroid Prime Trilogy and even the return of the Donkey Kong Country franchise. Not good enough? There's a wide assortment of third-party games to choose from, too: Games like House of the Dead: Overkill, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Okami, A Boy and his Blob and Sonic Colors have plenty to offer, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you neglected your Wii in favor of the previous generation's powerhouses, now's a great time to see what you missed.
Protip: It's no secret that the Wii is a beefed-up GameCube. Find yourself a wired controller and memory card and pilfer that library too.
Hack your Wii
Still not enough? You've got one more avenue of Wii resuscitation, and it's a biggie: homebrew. The Nintendo Wii is probably the most hackable game console ever made. With little more than an SD card, the internet and some moxie, the old system can do, well, almost anything. The homebrew community has created USB loaders, classic game emulators, cheat engines, DVD players and even Wii-specific Linux distributions.
Setting it up is easy, too: The same LetterBomb trick that unlocked the Wii in 2011 still works today. After that, it's as simple as loading a few apps onto a SD card and calling up the Homebrew Channel. Not sure what apps to load? Check out an application called Homebrew Browser (not to be confused with the aforementioned channel) -- it serves as a makeshift marketplace for the console, maintaining a downloadable list of popular games, apps and emulators.
Protip: Now that Nintendo has shuttered its multiplayer servers, Homebrew servers are the only way to play Wii games online. Check it out here.
[Image credit: hermitsmoores/Flickr (composite cables); Radharc Images/Alamy (Wii game cases)]red
Send to Game
button
Send to Game
We've been working on the PokEdit GTS Server for awhile now and I'm happy to say that it will be going live very soon. We're still ironing out the last couple of wrinkles, but I'd like to give you a glance of what's coming.The PokEdit GTS Server will give you the ability to Send Pokemon wirelessly to your games. There will be three ways that you can send Pokemon. Firstly, you'll be able to browse our databases and find Pokemon that you'd like to transfer. Even our Event PKM database is compatible with the service. Secondly, you'll be able to send Pokemon created in our Editor. That means there's an endless supply of unique Pokemon that you can get. Lastly, you can upload PKM files directly in the GTS Menu.So, here's how the Service is going to work. Everywhere that you find PKMs on the site, you'll most likely see a. The first step is clicking the red button. Here's what the buttons will look like:PKM Database ButtonEditor ButtonAfter clicking this button, you'll see a little pre-GTS menu. You might be asking why you need to see this pre-menu. Well, our GTS Servers allows you to send Pokemon to multiple games at the same time. All we need is your game's Friend Code and then you can manage multiple GTS Queues for all of your games. If you haven't added a Friend Code yet, then you'll need to click the yellow button to add one.Once you have your Friend Codes entered in, all you have to do is choose which game you want to send the Pokemon to.Here is what it looks like when you add a new Friend Code. All you have to do is select the game and type your Friend Code. It's really easy!You'll find abutton on every Slot Page in the editor. After Applying your edits, you can send the Pokemon directly to your game.After selecting which game you want to transfer to, the mini GTS Menu will pop open. Here is what the mini GTS Menu looks like:As you can see, there is a lot of flexibility when managing your GTS Queues. Most of the GTS Queue features are available in the mini GTS Menu, but there are a few extra options and utilities in the Main GTS Menu. Before I explain how to use the GTS Menu, I'll explain how to get to the Main Menu.The following buttons will all take you to the Main GTS Menu from the mini GTS Menu:Every page on PokEdit will display the GTS Cart in the header. So, you'll be able to get to the GTS Menu quickly and easily from any page on the site.The DNS will always display in the GTS Cart. You've probably noticed that there is some other features of the GTS Cart.The number in the cloud indicates how many Pokemon are currently waiting in your Queues (Pokemon in the cloud). The number automatically decreases as you receive Pokemon in your games.When the Queue is empty the signal on top of the cart will look like this:When the Queue has Pokemon in it, you'll see that it's active because it will look as follows:Click on the GTS Cart and you'll be directed to the Main GTS Menu:Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty features that the GTS Menu has to offer.This icon represents the Pokemon that is in the first Position. Only one Pokemon can be transferred to your game at a time. The Pokemon at the top of the Queue is first in line.Once you receive the Pokemon in your game, the top Pokemon will be removed from the list and the line will shift upward. You'll then need to leave the GTS Room in the game. You then re-enter the GTS Room to receive the next Pokemon in your Queue.You can change the order of the Queue at any time by dragging and dropping the Queue Rows:You can also remove Pokemon from the Queue by clicking the boot (boot them from your Queue):Every Friend Code you enter will have it's own tab in the GTS Menu. Switch to a different GTS Queue by clicking on it's tab. You can add new Friend Codes directly from this page too by using the following button:You can also delete a Friend Code by clicking the little X icon inside the Friend Code tab:There are also a few Tools/Options to help you access Pokemon more easily. The Create a Pokemon button, Select a Pokemon Button, and Upload PKM button:Thebutton will direct you to the Editor.Thebutton will help direct you to a database that matches the kind of Pokemon you're looking for.Thebutton will let you upload a PKM file directly to one of your Queues.That is the basic functionally of the PokEdit GTS Service and how you will be able to send Pokemon wirelessly to your games. Don't forget, you will need to change the DNS settings in your Nintendo DS to match the DNS number show in the GTS Cart and the GTS Menu. There will be guides and tutorials on how to do that after the service launches.We do plan on adding more features to the PokEdit GTS and we hope to bring them to you soon. Your feedback is appreciated and make sure to share!METALLICA frontman James Hetfield narrowly avoided serious injury earlier tonight (Monday, September 4) during the band's concert in The Netherlands.
METALLICA was performing the sixth song of its set, "Now That We're Dead", at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam when Hetfield apparently took a wrong step and fell into a small hole on the stage that had just opened up (and from where one of four rectangular percussion tables was supposed to come up). Within seconds, a couple of crew members came over to help the frontman get back on his feet as bassist Robert Trujillo and guitarist Kirk Hammett looked on with obvious concern. After Hetfield was lifted back on stage, he continued playing the track while grimacing in pain.
"Is everybody okay?" Hefield asked the crowd after falling over. "Yes, I'm okay. My ego, not so much. But we're fine. Hurt my feelings a little bit."
Fan-filmed video footage of the incident — shot from several different angles — can be seen below.
This is not the first stage accident that Hetfield has been involved in as a member of METALLICA. During a 1992 stadium tour with GUNS N' ROSES, James suffered second-degree burns to his face, arms and hands after an ill-placed explosion erupted during the song "Fade To Black". Hetfield later said: "There was extra pyro in addition to the original pyro and I got a little too close." He credited his guitar with saving him from further injury.
The European leg of METALLICA's "WorldWired" tour kicked off in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 2 and will run through November. After a break, the trek will pick up again on February 1, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, and continue through May, finishing up in Helsinki, Finland.
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame band is touring in support of its tenth studio album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", which came out last November.Barry Steam Plant
The Barry Steam Plant in Mobile County is one facility that will see changes from a decision by Alabama Power to reduce the amount of coal it burns for electricity. The company cited new greenhouse gas regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. (Press-Register file photo)
((Press-Register/Mike Kittrell) )
Alabama Power's announcement that it would shutter several coal units in the state is tangible evidence that President Barack Obama's "war on coal" is having negative consequences, critics said Friday.
The company announced Friday that it would reduce the amount of coal it burns to comply with Environmental Protection Agency regulations governing emissions. The changes, which the company said it would phase in the changes by 2016, will affect seven small power plants. They are unrelated to new carbon emissions rules that the EPA currently is developing.
Alabama Power said the changes will eliminate 60 jobs in Greene County, although officials said it would reduce the workforce through attrition and transfers, not layoffs.
Three coal-fired units at the Barry Steam Plant in Mobile County will be converted to gas-burning electric generation units.
Alabama Power said the changes could increase rates for customers over time but offered no specifics.
"It is extremely alarming to learn that Alabama Power will be closing coal units in Nnorth Alabama and cutting down on operations at Barry Steam Plant in north Mobile County due to an ill-conceived rule from the EPA," U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, said in a prepared statement. "Just earlier this week I joined my colleagues from the Congressional Coal Caucus to draw attention to the harmful effects the Obama administration's new rule on existing power plants will have on coal production in America."
Citing other proposals, which would cut back on greenhouse gas admissions, Byrne said he fears this is just the beginning of a years-long process that will result in the elimination of high-paying jobs.
"While the long-term impact of Alabama Power's decision remains to be seen, it is clear that President Obama's 'war on coal' is already starting to impact Alabama families," he stated.
Alabama House of Representatives Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, also weighed in.
"President Obama and the EPA's out-of-control, tree-hugging, and job-killing policies have gone too far in Alabama," he said in a statement. "It is more vital now than ever to elect conservative, pro-business Republicans in our state who serve as the last line of defense against these kind of gross liberal and overreaching actions."
Members of the Alabama Public Service Commission, who have taken repeated rhetorical jabs at Obama's environmental policies – even though the agency has no power to overrule the EPA – blasted the latest development.
Commissioner Jeremy Oden called the cost of compliance "staggering" and warned more regulations are on the way.
"As I stated in my testimony earlier this week at the EPA hearing in Atlanta, these environmental mandates have a negative impact on reliability, fuel diversity and cost effective energy production in Alabama," he said in a statement. "We now see the effects of just one of these countless regulations aimed at the nation's power production. Compliance with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) by 2016 and other proposed mandates will have a devastating effect on our energy production, jobs and our economy."
Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, who chairs the commission, said in her own statement that coal-based energy helps keep utility rates low during spurts of very cold or very warm weather when demand spikes.
"It's a sad day when Barack Obama and the federal government get to tell the people of Alabama how to handle our own energy production," she stated. "The men and women who work at these facilities have families who depend on these jobs for their livelihood."
Chris "Chip" Beeker, the Republican nominee for the third seat on the commission, also blasted the Obama administration. He warned that the United States could suffer the same consequences of environmentalism in Germany.
"Their efforts to increase 'environmental sustainability' resulted in utility rates rising to four times those currently in Alabama, an uncompetitive economy and close to seven million households in energy poverty," he said in a statement. "The United States of America has no business following the lead of socialist Germany for any policy decision as Obama is attempting to do. Our economy will be next if we do not stop this madness."
Beeker said "job-killing policies and burdensome regulations" had hit home.
"Our state's hard-working families continue to be hurt the most by the unfounded claims of climate change and efforts to curb industrial development in the southern United States," he stated.
Terry Dunn, an incumbent whom Beeker defeated in the GOP primary, said in a statement that Alabama Power has been planning the conversions for a long time.
"It's a response to federal environmental regulation, but it's also an effort to take advantage of the economics of generating electricity with natural gas," he stated.
Not all state officials expressed outrage. State Rep. Craig Ford, the House Democratic leader from Gadsden, said in a statement, "I want to commend Alabama Power for protecting thousands of jobs and looking out for their employees and their families."
Updated at 2:26 p.m. to add comments from House Speaker Mike Hubbard and members of the Public Service Commission. Updated at 3:38 p.m. to include reaction from Terry Dunn. Updated at 4:44 p.m. to clarify that Friday's announced changes are related to regulations governing conventional conventional emissions, not greenhouse gases.EVGA has now made available individually sleeved cable sets that support all EVGA SuperNOVA G2 and P2 Power Supplies. These cable sets are available in Red, Black, White and Blue and are available for $89.99 at the EVGA.com webstore.Features:Cable set includes the following cables:
22 Comments on Sleeved Cables for EVGA SuperNOVA G2/P2 Power Supplies Now Available
#1 Prima.Vera
90$ for cables?? Hahahahaha! :)))))))) Posted on Apr 21st 2014, 23:45 Reply
#2 quake4toll
Prima.Vera said: 90$ for cables?? Hahahahaha! :)))))))) Totally rip off. I agree if you care about aesthetics, you could pay more. But not $90... Totally rip off. I agree if you care about aesthetics, you could pay more. But not $90... Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 1:43 Reply
#3 MxPhenom 216
Corsair Fanboy don't see an issue with price. The time it takes to sleeve your own PSU, let alone get all the stuff to do it correctly is well worth spending the money on these instead imo. Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 2:18 Reply
#4 Devon68
Wow for 90$ you can get a new PSU. To pay so much for something that only helps esthetics would be insane, but then again there no product that cant be sold and bought by an idiot. Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 4:36 Reply
#5 Bitgod
Hmmm, I was going to say what a ripoff price that was...but then realized it was for a complete set of cables. Considering buying them 1 at a time is, lets just say $10 each (which might even be a touch low, for sure not high), then all those cables for the price is OK. Only OK because you may end up spending more for the whole set than if had had a 1 off option, maybe you only want the mobo power cables and cables for vid cards. So depending on setup, that could be $30-60 at least.
I probably spent that much on the extension cables of that type for my mobo and video cards, the ultimately I spent a bit less than $89 anyway. Wasn't concerned about those type of cables to storage devices. Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 5:13 Reply
#6 Wittermark
you guys didn't know? these cables will make your hard drives go much faster! Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 5:19 Reply
#7 20mmrain
Devon68 said: Wow for 90$ you can get a new PSU. To pay so much for something that only helps esthetics would be insane, but then again there no product that cant be sold and bought by an idiot. If these cables are of good quality then it is a deal. Corsairs are even more expensive. Not only that.... not everyone wants a black and red color scheme. Which is all EVGA used to offer. Just recently when I upgraded my PSU I was looking at an EVGA Power supply. What stopped me from buying was EVGA's lack of finished looking cables.
I think its a great idea EVGA... keep it up! If these cables are of good quality then it is a deal. Corsairs are even more expensive. Not only that.... not everyone wants a black and red color scheme. Which is all EVGA used to offer. Just recently when I upgraded my PSU I was looking at an EVGA Power supply. What stopped me from buying was EVGA's lack of finished looking cables.I think its a great idea EVGA... keep it up! Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 5:50 Reply
#8 Urobulos
If you want to colour match cables with your components and case, the price is ok.
In something like a H440 or another case with a PSU shroud, you can get by with using much cheaper extensions. But if you use extensions and have a window that shows the PSU cables, then the mismatch is jarring.
For a full set (assuming quality is at least ok) 90$ is about what you'd expect.
Some of the comments are silly. If you have a solid side panel or otherwise don't care about aesthetics, no one is forcing you to buy these. No need to ridicule people who will. Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 8:18 Reply
#9 micropage7
Prima.Vera said: 90$ for cables?? Hahahahaha! :)))))))) its kinda pricey, but if you have the money and their quality is pretty good why not, but of course its not for me :D:D:D its kinda pricey, but if you have the money and their quality is pretty good why not, but of course its not for me :D:D:D Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 10:12 Reply
#10 Jorge
There is a sucker born every second. Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 10:29 Reply
#11 techy1
some say that 90$ for full set of cables is not so pricy... I will say that I have paid for different systems in my life (some for gaming, some for wor work) and I have spent on my cables exactly 0,00 $- how the hell I get so lucky... but if these cables will make my Crysis run smoother.... well still gona pay 0,00 $ for them :D. when ever someone trys to sell me something that is for free - I do not know about you, but I will pass. In cease if I will want to impress "the girls" with my new fancy system - I will pay for damn floppy drive... no other man on earth will have that in his system (and still will not pay for that floppy drive power cable - cuz it will come for free :p) Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 11:34 Reply
#12 HouBa
Price is ok, you have to realize, that it is price for whole bunch of cables. If you count up prices of other brands (BitFenix, NZXT, SilverStone, Corsair etc.) of single sleeved cables, you get same price level of set. Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 13:47 Reply
#13 d1nky
Like MXPhenom said, the cost of braided sleeve or paracord, heatshrink, new cables, connectors, plus the many many hours it takes. Then on top of that the chance of doing it wrong or messy. The price is about right especially as a full PSU sleeve is a huge effort!
Although they could of offered a better warranty other than a year for the price! Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 15:44 Reply
#14 abirli
these are garbage for $90. UPC has 100% custom ones for more obv, but the quality is that much better Posted on Apr 22nd 2014, 18:37 Reply
#15 Vlada011
I saw cables on NEX and they are incredible.
I rather choose this cables over MDPC-X. Because MDPC-X is nice to see them, to clean dust with brush, install and don't touch any more, put in studio under proper light and make photos only for gallery. But for 24/7 when you change hardware often, remove cables, plug-unplug any cables fast become pain and need to be fixed very often. Only if someone make own 18AWG cables and connect pin over sleeve...and MDPC-X look thick sometimes. On other ways it's only matter of time when you need to fix heatsrink or cables. And special pain when someone sleeve own PSU and need to invest over 100$ in sleeve.
What is problem 1300W Gold one of best quality PSU on the world + sleeve KIT for 300$ and 10 year warranty. And normal cables for reserve.
What Enermax sell for 300$, or CORSAIR, and they are much better???
How much??? They are not better at all. We talk about very similar power supplies with 0.5% difference.
How much people are capable to made Molex and SATA connectors so nice as these.
For most users these cables are better than anything. Only nice sleeve kit I know is on modDIY site,
but price is 80x3.
For several year I didn't saw person capable to make Molex and SATA to look, like this.
Always you see 20 black srinks for 2 SATA connectors or every wire on own side.
This cables are excellent, strong, natural, you use them as normal cables, Garbage maybe make CORSAIR and their cables similar to extensions.I saw cables on NEX and they are incredible.I rather choose this cables over MDPC-X. Because MDPC-X is nice to see them, to clean dust with brush, install and don't touch any more, put in studio under proper light and make photos only for gallery. But for 24/7 when you change hardware often, remove cables, plug-unplug any cables fast become pain and need to be fixed very often. Only if someone make own 18AWG cables and connect pin over sleeve...and MDPC-X look thick sometimes. On other ways it's only matter of time when you need to fix heatsrink or cables. And special pain when someone sleeve own PSU and need to invest over 100$ in sleeve.What is problem 1300W Gold one of best quality PSU on the world + sleeve KIT for 300$ and 10 year warranty. And normal cables for reserve.What Enermax sell for 300$, or CORSAIR, and they are much better???How much??? They are not better at all. We talk about very similar power supplies with 0.5% difference.How much people are capable to made Molex and SATA connectors so nice as these.For most users these cables are better than anything. Only nice sleeve kit I know is on modDIY site,but price is 80x3.For several year I didn't saw person capable to make Molex and SATA to look, like this.Always you see 20 black srinks for 2 SATA connectors or |
lot of emotion. A lot of noise. Is that going to have an impact on the officers who respond to this? Yes, it will.
Klinger: It opens up with officers in a semicircle. The officers are too close. I don’t know what the distance is, but they are too close.... There are multiple officers with their firearms out. There is no need for that. You aren’t supposed to have everyone with their gun out. There should be a division of labor. You immediately see the command and control are gone.... They have shouted at him multiple times to drop the knife. That isn’t working. So what you do is tone it down. These are very basic crisis negotiation skills. Every police officer should be able to talk to someone when the situation has become static. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
15-24 seconds into Woods video
Lim: This is when they know they can’t contain him, that he will be a danger to the public if they allow him to go beyond that point. At this point, the officers have a good background with the brick wall. If they have to shoot, they don’t have a chance of endangering someone else. You can’t let him out; he has a weapon.
Alpert: I’m wondering, “Who is in charge?” When this officer moves in front of [Woods], he puts himself in this horrible position. I don’t understand why, tactically, that happened. Why did he go in? Why didn’t the officer with the beanbag rifle go in and try to use that again to stop him? Why didn’t the officer walk along the sidewalk with him, keeping a safe distance? I didn’t hear them trying to calm things down. Why are all these officers standing there with their guns drawn? I’d be scared, too.
McCarthy: We hear a lot of shots going off. That means there wasn’t a supervisor there, or the supervisor didn’t know what in the heck they were doing. A supervisor would say, “Jones and Smith, you are my primary shooters. Everyone else, put your guns away.” You want to limit the number of shooters. You learn this in training so it can be accomplished when you are under stress in the field.
Klinger: The mere fact that an officer fires some rounds, that doesn’t give me a lot of heartburn. What gives me a great deal of heartburn is that so many officers are firing. That is inexcusable. This is an example of really bad police work. The way it went down did not need to happen and should not have happened.
21-27 seconds into Woods video
Lim: They could have had more control over the situation if a supervisor assigned officers different tasks. Maybe pull out four officers. Have them set up a secondary containment to keep the public out. They could minimize force by having only three or four officers with their gun out. Maybe take it from [27 rounds] fired to three or four rounds. It would probably take three of four rounds to stop him.
Alpert: It certainly was contagion gunfire. Really? Twenty-seven shots without an imminent threat? It just doesn’t compute. There are crossfire concerns; ricochet concerns. Creating time and distance, that’s very important, and they completely removed that.
Klinger: Where is the supervisor? There should be three officers maybe with their guns out; two of the officers providing cover. The rest should be setting up a buffer zone. They should push off to the right side and left side of Mr. Woods to keep citizens away. If it got to the point where Mr. Woods was charging, well, okay, maybe you would have to escalate to deadly force, but that didn’t happen.
45-49 seconds in Woods video
Lim: He is going in to verify that he is no longer a threat. He is putting up his hands to say, “Everyone hold your rounds.” Generally, we wouldn’t do it that way. We don’t send a person in by himself. Tactically, one person would go up and another person would be designated to provide cover, in case the person is still a threat. I don’t know if there is another place they could have stopped. I would say stay on the road and point your car towards him as opposed to going into the actual park. Use the car as cover.
The Mario Woods shooting is under investigation.
Cleveland police released audio from the 911 call and the dispatch call one of the officers made after the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed by police while carrying a BB gun in a Cleveland park. (Cleveland Police)
Tamir Rice
35 seconds into video of Tamir Rice shooting on Nov. 22, 2014, in Cleveland
Alpert: The problem starts with the transfer of knowledge. The [911] caller is clearly saying, it’s a child. That it’s near a youth center. That it looks like a toy gun. None of that information got to the officers. The dispatcher put these officers in a horrible position.
The city of Cleveland released Wednesday night more surveillance footage of the park where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by police while holding a BB gun on Nov. 22, 2014. (City of Cleveland)
22-26 seconds into Rice shooting
Lim: They come in so quick. The passenger officer is forced to engage with the suspect as soon as he gets there.
Alpert: Why would you drive up so close? Why not park on the street, take cover, try to engage this person? Try to negotiate. If that was a real gun, and the person wanted to shoot someone, the passenger in the patrol car would have been dead.
McCarthy: You stop about 40 feet away, you verbalize, and use the vehicle as partial cover. If an officer takes total cover he can’t see what the suspect is doing. At 30, 40 feet away, even if they needed to shoot, they are trained, the officers would be able to be very accurate. The suspect, if he had a real gun, probably would not be able to be so accurate. There is clearly a problem with training.
Klinger: You see the patrol car is moving at a pace where it cannot stop short. Why are you driving up so close? That is the core issue. You see Mr. Rice start to approach the vehicle. You have a situation where one police officer makes a really poor decision about the placement of the vehicle, and then he puts his partner in a no-win situation. It appears as if Mr. Rice is withdrawing a gun and the shooting happens. I cannot blame any officer who is mere feet away from someone who is in the process of withdrawing a gun.
The city of Cleveland settled with the Tamir Rice family for $6 million. The officers involved in the incident have not been charged.Bra Girls Kana ブラガール Romaji Buragāru English Bra Girls Chapter Information Release Date May 16, 2016 Chapter Number 215 Young Magazine Issue 2016-24 Route - Chapter Guide Previous Next ← Leap of Faith Help! → Complete chapter list
Bra Girls (ブラガール, Buragāru⃝ℹ) is the 215th chapter of the Prison School manga, serialised in Weekly Young Magazine on May 16th, 2016.
Contents show]
Summary Edit
In the midst of the Cavalry Battle, Kate incites the whole crowd of schoolgirls to probe Satou and she becomes the target of the girls' chanting. When Satou buckles under their pressure and reveals the nickname of her boyfriend to be "Ryomacchi" (りょーまっち, "Ryomacchi"⃝ℹ), a student in the crowd realises that her boyfriend is in a relationship with them too. Though Satou presumes that this is impossible and specifies that her boyfriend is posh, another girl identifies Yoshida as her boyfriend based on Satou's information and Kate deduces that he is a philanderer. This news is to Satou and Jo's shock when they both start coughing blood. The second target Kate selects is Anzu, who dismisses Kate's warning of her chest being visible until she reveals that Anzu wears a D-cup bra with a C-cup chest. The crowd of schoolgirls begins insulting an unsettled Anzu with the claim that she has a small bust, which Risa participates in.
The gyaru-cavalry jockey is asked by Kate to inspect Anzu's chest to see whether it is closer to her bra size of a D-cup - even though she lacks knowledge of bra sizes and use dieting as an excuse. In spite of Shingo's intervention to get her to wear pasties or a fitted bra to prevent her chest from showing, an angered Anzu retracts her previous offer to reward Shingo with touching her chest after the contest. The angered Jo tells Gakuto to focus when draws a similarity between Kate and the Three Kingdoms tyrant Sun Hao. The third target Kate focuses on is Gakuto when she questions the plastic bottle on his head and the illogical name of the flightless PBR. The exasparated Gakuto shows visible discomfort when Kate labels the PBR fragment and their jockey as trash and the schoolgirls start chanting "garbage" (ゴミ, "garbage"⃝ℹ) at them. Their consequent ridicule of Gakuto's self-defecation foils Jo's attempt to launch a verbal counterattack. The momentum of their verbal battle now strongly in Kate's favour, Kate reveals to Mayumi's horror that she is an internet idol under the pseudonym of "Nayuta Makami".
Characters Edit
The characters are listed in order of appearance in the chapter below:
Trivia Edit
The chapter title is a cultural reference to Japanese dance comedy-drama film Hula Girls.Buckled in? Check. Life jacket secure? Check. Noise-reduction headphones on? Check. No seeds in any of your belongings? Check. You sure? Yes. And up lifts the Icelandic Coast Guard’s Super Puma helicopter ferrying me to Iceland’s jealously guarded natural gem, Surtsey Island.
Though it was named this summer to the UNESCO World Heritage List – joining other natural heritage sites like the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapágos and Yellowstone National Park – no tourist will ever get to visit.
Located 20 miles off Iceland’s southern coast, Surtsey – named after Surtur, the fire giant of Norse mythology – was created in a volcanic eruption that began not millions of years ago, but on Nov. 14, 1963. It was a fresh specimen of geological and biological evolution. And even as the eruption was still in progress in 1965, the Icelandic government designated the island a nature reserve – for scientists only; a place they could document the evolution rock by rock, blade by blade, bird by bird.
Geneticist Sturla Fridriksson has been here from the beginning, and my feet had barely hit the island before its white-maned icon was chuckling to me that he’s “twice as old as these hills.... Here in Iceland we talk about the trolls getting very old. And the trolls are as old as the mountains.”
That first dark November morning after the eruption started, Dr. Fridriksson hired a plane to fly over the new landmass exploding violently from the ocean floor. Now 87, he’s rarely missed a summer expedition to the island since.
Dubbed by his colleagues the “Duke of Surtsey,” Fridriksson is hardly seen on the island without a video camera slung around his neck, the better to make a record of a new nest of snow buntings or a patch of lime grass.
“When I saw this new island was being produced in the North Atlantic, I realized this was a small replica of Iceland,” he says. “The next spring I went to work on the island, discovered some seeds that had floated on the island, and caught one fly.”
A few seeds and a fly? It may sound laughable, but to the handful of scientists who’ve spent their lives following the evolution of this island, the numbers all fit into a very precise jigsaw puzzle of its development. “If you lose a species [on this island] it’s not a great loss, it’s not any news, but to find a species, that’s news,” Fridriksson told me as we walked the sandy eastern shore. “It’s an addition to the list, like hitting a gold mine. Sometimes it’s like being Robinson Crusoe or a pirate hunting for lost items.”
• • •
The storybook nature of this place first captured plant ecologist Borgthór Magnússon when, as an 11-year-old, he witnessed from his home on the Icelandic mainland the eruption and emergence of the one-square-mile island. “To see this from the window of my home – the light, the smoke, the eruption, to hear the thunder – it really had an impact on me,” he recalls. “I never thought I’d step foot on the island someday.”
Mr. Magnússon is now one of the lead scientists on the island and has spent more than 25 summers on research expeditions to Surtsey, many of them working alongside his mentor, Fridriksson, studying plant colonization and secession.
“This opportunity to follow the colonization of a new site on earth right from its formation – from the time when it was a pile of ash until now, with many hundreds, even thousands of plant species and animals, to be able to follow that is very, very rare,” he says.
“In the beginning, we knew almost every plant as individuals,” says Magnússon, referring to his initial research. “They were like [being acquainted with] persons... there were so few, but as time passed, this could not be done anymore.”
The first plants appeared on the island’s northern shore in 1965. By 1985, more than 20 plant species had been found, and now the number is 69, compared with around 490 species on mainland Iceland. This year’s most significant discovery was a raven’s nest, the 14th bird species to be found here since the island’s creation.
• • •
Other than an abandoned lighthouse foundation on Surtsey’s 492-foot summit, the only structure on the island is a small, prefab hut under constant stress from the fierce winds perpetually battering the island. It’s kitted out with a few bunk beds, a dartboard, an emergency radio, and a solar panel to fire up the essentials.
Here the scientists, including a Mount St. Helen’s expert from the University of Washington, sit around an oval table discussing the day’s discoveries, including a meadow foxtail and an oak fern. Across the table sits entomologist Erling Ólafsson, busy preparing his newly found flies for storage. He keeps to himself except to look up and smile when Fridriksson teases him between sips of coffee: “During the day [Ólafsson] finds flies, and in the evening he makes friends with them.”
Though Fridriksson has since passed the research baton along to his former assistants, he still seems to be the center of this scientific frat house, and his well-worn Adidas hiking boots are a giveaway that the man still knows his way around Surtsey.
These days he’s often found in the hut cooking for the crew – sometimes puffin, sometimes his signature rice pudding with blood sausage and raisins. During my visit, his lusty laugh filled the room as his friends and former researchers around the table passed a plate of pungent shark meat with a box of matchsticks (used as toothpicks) and recounted an unlikely find in 1977.
“We came across some strange plants growing in the sand around the hut and we were excited because it was unusual to find plants so lush and so many,” Magnússon recalls. “So we began digging in the sand and soon figured out what they were: potatoes. It was obvious they had not been washed ashore by the sea, they had been planted deliberately in the sand.”
It turns out some renegade boys from the nearby Westman Islands had rowed up to Surtsey earlier in the spring and planted some leftover potatoes from their personal food cache. And that’s nothing to say of the tomato plants discovered even before the potatoes had arrived. Magnússon surmises that someone who’d been eating tomatoes took a restroom break where he shouldn’t have. “There must’ve been a lot of fertilizer around the plant,” he laughs.
But at the time, the jokes weren’t funny, and the tomatoes and potatoes were dug up immediately. The scientists have strict rules against not carrying any seeds to Surtsey – the idea behind no human interference is to witness colonization and secession as naturally as possible.
Magnússon expects the number of species to increase over the next 20 to 30 years, but as the island continues to erode, the flora and fauna variation will probably start to decline.
Heavy seas have been gradually eroding the shores since Surtsey first appeared. Its two brother isles, which appeared during the same eruption, have already vanished. Scientists estimate the island loses about 2.5 acres per year and is less than half the size it once was.
Even though, from a geological perspective, the big event in Surtsey’s history is often considered to be the eruption itself, for the scientists intimate with the place, it’s the island’s cycle of change that defines its importance.
“It’s been over 30 years since I first came to Surtsey and in these 30 years I’ve witnessed such great changes that I never would’ve been able to forecast or tell the extent of them or what they would be. Half of [the island] is gone and so much land that you worked on 25 years ago, it’s all ocean now. To witness the lava rock being broken down so easily by the sea, it is very impressive,” Magnússon says. “You really see the forces of nature.”DG ISPR says international community has not done enough for us
Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant-General Asim Bajwa on Wednesday regretted the world left Pakistan alone to face militants.
“Pakistan fought the war for the entire world in that region but the world left Pakistan alone to face them,” Bajwa said during an interview with Deutsche Welle.
“I would say that the international community has not done enough for us,” the military’s spokesperson added. The DG ISPR went on to say the criticism from the west that the Pakistan Army is not “doing enough” against militants is “both regretful and unjustified.”
Bajwa clarified that Operation Zarb-e-Azb is targeting all militants, including the Haqqani network. “The military has no preferences. We are targeting terrorists from all groups,” DG ISPR said in an interview with the German broadcaster in Berlin.
“The military crackdown is worthy of all the efforts. We have eliminated the terrorists from the area, and the people are very pleased with our efforts,” the DG maintained.
Further, Bajwa said Pakistan’s “entire defence mechanism is India-specific” as “India poses a threat to Pakistan”. Bajwa said that despite ongoing developments to engage India, “there is one major cause of tensions between the two countries and that is the long-standing issue of Kashmir”.
DG ISPR also said the killing of former Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in an American drone strike in May was “regrettable” as it upset the Afghan reconciliation process. “[Mansour] entered into Pakistan from another state and then he was traced and attacked. He was a part of the reconciliation process and was required to play his role for peace.”
“Pakistan was not informed despite being an ally. This is the issue Pakistan has been protesting,” he added.
Bajwa also dismissed claims of an increasingly visible gap between the civilian government and the army, saying, “democracy has been strengthening in Pakistan and it has been receiving all possible support from the military.”
“Consultations are made on all major issues of national security and whenever called, the army supports the civilian government on various issues, ranging from natural disasters to development works,” DG ISPR said.
World should stand by us in terror fight: COAS
PHOTO: ISPR
Czech Republic wants training of troops by Pakistan Army: ISPR
Earlier on Tuesday, Army chief General Raheel Sharif told German think-tank Koerber Foundation that Pakistan’s sacrifices in the war against terrorism and extremism were matchless and international community should “stand by us till dividends are fully realised.”
General Raheel went to a visit to two-day official visit of Germany on June 20 before traveling to Czech Republic to meet the civil and political leadership.
Read full storyThis is the third post in a series about practical game design techniques. Here are the first and second.
I’ve lately turned my attention from designing games for myself to designing with commercial intent, and I’ve been developing new methods to that end. Here I mumble about two and the philosophy behind them.
But before I strafe you in a hail of wisdom, a warning: though I’ve designed table games for 15 years, I’ve just started designing games to sell, and licensed only one in this new effort (out in November if it stays on schedule). These aren’t the words of experience. They might offer fresh perspective or they might be hooey. I might disavow everything. Constructive criticism is welcome.
An introduction by way of the soda industry
There’s a famous story in the annals of marketing about brand power in the soda industry. You’ve probably heard of the Pepsi Challenge: a promotion from the 70’s-80’s showing most folks prefer Pepsi to Coke in blind sip tests.
The ads weren’t lying. Studies by third parties at the time showed Pepsi indeed beat Coke in such tests.
However, the same studies found another effect: while Pepsi beat Coke in blind sip tests, Coke beat Pepsi in unblind sip tests, where the sippers knew what they were sipping. Coke’s brand was so powerful it overrode the chemistry.
Branding doesn’t have equal power for all product-types. For some, brands are weak relative to other factors, such as price (commercial airlines are an example – most of us go for the cheapest flight no matter who’s offering it, despite airlines’ endless efforts to change that)
But I contend that for board games, traditionally, branding is powerful, perhaps even more powerful than for sodas. Mass market/casual game players especially are loyal to the games they know and ignore everything else. Evidence:
Monopoly has been the best selling board game in the world since the 1930’s – How many products have been the best-selling products in their category for that long? Coke maybe? Maybe Arm & Hammer baking soda? Very, very few. This sustained dominance is probably due to powerful brand associations.
No doubt many games would beat Monopoly in “blind taste tests”, where players learn both Monopoly and another game for the first time and decide which to buy. Yet Monopoly dominates, because it’s a familiar name casual players trust and it’s synonymous with the idea of the board game.
And consider: most Monopoly sets sit unplayed on closet shelves. We buy it more for what it symbolizes than because we want to play it. Another way to put this: we buy Monopoly more for its brand than for its functional purpose.
Bananagrams – I’ve used this example elsewhere but I’ll repeat it because it illustrates the power of game branding. Bananagrams is a huge best seller now, but the same game was also marketed before under a different brand, with nowhere near the success. The branding, not the game, was the difference (it doesn’t seem to have been due to more aggressive marketing). A canvas banana and a funny name can work miracles.
Caveats
Two complications to this story:
1. Games hobbyists aren’t like casual players. Hobbyists aren’t as loyal to individual games and they prefer novelty. If hobbyists have any brand loyalty, it’s not to individual games, but to publishers or designers. To take myself as an example, I’m more loyal to the Reiner Knizia brand than to the brand of any one of Reiner Knizia’s games.
Historically, the hobby market has been much smaller than the mass market, so where profit was a priority, it paid to design games with the mass market in mind and to think about branding in that context. That brings us to the second complication:
2. The hobby market is growing, and its values may be spreading. What I mean is, more casual players are becoming more like hobbyists in the way they think about games. Likewise, their loyalty to individual games may be weakening a bit. Secondarily, crowdfunding may be making it easier to make a living publishing hobbyist games (Example: Stonemaier Games).
I don’t want to overstate these effects though: the mass market remains bigger, casual players still exhibit more loyalty to individual games, and bottom-line, the biggest hits still usually rely on mass-market adoption to become hits, whether hobbyists adopt them or not.
In addition, though crowdfunding has created a new source of revenue for hobby designers, it’s also creating a lot more competition among them. In fact, the internet generally has created such a focus on hobbyist game design, I suspect the mass market may now be comparatively underserved.
For these reasons, if making money is a priority, I believe designing games with potential for mass market adoption is still the way to go*. If you create a game which is popular among casual players, there’s a good chance it’ll stay popular (and generate revenue) for a long time. Contrast this with hobbyist games, where even revered games go out of print as hobbyists move on to the next new thing (Example: El Grande).
To sum up so far: I’ve argued designing games for mass market adoption is still the way to go if commercial success is a priority, and in that case a game’s brand is as important as the game itself.
That brings us to my central point: if you’re designing for the mass market, put as much effort into designing the game’s brand as you do gameplay. How? Here are two techniques I’m experimenting with:
How to integrate brand design and game design
Technique #1: brand-first design – There’s a rule in journalism which holds you should always write the headline first. Why? The headline is the promise you make to readers. By writing it first, you can better assess its value, and it focuses you on fulfulling it once you’ve committed to the writing.
A game’s title/tagline work the same way: they make a promise about the game’s experience. For that reason, I’ve started creating titles/taglines for games that don’t exist yet, and then designing games to fulfill their promise.
This is how I do it in practice: I wrote recently about my game design workflow, called the 100:10:1 method. In the first step, I write 100 concepts for games, each in a sentence or two. In the past, those have usually described mechanics, themes, components etc, which interest me.
But now, I’m composing game titles+taglines, or sometimes even packaging concepts. After I have 100, I select the 10 which most excite me, and carry out the rest of the process as usual.
I’ve designed one game this way so far:
Cat Herders: The Cat-Herding Game of Herding Cats
It is, by far, the most visited game description on this site. And this is a game almost no one has played, I haven’t promoted it much or tried to license it, and the gameplay itself may be unsuitable for a broad audience. All this suggests that the method has value.
Technique #2: online branding split-tests – I didn’t invent this method. The author Tim Ferris famously used it to design the branding for his best-selling book The 4-Hour Work Week. But I’ve not seen it used on a table game. The basic version is a method for testing the attractiveness of game titles and taglines, and it goes like this:
You create several different Google Adwords ads featuring different game titles and taglines, for the same keyword, set them to be displayed at the same frequency (“rotate evenly”), and see which one has the highest Click-Through-Rate (CRT), which is a measure of how intriguing the ad is to the audience.
It’ll cost money – a couple hundred dollars to identify a statistically significant winner – which means you should only use it on a game you’re committed to publishing. If you do it right (e.g. you use appropriate keywords, etc.), it can make a tremendous difference to your marketing.
Similar techniques can be used to test packaging concepts or graphic design elements, using services like Optimizely. There are many ways to do this and too many details for me to cover here. But you get the idea.
I’m only just starting to use this technique for games, but I’ve used it for a variety of purposes in my professional life, with good results. I expect it to work for games.
Final Caveats
1. None of this works if your publisher doesn’t want your branding help. Find publishers who welcome your involvement (It shouldn’t be hard – several publishers have told me they wish designers cared more about commercial considerations). Likewise, earn their trust by explaining your philosophy well, presenting amazing, thoughtful ideas, and being sensitive to the publisher’s needs (a publisher has to worry not only about each game’s brand, but also the company’s brand, which adds constraints – your game about orcs beheading each other with piano wire does no good for that family-friendly publisher you’re working with).
2. A brand only really becomes a brand when potential customers are familiar with it and they have positive associations with it (the whole point of branding). That means consistent, long-term outreach after publication is as important as design before publication. Designers with commercial ambitions would do well to consider that a part of their jobs as well. Some might argue that’s a job for marketing folks, but I disagree. Most marketers can’t be as authentic and honest as you can be about what you’re offering, and authenticity and honesty are critical to good branding.
That’s all I have to say. I hope it isn’t stupid. It’s always a struggle to see light through the obsidian storm of one’s own perceptions.
* This is where some hobbyist readers accuse me of arguing for “dumbed down” game design. I disagree and here’s why:
Casual players want and get different things from games than hobbyists do. Hobbyists tend to assume the desires of casual players are inferior to the desires of hobbyists. I think this sentiment is an expression of our ego-protecting tendency to believe those who are different are inferior (a tendency which, incidentally, causes unthinkable amounts of misunderstanding, heartbreak and injustice in other contexts). This isn’t to say there are no such things as unhealthy desires, but rather hobbyists are misguided in thinking the desires of casual players are unhealthy (or anyway less healthy than those of hobbyists).
Anyway I believe a great game for casual players can be every bit as artful and profound as a great game for hobbyists. It just serves needs to which we hobbyists have trouble relating, so the art is lost on us. It certainly was lost on me, for a long time (a subject for another day). Back to essay
Nick BentleyWhen I was in my teens, I shared a lot of mutual friends with a girl that attended the same sixth form college as me, and consequently we seemed to spend a lot of time around each other. This would have been fine, other than the fact that she really disliked me. It bothered me and I would go out of my way to talk to her, try and make her laugh and do little things that I thought might please her. It didn’t work – she continued to be cold and distant when she was around me and remained that way until we finished our courses and left. I haven’t seen or heard from her since. Looking back, I can’t believe I wasted so much time and effort – I didn’t actually like her that much to begin with…
The simple fact is that we all like to be liked, even by people that we do not like ourselves. We seek approval, validation and even empathy. We want to be understood, to be praised. Our social media activities are focused on the amount of ‘likes’ and followers we can gain, and the respect that we are often given in the online world will depend how big our numbers are. It’s an inherent, irrational human trait and the overall desire for approval from others can often result in a compromise of actions, behaviour and lifestyle. Indeed, I have compromised myself on many occasions to try and please those around me. It took until I was in my late twenties to realise a few valuable things about people and friendships.
1. Regardless of who you are and what you do, there will always be those that simply don’t like you.
2. That’s ok.
After years of bending over backwards for others I stopped being a people pleaser and started to focus on improving myself for me and me alone. I realised that I was the only person that would remain with me throughout the entirety of my life and that it was my own opinion of myself that was more important that those I spent time with.
Does the knowledge that you are disliked upset you? Here are a few questions you need to consider:
1. Can you look at yourself in the mirror and know that you are a good person?
2. Do you live life with morals that you are proud of?
3. Do YOU like you?
If you can answer ‘yes’ to these questions honestly, then nothing else should matter. Go about your business, continue to be a good person, be there for others when they need it, but make sure you are content with yourself first.
And if others don’t like you? They clearly weren’t worth your time in the first place…
What about you? Do you go out of your way to please others?
You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blogAstronomers have their eyes on a hot group of young stars, watching their every move like the paparazzi. A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the bustling star-making colony of the Orion nebula, situated in the hunter's sword of the famous constellation. Like Hollywood starlets, the cosmic orbs don't always shine their brightest, but vary over time. Spitzer is watching the stellar show, helping scientists learn more about why the stars change, and to what degree planet formation might play a role."This is an exploratory project. Nobody has done this before at a wavelength sensitive to the heat from dust circling around so many stars," said John Stauffer, the principal investigator of the research at NASA's Spitzer Science Center, located at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "We are seeing a lot of variation, which may be a result of clumps or warped structures in the planet-forming disks."The new image was taken after Spitzer ran out of its coolant in May 2009, beginning its extended "warm" mission. The coolant was needed to chill the instruments, but the two shortest-wavelength infrared channels still work normally at the new, warmer temperature of 30 Kelvin (minus 406 Fahrenheit). In this new phase of the mission, Spitzer is able to spend more time on projects that cover a lot of sky and require longer observation times.One such project is the "Young Stellar Object Variability" program, in which Spitzer looks repeatedly at the same patch of the Orion nebula, monitoring the same set of about 1,500 variable stars over time. It has already taken about 80 pictures of the region over 40 days. A second set of observations will be made in fall 2010. The region's twinkling stars are about one million years old - this might invoke thoughts of wrinkle cream to a movie star, but in the cosmos, it is quite young. Our middle-aged sun is 4.6 billion years old.Young stars are fickle, with brightness levels that change more than those of adult, sun-like stars. They also spin around faster. One reason for the ups and downs in brightness is the existence of cold spots on their surfaces. Cold spots are the opposite of "age spots" - the younger the star, the more it has. The cold spots come and go as a star whips around, changing the amount of light that reaches our telescopes.Stellar brightness can also change due to hot spots, which are caused by gas accreting onto a young star from the material out of which it formed."In the 1950s and 60s, astronomers knew that younger stars varied, and they postulated this had something to do with the birthing process," said Stauffer. "Later, with improved technology, we could see a lot more and learned a great deal about the stars' spots."Spitzer is particularly suited to study yet another reason why the stars are changing. The telescope's infrared sight can see the warm, dusty disks orbiting around them. These disks are where planets may eventually clump together and form. When the disks are young, they can have asymmetries, possibly caused by forming planets or gravitational disturbances from formed planets. As the skewed disks circle around a star, they block varying amounts of starlight.By gathering more and more data on these varying disks, Stauffer and his team hope to learn more about how planets develop -- not exactly tabloid fodder, but an ongoing drama of one large, stellar family.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer
News Media Contact
Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov2010-108Overnight exuberance sparked by lower than expected Cushing build reported by API is fading on the heels of June OPEC headlines of no production limits (and rising Saudi production) heading into DOE inventory data. Crude inventories printed a significantly higher than expected 2.78mm build but Cushing saw a smaller than expected build of 243k. Gaosline surprised with a 536k build (API 1.17m draw) and Distillates saw a smaller than API build of 1.26m barrels.
The biggest news was the biggest plunge in US production since July 2015, and yet inventories still rose suggesting that fundamentally this is and has been as much a demand story as one of supply (even as OPEC countries are happy to offset declining US output).
API:
Crude +1.265m (+750k exp)
Cushing +382k (+1.3m exp.. Genscape +821k)
Gasoline -1.17m
Distillates -2.6m
DOE:
Crude +2.78m (+750k exp)
Cushing +243 |
courtesy of larger rear windows.
Jeep Brand in China
The Jeep brand lineup in China currently includes the Grand Cherokee, Compass, Patriot and Wrangler – a portfolio that has been well suited to the brand's Chinese customers. Jeep brand sales in China in 2011 increased 81 percent over the prior year, and China is the Chrysler Group's most important market outside North America.
Last year, more Jeep vehicles were sold in China than in any other country besides the U.S. and Canada, and Jeep sales have been steadily growing in this critical market over the past five years.
Jeep Brand Globally
Built on more than 70 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand with class-leading capability, craftsmanship and versatility for people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a full line of vehicles that continue to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence.
For 2011, Jeep brand's worldwide sales increased by 41 percentversus 2010. Jeep was the Chrysler Group's top-selling brand outside North America, rising by 46 percent versus the prior year and comprising 63 percent of Chrysler Group's total international sales.
Chrysler Group LLC manages vehicle marketing, sales and service – together with alliance partner Fiat Group – in more than 120 countries around the world.
Turin, April 23d 2012Have your say
A £65 million international centre of manufacturing expertise is to be built near Glasgow Airport, the First Minister has announced.
The National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS) will provide support for businesses throughout the country, and aims to attract investment.
Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland can become a global leader in manufacturing
Strathclyde University will be the anchor university for the institute, which will be located at Inchinnan in Renfrewshire, next to Glasgow International Airport and the M8.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Economy Secretary Keith Brown made the announcement during a visit to Rolls-Royce's manufacturing facility in Inchinnan on Monday.
READ MORE: Can you legally take a snow day off work?
Rolls-Royce is a founding member of the University of Strathclyde's existing Advanced Forming Research Centre.
Ms Sturgeon said: "This exciting facility will be an industry-led international centre of manufacturing expertise.
"Research, industry and the public sector will work together to transform skills, productivity and innovation, attracting investment and making Scotland a global leader in advanced manufacturing.
"It will help companies right across Scotland embrace new manufacturing techniques, support cutting edge research and help to further develop the skills of our workforce.
"The manufacturing jobs of the future offer exciting and rewarding careers for young people. We want to inspire them to work in this sector and revive Scotland's proud tradition of manufacturing and engineering."
She added: "Inchinnan provides a gateway to the world through proximity to the airport and revives Scotland's proud tradition of manufacturing and engineering.
"Although the centre will sit on the Clydeside, the benefits will be felt throughout Scotland."
The Scottish Government will invest £48 million in NMIS with £8 million from the University of Strathclyde.
It comes after £8.9 million announced by the Scottish Government in June 2017 for the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre as a first step towards the wider plans.
Renfrewshire Council will provide a further £39.1 million through the Glasgow City Region Deal to support wider infrastructure work at the site.
Mr Brown said: "Manufacturing is a key industry, already accounting for 52% of Scotland's international exports, and nearly £600m of Scotland's spend on business research and development.
"Our investment in NMIS builds on our support for the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre and will support that and our ambitious target of doubling business expenditure on research and development by 2025."
NMIS will be delivered in partnership through Scottish Enterprise.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, University of Strathclyde principal and vice-chancellor, added: "Today's announcement marks the beginning of a new chapter for Scottish manufacturing, building on a great tradition of innovation."NEW YORK (Fortune) -- It's highly possible, if not inevitable, that Americans will soon live under a radically different tax system - one that the pundits and politicians aren't talking about.
It's called a value-added tax, or VAT, and it's been used for decades to pay the bills and sustain the immense growth of governments around the world, from France to Mexico to Australia. Created in 1954 by a French economist, the VAT is the most potent, efficient machine for revenue generation yet invented.
And if there's one thing the U.S. government needs as the federal budget balloons, it's a ton of new revenue. "The bottom line is that the income tax cannot support the level of spending that's projected, something other countries faced years ago," said Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan research institute. Today the VAT raises almost half of the total government revenue in France, and a similar share in most of the developed world.
The VAT is essentially a sales tax, except that it's charged at each stage in the development of a product instead of at the moment when the product is sold.
Take, for instance, a car with a sticker price of $30,000 and a value-added rate of 10%. Ford might buy its steel and other materials for $8,000 plus $800 in a VAT tax. A dealer then pays $25,000 plus a $2,500 tax for the finished vehicle. Ford takes an $800 credit for the tax it already paid and sends $1,700 to the government. A buyer then pays $30,000 for the SUV and $3,000 in taxes. The dealer collects the $3,000, takes a credit for the $2,500 worth of taxes already paid, and sends $500 to tax authorities. Ultimately, the government pockets $3,000, or 10% of the retail price of the car, in taxes.
The genius of the VAT is that, while the consumer pays it, the actual cash is mostly collected from producers before it reaches the retailer. Since the VAT is essentially a hidden charge embedded in the price of goods and services, raising the VAT doesn't arouse nearly the uproar caused by increasing income taxes.
The ease with which a VAT can be increased points to one of its big drawbacks: Governments see it as an easy way to pay for increased spending, which is a potential drag on economic growth.
Even so, the VAT would be better than the other likely alternative: A higher retail sales tax. If the national sales tax were raised to, say, 20%, consumers would cheat by paying cash to avoid it, and retailers would submit because they'd sell more goods by cutting the price 20%. With the VAT, every step of the manufacturing (and tax collection) process is documented.
Make no mistake: A VAT may be unavoidable in the United States. The reason is that spending is rising far faster than the revenue that can conceivably be generated by the current tax regime.
Keeping the budget afloat
Let's examine the numbers. Under our current tax system, receipts are projected to remain pretty flat, at about 18% to 20% of GDP, far into the future. But spending is slated to rise to 24% of GDP in 2030 and 28% in 2050, excluding interest on the federal debt. If taxes aren't increased enormously, future deficits, and the enormous borrowing they require, will swamp the budget with ruinous interest costs.
Today, the income tax raises around $1.1 trillion, or around 9% of GDP, with payroll and corporate taxes contributing the balance. The deficit now stands at around $580 billion, including the Social Security surplus that's helping to pay the bills. But that surplus is also rapidly disappearing. So to balance the budget, America would need to raise income taxes by 53%, assuming the other taxes remained at current rates.
The gap gets far larger in the future, chiefly due to rapidly rising costs of Medicare and Medicaid. To pay for those costs, we'd need to raise taxes by an extra 2% of GDP. That would require an additional $270 billion in income taxes.
All told, that's a total tax increase of $870 billion, or almost 80%. That's not including the estimated $240 billion cost of President-elect Barack Obama's healthcare plan through 2018.
The rub is that the fiscal pillar America has relied on since 1913 - the federal income tax - can't possibly support the looming new era of spending. All economists agree that when top income tax rates get too high, Americans will work, save and invest less. Tax collections would increase far more slowly than rates, and eventually level off completely.
The VAT may be the only answer. "We're moving towards European levels of spending," said Andrew Biggs, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute "If you go there, you need a more efficient way to raise revenue."
But the VAT, on top of encouraging bigger government budgets, has another problem: Middle class taxpayers would be hit harder by a VAT because they spend more of their income on goods like clothing and cars than high-earners. That's especially distressing to Obama and Democrats, who have pledged to make the tax system far more progressive by raising rates for the wealthiest Americans.
One partial solution would be to exempt staples such as food, gasoline or fuel oil from the VAT and impose extra-high charges on yachts and jewelry. To help middle-class taxpayers, the federal government could also send subsidies to tens of millions of taxpayers based on their incomes. The French, for example, mail checks to families depending on how many children they have.
But given the nature of politics, said Biggs, "the problem is that those rebates might be tied to some social agenda, not to making the system fair."
European governments have typically seen VAT hikes as an easy way to raise revenues during a recession. In some countries, government spending is more than 50% of national income. The results have been fiscal stability, but lackluster growth and a dearth of dynamism and entrepreneurship.
Given the budget numbers, the United States has already chosen a path of far bigger government. The trap has been set. It's unlikely America can escape without a VAT.This is one of the very very rare bots i have made that both look nice and perform as intended. It is a copter with the literal heart of a drone. It flies perfectly fine when both rotors are shot off. All plasma's are front mounted for flexibility in tower capping. You can take towers from above and below depending on the situation. This is also the first bot that has gotten me a Warn in the game when some1 thought I was glitching the guns. Hopefully it has been sorted out and that warn will be taken off. Thankfully the culprit gave me permission to use his screens so i can show how awesome it looks with red highlights. It takes damage fairly well and is very hard to immobilize. Still a little to squishy for my taste but with the update coming, im not going to bother fixing that. Very very fun to play though.
Its other 2 brothers are still in progress, the Mephisto (Lord of Hatred)a MSMG drone is mostly done but i may switch it around. The Diablo (Lord of Terror) will most likely be a Rail Tesla drone.D.C. journalists called the latest Quinnipiac University poll results in Colorado's tight gubernatorial race a "shocker." But it's a surprise only if you've been hopelessly trapped in a Beltway echo chamber.
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper is down 10 points against former GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez among all likely voters. The Q poll also shows him behind Beauprez by 13 points among independents. A survey conducted last week by Suffolk University for USA Today shows the beleaguered incumbent in a statistical dead heat with Beauprez.
Any way you slice it, Hickenlooper has lost the trust and confidence of voters of all ideological stripes. And despite incessant "War on Women" wails from feminist and leftist groups, the candidates are essentially evenly split among male and female voters. "Hickenlooper is behind the challenger on the key qualities voters want in a leader: honesty, caring and leadership," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, summed up upon release of the results.
Spinning furiously like a Soul Cycle instructor, a left-leaning journalist at The Washington Post on Monday blamed "partisan venom" and "a polarized, hyper-partisan environment" for Hickenlooper's fall. But the flaky, gutless gov has no one to blame but himself.
It was Hickenlooper who caved to East Coast gun-control zealots and partisan White House lobbying. As Democratic state legislators rigged the hearing process, snubbed Colorado constituents and insulted Second Amendment-supporting women during hearings last year, Hickenlooper was chumming it up on the phone with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Vice President Joe Biden.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars from Bloomberg's gun-control groups poured into Colorado. Biden personally lobbied state Dems. Under the political gun, our self-styled "moderate" governor signed extremist ammo magazine limits and intrusive background check measures into law — which he now concedes were ineffective at fighting crime all along.
Hick's diktats were effective at one thing: job destruction. The gun-control regulations forced Colorado ammo magazine-maker Magpul to move its offices to Wyoming and Texas. Hundreds of jobs and an estimated $80 million in tax revenue went with them. Heckuva job, Hick.
Now, the supposedly "centrist" governor has been cravenly trying to disguise his far-left stripes as he faces a tough re-election bid.
In a videotaped meeting this summer with Colorado sheriffs obtained by the indispensable Colorado website Revealing Politics, Hickenlooper:
—Lied and denied talking with Bloomberg before signing the gun-control measures.
—Blamed his decision to sign the radical gun laws on "(o)ne of my staff (who) made the commitment that we would sign it if it got passed."
—Admitted he didn't do his homework until "after all the kerfuffle" — that is, the groundbreaking 2013 citizen recalls that ousted two top Democratic state legislators who carried the gun-control bills — and only got "some facts we should have had at the beginning" after he had signed the measures.
This dishonest fecklessness is why Hickenlooper's in trouble. It has nothing to do with our citizens' lack of "civility" or "compromise" or "moderation" — or whatever fantastical scapegoats and excuses the Beltway press corps conjures up in its elite newsroom bubbles. The most damning hit on the waffling governor's character came not from a "partisan," but from a grieving father.
Last month, Bob Crowell — father of 19-year-old murder victim Sylvia Crowell — blasted Hickenlooper for indefinitely delaying the execution of mass murderer Nathan Dunlap. When Hickenlooper confided in CNN that he might grant Dunlap clemency if he loses in November, Crowell didn't mince words. "I think that's the coward's way out, and I view John Hickenlooper as a coward."
Whether red, blue or purple, discerning Coloradoans smell something worse than a rat in Hickenlooper: a political opportunist who'll lie through his teeth to cling to power. You can't change a crapweasel, but you can vote him out.
Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.I was just pondering the mythology of the bible and stumbled upon something that I thought would make for interesting debate on this forum.
According the text of the bible itself, Lucifer was the good guy and God was the evil one.
Here’s the logic, based on the bible itself.
Lucifer was an angel who was pissed that angels, who were divine, immortal and created first by god were created as slaves of god while humans were favored with free will. Lucifer claimed that angles should be treated at least as well as humans and convinced many other angels of this as well.
God told them to shut up and obey, Lucifer launched a rebellion to overthrow the Tyrant who was denying angels their rights and lost.
He and his supporters where exiled from heaven and ended up on earth. Since history is written by the victors their dominion was renamed, “hell” and the supporters of Lucifer labeled as “demons” and Lucifer himself was made into the epitome of evil.
BUT what exactly did Lucifer do that was evil? Let’s examine the evidence.
1. Convinced Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge.
Counter point: God created Adam and Eve to be stupid and amusing pets. He built a nice zoo complete with landscaping, food, water, ECT. But insisted we remain stupid and ignorant of the truth.
When Lucifer told Eve that knowledge is not evil and that Truth is a good thing, she used her free will and logic, (given by god) to come to the conclusion that eating the apple would be a good thing.
God flips out that his asinine rule was broken, (today we call those who try to forcibly keep truth from their subjects dictators and tyrants) kicks out Adam and Eve and proclaims that their descendents will be punished for all eternity, (thus inventing original sin and showing himself to be a giant dick who holds insane grudges).
2. Goads God into the Story of Job.
Background: Job was a god fearing, righteous man who exalted god daily for his healthy family, bountiful crops and livestock and wonderful home.
God boasted to Lucifer of how much Job loved him. Lucifer said it’s because god had given Job such a sweet life. God proceeded to kill Jobs family, destroy his crops and livestock and demolish his home. Job still exalted god, thus proving his loyalty and faith.
Counter point.
Kim Jong IL calls Barrack Obama and tells him of his top general, a man called Ming, who loves Kim Jong IL immensely and tells him everyday what a wonderful leader he is. Obama tells Kim it’s because he has bribed the general with a fine life, of a large house, riches, women and power.
Kim calls in General Ming and his family. Before the general Kim Jong IL shoots the man’s family, then announces that his bank account is gone and his home burned to the ground. General Ming drops to his knees and begs Kim Jong IL to forgive him for whatever he did to displease the dear leader. He exalts the Dictator like never before because he is convinced the tyrant has gone insane and will now kill him.
Kim Jong IL is pleased and calls Obama to gloat that General Ming has proven his loyalty despite Kim destroying his life.
Replace Kim Jong IL with God, General Ming with Job and Obama with Lucifer and you have the story of Job. Now I ask you who is the bad guy in that story? Obama? Or Kim Jong IL?
3. Lucifer tries to get Jesus to save himself rather than be crucified.
Now let’s look at the story of Jesus dieing for the sins of mankind more closely.
Jesus was sent by his dad to be tortured to death by humans because the first humans had used their god given free will to choose knowledge over ignorance, thus disobeying god.
God, the eternal prick that he will soon be shown to be, held a grudge for millennia against the descendents of Adam and Eve, until one day he decides he can forgive humans, BUT only if he stages a dramatic murder of his son at the hands of the same humans he can now forgive.
Rather than just declare humans forgiven, he decides to stage a snuff show that he will lord over humanity for eternity, guilting us into obeying him, (we have too because Jesus died for our sins at the command of his insane father)
For pointing out the insanity of god’s actions and telling Jesus he doesn’t have to die and shouldn’t, Lucifer is called evil.
Now where in the Bible does Lucifer ever kill anyone or do anything we would consider evil? I can’t think of any.
But do you know who is the biggest asshole and bloodthirsty murderer? God, let’s examine the evidence.
1. Kicking out Adam and Eve from paradise for eating from the fruit of knowledge.
As explained previously, knowledge is something all should strive for and not shun because their dictator tells them to avoid it.
2. Tower of Babel
At one time all people spoke the same language. They decided to get together and build a tower so high it could reach heaven, (a foolish idea since humans have gone into space and not found heaven thus it is not a place the builders of the tower could ever have reached).
God was so angered by what he saw as arrogance by the people that he smashed the tower and scatted them all over the earth, making them speak different languages so that they could never again understand each other enough to work on another tower.
Note that the misunderstanding the results from different languages results in countless wars that kill many tens of millions of people.
Counter point.
You work in Japan, your toddler child who lives in New York tells you he is building a boat with his friends that he will use to cross the oceans and reach Tokyo.
You fly into a rage, smash his boat, and then kidnap your child’s friends and leave them at different end s of the city and make each child unable to understand, (inevitably leading to misunderstanding and hatred) other children. You are left secure in the thought that your child will never be so arrogant to try to build a homemade raft to circle the earth again.
Now what would we think of such a parent? We would put their child in protective service and probably put the parent in jail or at least in a psychiatric hospital because they are obviously crazy and in need of professional help.
But when god does its suddenly ok and the fault of the kids for attempting to work together to accomplish an impossible task?
3. Noah’s Ark and the flood.
God gave humans free will to decide for ourselves whether or not to obey him. Most people chose not to. So God decided to kill everyone on earth, including millions of innocent babies, as well as every plant and animal.
He then decides to spare one family, a family that does obey him, because then the descendents will be more likely to obey him.
Now when god speaks to Noah, Noah is aware of whom god is, because obviously some people do believe in god and obey him. The millions of god fearing and god obeying people who are not part of Noah’s family? Well fuck them too, they can die with all the innocent babies god suddenly feels like drowning.
When god is done drowning the world, (why the need to kill all those animals, why not just send a plague to target the wicked, thus sparing all the faithful and the babies?) he promises to never drown it again, (though he could destroy it in some other way).
What amazes me is that the story of Noah is told to children as an example of god’s love.
WAIT A SECOND! God commits the greatest act of genocide in history, kills more people than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined and then we are told that Lucifer is the evil one?
4. Killing the first born of Egypt
So the Israelites are forced into exile, go to Egypt where they are enslaved by the Egyptians. God sends Moses to free his people. Pharaoh refuses and orders the first born son of each Israeli family killed.
Before that can be carried out, god sends the angel of death to kill the first born of every Egyptian family. Not just Pharaoh’s son, but every first born son in Egypt.
This act of genocide is commemorated by the holiday of Passover.
Why is god punishing innocent people, many of them children for the barbarity of one man?
And why is it ok when he does it?
5. Ordering genocide in his name
Specifically I am referring to ordering the Israelites, now freed from Egypt, to attack and kill the Canaanites, including every man, women and child, even the dogs!
Not only does god love to commit genocide but apparently he loves to make us humans do it too!
Of course, some religious folks will say, “Any thing god does is by definition moral, evening mass murder or ordering mass murder in his name”.
Let me get this straight, killing scores of innocent men, women and children is ok, as long as god told you too? Isn’t that what Osama Bin Laden says he’s doing?
Or what about the 12 crusades that were launched in the Middle Ages? Those were ordered by the Popes who are supposedly infallible because they have a direct line to god.
6. Allowing rape, slavery, exploitation of women and all the other nasty shit that’s in “his good book”.
In the bible you’ll find examples of rape, incest, slavery and massive chauvinism all justified. Oh and let’s not forget the story of Abraham, ordered to sacrifice his own son. Lucky for him god chose to send an angel to stay Abraham’s hand at the last instant but really, why not just look into the man’s soul to determine the depth of his faith, isn’t god suppose to be all knowing? Must he really order his follows to kill their own children to prove something to him?
So examining the evidence from the bible itself we have god, acting as the genocidal tyrant who gives us free will and the choice to obey or not, then kills us en mass for choosing wrong vs. Lucifer, the angel who’s only sin was to disagree with god and who thinks that all sentient beings have an inherent right to self determination and should use logic to think for themselves, (the basis of western civilization).
Who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy? Seems pretty obvious to me.
Moreover let me put this hypothetical before you.
If you did a survey of a thousand Americans and told them of a General Lao, a tyrannical and petty, grudge holding dictator of some Asian country and Commander Tzu an opposition leader who believed in self determination and logical thinking, (i.e. democracy) and who launched a failed coup attempt to unseat the despot General Lao, and asked them, “who do you support and who should the United States support?”
What do you think the results would be? Every one of them would say “Commander Tzu is the good guy and General Lao is the bad guy.” In fact many might say the US should send military aid to Commander Tzu.
Now what would those same people say if you told them that all the atrocities committed by General Lao were actually described in the bible as committed by God and the actions of Commander Tzu were committed by Lucifer?
Do you think that could give people some pause, perhaps give them some reason to think for themselves instead of blindly accepting propaganda and living instructions from some ancient “magic book” written millennia ago?
No, that's probably too much to ask. After all, Lucifer is the epitome of evil and God is all love and compassion, it says so in the bible;)
Please note, I am not arguing that Christians should abandon their faith and start worshiping Lucifer instead, (after all we are talking about mythology here, I would no more argue that someone should worship Ares over Zeus because one Greek god is an asshole and the other a cool guy) but rather that blindly accepting what’s written in some book as divine truth and deciding to live your life by it is foolish.
I find it amusing that so many fundamentalist Christians have no idea of what horrors lie within “the good book”.
These same people will point to me, a secular humanist who believes that humans must ban together to create a society in which all people have access to the basic necessities of life as well as a good education in order to ensure equality of opportunity so that we may all maximize our potentials and thus maximize aggregate happiness in the world, as an immoral person for not accepting what is in their magic book, yet they, who claim that “every word in the bible is literally true” are virtuous for blindly following orders from the greatest genocidal dictator of all time.INDIANAPOLIS -- NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock ended his seven hours of NFL Scouting Combine coverage Sunday with a 30-minute media session at Lucas Oil Stadium. Here are the highlights of his weekend evaluations:
» Central Michigan offensive tackle Eric Fisher could be in the mix for the No. 1 overall pick. Mayock said he thought Fisher already had closed the gap on Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel at the Senior Bowl. Mayock doesn't see much of a difference between the two, so if Joeckel is considered a possibility for the Kansas City Chiefs, then Fisher should be, too.
» West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith lived up to everything Mayock previously believed from film study. Consistency remains the problem. There's the potential to be a franchise quarterback with the good arm, mobility and accuracy. Mayock called Smith a very natural thrower and was happy he had the chutzpah to throw and compete, but he still slots the quarterback in the range of the No. 20 to No. 32 picks.
"I want to bang the table because I want to like Geno Smith," Mayock said. "But there's just too many inconsistencies on tape for me to say that Kansas City or anyone that high should take him."
Jeremiah: A run to riches Daniel Jeremiah says there's no hotter prospect than Terron Armstead, who posted a stunning 40 time... at 306 pounds!
says there's no hotter prospect than Terron Armstead, who posted a stunning 40 time... at 306 pounds! More...
» Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson did well for himself Sunday. He ran a 4.43-second 40-yard dash and showed the game speed he put on tape. Mayock called Robinson smart, tough and quick. Robinson also caught the ball well and didn't have a single drop during the gauntlet drill despite nerve damage that affects his right hand. Pass-catching skills remain the biggest question, but Robinson did well in that area during the workout.
» Mayock reiterated that this should be a deep draft, though not sexy with four offensive linemen and two defensive linemen in his top 10. He put the over/under on first-round quarterbacks at two.
Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.Starbucks Recruits with a Purpose for a Better World
In the (not too distant) past, the notion of being “purpose-driven” was something largely reserved for the not-for-profit sector. Charitable organizations, of course, have always had “purpose” (to change the world in some way) – but businesses, surely, just have a “mission” (to be profitable).
Not anymore.
Today, in an age of conscious capitalism, more and more businesses are finding that profitability is becoming increasingly dependent on their ability to prove that they are as purpose-driven as they are mission-driven. Why? Because what motivates employees in 2017 – especially amongst the increasingly crucial millennial cohort – is no longer promises of job security, high pay and career advancements, but a feeling that the businesses they are working for are doing good for personal, societal and social purposes.
“An organization without purpose manages people and resources, while an organization with purpose mobilizes people and resources,” writes Sherry Hakimi, founder and CEO of organizational development firm Sparktures, in Fast Company. “Purpose is a key ingredient for a strong, sustainable, scalable organizational culture. It’s an unseen, yet ever-present element that drives an organization.”
The 2016 “Purpose At Work” global report from social benefit corporation Imperative in association with LinkedIn concurs. According to the report, 85% of purpose-led companies show positive growth – compared to 42% of non-purpose led companies which show a drop in revenue. Further, out of the companies surveyed that had experienced growth of 10% or more over the previous three years, 58% of them were purpose-driven.
(Image source: business.linkedin.com)
Mission Statements Vs. Purpose Statements
To get to grips with exactly what their purpose is, many companies have started publishing “purpose statements” that sit alongside the more traditional “mission statement”.
It’s worth clarifying the difference at this point. Mission statements describe what the company wants to do right here and now – i.e. what customers it wants to reach, what the critical processes of the business are, and what the desired level of performance is.
By contrast, a purpose statement describes what the company wants to be in the future – and indeed how the company plans to effect (positive) change within the industry and/or society that it operates. "Your mission statement is more about what you want to accomplish, and the goals you want to get to, whereas your purpose statement is your reason for existence and more about the journey," explains Shannon Schuyler, Chief Purpose Officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Here’s how US coffeehouse chain Starbucks outlines its mission and purpose statements:
Mission statement: "To inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time."
Purpose statement: "To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow."
Starbucks Recruits for Purpose
The power of purpose is not to be underestimated. It gives companies a competitive edge, not least in the realms of recruitment. Companies with a purpose-driven culture, according to research from LinkedIn Talent Solutions, have employees who are more likely to be fulfilled and satisfied at work, form strong relationships with their co-workers, are higher performers, and speak highly of their company.
Recruiting for purpose, indeed, is something that John Phillips, SVP of Global Talent Acquisition & Partner (Employee) Enablement at Starbucks, believes in most firmly – for the good of the world, as well as the company.
“We can’t just be bystanders to what’s going on in the world […] you turn on the TV and you see a fractured level of humanity out there […] and we need to figure out what is our role and responsibility in that,” says Phillips. “Think about how your role can change and disrupt the path humanity is on. As a recruiter, you have a way to disrupt that path and make your company – and in turn the world – a better place.”
A Better World
It is of course very easy for a company to come out and say that it “wants to make the world a better place.” But Starbucks wants its actions to speak louder than its words – which is why the retailer has been paying the college tuition fees for more than 4,000 of its employees.
In April 2015, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced the company’s College Achievement Plan – a scheme that provides the full tuition fee reimbursement at Arizona State University’s online college to any full or part-time US Starbucks employee who is not yet in possession of a bachelor’s degree. This is a purpose-drive to make the world a better place in no uncertain terms. For indeed, the motivation behind the College Achievement Plan, according to Phillips, is to address one of the US’s overbearing concerns about the inequality of education opportunities in the country.
“When it comes to college, the highest predictor of achieving a college degree in the Unites States is the zip code you came from,” Phillips said in an interview with LinkedIn. “And that’s not right.”
Starbucks partners (employees) may choose from 50 undergraduate degree programs through ASU Online, with no commitment to stay with the company post-graduation. The top degrees being pursued through the plan are psychology, organizational leadership, and health sciences.
What is interesting is the fact that following the launch of the scheme, applications went up for positions at Starbucks right across the board – as well as a boost in barista applications, so too was there a boost in applications for corporate positions. Despite the fact that many of the applicants for these corporate positions already had a college degree – and therefore wouldn’t qualify for the College Achievement Plan – the program enticed them to Starbucks anyway.
“This is what people want to be part of,” Phillips said. “They want to be part of a company that does it the right way.”
Positive Branding
Starbucks will invest $250 million to help at least 25,000 partners graduate through the College Achievement Plan by 2025. It’s a sizeable figure, no doubt – but it provides the necessary clear and tangible proof that Starbucks really is purpose-driven to make the world a better place. And this positive branding, Philips believes, offsets the costs of the scheme, for it will attract and retain the best talent to the workforce, and consumers are always willing to spend more with companies they believe have good values. The last word goes to him: “There is a direct connection between the way you treat your employees and customers choosing you as a brand. We want our customers to know and love our culture.”Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe is introducing an initial group of seven offences which will attract a fine of €40.
The offences are:
A cyclist riding a pedal cycle without reasonable consideration.
No front lamp or rear lamp lit during lighting-up hours.
Cycling in pedestrianised street or area.
A cyclist proceeding past traffic lights when the red lamp is illuminated.
A cyclist proceeding past cycle traffic lights when red lamp is lit.
A cyclist failing to stop for a School Warden sign.
A cyclist going beyond a stop line, barrier or half barrier at a railway level crossing, swing bridge or lifting bridge, when the red lamps are flashing
However failure to pay within the allotted time could see that increase considerably.
Inspector Eddie Golden of the Tipperary Traffic Corps says the initial fine will arrive in the post with 26 days to pay. This will then increase to €60 to be paid within 56 days before going to court where a fine of up to €2,000 could be imposed.Short answer for the overwhelmed readers with little time on their hands: Yes, some do.
Longer answer:
The process of stinging and dying is called autotomizing and only various honey bees are susceptible, not honey wasps or yellowjackets or the Honey Nut Cheerios bee. Here’s how it works: When the bee stings you, its stinging apparatus screws into your skin like a corkscrew. The bee is too weak to pull it out without tearing its abdomen apart. Interestingly, when the bee stings an animal or insect with skin much thinner than human skin, it can easily pull out and fly off without dying. This does not apply to queen honey bees, which have no barbs in their stinging apparatus and therefore do not autotomize. Male honey bees, called drones, also kill themselves during copulation with a queen bee as their genitalia are ripped from their bodies mid-air during intercourse. (Rough!) Life isn't so good for the drones that don't mate with the queen either. Worker bees feed the young drones until they are ready to mate. Those that don't mate with the queen get kicked out of the hive and starve to death. Good times.The iconic image of families gathering in front of bonfires on San Diego beaches has long been a staple in advertising aimed at luring visitors to |
will do whatever it takes to get the endorsements, the money that they need to raise.”
Barry Loudermilk, a former Georgia Republican state senator who had recently been elected to the U.S. House, also spoke to the convention, comparing the fight against abortion rights to the struggle of America’s founders, who he said also witnessed “a decline in the moral sensitivity of our nation.” Loudermilk, who while serving in the state senate introduced a personhood amendment that was backed by Georgia Right to Life and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, said, “When you look at our movement, we have the exact same things against us that they had against them,” he said. “They had the government against them, the laws, the judges. We don’t have the people who are totally with us, it’s growing. But we have the truth with us. We have Providence with us.”
The congressmen echoed a founding tenet of the Personhood Alliance: that in a movement that was increasingly struggling to appear secular, the organization would be unabashedly “Christ-centered” and “biblically informed.”
As personhood’s proponents like to remind their fellow activists, both sides of the movement share the same goal: to completely criminalize abortion. The question is just how to do it.
The largest and best-funded anti-choice groups, deploying a strategy of chipping away at abortion access in the name of “women’s health,” have pushed state legislatures to pass over 200 new restrictions on abortion rights since 2011, many based on model legislation from AUL and NRLC. This strategy has managed to shut down abortion providers (especially in rural areas), make it harder for low-income women to pay for abortion, and erect unnecessary logistical hurdles for even those women who could access and afford abortion care.
The movement also won a pivotal court case with the Supreme Court’s ruled that private corporations could deny their employees legally mandated health insurance coverage for contraceptives that the corporations’ owners believe cause abortion. And they did this all while stemming the loss in public opinion that had hindered other “culture war” issues, in part by lifting up female leaders and adopting woman-centered empowerment rhetoric.
But at the same time, another side of the anti-choice movement, those eschewing compromise and incrementalism and pursuing the goal of establishing legal “personhood” from the moment of conception, have suffered a series of embarrassing electoral blows. In 2014, Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have defined zygotes and fetuses as persons in the state’s criminal code. It was the third time in six years that voters in the state had rejected a “personhood” measure, although its proponents noted that their margin of defeat got smaller each time. Perhaps even more galling for the movement, voters in reliably conservative North Dakota rejected an amendment to provide constitutional protections for “every being at every stage of development” by a whopping 28-point margin. And this all came three years after a personhood initiative was soundly defeated in deep-red Mississippi.
These personhood measures, while sharing the same ultimate goal as the incremental strategy, have become widely seen as politically toxic, in large part because they could threaten access to common forms of birth control. The no-compromise strategy has also become tied to a series of ham-handed comments made by male politicians, most infamously former Missouri Rep. Todd Akin, which further hurt the personhood movement, while providing political cover to those pursuing a more incremental approach.
But despite its spectacular losses at the ballot box, personhood movement strategists maintain that not only is their strategy the morally sound and intellectually consistent one — they believe their strategy is the one that will ultimately swing public opinion and overturn Roe v. Wade.
This series, marking the anniversary of Roe, will explore the recent resurgence of the personhood movement and what it means for the future of abortion rights. Upcoming posts will examine the history of the split in the anti-choice movement and its debates over legal strategy, and the organizations that are currently leading the movement.The Green Party’s Troubling Stance on Sex Work
Emily Pothast Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 29, 2016
UPDATE: A response to this article from one of the national co-chairs of the Green Party of the United States has been posted below.
I know there are a lot of people who think voting for Jill Stein and the Green Party for president is the way to go this year. On one level, I don’t blame them. Just as I found the Democratic Socialism preached by Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary to be refreshing, I find the popularity of the Green Party an inspiring movement overall, even if I think there are flaws in the strategy of aiming for the White House before securing representation in local and state government.
On another level, I don’t think the Green Party is *quite* the Leftist utopia we’re dreaming of yet, particular when it comes to sex workers’ rights.
The Green Party platform on Social Justice and Civil Rights (link here) essentially states that it is in favor of erasing the work that many sex workers’ rights advocates have done for decades to destigmatize sex work:
We urge that the term “sex work” not be used in relation to prostitution. With the increasing conflation of trafficking (the violent and illegal trafficking in women and girls for forced sex) with prostitution, it is impossible to know which is which, and what violence the term “sex work” is masking.
An increasing number of experts think the percentage of choice prostitution is very small, leaving the larger number of women exposed to serious and often fatal violence. Much of what is commonly called prostitution is actually sex trafficking by definition.
Let’s unpack this a little.
1) Who exactly are these “increasing number of experts” who “think the percentage of choice prostitution is very small,” and who are they talking to to get this information?
Are these experts aware, for instance, of the well-documented “new prostitution economy,” and the increased destigmatization and normalization of digitally mediated sex work among millennials?
According to a recent article in Vanity Fair:
The most surprising thing about Miranda’s [sex work] story is how unsurprising it is to many of her peers. “Almost all of my friends do some sort of sex work,” says Katie, 23, a visual artist in New York. “It’s super-common. It’s almost trendy to say you do it — or that you would.”
So on the one hand, we have some “experts” who believe that entering into sex work by choice is uncommon, and on the other hand we have the direct experience of many young people telling us that this is simply not the case. It would seem that one of these contradictory perspectives must be at odds with reality, and since Vanity Fair actually bothered to ask some sex workers what they thought (and because their findings resoundingly match my personal experience of the young people I know) I’m curious how the Green Party came to this conclusion. Even if they countered with strong data on the prevalence of sex trafficking relative to “choice prostitution,” I still would not see this as a reason to ignore the voices of sex work advocates who have fought long and hard for that term as a way to define themselves.
2) According to the reasoning used in the Green Party platform, it is prudent to stop calling prostitution “sex work” because “Much of what is commonly called prostitution is actually sex trafficking by definition.”
To me, that doesn’t sound like an argument to strip sex workers of their agency to call themselves by their preferred nomenclature. That sounds like an argument to stop erasing the violence inherent in sex trafficking by calling sex trafficking “sex work,” or even “prostitution.”
Underneath this convoluted reasoning, there seems to be a belief that not many women choose sex work of their own volition, and even if they did, they shouldn’t, because patriarchy (also invoked in the GP platform.)
3) The belief that there are no women who choose sex work, or that their numbers are so few that their right to define themselves should not matter, is itself paternalistic and oppressive.
Let’s be clear: Capitalism makes us do all sorts of things we might not otherwise do. That’s why we all have jobs and (if we’re lucky) get paid money for the work we do. Painting sex work with a broad brush that conflates it with sex trafficking erases the experiences of thousands if not millions of sex workers who are just trying to make ends meet [no pun intended?!] in this increasingly inequitable economy.
There is much to be admired in the Green Party platform, and I can see why so many on the Left seem to think it’s a long-awaited utopia. But I also think Jill Stein and the Green Party would be well served to focus on sex trafficking, as well as the economic conditions that make sex work the only viable option for so many young people, but leave the erasure of the experiences of real people and their flimsy “expert” puppets out of something that is clearly outside their expertise.
As it stands, I can’t personally reconcile my feminism with the Green Party platform. I sincerely hope that changes in the future.
— — — — —
UPDATE
One of the national co-chairs of the Green Party of the United States has offered this response in the comments:
Hi Emily, thanks for writing. I am one of the national co-chairs of the Green Party of the United States, and we are aware of the fact that the language on this particular issue needs updating. We are right now attempting to convene a conference with SWOP to begin rewriting this.
It’s too late to get this change for the platform discussions this year, but we’re not going to wait for the 2018 cycle. We’re going to start getting state party co-sponsors to sign off on updated language ASAP. Our national convention is this week.
Would you like to participate in these discussions? Or do you have any questions? My Twitter is @andreamerida.
Andrea Merida Cuellar
National Co-Chair
Green Party of the United States.Americans are twice as likely to die from turning guns on themselves as they are to be murdered with one.
A national News21 analysis of 2012 data found 18,602 firearm suicides in 44 states compared with about 9,655 firearm homicides in 49 states. That means at least 50 people died per day from firearm suicide; 26 died from firearm homicides.
Gun shops and ranges in areas with high rates of suicide are teaming up with prevention specialists to prevent firearm suicides. Range employees are learning the warning signs of suicide to stop mentally unstable people from getting their hands on guns.
News21 contacted all 50 states seeking suicide data for 2012, the most recent year available, but Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island denied requests for statistics or could not be reached. The FBI received limited homicide data from Illinois and Alabama and none from Florida.
Of the 44 states with 2012 data, Montana had the highest rate of suicide by gun, while New Jersey had the lowest.
That firearm suicides outnumbered firearm homicides doesn’t surprise Matthew Miller, who studies suicide at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Suicide rates have been higher than homicide rates for as long as Miller remembers, but many people still assume they are more likely to die in a mass shooting than they are by shooting themselves, he said.
Living with a gun in the home makes residents more likely to die from suicide, because they’re more likely to attempt suicide using a gun — and with guns, there’s no turning back, Miller said.
The public doesn’t hear about firearm suicides often because of the stigma surrounding suicide and people who kill themselves, he said.
“I think what we see in the media, whether it’s newspapers or television or movies, there have been people shooting at one another with guns, but rarely do you hear information about suicide,” Miller said.
Firearm suicides in the states studied made up 51 percent of the 35,831 total suicides in those states in 2012, News21 found. For the previous five years, firearm suicides made up just under half of all suicides throughout the U.S., according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Suicide by firearm has been loosely studied for the past 20 years by the American Association of Suicidology, a research and education organization based in Washington, D.C., that was created in 1968. But most experts concentrate on the motives of suicide victims and not the means people use. Prevention specialists are increasingly studying the link between guns and suicide.
Death and gun ownership: Is there a connection?
Experts say having a gun in the house greatly increases the chance someone will use that gun on themselves. States with high rates of firearm suicide generally have high gun ownership.
Alan Berman, former director of the American Association of Suicidology, said there is a direct correlation between gun ownership and death by suicide. Studies show having a gun in the home makes firearm suicide more likely, and can be higher based on gender, age and gun storage.
People choose their method of suicide due to its accessibility, Berman said.
Safe-storage laws are among the few measures suicide analysts agree could help lower firearm suicide rates, because they put a buffer between the mental impulse to end one’s life and the firearms available, Berman said.
“The problem of course is the NRA (National Rifle Association) and their interpretation that any attempt even to talk about safe storage is the beginning of gun control,” Berman said.
Legislation isn’t necessary to promote gun safety, said Don Turner, Nevada Firearms Coalition president.
“As a responsible gun owner, we have the obligation to make sure that our firearms are kept secure and under control, and that we only sell or give firearms to people who are not at risk,” Turner said. “All the time and energy put into limiting access to firearms could be put into improving our mental health system. It would probably yield better results.”
Nationally, firearm suicide rates haven’t changed much over the past 20 years that Berman has studied them. However, some states with prevention programs have had success in lowering rates, he said.
“There are efforts,” Berman said. “But again, they are small-scale efforts relative to a large-scale national issue, which no one has the key to the lock yet.”
Suicide generally stems from a buildup of depression and internal despair, said Cathy Barber, creator of Means Matter — a Harvard research group that studies access to guns or other means of suicide.
It’s not unusual for suicidal people to make several plans or attempts to kill themselves, but experts are noticing a trend of more impulsive suicides with firearms, she said. A survey showed 47 percent of people who attempted suicide did so within 10 minutes of thinking about it, she said.
“For the person who is going from 0 to 60 in a few seconds, you don’t want that person to have access to something that could really quickly kill them,” Barber said. “You want to try to build some delay in them being able to get their hands on something that could kill them.”
Gun owners have higher rates of suicide than non-gun owners, but they don’t have higher rates of attempts, according to a study on which Barber worked. They don’t have higher rates of mental illness and aren’t more likely to kill themselves. They are just more likely to use a more final means for suicide, she said.
Voluntarily relinquishing firearms to a friend or loved one during times of depression, high stress or mental anguish removes the temptation of turning to a gun when someone might be contemplating suicide, Barber said.
Any means necessary
After his son killed himself in 2003, Stephen Johnson, of Las Vegas, installed a gun safe in his garage. Now, Johnson encourages anyone with guns to lock them up for safety.
His 18-year-old son grabbed a Smith & Wesson handgun from a knapsack in his parents’ closet and shot himself in the shower.
Johnson felt guilty about it for a long time. The guilt eventually stopped. The pain never did.
In his suicide note, Levi Johnson said he would’ve killed himself regardless of the means. The note he left behind took fault with his brief time in the Marines and told his Mom not to blame his Dad for the gun, because if the gun hadn’t been available he would have just used a knife or something else.
“Why? You ask that question, oh, a billion times,” Stephen Johnson said. “I still don’t have the answers of why, but I have been able to cope with that — not getting those questions answered.”
It was the second time Johnson’s son tried to kill himself. During basic training, he tried to overdose on aspirin. In high school, he had a history of cutting himself.
Levi Johnson planned his last attempt. He cleaned his room, made his bed and put his last two paychecks and his ATM code on a bulletin board.
Then he picked up the phone and called the police to forewarn them of his suicide. He hung up, turned the phone off, stepped into the shower, pulled the curtain shut and squeezed the trigger.
Two weeks later, Johnson and his wife joined the Survivors of Suicide group. Three years later, they became facilitators to help others process their grief.
Clark County coroner Michael Murphy spends time helping Las Vegas-area families cope after they lose a loved one to suicide. He can’t provide much solace because he can only tell a family how their loved one committed suicide, but not why — the burning question for most.
“They do not bring a child into this world with the idea that the child’s death will precede them,” Murphy said. “Everything’s out of order for them at that point. And then when they look at what they consider to be a senseless act that someone has done and done to themselves, it leaves them with this emptiness and I don’t know if there’s anything that will fill that void.”
Regardless of the means, suicide is a mental health issue to Murphy. The solution is increasing awareness of the problem and treating it as such, he said. It’s difficult to know what prevention practices work best because statistically, it’s hard to measure what hasn’t happened, Murphy said.
State prevention measures
Prevention specialists in New Hampshire and Nevada are looking at firearm suicides and working with gun stores and ranges to decrease deaths.
Nevada had a high rate of suicide by firearm, 9.83 per 100,000 residents, or 268 suicides, in 2012, the News21 analysis found. It was ninth in the 13 states that make up the West — the region that accounts for some of the highest rates as a whole.
More than three times as many firearm suicides as firearm homicides happened in Nevada in 2012, data shows.
The Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention has coordinators contacting gun stores, ranges and training centers with pamphlets and posters about gun safety. They also train employees to recognize suicidal or distressed customers, said Richard Egan, prevention training and outreach facilitator.
Egan took the Office of Suicide Prevention job after a long Air Force career. He regularly staffs the office’s booth at gun shows to talk to people about firearm safety and suicide.
He teaches employees of gun ranges and stores to recognize suicidal tendencies of customers in a three-hour class called safeTalk.
“Suicide breeds isolation and darkness — open the door and turn on the light,” Egan said. “Talk to them about what they’re going through. Let them express their feelings. And it may not always be about suicide, but you’re not going to know until you ask.”
Nevada is expanding on safety programs that started on the East Coast.
New Hampshire had a firearm suicide rate of 7.36 per 100,000 people with 97 suicides in 2012, according to News21 data. That put it at more than double the average rate of Northeastern states and slightly above the national average rate. Firearm suicides were nearly nine times higher than the 11 firearm homicides in 2012.
Within five days of each other in 2009, three individuals walked into Riley’s Sport Shop in Hooksett, New Hampshire, and bought firearms they used to kill themselves hours later. Elaine Frank, creator of the New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition — of which the sport shop was a member — worked together with the owner of Riley’s to create the Gun Shop Project.
The project — seeking to start suicide prevention conversations among gun owners and sellers — has distributed materials for suicide prevention to more than half of New Hampshire gun stores.
In 2011, the Gun Shop Project added a commandment addressing suicide to the previously established “10 Commandments of Firearm Safety” created by gun manufacturer Remington. The new commandment says “If a loved one is at risk for suicide, keep firearms away from them.”
Suicide is preventable up to a point, Frank said. But there will always be a few individuals who give no warning and will end their lives by any means available. “There are many people who are suicidally ambivalent. They’re not sure that they want to live, but they’re really not sure they want to die,” Frank said.
Counter employees at The Range 702 in Las Vegas are sent to safeTalk training to learn to identify the warning signs of potentially suicidal customers, gunsmith Bill Smallwood said.
Smallwood hasn’t yet been through the training, but after knowing four people who committed suicide — including his best friend — he feels like he can recognize the signs.
Smallwood was in Washington, D.C., when he got a 1 a.m. call about his best friend’s suicide. He was on the first plane home to Las Vegas to be there for Danny Wortman’s wife and family.
“I didn’t see it coming,” he said.
Wortman came home and went upstairs for a long period of time, Smallwood said. When his wife went to the bedroom to check on him, she found him with a revolver to his head. She screamed “What are you doing?” and tried to pull the gun away.
He pulled the trigger. Click. He put the gun to his head a second time and pulled the trigger. It went off.
“Going through so many (suicides) and going through what I did, I pretty much know what to look for,” Smallwood said.
For gun shop employees who haven’t experienced suicides, it’s important to know how to recognize warning signs, he said. “It’s something everybody in the building watches out for,” he said.
Employees know it’s a red flag when a customer asks to rent a gun but doesn’t care what kind. When they only ask for one or two bullets, employees know to be cautious, Smallwood said.
That’s when a counter employee will call over Smallwood or another manager for a second opinion. If a manager feels uncomfortable giving the person a gun, service will be denied. Smallwood keeps a stack of brochures and phone numbers in his office he can give to people who seem to need help.
After the person leaves, employees of Range 702 will call every other gun range in town and warn them not to rent a gun to the at-risk individual, Smallwood said.
“People move here for the good life and then you get sucked into Sin City,” Smallwood said. “It is Las Vegas. You start at the penny machine, move up to the nickel machine, then you’re off to the quarter machine and then you’re on to the dollar machine, then you’re spending the rent and it just goes up like that.”
Discount Firearms and Ammo, a gun shop and range in Las Vegas, experienced a suicide about five years ago, operations manager Ron Reyes said.
A suicide will happen at any range if it has been open long enough, Reyes said. Ranges see more red flags and have more ability to stop suicidal customers if they are renting guns, as opposed to bringing their own. But gun ranges hire gun safety officers to provide oversight on the range, spot customers acting irregularly and prevent any incidents, he said.
“It’s a sad instance when it happens to anybody and when it’s as close as within our doors,” Reyes said. “The range officers, where that’s their daily work area, every time they pass by that lane they know something that other people don’t.”
Politicians told Linda Flatt, who helped create the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention and was a former suicide prevention trainer, not to bring up guns or gun safety from the beginning of her crusade for suicide prevention resources in Nevada.
Before the office was created in 2003, Sen. Ann O’Connell, R-Las Vegas, who sponsored legislation Flatt worked on, told her any mention of gun safety or gun control paired with suicide prevention talk would kill any progress for help to curb suicides.
Now, Flatt is amazed the office and its director, Richard Egan, are addressing it.
After her 25-year-old son, Paul Tillander, committed suicide in 1993, Flatt was adamant in thinking suicides were unpreventable. More than a decade later, she’s convinced the creation of the Office of Suicide Prevention and its work have helped decrease the high rate of suicide in the state.
Nevada had the highest rate of suicides and firearm suicides among all states in 1999, and was still in the top five for both in 2003 before the office was created, according to data gathered from the CDC. Flatt attributed high suicide rates to high gun ownership in the state and large rural areas with feelings of isolation and a go-it-alone mentality among residents.
By 2012, Nevada ranked 15th for firearm suicides, the News21 analysis shows. Flatt believes her work and that of her colleagues in her former office is the main cause of the drop over the years.
“I decided I was not going to be destroyed by this,” Flatt said of her son’s suicide. “There was only going to be one death, and that was his.”
Carmen Forman is an Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation News21 Fellow.
For the complete project “GUN WARS: The Struggle Over Rights and Regulation in America,” visit http://gunwars.news21.comMany of those who worked with or raced against Dan Wheldon had plenty to say about the loss of the 33-year-old IndyCar driver after his death in a 15-car wreck early in the series' season-ending race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
"Such a sad day … to lose a champion like Dan Wheldon … my thoughts and prayers are with [his wife] Susie and his kids." -- driver Will Power, whose car also went airborne during the crash.
"I just feel for his family. He'll be missed." -- driver Danica Patrick, who spoke through tears on national television.
"He was a great champion of the Indianapolis 500 and a wonderful ambassador for the race, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and all of motorsports. Most importantly, he was a fantastic husband, father and man -- a good friend to so many in this sport. His memory will live forever at the Speedway, both through the magnitude of his accomplishments on the track and his magnetism off the track." -- Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp. President and CEO Jeff Belskus.
"Dan Wheldon was a dear friend and an incredible race driver. His family and friends were with him at the track today, and he was surrounded by love. He was doing what all true racers love best. There is a massive hole in my heart, but I am blessed to have shared in his life, his family and friends and his mighty racing accomplishments." -- Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of the Big Machine Label Group, sponsor of Dan Wheldon's car.
"A little bit of everybody in IndyCar racing died today." -- Chip Ganassi, owner of Wheldon's former team, Chip Ganassi Racing.
Wheldon's death touched more than just those involved in IndyCar. The tributes from celebrities and other fans continue to pour in through Twitter:A member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said that the group's meeting with Vice President Pence on Wednesday "did not go very well" as he and more than two dozen colleagues left as "no" votes on the GOP healthcare bill.
“We came in voting no, we left voting no,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said in an interview with The Hill’s Molly K. Hooper.
Brooks noted that 25-30 Freedom Caucus members participated in the two-hour private negotiating session at the Old Executive Office Building with senior members of the Trump administration. Members later insisted they'd oppose the bill.
The meeting included Pence, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
“They were trying to convince us that we needed to vote for what is quick becoming the largest Republican welfare program in the history of the Republican party. And quite frankly it did not go very well from the White House's point of view,” Brooks added.
At least 25 House Republicans have come out against the plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, according to The Hill's Whip List. House GOP leaders can only afford about 22 defections, given expected absences from the vote slated for late Thursday.
One Freedom Caucus member opposed to the bill who attended the meeting with Pence on Wednesday said that there’s “a case to be made” for something pitched by Trump about a Senate amendment "to get rid of some of the regulations.”
Trump told a group of 18 House Republicans on Wednesday that he would call on the Senate to amend the House bill to include the repeal of ObamaCare’s “essential health benefits,” sources told The Hill, adding that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is on board with the plan.
Watch the video above to hear Brooks in his own words.This week, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump openly speculated that this election would be "rigged." Last month, Russia decided to take an active role in our election. There's no basis for questioning the results of a vote that's still months away. But the interference and aspersions do merit a fresh look at the woeful state of our outdated, insecure electronic voting machines.
We’ve previously discussed the sad state of electronic voting machines in America, but it’s worth a closer look as we approach election day itself, and within the context of increased cyber-hostilities between the US and Russia. Besides, by now states have had plenty of warning since a damning report by the Brennan Center for Justice about our voting machine vulnerabilities came out last September. Surely matters must have improved since then.
Well, not exactly. In fact, not really at all.
Rise of the Machines
Most people remember the vote-counting debacle of the 2000 election, the dangling chads that resulted in the Supreme Court breaking a Bush-Gore deadlock. What people may not remember is the resulting Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed in 2002, which among other objectives worked to phase out the use of the punchcard voting systems that had caused millions of ballots to be tossed.
In many cases, those dated machines were replaced with electronic voting systems. The intentions were pure. The consequences were a technological train wreck.
“People weren’t thinking about voting system security or all the additional challenges that come with electronic voting systems,” says the Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden. “Moving to electronic voting systems solved a lot of problems, but created a lot of new ones.”
The list of those problems is what you’d expect from any computer or, more specifically, any computer that’s a decade or older. Most of these machines are running Windows XP, for which Microsoft hasn’t released a security patch since April 2014. Though there’s no evidence of direct voting machine interference to date, researchers have demonstrated that many of them are susceptible to malware or, equally if not more alarming, a well-timed denial of service attack.
“When people think that people think about doing something major to impact our election results at the voting machine, they think they’d try to switch results,” says Norden, referring to potential software tampering. “But you can do a lot less than that and do a lot of damage… If you have machines not working, or working slowly, that could create lots of problems too, preventing people from voting at all.”
The extent of vulnerability isn’t just hypothetical; late last summer, Virginia decertified thousands of insecure WinVote machines. As one security researcher described it, “anyone within a half mile could have modified every vote, undetected” without “any technical expertise.” The vendor had gone out of business years prior.
The WinVote systems are an extreme case, but not an isolated one. Other voting machine models have potentially vulnerable wireless components; Virginia’s just the only one where a test proved how bad the situation was.
The worst part about the current state of voting machines is that they don’t even require outside interference to undo an election. “They’re all computers. They run on tens of thousands of lines of code,” says Norden. “It’s impossible to have a perfectly secure, perfectly reliable computer.”
That's true, but in fairness, most computers aren't quite this imperfect, either.
A Good Kind of Audit
So electronic voting machines aren’t ideal. The good news is, it’s entirely possible to mitigate any potential harm they might cause, either by malice or mistake.
First, it’s important to realize that electronic voting machines aren’t as commonplace as one might assume. Three-quarters of the country will vote on a paper ballot this fall, says Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a group that promotes best practices at the polls. Only five states—Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and New Jersey—use “direct recording electronic” (DRE) machines exclusively. But lots of other states use electronic machines in some capacity. Verified Voting also has a handy map of who votes using what equipment, which lets you drill down both to specific counties and machine brands, so you can see what's in use at your polling station.
More than half of the states conduct post-election auditing, by checking vote totals against paper records, to ensure that the votes are accurate. Both Smith and Norden agree that this sort of auditing is the single best way to guarantee confidence in election results, as does MIT computer scientist Ronald Rivest, who has written extensively [PDF] on voting machine issues.
The problem is that not every state does post-election audits. And even some that require them by law, namely Pennsylvania and Kentucky, don’t actually use voter-verifiable paper trails, meaning they have no way to complete an audit. And progress toward more and better auditing is slow; Maryland just put an auditable system in place this year, Smith says, and will pilot it during the fall election. Over a dozen states still have no audit procedure at all.
The problem with putting these auditing systems in place is the same one keeping more reliable voting machines from the booths in the first place: a lack of money and political will. There’s new voting equipment out there that’s much more secure than the machines states purchased in bulk a decade or more ago, but only a handful of states and municipalities—Rhode Island, DC, and parts of Wisconsin among them—have upgraded in the past year.
“The money’s not there right now,” says Norden. “We interviewed election officials who told us what they were hearing from their state legislators and others who would be funding this type of equipment, and they say come back to us after there’s some kind of crisis.”
Which, if they wait long enough, is exactly what they’re going to get.
Rigging the Vote
For what it’s worth, electronic voting machines have been this hackable in previous elections as well, and there’s no indication—even in Virginia—that there's ever been any interference.
This year feels different though, in no small measure because of Russia’s alleged responsibility for the DNC hack. If Putin would go so far as release those emails, would he pursue a direct assault on our vulnerable voting machines as well?
The short answer? Nyet.
“Putin’s not very nice, but he’s not stupid,” says Ryan Maness, a visiting fellow at Northeastern University who specializes in international cyber conflict and Russian foreign policy. “If they were going to mess with the voting machines and the vote-counting software, they wouldn’t have done the DNC hack.”
Maness argues that the DNC hack and subsequent email release has put a spotlight on Russia. The blowback from such direct interference in a United States election would be too severe. Besides, Maness says, Putin’s main objective was likely to embarrass Hillary Clinton, rather than elevate Trump. And he’s certainly achieved that much already.
But even if Maness is wrong, the even better news is that the three states that will likely decide the election—Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania—have voting machines that are in relatively good shape. Florida has an audit requirement in place, while Ohio not only conducts audits, Smith says, it has an "automatic recount provision," where close races trigger a manual recount without requiring a candidate to request one. "Pennsylvania is of the most concern" among those three, says Smith, "based on the fact they have so many paperless DREs in use." Even there, though, election officials will actively deploy paper ballots in the event that those machines fail.
Still, unlikelihood that Russia would tamper with our voting machines hasn’t lifted the sense of unease around the election. When Donald Trump suggests the election might be "rigged," he's referring to a host of potential disruptions, from the times and dates of scheduled debates to whatever else he might bend to his narrative. In November, should he lose, he'll find the voting machines to be an easy target.
That suspicion is the real danger of electronic voting systems, and especially of those that can’t be easily or effectively audited. If you can’t guarantee that there was no tampering—which not every state can—it might not matter if any actually took place. In the wrong hands, the doubt itself is damaging enough.Almost three years ago, Haiti was hit by an earthquake that killed an estimated 220,000 people in 35 seconds of unimaginable terror. It was the worst national disaster in the history of the western hemisphere. The world rushed to help, with huge sums donated amid declarations to "build back better" one of the most blighted nations on earth.
But, as the anniversary approaches, it is evident that many good intentions imploded at the expense of the people they were meant to help. Haiti stands as the latest sad example of how self-aggrandising assumptions of the global aid industry can backfire so badly. The humanitarian business should reflect hard on the failures.
Even before the quake, this was a poor country. More charities were thought to operate per capita there than anywhere else, earning Haiti the nickname Republic of NGOs. In the 50 years before 2010 it was given four times as much per head as Europeans received under the postwar Marshall plan, yet incomes collapsed by more than a third – unlike in the Dominican Republic, on the other half of the island.
After the disaster the international response was impressive. People watching horror play out in primetime donated nearly £2bn to charities; governments and official institutions pledged another £6bn. Although huge amounts still sit in bank accounts – the Red Cross alone has £310m, more than twice the total spent on permanent housing – £5.6bn has been disbursed.
Yet not only has the promised long-term reconstruction barely begun, but poverty is increasing, violent crime rising and 358,000 people remain stuck in the squalor of tent camps, lucky to eat one meal a day. Thousands more families were forcibly evicted with nowhere to |
using them will require less time and focus than a baseball game. The way to get more people to watch and pay attention to baseball is in its marketing. As Adler mentioned in her piece, most casual fans probably don’t even take notice of defensive shifts or times between pitches. These are “inside baseball” issues. The people MLB needs to be capturing are those outside of baseball.
We hear too much about what’s wrong with baseball. We need to hear more about what’s awesome about baseball. Mike Trout is possibly the best baseball player in the last 50, 60, 70 years. Market him! Giancarlo Stanton has some of the most ridiculous power the game has ever seen. Market him! Make sure these guys are on every TV screen in America every night of the week.
MLB has hinted at pursuing a more player-centric marketing strategy in the recent past, with their #THIS campaign. Consider this example:
Your browser does not support iframes.
Even this video, however, represents less an attempt to celebrate certain players — identifiable here only by the names on their jerseys — and more to build on the lore of the game.
MLB needs to make sure that players like Trout, Stanton, Kris Bryant, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Jose Fernandez, Masahiro Tanaka, Kenley Jansen and more are known by every person in America, not just every baseball fan. It can happen. A month ago, I had never heard of Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles or Kyle Snyder. By emphasizing both the talents and stories of those athletes, however, NBC has made them all household names in a span of weeks. MLB can do the same. We’re counting on you, Mr. Manfred.In retrospect, the phenomenon of Internet-trained Rabbis serving in Conservative and Reform congregations was bound to happen.
For decades, the liberal movements have tightly managed their Rabbinic placements. The size of each class at HUC or JTS (plus Ziegler in LA) is limited, and each year’s graduates band together as an informal cartel, setting acceptable starting salaries for congregations of different sizes. While this has made it difficult or impossible for smaller congregations to afford a Rabbi, it has also ensured that the Rabbis are able to quickly repay the roughly $100,000 they spent for five years of training — and make quite a decent living from then on.
I recall over a decade ago that there was some controversy when new, “non-denominational” Rabbinic schools were founded. But now, these “non-movement” schools constitute a movement of their own, churning out new rabbis at an impressive rate. All you have to do is commit two or three hours a week (and $8000), and write a 2000 word paper at the end on “any Jewish topic” to prove you’ve learned something, and that’s it, you’re ready to be called Rabbi. And some of those rabbis are, says the Forward, claiming Conservative and Reform pulpits.
Of course, what I find most intriguing about this article is the opening line: “Rabbi Eli Kavon’s colleagues don’t consider him a Rabbi.” All of a sudden, the liberal movements claim to have a standard! For over 200 years, they have insisted that their clergy should be recognized by Orthodox Rabbis as valid equals, despite the Orthodox carping about their piddling “standards” — items such as knowledge of Talmud and Jewish Law, or the belief that things like the Exodus actually took place. But now that the poor fellow who invested $100,000 in his JTS diploma can be replaced by a, wait for it, “nontraditional” Rabbi from Rabbinical Seminary International, Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, or even Mesifta Adath Wolkowisk — well now, that can’t be tolerated.
All of which begs the question: by what criteria are these graduates ineligible to be recognized, or to join a board of rabbis? Having long since declared that individual autonomy is the supreme value of Reform Judaism, how are they able to declare these individuals pasul?
The fallacy inherent in the liberal argument against these rabbis is obvious. As Irving Pomerantz, a member of the board of the synagogue that hired Eli Kavon, put it, “He may know Talmud, I don’t know. We don’t have Talmud questions.” Kavon’s sermons are, according to Pomerantz, the best he has heard, and apparently he does a good job teaching the Torah portion.
The problem is that the Reform movement dismissed the Talmud hundreds of years ago, the Conservative movement has, despite claims to the contrary, followed suit, and now they have no standard by which to claim that these “nontraditional” rabbis (the irony of that term is just priceless…) are not suited for the job.
Furthermore, there is little evidence to support the idea that those who invested $100,000 are truly better informed about Jewish traditions and practices than their online replacements. Just a week later, the Forward published an opinion piece from a fourth-year rabbinical student at JTS insisting that we should learn to love… Chrismukkah. This promising young rabbinical candidate informs us that to him, the most moving spiritual moments of the year include the beginning of ma’ariv on Rosh Hashanah, the smell of latkes, and the “rum-pum-pum-pum” of “The Little Drummer Boy.” I think it’s obvious I didn’t make this up; my imagination could never have even reached for the latkes in this context.
But accompanying an appalling ignorance of the many and diverse truly inspirational moments on the Jewish calendar, we should not be surprised to learn, is a willingness to ignore what little he has learned of our history in order to create new concepts that turn that history on its head. For example, he cites the fact that the victory of Chanukah included a fight against those Jews who built a Greek gymnasium in the holy city, but then uses that element to support his claim that Chanukah “was largely about assimilating various external ritual traditions into the Jewish fold.” Anyone reading his source document (the Book of Maccabees) already knows that Chanukah celebrated the victory of those who rejected that very idea, but, “rum-pum-pum-pum,” he is that anxious to justify the “Hannukah Bush” in the modern Jewish home that he will lead those who know no better down a path to oblivion.
When this is what $100,000 and a five-year full-time investment buys you, is it any wonder that the Irving Pomerantz’s of the world will be quite happy with the lower salary demanded by the products of the $8000 online ordination?Link to EPA Decision: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4xljUDF_SgsTzdLYzlLdVo3VjQ/edit?usp=sharing
For Immediate Release:
November 15, 2013
Contact:
Sean Sarah, Sierra Club, 330 338-3740 sean.sarah@sierraclub.org
EPA Approves Weakening of Water Protections in Kentucky
Washington, DC – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency allowed the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection to change how toxic selenium pollution from mountaintop removal mines is measured for the purposes of determining compliance with the Clean Water Act. Selenium, which causes significant biological damage to fish native to the waters of Appalachia, is a toxic pollutant discharged from valley fills into rivers and streams below mountaintop removal sites. The EPA-backed changes to how Kentucky measures selenium pollution allow the state to rely on an impractical and complicated test of tissue samples from fish rather than the current practice of directly sampling the water discharged below mountaintop removal mines and other selenium sources. EPA’s capitulation gives a free pass to industry and will allow unacceptably high levels of selenium pollution to continue flow into Kentucky’s waterways.
In response Bruce Nilles, Senior Director of the Beyond Coal Campaign at Sierra Club, issued the following statement:
“We are deeply disappointed that the EPA approved Kentucky's request to weaken protections against water pollution from mountaintop removal mines. A straightforward approach has been replaced with a highly complicated system that will be hard to enforce, and could allow mountaintop removal companies to mine without accountability for the environmental destruction they force on the communities of Appalachia. In addition to being impractical to enforce, Kentucky’s fish-tissue standard is weaker than a Bush-era proposal that the scientific community emphatically rejected because it would not protect sensitive fish and other wildlife.
Mountaintop removal mining is one of the most destructive forms of resource extraction; polluting hundreds of miles of streams and actively destroying our mountain heritage. It is critical that community groups, environmentalists and the people of Appalachia do everything we can to stop attempts by mountaintop removal companies and their political friends to roll back the inadequate standards currently in place. Today, the EPA failed in their commitment to protect our natural spaces and clean water. They’ve allowed Kentucky to change the rules of the game and stack the deck against communities across the region.
The EPA has let the people of Appalachia down, allowing an even more aggressive assault on our clean water protections, in a region where coal pollution has already devastated water quality and endangered public health. It’s time to enact real reform that puts a halt to this most devastating form of mining.”
###INDIANAPOLIS -- Josh Chapman's hold on the starting nose tackle position for the Indianapolis Colts is loosening up.
Colts coach Chuck Pagano didn’t come out and directly say it during a conference call with reporters Sunday evening. He didn’t have to say anything. It was evident during Saturday’s preseason game against the Chicago Bears.
Chapman started at nose tackle against the Bears, but rookie David Parry was in the game early getting snaps with the first unit. Chapman was on the field in the second half while the rest of the starting defensive players were on the sideline watching the rest of the game.
“There's a lot of competition out there,” Pagano said when asked about Chapman. “So we're going through this preseason and evaluating everybody."
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement from the coach about Chapman. And that’s the right approach Pagano should take. Chapman started 15 of 16 games last season, but he hasn’t excelled at anchoring the middle of the defensive line.
If the Colts are going to finally prove they can stop the run -- 18th in the league in that category last season -- it has to start in the middle of their defensive line.
Parry, in his short period, doesn’t have eye-popping stats (three tackles), but what he’s done is show that he can win the battle at the line of scrimmage and push the offensive lineman back.
“You get a guy that's smart, he's tough and he understands the scheme and he plays with really good technique,” Pagano said. “He's doing a nice job. He's got good movement skills. He plays square. He plays with heavy hands. He can get some knock ‘em back. When we put him on the move, he's got some quickness and some twitch about him to make some offensive guys miss. He has the ability. He had a chance to make a play in the backfield [Saturday] and the guy put a little move on him, and that's tough on any D-lineman. But he's progressing well."Finnix 102 default startup on an x86_64 system
Finnix is a Debian-based Live CD operating system, developed by Ryan Finnie and intended for system administrators for tasks such as filesystem recovery, network monitoring and OS installation.[1][2] Finnix is a relatively small distribution, with an ISO download size of approximately 100 MiB, and is available for the x86 and PowerPC architectures, and paravirtualized (User Mode Linux and Xen) systems. Finnix can be run off a bootable CD, a USB flash drive, a hard drive, or network boot (PXE).
History [ edit ]
Finnix development first began in 1999, making it one of the oldest distributions released with the intent of being run completely from a bootable CD (the other Live CD around at the time was the Linuxcare Bootable Business Card CD, first released in 1999).[3] Finnix 0.01 was based on Red Hat Linux 6.0, and was created to help with administration and recovery of other Linux workstations around Finnie's office.[citation needed] The first public release of Finnix was 0.03, and was released in early 2000, based on an updated Red Hat Linux 6.1. Despite its 300 MiB ISO size and requirement of 32 MiB RAM (which, given RAM prices and lack of high-speed Internet proliferation at the time, was prohibitive for many), Finnix enjoyed moderate success, with over 10,000 downloads.[4][5] After version 0.03, development ceased, and Finnix was left unmaintained until 2005.
On 23 October 2005, Finnix 86.0 was released. Earlier unreleased versions (84, and 85.0 through 85.3) were "Knoppix remasters", with support for Linux LVM and dm-crypt being the main reason for creation. However, 86.0 was a departure from Knoppix, and was derived directly from the Debian "testing" tree.[6]
Usage [ edit ]
Finnix is released as a small bootable CD ISO. A user can download the ISO, burn the image to CD, and boot into a text mode Linux environment. Finnix requires at least 32 MiB RAM to run properly, but can use more if present. Most hardware devices are detected and dealt with automatically, such as hard drives, network cards and USB devices.[7] A user can modify files nearly anywhere on the running CD via a union mount filesystem (UnionFS or AUFS, depending on the Finnix release), stacking a read-write filesystem (in this case, a dynamic ramdisk) on top of a read-only filesystem (the CD media). Any changes made during the Finnix session are transparently written to RAM and discarded upon shutdown. In addition, Finnix uses SquashFS to keep distribution size low.[8]
Finnix can be run completely within RAM, provided the system has at least 192 MiB RAM available. If a "toram" option is passed to Finnix, most of the contents of the CD are copied to a RAM disk, and the CD is ejected, freeing the CD-ROM drive for other purposes.[9] Finnix can also be placed on a bootable USB thumb drive, or installed permanently on a hard drive (though still functioning as if it were a LiveCD).
Finnix 102 running as a paravirtualized Xen guest
Finnix is available for several processor architectures. The primary architecture is x86, with an additional x86-64 kernel included. PowerPC support is available with most releases as a separate CD,[10] released concurrently with its x86 counterpart. In addition, Finnix is aware of both the User Mode Linux and Xen virtualization systems. UML and Xen Virtual private server providers such as Linode can provide Finnix as a recovery/maintenance distribution to their customers.[11]
Versions [ edit ]
New versions of Finnix are released every 3 months on average, with updated software from the Debian "testing" tree, along with new Finnix-specific functionality. Versions 86.0 through 93.0 used a major/minor versioning scheme, with major releases usually including major functionality changes, and minor releases including minor fixes and Debian updates to bring Finnix's packages up to date with Debian's "testing" tree. Beginning with version 100, releases are numbered as a simple incrementing integer.[12] Development builds are named after cities and towns in Wisconsin.
Notes:
"Code names" in Finnix refer to the development cycle leading up to the release, and not the release itself. Releases are signified by version number.
Versions with two package counts in the table above represent x86 and PowerPC package counts, respectively.4. AUTOMATIC & MANUAL MODE What makes the difference between the FX and the other boxes is the possibility of choosing between two modes, a fully automatic and fully manual one. The automatic mode allows anyone to use the FX without worrying about Watt, Volt or the cartom used. Based on the ohm, FX automatically calculates the best performance by providing 5 levels ofpower, from lowest to highest. The selection of the level is made simple by the large screen and the user friendly interface. The manual mode is reserved for the most experienced vapers. The configuration of Watt and Volt is completely free, from 1V to 8V and from 7W to 30W. Both modes can use coils down to 0.3 ohms and configure the cut-off time and the coil protection.Jeb Bush nears the end of the parade route while participating in the Fourth of July Parade festivities in Amherst, N.H., on Saturday. (Cheryl Senter/AP)
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush has been an aggressive critic of President Obama's stewardship of the U.S. economy. Now he's got a new way to describe it.
"Zombie economy."
"Barack Obama’s policies have given us a zombie economy where no matter what else happens, most Americans are falling behind," Bush writes for the online op-ed site Medium.
While the unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent in the jobs report released last week, Bush noted that data showed labor participation rates dropping to a 38-year low, that more than 6 million people are underemployed and that roughly 5.5 million more people are living in poverty than when Obama took office.
"More Americans believe that the economy is getting worse than those who think it’s getting better – and that’s been true for several months running," he added.
Out on the campaign trail, Bush has been pushing an aspirational goal of 4 percent annual economic growth – a plan that his campaign says would create at least 19 million jobs.
But Bush still hasn't laid out an economic growth plan, despite months of suggestions by him and his aides that he will do so. On Monday, aides wouldn't say when a more specific plan might be forthcoming.
He wrote that as president, he would "introduce pro-growth policies that support workers trying to find a job, businesses trying to grow, entrepreneurs trying to get an idea off the ground and free markets that are trying to meet demand. I know my ideas can work because I’ve done it."
Bush added that under his watch, Florida created 1.3 million new jobs and averaged 4.4 percent economic growth, while the unemployment rate fell to below 3 percent – far outpacing most states.
But a significant amount of Florida's economic growth during Bush's governorship came amid the massive run-up in housing prices, which peaked in his last year in office, 2006. Soon after, prices bottomed out, dropping the state into the recession that later rippled across the country.
Notably, Bush also published his thoughts on economic growth in Spanish. Compared to other campaigns in both parties, Bush has a much more robust Spanish-language presence -- but Democrats and some GOP opponents have noted that despite the governor's desire to campaign bilingually, he hasn't consistently posted policy positions and other statements in both languages.I’ve watched the media coverage of the Steubenville rape this week. I’ve watched boys crying. Boys who raped a girl. I’ve heard the media talk about how these ‘promising’ young boys have ruined their future. I’ve heard people slam the victim for being drunk. One of the saddest thing though is that nobody reached out to help this girl that night. No one stood up and protected her. Instead they laughed and took pictures and now continue to threaten her and actually stand up for the boys who committed this crime. The fact that she is continued to be blamed for this crime. THIS RAPE, is not okay. We can do better. We can do better for our children, our neighbors, our friends, and the strangers we meet. We can do better. But mostly, remember… rape is a crime. And it’s not her fault.
I have three daughters. And I’m scared because while I want them to make good choices, I also want them to live in a society that watches out for others, and I hope they will be that ones to always help a friend or stranger.
But no matter the choices they make, the parties they go to, or the dances they attend…no one, NO ONE, is even allowed to violate them. It is not their fault. It will never be their fault. Ever.
* * *
I was 17 and a cheerleader. I lived in a small town and dated the popular boys.
It was my fault.
I liked to party. We’d drink too much. Sometimes way too much and we’d go to parties when we should have already been home.
It was my fault.
I dated these boys. I thought they liked me, but they didn’t. I thought they were boyfriends and sometimes I would sleep with a boy I liked.
It was my fault.
I was the drunk girl. The drunk girl in the small town with the reputation.
It was my fault.
Then one night, when I was this drunk girl at a party, I had sex with my boyfriend. I thought he was my boyfriend.
It was my fault.
At one point he got off me and excused himself to use the bathroom. It was dark in that bedroom. He came back and got back on top of me and I reached for his hair. My boyfriend had straight hair.
This boy had curly hair.
It was not my fault.
I screamed and tried to push him away, but he was bigger than me and stronger than me..and pretty soon my ‘boyfriend’ was there holding me down while this boy raped me.
It was not my fault.
And then he invited more friends.
It was not my fault.
I was drunk and stupid and only 17. But none of that was my fault.
And it’s taken me 27 years to realize that it wasn’t my fault.
Because they called me a whore and left that drunk girl curled up on a bed crying alone..and told me it was all my fault and that they would do worse to me if I told anyone.
Boys will be boys they said as they walked out. I remember their laughter.
Bullshit.
It wasn’t my fault.
It was never my fault.News
Yankees right-handed pitching prospect Domingo German is heading to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders a source told Pinstriped Prospects. The move comes after he pitched a total of six games for the Double-A Trenton Thunder.
Though he sports a 1-4 record, the hard-throwing right-hander carries a lean 3.00 ERA, striking out 38 batters in 33 innings, and has given up 11 earned runs so far this season. German last pitched on May 10th going 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs while totaling seven strikeouts. It was the first time in the young season where he gave up more than three runs, and he’s only given up at least three runs once previous to May 10th. He will get the start on Thursday, May 18 for the RailRiders.
German is coming off strong a 2016 campaign where he finish with a 3.04 ERA in Tampa after five games started. He had noticeably improved his off-speed pitches compared to last season as he only had 20 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings. He struggled with injuries for the tail-end of last season only pitching once in the regular season after the month of August.
German’s promotion will of course have a corresponding roster move to go along with it, which means Double-A Trenton will have a new member in their rotation soon as well. Rumors have been circulating that RHP Domingo Acevedo will be heading to Trenton to make his Double-A debut, however we have been unable to confirm that move at the time. If Acevedo is promoted to Trenton it is likely that Justus Sheffield will be moved up to German’s old spot in the rotation with Acevedo then taking Sheffield’s original spot. Another potential candidate for the spot is left-handed pitcher Josh Rogers.AMD’s acquisition of ATI paid off this year when the company went in the black for the first time in years due exclusively supplying to all the major console makers. Another clear benefit from snagging the ATI team was it gave AMD an upper hand when it came to embedded graphics in their processors and while the performance is still no-where near most discreet graphics cards the upcoming processors codenamed “Kaveri” are closing the gap.
According to slide that appears to be released by AMD (but is not confirmed) show the gaming performance of the new chips as 40% faster than the Intel Core i5 4670k in 3DMark Firestorm and 50% faster in OpenCL applications. At this level of performance it isn’t unreasonable to assume we could see the chip easily rending games at 30FPS, as long as the settings are not maxed out. In addition, it appears as if AMD will bundle Battlefield 4 with the new processors, which retail for under $200 – making it an exceptional value for gamers on a budget.
As you can see from the table below the flagship “Kaveri” processor will come with a quad-core “Steamroller” design that has a Turbo Clock frequency of 4GHz and feature 4MB L2 cache. On the graphics front it will include a total of 512 Graphics Core Next processing units and have a GPU engine of 720MHz.
Model AMD A10-7850K ‘Kaveri’ AMD A10-7700K ‘Kaveri’ AMD A10-6800K ‘Richland’ AMD A10-5800K ‘Trinity’ Cores 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 Turbo Core 3.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Base Clock 3.7 GHz 3.5 GHz 4.1 GHz 3.8 GHz Turbo Clock 4.0 GHz 3.8 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.2 GHz L2 Cache 4 MB L2 4 MB L2 4 MB L2 4 MB L2 Unlocked Design Yes Yes Yes Yes Graphics Core GCN Radeon R7 GCN Radeon R7 HD 8000 HD 7000 GPU Cores 512 Cores 384 Cores 384 Cores 384 Cores GPU Clock 720 MHz 720 MHz 844 MHz 800 MHz TDP 95W 95W/65W 100W 100W Pre-Order Price $189.24 US $167.00 US $149 US $122 US Launch Date 14th January 2014 14th January 2014 4th June 2013 2nd October 2011
Read more: http://wccftech.com/amds-flagship-a10-kaveri-apu-bundled-battlefield-4/#ixzz2nadqRSsxThe country club where the late Arnold Palmer had what he called the turning point in his legendary golf career is at a turning point of its own.
The Country Club of Detroit, on 212 acres in Grosse Pointe Farms, is scheduled soon to complete a $9 million renovation of its Tudor Revival-style clubhouse to add a fitness center and move bowling lanes to the bottom level of the building.
Palmer, who died Sept. 25, took his first step toward golf greatness on the club's 18-hole course with a 1954 U.S. Amateur victory at the 119-year-old club, which says its construction efforts are designed to provide year-round amenities to its 800-plus members who are paying about $100 per month extra in dues to pay for the construction.
"Country clubs generally concentrate on the 100 days of summer we have in Michigan, but you have to offer more," said Craig Cutler, general manager and COO of the club. "This helps us with a year-round operation. We don't close anymore."
The projects add a modern fitness center to the clubhouse's ground level to replace an emptied indoor swimming pool that had been closed since the early 1930s. Completion is expected next month.
A six-lane bowling alley, expected to be complete this month, is being added to the bottom level.
Work began on the two projects about a year ago.
Troy-based G2 Consulting Group provided engineering services for the project. The club required that the footprint or historical architecture of its existing clubhouse — which is actually the fourth in club history — not be altered.
Excavation was done under the building so the foundation could be lowered to make room for higher ceilings and larger interior spaces. To accomplish that without disturbing the footprint, the building was put on stilts, according to Mark Stapleton, G2's project manager.
Concrete was then poured to encapsulate the stilts, which provided stability for the renovations without disruption to the structure; the new foundation walls will also serve as long-term support.
In all, the building moved just 1/32 of an inch during the entire process.
Birmingham-based McIntosh Poris Associates was the architecture firm. Farmington Hills-based McCarthy & Smith Inc. is the general contractor, and West Bloomfield Township-based Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers Inc. also provided engineering services.
The casual dining area and kitchen also have been renovated recently.
The initiation fee for golfing members is $35,000, and dues are $752 per month; the initiation fee for social members (non-golfing) is $5,000, and dues are $416 per month, Cutler said.
The club has a par-72, 18-hole course and a nine-hole course, plus casual and formal dining and other amenities.Today, many system designers try to fit the entire data-set of an application in RAM to avoid the cost of accessing magnetic disk. However, for many data-centric applications this is not an option due to the capacity and high $/GB constraints of RAM. As a result, system designers are relying on NAND-Flash to augment RAM. However, rewriting the application to actively tier data between disk, RAM, and flash is a complicated process. Years of research has enabled some applications, namely databases, to tier efficiently, yet there are still large classes of applications that have no built-in tiering and a full application rewrite may take months or years. In this paper, we propose Chameleon, a system to augment RAM with NAND-Flash transparently. Chameleon removes most of the impediments to using flash via virtual memory. Chameleon is the first transparent tiering system to provide low-latency accesses to both RAM and NAND-Flash.
We show that applications using Chameleon, outperform applications using state-of-the-art tiering mechanism by providing more than two orders of magnitude improvement in latency for working sets that can fit in RAM. We also show that Chameleon provides upto 47% latency improvement for out-of-core applications. Finally, we show that Chameleon improves the flash device’s lifetime by upto 8x.As the NFL's trading deadline -- Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 4 p.m. ET -- approaches, we explore five explosive, albeit unlikely, possible deals.
Proposed trade No. 5:
Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler to Washington Redskins for quarterback Kirk Cousins and a third-round draft choice
Sure, Cousins is coming off the game of his young life.
In Week 7, Tampa Bay led 24-0 at Washington in the second quarter. But Washington roared back to win 31-30 when the fourth-year quarterback completed 33 of 40 passes for 317 yards to mount the greatest comeback in franchise history. Cousins, who had failed to complete more than one touchdown pass in any of the six previous games, threw three second-half scoring passes. He ran for a second-quarter TD, too.
Let's take advantage of Cousins' highest ceiling ever and send him to the Bears with a third-round pick for the perpetually dour and, some would say, underachieving Cutler.
With their ferocious defenses, the Bills and Jets would also seem to be in the market for a quarterback upgrade, but Cutler probably wouldn't work in the Rex Ryan vortex -- or in the Jets' locker room, where he'd be reunited with old friend Brandon Marshall. Chemistry? The word toxic comes to mind.
Actually, the Redskins tried to land Cutler in the spring of 2009, but he was eventually dealt from Denver to Chicago for Kyle Orton and two first-round picks and one third-rounder. Congratulations, Daniel Snyder, the former Vanderbilt Commodore has finally landed.
Things have gotten stale in Chi-town lately. After taking the Bears to an 11-5 record in 2010 and the NFC title game, it has been four seasons without a postseason game and, quite likely, a fifth. Cutler has always possessed breathtaking talent, but he has yet to be a consistent winner; the Bears are 33-37 since that sweet season five years ago. Cutler has produced 190 touchdown passes, 134 interceptions and nearly 30,000 yards in his career. This year he has been typically serviceable but would benefit from a change of culture.
It might be the right time for Washington sell high on Kirk Cousins. Brad Mills/USA TODAY Sports
The Bears' defense is so bad it's hard to justify paying and playing a quarterback of his magnitude.
The Redskins are 3-4 and, surprisingly, only one game out of first in the meager NFC East. Snyder has been relatively quiet over the past few years as the Robert Griffin III drama has played out in public. Providing he's healthy (which is one reason he isn't playing), the team won't have to pay him the $16 million his contract calls for in 2016.
Cutler's cap number this season, oddly enough, is $16.5 million, and the average figure for the remaining five years of his contract is about $18 million annually, although his guaranteed money runs out after next season.
The Redskins, with a middle-of-the-pack salary-cap cushion of $7.2 million, could make this work with some cooperation from Cutler.
Cousins enthusiasts, remember that one game against Tampa Bay does not a career make. Hey, at the very least this makes a lot more sense than when Washington signed Jeff George as a free agent in 2000.So What’s Wrong with Panentheism?
Recently I suggested that Jonathan Edwards may have been guilty of panentheism. I won’t explain why again here; if you’re interested please go back and read that post. At least one commenter asked why that’s a problem in light of Paul’s quotation in Athens of a Greek poet. He referred to God as the one “in whom we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Was Paul affirming panentheism? What’s wrong with panentheism?
Confession that one is a panentheist is, rightly or wrongly, the kiss of death when it comes to being hired to teach theology at most evangelical institutions of higher education. A few years ago an acquaintance who was a candidate to teach theology at an evangelical seminary was rejected by its president because, during his interview, he admitted he is a panentheist.
“Panentheism” is a somewhat flexible and evolving concept. When someone says “panentheism” or “panentheist” I ask what they mean. The term has no definite, universally agreed on definition. I no longer take it for granted.
Panentheism is a relatively recent term, if not concept, in Christian theology and philosophy of religion. Scholars agree that it was coined by German philosophical theologian Karl Friedrich Krause (1781-1832) who invented the German word Allingottlehre which literally means “the doctrine that all is in God.” Of course, Krause was not the first person to promote the idea. (See John W. Cooper, Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers [Baker, 2006], 121-122.)
Krause meant more than merely that “all is in God, however.” That can be interpreted in multiple ways and might even fit Paul’s statement in Athens. According to John Cooper, Krause believed “the distinction between God and the world is that of whole and part.” (122) Exactly what Krause meant by panentheism is debatable, but the concept took on a life of its own, apart from whatever Krause meant, in philosophers such as G. W. F. Hegel who famously asserted that “Without the world God is not God.”
Hegel is usually thought to have been the paradigmatic panentheist of the 19th century, but Alfred North Whitehead is usually considered that of the 20th century. Whitehead, of course, was the philosopher-mathematician who is the inspiration behind process theology. Whitehead said that “It is as true to say that God creates the world as that the world creates God.”
A consensus used to exist that panentheism is any view of the God-world relationship that portrays God and the world as essentially interdependent although God’s essence is not contributed by the world. One of the first whole books exploring the concept was Philosophers Speak of God by Charles Hartshorne and William Reese (University of Chicago Press, 1953). They defined panentheism as any view in which “To be himself [God] does not this universe, but only a universe.” (22) They asserted that, at the very least, panentheism denies creation ex nihilo (23).
So, traditional, classical panentheism distinguishes between God’s essence, his eternal being, and his experience. God’s essence, his thatness and whatness are his independent of the world, but his actual experience is given to him by the world. Many panentheists have used the body-soul or body-mind analogy to describe the God-world relationship in traditional, classical panentheism. The world (universe, cosmos) is God’s body.
I came to think that what distinguishes panentheism, in its German idealist (Hegelian) form and in its process (Whiteheadian) form, from traditional Christian theism (in its broadest form) is the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. In other words, I have no problem believing that God actually experiences the world such that there is a sense in which the world is “in” God. That’s how I interpret Paul’s statement in Athens. Also, I believe Paul meant that the world is dependent on God for its existence from moment to moment.
The crucial difference between traditional, classical panentheism and Christian theism, broadly interpreted (i.e., not necessarily as defined by Augustine or Anselm or Aquinas), |
mitai-Preiss, Reuven. The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, Cambridge University Press, 1996. ( ISBN 0-521-52290-0)
, Cambridge University Press, 1996. ( ISBN 0-521-52290-0) Chambers, James. The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe, Atheneum, 1979. ( ISBN 0-689-10942-3)
, Atheneum, 1979. ( ISBN 0-689-10942-3) Greene, Robert. The 33 Strategies of War, New York: Viking Penguin, 2006. ( ISBN 978-0143112785)
, New York: Viking Penguin, 2006. ( ISBN 978-0143112785) Hildinger, Erik. Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1700, Sarpedon Publishers, 1997. ( ISBN 1-885119-43-7)
, Sarpedon Publishers, 1997. ( ISBN 1-885119-43-7) Morgan, David. The Mongols, 1986. ( ISBN 0-631-17563-6)
, 1986. ( ISBN 0-631-17563-6) Nicolle, David. The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hulegu, Tamerlane, Brockhampton Press, 1998. ( ISBN 1-853-14104-6)
, Brockhampton Press, 1998. ( ISBN 1-853-14104-6) Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Translated and edited by Thomas Nivison Haining. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. ( ISBN 978-0631189497)
. Translated and edited by Thomas Nivison Haining. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. ( ISBN 978-0631189497) Reagan, Geoffry. The Guinness Book of Decisive Battles, New York: Canopy Books, 1992.
, New York: Canopy Books, 1992. Saunders, J.J. The History of the Mongol Conquests, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1971. ( ISBN 0-8122-1766-7)
, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1971. ( ISBN 0-8122-1766-7) Sicker, Martin. The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna, Praeger Publishers, 2000. ( ISBN 0-275-96892-8)
, Praeger Publishers, 2000. ( ISBN 0-275-96892-8) Soucek, Svat. A History of Inner Asia, Cambridge, 2000. ( ISBN 978-0521657044)
, Cambridge, 2000. ( ISBN 978-0521657044) Stubbs, Kim. Facing the Wrath of Khan." Military History (May 2006): 30–37.
(May 2006): 30–37. France, John. "Journal of Medieval Military History, Volume 8". Published 18 Nov 2010. ISBN 9781843835967.I read with interest this week a column by Get Religion’s Terry Mattingly taking to task a Guardian UK religion blogger named Tresa Edmunds for using the word “worship” to characterize Catholic views of Mary in her article “Why Mormons Do Not Worship Mary.”
Edmunds, an observant Mormon feminist who regularly blogs about Mormonism, used Catholicism as a more familiar point of reference for comparing and contrasting Mormon views on the mother of Jesus Christ.
Mattingly, an Antiochan Orthodox religion journalist whose Get Religion blog “work[s] with the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life and a philanthropist… with the byline Roberta Green,” has made the criticism of minor usage errors a major concern as of late (Roberta Green is Roberta Green Ahmanson, who, along with her husband Howard Jr., is a significant donor to conservative Christian political causes). For their “sins” in using the term “worship” in place of the orthodox term venerate, Mattingly criticized Edmunds and the Guardian’s copy editors, calling them “ridiculous.”
But Mattingly’s piece reminded me of the day I sat in the back pew of a Catholic church on the eastside of Austin, Texas, with my friend Rose, who is Tejana and Catholic. Pointing to a gorgeous mural of a dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe that spanned the cathedral chancel, Rose smiled at me conspiratorially and said, “I bring my kids here to see God as a big, brown-skinned woman.”
Don’t tell Rose that she doesn’t worship Mary, or that she doesn’t “get” Catholicism, as heretical as her feminist Tejana take on it might be.
It’s worth asking the question of what it really means to “get religion.” Religion scholars long ago acknowledged two valid perspectives on religious experience: one that focuses on religious institutions, their policies, their projects, and the “official” story, and another that focuses on the way religion is lived everyday in “unofficial” yet very real ways by common people of faith.
Mattingly clearly cares about promoting precise descriptions of orthodox institutional religious doctrines and policies. But that doesn’t mean that he “gets religion” any better than the rest of us who report from the pews at the back of the worship hall, or from all of the unauthorized places—homes, schools, street corners, campuses, government—where religion wields major power.
A few weeks ago, Mattingly criticized RD for running my story on a recently-installed, openly-gay Mormon congregational leader in San Francisco. Get Religion insisted that this story on Mitch Mayne wasn’t really news, and that it was bad journalism to claim that Mayne’s call to serve indicated “evolving” views of homosexuality in Mormonism, because only orthodox institutional statements from high-ranking Church leaders count as evidence.
But as someone who’s been writing about Mormonism and homosexuality for 20 years, since I was an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, I stand by my observation that Mormon views on homosexuality are changing.
You may or may not hear that evolution if you only listen to the speech of high-ranking LDS Church officials. Thirty-five years ago, LDS Church leader Elder Boyd K. Packer stood at the pulpit during a worldwide Mormon conference and related how he once congratulated a Mormon missionary for assaulting his missionary companion after a perceived homosexual advance. Last fall, at a worldwide LDS conference, Elder Packer delivered another controversial talk on homosexuality that led LDS PR officials to issue a statement affirming that the Church unequivocally decries anti-gay violence. (Other high-ranking LDS Church leaders have demonstrated changing views of homosexuality, as the LDS blogger Kaimi Wenger carefully documents here.)
You will, however, hear significant changes in the way more than a few rank-and-file Mormons talk about homosexuality. Read the words of the churchgoing LDS women who spoke last week at a Salt Lake City vigil against gaybashing. These women don’t have high-ranking positions in LDS institutional life. They don’t make doctrine or policy. Very, very few women in Mormonism actually do. But they speak for an increasing number of everyday Mormons who know that gay people are our relatives. Family. Saints. Us.
Are views on homosexuality evolving in Mormonism? You bet, and like so many changes in the history of religion, that change may be coming from the people in the back pew or at the bottom of the hierarchy.
And so long as it focuses on defending orthodox institutional points of view, that’s one story Get Religion may never get.Virender Sehwag has admitted he was "disappointed" when Delhi Daredevils did not buy him at the IPL auction. Sehwag, whose run of bad form has stretched to nearly two years now, has made it clear he will not use the IPL as a platform to prove a point to the Indian selectors or anyone in the team management. Despite the absence of credible innings in the recent past Sehwag said he had "two to three years" of shelf life still left in him.
Sehwag, who was an icon player and a former captain at Daredevils, was not retained by the franchise, which also did not utilise the right-to-match card during the IPL player auction in February. Sehwag, who is part of the top-ten run-makers in the tournament was eventually bought by Kings XI Punjab for a bargain price of INR 3.2 crore at the auction.
"I am okay with that because that decision on Sehwag was a professional one and not personal," Sehwag told ESPNCricinfo on Tuesday, during a phone conversation organised by Kings XI Punjab. "They [Daredevils] wanted to build a team of new players. Yes, I am disappointed a little bit because you know I played six years for Delhi Daredevils. I became an icon player. But things happened and things change."
Despite a poor run stretching back nearly two years, Virender Sehwag remains confident and says he still has "2-3 years left". © BCCI
Sehwag had experienced a wretched loss of form during the Ranji Trophy, and managed only one half-century in seven matches (13 innings, 234 runs, average 19.50, highest score of 56) as Delhi failed to progress past the league stage. In the zonal stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy (domestic ODI tournament) Sehwag once again failed, scoring 25 runs in two matches for Delhi.
"The season was not good for me because we played on green wickets, little damp pitches," Sehwag said. "I was not able to score big runs (although) I was getting starts and just got one fifty in seven games. It was disappointing."
Sehwag, however, said he had not lost hope and the IPL would provide him another opportunity to bounce back into form. "You have to keep fighting," he said. "Keep hoping that the next match I play I will score runs. I am just hoping the IPL this year will be good for me."
Sehwag disagreed that he needed a successful IPL to prove anything to the Indian selectors and team management. "I don't have to show to anybody because it is time to play for Virender Sehwag or for Kings XI Punjab," he said. "If I perform well people will watch and discuss my name again. But if I go with this mindset that I show to the selectors and management then I don't think I will be able to perform. Then I will be putting pressure on myself. I played enough matches to show (what I can do) to the people, to the world. It is time to play for myself. It is time to play the IPL well. My job is to win the games for my franchise."
Sehwag in the IPL (stats by Shiva Jayaraman) Virender Sehwag is one of the five most impactful players in the IPL, going by the number of Man-of-the-Match awards he has won. Sehwag, along with MS Dhoni and Michael Hussey, has won it 10 times. Only Chris Gayle and Yusuf Pathan have won more Man-of-the-Match awards.
Sehwag's strike rate of 160.32 in the IPL is the best among players who have scored a minimum of 500 runs in the tournament. Gayle is a close second at 160.20.
Sehwag is among the ten highest run-getters in the IPL
Sehwag has 16 fifty-plus scores in the IPL, and is joint-sixth on the overall list. Gautam Gambhir and Gayle head that list with 20 fifty-plus scores each.
Sehwag has hit 351 boundaries in the IPL, the third highest after Suresh Raina (354) and Chris Gayle (384).
Sehwag denied that his explosive style of play might have contributed to his failures. "Style does not matter," he said. "The important things is how I use my experience to score runs, how I weigh up the conditions, what kind of wicket I am batting on, how I am shaping up are factors that matter more. But style of my play does not matter because if there is a ball to hit I will try to hit it as I have been doing for the last 15 years."
During the home Test series against Australia, shortly before he was dropped, Sehwag was diagnosed with astigmatism and wore glasses while batting. His eyesight, Sehwag said, was posing his batting no problems.
"When I was playing a Test against Australia I had a lot of headaches and pain," he said. "I met a couple of doctors and was told to wear glasses or contact lenses because I have some minus.5 number which is cylindrical. If you have a cylindrical number you have to wear glasses otherwise you will get high pain, so I was not able to concentrate. I played IPL with contact lenses, but now the issue is not eyes. I am okay with that."
Sehwag is 35 years old and critics have started to cast doubts about his future. But the man himself remained confident. "I should not regret anything," he said. "The amount of matches I have played, more than 100 Tests and more than 200 ODIs - I don't regret anything. I have 2-3 years left. I can play 2-3 seasons and I am working towards that."
Sehwag said it was not just experience he had to offer to the teams he would be part of, be it India or his IPL franchise. "The batting and the kind of style I have, that I can offer to any team," he said. "I have scored two triple centuries and six double hundreds so I know how to score big runs. It is just a matter of one big innings and after that I hope I can keep scoring big runs. In T20 there are only 120 balls of which you get to bat 50-60 at the most, so how many runs can you score in that time."
In his time out of the national side, Sehwag says he has been watching India matches "like a spectator".
"I keep praying that we will do well and India wins the games rather than be worried about myself," he said. "At the end of the day, India winning is what matters rather than being worried about who should play."
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Gaurav Kalra is a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.This year Predator celebrates its 30th anniversary and to commemorate this many cinemas around the world have been screening special showings of Predator. One such showing, hosted by the Arkansas Cinema Society, was followed by a Q&A session with Predator’s writer Jim Thomas and producer Beau Marks.
While the Q&A mostly covers behind-the-scenes information we’ve heard before, Jim Thomas also spoke a little about their earlier ideas for Predator 2. We’ve known for sometime that Arnold Schwarzenegger had originally been approached for the sequel and ultimately declined to appear in the film. Arnold’s role was eventually rewritten to become Gary Busey’s Agent Keyes.
Answering an audience question (from Wade B Wyeth of Twitter at around 38:20) about their ideas for sequels to the original Predator, Jim divulged some extra details about how that particular Arnold driven Predator 2 would have opened:
“We had an idea where at the end [of Predator], with the burned up clearing where the explosion happens, the film [Predator 2] opens there and the Predator’s invisible feet come into view and a hand plunges down into the dust, into the ashes, and brings up the Predator’s arm and then activates the computer and get’s a readout to see everything that had happened up to that time, focusing on Arnold, and “this is my target.” We went from there and we had to think of how to bring Arnold back into it.”
Jim also mentioned a different story idea they’d had for a sequel to Predator, another cool tidbit that I don’t believe has ever been spoken about previously!
“We also had an idea about doing a World War 2 version in the Battle of the Buldge, in the middle of the winter. A German foot platoon and an American platoon separated, and had a stalemate fighting each other off when the Predator shows up. They have to join together to defeat it. We thought the snow Predator effect would be quite different.”
The idea of Predator stories set in other time periods is something that has been explored several times in the Expanded Universe (including World War 1 in Predator: The Bloody Sands of Time) and most recently in the awesome anthology book Predator: If It Bleeds (seriously, go buy it!).
It was also set-up in the finale of Predator 2 when Harrigan is handed the flintlock pistol, the backstory of which was explored in the comic Predator: 1718. Would you like to see a Predator film set in another time period?
Jim also confirmed that he and John had no involvement with Shane Black’s The Predator but he was looking forward to it. Thanks to Wade B Wyeth for getting in touch about the Q&A.
Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Predator and The Predator news! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Predator fans on our forums!Tips for the Backyard Gardener
Seeds of Change - www.seedsofchange.com
High Mowing Organic Seeds - www.highmowingseeds.com
Turtle Tree Seed Biodynamic Seed Initiative - www.turtletreeseed.org
Wild Garden Seed - www.wildgardenseed.com
Contact your congressperson and tell them why you don't want a handful of companies to control the world's seed supply
If you belong to a CSA, ask them what companies they buy their seeds from
If you shop at a farmer's market, ask your favorite growers about their seed supply
Refuse to buy processed foods with GMO ingredients - only buy certified organic brands
Brenda Wagner is an online volunteer for the Organic Consumers Association.
When most people think of Monsanto, they picture huge Midwest farms growing Roundup Ready GMO corn and soy. But did you know that Monsanto and other agrochemical multinationals are in the home garden vegetable seed business as well?The commercial seed industry has undergone vast consolidation in the last few decades, with several agro giants buying up many seed companies around the world. The majority of these companies target the commercial agriculture industry, but companies such as Monsanto and Swiss-based Syngenta produce a range of seeds for the home vegetable gardener as well.Aside from the anti-trust issues raised from having a few large corporations control the world's seed supply, there are other concerns as well. The recent consolidation frenzy has resulted in a drastic decrease in the variety of seeds. Insects and disease tend to attack monocultures, so the strength of any ecosystem is the level of its plant diversity. Monocultures, where the same type of crops grow on large plots of land year in and year out, also lead to an increase in pesticide usage. This is convenient for the giant seed companies, since they're in the pesticide and herbicide business as well.Farmers are also affected since seed saving used to be practiced by family farmp for generations. Many farmers are now forced to buy their seeds from Monsanto every year once they sign up to grow Roundup Ready GMO crops, which puts Monsanto in a very powerful position. According to a recent New York Times article, the prices farmers paid last year for corn seed rose 32% and 24% for soy. These price increases have caught the attention of the US Justice Department which has launched an investigation into the seed industry, with an apparent focus on Monsanto.In 2005, Monsanto - the world's largest seed company - purchased a large vegetable seed company called Seminis. According to an article written that year by Mathew Dillon of the Organic Seed Alliance, it was estimated that "Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market-supplying the genetics for 55 percent of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75 percent of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas." It is unknown what percentage of these seeds may at some point become genetically modified.The following chart is an excellent overview regarding the seed industry ownership structure which includes Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer, Syngenta, and Dow. Click here for more detail (PDF) This chart and a related article was authored by Phil Howard, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. Many of the companies listed focus on the professional grower markets and GMO crops, but some provide seeds for the home gardener as well.As most gardening enthusiasts have probably discovered by now, figuring out where the seeds you buy actually come from can be pretty confusing. Let's say you go to a popular online seed retailer and get some Burpee Hybrid II cucumber seeds. Those seeds are actually produced by Seminis/Monsanto. To see if any of your favorite vegetable seeds are produced by Seminis, go to the following link: us.seminis.com/products/hg_products.asp You may also be buying seeds from Rogers (originally bought by Sandoz), a company now owned by the Swiss multinational Syngenta, a pesticide and herbicide manufacturer also involved with GMOs. To see which retailers sell Rogers seeds, go to www.rogersadvantage.com/dealers/default_homegarden.htm So what else can an organic gardener do? Here is a range of resources to help get you started:A cooperative based in Maine, Fedco decided to stop selling Seminis seeds due to customer input after Monsanto's acquisition. Approximately 35% of their sales volume is in certified organic seeds. Fedco stated that it is possible that a few varieties of their organic seeds may originate from Syngenta, but by ordering organic seeds from small farmers (coded with a "1" in their catalogue), you can avoid purchasing any agro-giant seeds.Johnny's still sells a few Seminis varieties that are customer favorites, but they've been phasing out their Seminis seeds since the Monsanto acquisition. It's a privately held, employee-owned company which sells a wide variety of conventional and organic seeds.Headquartered in New Mexico and founded in 1989, 100% of their seeds are certified organic. They produce much of their own seed stock, most of which is then grown by a network of small farms around the country. The company was acquired by Mars, Inc. in 1997. Although Mars has stated they don't use GMO ingredients in Europe, they are using GMOs in some of their products produced in the US.If you'd rather buy from a source that doesn't sell any seeds from companies involved with GMOs, here are a few worth looking into:Based in Vermont, this company grows much of their own seed, and they also have a network of producers around the country who they know personally. All of their seeds are certified organic. High Mowing was part of a group including the Sierra Club and Organic Seed Alliance that successfully sued the USDA regarding the premature deregulation of Monsanto's GMO sugar beets in 2009. High Mowing Seeds is part of the Hardwick VT local sustainable food community, a town that's recently received a lot of press. Check out this video for more information: www.highmowingseeds.com/HMS-on-Dan-Rather-Reports.html A non-profit based in Arizona, Native Seeds is a leader in the heirloom seed movement and has a focus on arid-land adapted crops. They have a conservation farm in Patagonia, AZ. They work with Native American communities to maintain seed diversity and the saving of rare seeds. All of their seeds are collected directly from small farmers, mostly from Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico. The seeds are not certified organic, but most are grown using organic methods.This non-profit based in New York, offers non-hybrid, open-pollinated seed grown in accordance with the biodynamic principles outlined by Rudolf Steiner. All of the seeds grown on their New York farm are certified organic. Seeds from their network of individual growers around the country are not all certified organic, but all are grown in accordance with organic and biodynamic standards.They grow all of their own seed on their farm in Oregon, which is certified organic. All seeds are open pollinated.This list represents just a few options. There are other small organic and biodynamic seed growers around North America, so it's best to do some research and ask your retailer specific questions. Other ways you can help fight industry consolidation and control of seeds:Submitted by Chris Martenson via Peak Prosperity,
Regrettably, I am very close to issuing an official Alert over the situation in Ukraine as it has continued to both escalate and deteriorate.
More than 50 people died in violence on Friday, May 2, in Odessa and other eastern cities in Ukraine. Relations between Russia and the US are finding new lows while China and Russia grow closer.
For those living in Europe who are exposed to the possible fallout that would result from the loss of supplies of Russian energy, the time to begin preparing is right now. As we say often on this site, you’d much rather be a year early than a day late in your preparations.
The situation involving the tug of war between the West and Russia regarding Ukraine has steadily worsened over time and now involves outright economic warfare. Certainly, if Russia had levied sanctions on American and European individuals and companies similar to those levied by the West on Russian targets, we can only imagine the howls of protest the West would make over such obvious 'provocations' and 'acts of war'.
For an already weakened western and Japanese financial system that is still heavily leveraged, the risks are very high for financial blowback by Russian - and possibly Chinese - agencies. Imagine a possible energy war, where Russia basically cuts off gas for Europe (that could spill over more broadly if things go badly). Or even more worrisome, a shooting war between the East and the West.
One significant risk in this story is that the die-hard'military first' neocons who control US foreign policy have not encountered a real foe in a very long time. They appear to be under-appreciating what a real adversary like Russia could do if (when) push comes to shove.
These policy hawks only know how to push harder when things don’t immediately go their way and, based on previous ridiculous notions they've held such as the idea that the Coalition of the Willing would be met with flowers in Baghdad, they are delusional.
The list of US military involvements is long, but not very impressive when considering the strength of the adversaries (dates mark start of conflict):
Grenada - 1983
Libya - 1986
Panama - 1990
Gulf war - 1991
Somalia - 1992
Bosnia - 1993
Haiti - 1994
Kosovo 1998
Afghanistan - 2001
Liberia 2003
Iraq - 2003
North-West Pakistan - 2004
Yemen - 2010
Libya - 2011
Of course, those are just the wars we know about.
You might notice that Iran is not (yet) on that list; but recall that the US had a spy drone shot down over Iran recently, as well as managed to insert several nasty computer viruses into Iranian industrial and governmental targets, and led the issuance of full blown country-wide economic sanctions on Iran.
Further, the US has been deeply involved in supporting the insurgents in Syria (and certainly many other places) and has recently provided those Jihadists with sophisticated and potable anti-aircraft missiles and TOW anti-tank rockets.
Warfare is now conducted on multiple fronts; one being via the usual information and propaganda channels, another being in the electronic space, a third being economic, and the final one being military. Each of them are effective and damaging in their own ways.
Warfare is what you resort to when diplomacy fails, or at least that used to be the saying. Now it seems that warfare is the preferred means of 'diplomacy' for the US and I suppose there's a certain rationale for that when your potential adversaries are small and easily over-powered.
Which is absolutely *not* the case with Russia; but before we get to that, we need some additional context.
Ukraine and NATO
The basic outline of the Ukrainian situation is not all that hard to follow: the US and Europe have been working hard for years to convince Ukraine to join the EU both economically and militarily via inclusion in the NATO structure.
Since the dissolution of the former USSR, the US has funneled some $5 billion into Ukraine to assure that it favors the West with these goals in mind.
Although $5 billion sounds like a lot, when it comes to advancing US interests abroad, it's practically pocket change.
After 15 years of wooing, the US thought it had things pretty well locked up and everything appeared to be going according to plan as recently as early November 2013. Our man in charge over there was Victor Yanukovych and he seemed to be playing ball with the West.
But everything fell apart for (the now deposed) Yanukovych -- and Ukraine at large -- in early November 2013 when he balked at what everyone thought was going to be a signing ceremony, although very few in the public knew it at the time. This editorial is from November 2013:
In a controversial move, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided not to sign the country’s anticipated Association Agreement with the European Union at a summit this week in Vilnius, Lithuania. This pact would have advanced a comprehensive framework for relations between the former Soviet republic and Western Europe. In the aftermath of Yanukovych’s regrettable decision, the United States and the European Union must reaffirm efforts to help Ukraine improve its governance, strengthen its economy and deepen ties with the West. Over the long term, Ukraine would enjoy overwhelming economic and political benefits by signing the E.U. deal. As U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month, if Kiev concludes the Associate Agreement, “it will be able to export its goods” to the European Union, “the largest single market in the world, tariff-free, by early 2014.” At that same hearing, the Peterson Institute’s Anders Åslund said that the pact – which also includes a so-called Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement – could add as much as 12 percent to the country’s gross domestic product and boost its exports by 46 percent. The Association Agreement would also intensify efforts by the European Union and its member states to provide technical assistance to improve good governance and combat corruption in Ukraine. Russia, however, has successfully used political and economic leverage to dissuade Ukraine from signing the E.U. deal. In the months prior to the Vilnius summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in a trade war with Kiev, blocking nearly all imports from Ukraine and cutting energy supplies to the country. In turn, this reduced Ukrainian exports by 25 percent and shrank the economy by 1.5 percent. As the Wall Street Journal reported, “Ukrainian officials say the Russian sanctions cost them $15 billion in lost trade and could run up to half a trillion by signing the E.U. deal.” What’s more, Åslund recently warned, “The Kremlin has publicly threatened to drive Ukraine into default,” adding: “Once again, as in January 2006 and January 2009, the notoriously unreliable Russian state-dominated gas company Gazprom may cut its supplies to Ukraine.” (Source)
The basic theme here is that Ukraine was caught in a tug of war. On the one side you had the EU offering plenty of economic carrots, but virtually no tangible assistance besides "Hey, we'll buy a lot of stuff from you…we promise!" while Russia was supplying Ukraine with lots of tangible assistance in the form of heavily-subsidized natural gas. Moreover, Russia was owed a huge amount of money in back payment for natural gas already shipped to and used by Ukraine.
The spurned West was outraged by that last minute scuttling of the Association Agreement by Yanukovych. Almost immediately, it began working on supporting his opposition and eventual replacement. By failing to sign that agreement, Yanukoyvych had sealed his eventual ouster and indeed he was gone within months.
Of course, nothing happens in a vacuum, and the above article does little to help us understand why Russia was messing with the plans of the Western meddlers. There’s a lot of missing context in that article, as there seems to be in nearly every article I’ve read from western sources. So, we must dig a bit deeper.
NATO – The Missing Context
The essential and missing context concerns the fact that, back in the early 1990's when Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to the reunification of Germany, he got an explicit agreement from then US Secretary of State James Baker that NATO would "not move one inch to the East".
Without ever renegotiating that agreement, NATO (quelle surprise!) proceeded to move into a dozen countries to the East over the following years. When it started making the move on the final piece of the chessboard -- the Ukraine -- Russia, understandably and for a number of reasons, was not too keen on that.
We might consider Ukraine the final straw for a very patient Russia that did not resist as NATO steadily advanced East many millions of inches. Here's a recent map of NATO membership:
On March 12 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO.
Then, on March 20 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia all joined.
And finally on April 1 2009 Albania and Croatia joined.
Now the really interesting part of this story is that the original reason NATO was founded for was to counteract the combined strength of the former Soviet Union. Note that several of the recent NATO members are former members of the Warsaw Pact, which was the USSR's equivalent of NATO.
So if NATO represents no threat to the East, as the feckless western press regularly implies, then why all the military advancement towards the East? Why have NATO at all in these post-Soviet days?
An easy answer that makes sense here is that the West, indeed, still considers the East a threat and is doing what it can to assert its dominance to prevent that threat from materializing. It’s just a big power game. The unfolding events have about as much to do with advancing democracy as Donald Trump’s hairpiece has to do with advancing good taste.
After so much prior success in steadily advancing NATO eastwards, the EU and the US thought they could just roll up Ukraine, too. But their efforts were stymied by Putin and the West has not responded to that 'provocation' very well. Which brings us to the present.
Diplomacy By Other Means
Apparently, instead of trying to resolve the situation through normal diplomatic channels, the US decided that the best path forward was to get rid of Yanukovych by any means necessary and get someone (anyone!) else installed who might be more compliant to US wishes.
There's plenty of supporting evidence to make the claim that much of the recent political and social turmoil in Ukraine was due to US involvement (although that should be the first assumption of anybody who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the conduct of US foreign policy over the past decades).
Okay, so here’s the plot so far. The President of Ukraine, the not terribly likeable and corrupt Yanukovych, balked at the EU Association Agreement in November 2013. After booking a hasty plane ticket, US Senator John McCain landed in Kiev soon after in December, meeting with the various players that might reasonably depose the President.
(Source)
That’s what happens when you disappoint the US. You can expect them to come after your job even if you happen to be the President of a country of 45 million people with a territory the size of France.
Please note that even as McCain is shaking hands with the next leader of Ukraine, Yanukovych was still the properly elected and sitting President, and would be for several more months.
We next draw your attention to the recording of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking with US Ukrainian ambassador Pyatt leaked in February of 2013. Almost certainly, it was Russia that recorded and leaked this conversation -- as it was (and still is) mightily embarrassing to prior US claims that it was simply a detached observer with an interest in Democracy.
Instead, what the transcript clearly shows is that the US was actively plotting to work with various and specific opposition leaders before the then-sitting President had been removed from office. According to my dictionary, this is the definition of a coup d’état.
Here’s a portion of that transcript:
Pyatt: I think we're in play. The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated electron here. Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you've seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff. (…) Nuland: Good. I don't think Klitsch should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it's a good idea. Pyatt: Yeah. I guess... in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I'm just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other opposition leader] and his guys and I'm sure that's part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this. Nuland: I think Yats is the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience. He's the... what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in... he's going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it's just not going to work. (Source - BBC)
What’s being discussed here is an assessment of which of the several possible replacements for Yanukovych might be in the US’ best interests. The person selected, “Yats”, was indeed the eventual replacement, and he did indeed get a coveted visit from the Vice President of the US, Joseph Biden, as promised, with a later meeting at the White House.
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Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
Canada could face “20 Standing Rocks,” said a Mohawk chief in response to the Justin Trudeau government’s revelation Thursday it doesn’t plan to include consent as part of its consultation approach with First Nations on major resource projects.
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr told reporters Thursday the Trudeau government believes it only needs to accommodate and consult First Nations before proceeding with major resource development projects and not obtain “free prior and informed consent.”
It’s a position at odds with Supreme Court of Canada rulings which have stated that obtaining consent is part of the consultation spectrum the Crown faces when dealing with First Nations on issues that impact rights, title and territory. The position also undercuts a key element of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which the Trudeau government has claimed it plans to embrace as part of its efforts toward reconciliation.
Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon said he’s not surprised the Trudeau government says it does not believe it needs to obtain consent to proceed with major projects that impact Indigenous territories.
“New infrastructure to bring in more oil from the tar sands? Forget it, it’s not going to happen,” said Simon, who is grand chief for the Mohawk community at the centre of the 1990 Oka crisis. “I don’t care what Jim Carr says that no consent is necessary….. Consent, it’s what we are demanding and he will never get our consent, not for something like this…. What if we gave Canada 20 Standing Rocks? I wonder if his position will change then?”
Simon was referring to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe which is currently trying to stop construction of an oil pipeline through North Dakota. The Standing Rock’s opposition to the pipeline triggered a historic Native American-led movement that has led to intense clashes with U.S. authorities and hundreds of arrests.
“We always knew the Trudeau government, a lot of his ministers, are influenced by the fossil fuel industry and a prime minister is only as good as how he handles the economy,” said Simon. “If we keep doing this, our children and their children are going to suffer the brunt of climate change.”
Simon is one of the lead spokespeople for an anti-pipeline alliance supported by about 85 First Nations and tribes which have signed a treaty to oppose new oil pipeline projects.
Carr made his comments laying out, for the first time, the Liberal government’s position on consultation in Ottawa Thursday when he was asked by reporters to comment on the release of a report from a three-person ministerial panel on the $6.8 billion proposed Trans Mountain expansion pipeline project.
The project would twin Kinder Morgan’s existing pipeline and increase capacity to 890,000 barrels of oil per day from the current 300,000 bpd. The 1,150 kilometre pipeline project would run from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.
In its report, the panel raised several questions about the project, including how the Liberal cabinet could square its commitment to reconciliation and to the UNDRIP principle of “free prior and informed consent” with the pipeline’s approval.
Facing repeated questions from reporters on the government’s position regarding free, prior and informed consent, Carr made it clear that consent is not part of the Liberal government’s equation when it comes to its approach to consultation. The government only believes it needs to consult and accommodate.
“We believe that to meaningfully consult and accommodate Indigenous peoples in the context of these energy reviews is the principal responsibility of the government of Canada,” said Carr, according to a transcript of the exchange. “That’s what we have done and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said Friday he expects the Trudeau government to abide by its commitments on UNDRIP.
“The government endorsed (UNDRIP) without qualification, and the UN declaration states the requirement of free, prior and informed consent by First Nations over any activities that can impact our rights, our people or our territory,” said Bellegarde, in a statement. “We fully expect Canada to honour that commitment and to work with First Nation to develop a national plan for implementing the UN declaration, including a joint law and policy review.”
International human rights lawyer Paul Joffe, who also worked on UNDRIP, said Carr’s description of the government’s position does not comply with Supreme Court decisions, nor the international declaration.
“It is highly problematic and it’s not helpful to the discussion and it’s not helpful to reconciliation,” said Joffe, who was provided with a transcript of Carr’s statements.
Joffe said the concept of consent in UNDRIP has been demonized, twisted and misinterpreted to mean a “veto.” He believes the Trudeau Liberal government doesn’t seem to grasp that consent is part of international human rights law and part of the tapestry woven by Supreme Court decisions on Aboriginal rights and title.
“For the minister to say we are going on the basis of consultation and accommodation, that doesn’t quite make sense, the way he is using it,” said Joffe. “Consultation is a spectrum, it hangs on the facts and the law. It might be minimal consultation in some cases…but at the other end of the spectrum, the Supreme Court said in the Haida case, that on very serious issues it would require the full consent of the Aboriginal nation. That is the full spectrum. On very serious issues, it would be consent.”
In its 2004 Haida decision, the Supreme Court, quoting the previous 1997 Delgamuukw decision, describes the spectrum of consultation.
“The content of the duty (to consult) varied with the circumstances: from a minimum ‘duty to discuss important decisions’ where the ‘breach is less serious or relatively minor;’ through the ‘significantly deeper than mere consultation’ that is required in ‘most cases,’ to ‘full consent of the Aboriginal nation’ on very serious issues,” said the court in Haida.
The Supreme Court’s 2015 Tsilhqot’in also mentions consent.
Joffe said he doesn’t understand how the Liberal government could both embrace UNDRIP and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 94 calls to action and yet ignore the principle of obtaining free, prior and informed consent.
“There is a further point which makes it very troubling what the minister is saying. The TRC in their 94 calls to action…indicate that they call on federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments to adopt and implement the UNDRIP framework for reconciliation,” said Joffe. “So if one now attacks or undermines UNDRIP, one is also undermining the TRC calls to action.”
During the last federal election campaign, candidate Justin Trudeau told APTN’s Cheryl McKenzie his government would respect a First Nations “no” on major resource development projects.
jbarrera@aptn.ca
@JorgeBarreraFree-to-play is a divisive topic in the games industry right now. Some developers and publishers, especially in the mobile gaming world, love it - free games get downloaded more, and they have the potential to bring in more revenue. Gamers used to the "pay once, pay forever" model of games and software in general over the last 30 years think it's changing the industry and damaging both the economics and the mechanics of gaming itself.
But at the end of the day, the decision of how to make a game, how to monetize it, and whether or not to adopt that tempting, lucrative, and divisive "pay to win" model should rest with the people actually making the game. Alas, that seems to be changing as well, at least with a few publishers. PocketGamer reports on the struggles of one independent game developer who approached publishers, only to be told that they had to adopt a free-to-play model with a modern monetization strategy (currency-based in-app purchases, paying for hints, or intrusive advertising).
BloodyMonkey's upcoming Pablo Cavarez, a sliding puzzle/platform game, was shopped around to various publishers. BloodyMonkey founder Paolo Taje said that every publisher they approached required some kind of recurring revenue, either via ads or in-app purchases. The developer wanted to create a more balanced game, letting players download the puzzler for free and try the first level, then pay $1 via in-app purchase for the rest of the game. (This is basically the same demo/shareware model that's been around for years, and one of most reasonable ways to implement IAP.) Since no publishers were interested, BloodyMonkey will self-publish Pablo Cavarez on iTunes, Google Play and Windows Phone on May 28th.
Aerena: Clash of Champions is a game we've covered before, and it already has a free-to-play structure - you can pay real money for in-app currency to unlock new characters and upgrades. According to an interview with Strategy Informer, developer Cliffhanger was especially careful to make the game "fair to play," ensuring that players could unlock new characters with money earned from playing for just a couple of hours, as you might expect from a lengthy console game. All the characters and upgrades can be had through earning currency in-game, without paying real money, though the time taken to earn that currency does get longer as the game progresses.
Cliffhanger creative Director Jan Wagner says that this approach made it difficult to find a publisher. According to Wagner, they were outright denied without incorporating not just free-to-play mechanics (which the game already has), but a pay-to-win structure.
They flat out said, 'we love the graphics, it's a good concept, we think it's got a long lifetime – great! But it's not pay-to-win so we don't like it. We're not going to take it, we only take pay-to-win games.'
Aerena: Clash of Champions is currently available in Google Play and Steam. For both stores, Cliffhanger elected to publish the game themselves.
Relationships between the publishers who distribute games and the developers who create them are important. Publishers can give a game a strong financial backing, promotional support, or even technical guidance (for example, when porting a game from one OS to another or localizing for a new market). That said, the degree of creative control that each publisher has over developers is a sliding scale. A publisher that owns the developer in question essentially has free rein, whereas a publisher that's supporting a large and successful independent developer will have to make compromises.
Throw in the evolving world of digital distribution, and those relationships get even more confusing. Twenty years ago, a game publisher was necessary in order to secure distribution for game consoles, to make physical copies of a game, and to get them into stores. Now those functions are no longer necessary on mobile, and they're becoming less and less popular on PCs and even consoles. The option of self-publishing has put some of the power back into the hands of developers. But that also means they're taking more of the risk. A single ambitious game self-published by a small developer can bankrupt the company if it fails, making the traditional developer-publisher avenue a tempting one even for small teams.
The controversy over the prevalence of the free-to-play system is now reaching beyond the spheres of gamers. Both the European Union and the Italian government have launched investigations into false advertising of "free" games that rely on in-app purchases to advance, and it seems like every month or so some parent decides to sue Google or Apple because their child bought an obscene amount of fake money via in-app purchase. This sort of "milking" isn't exclusive to the mobile world - PC and console gamers have been complaining about pre-order perks, day one DLC, and content intentionally left out of "full" games to be published later for years.
The free-to-play model isn't going anywhere any time soon; it's simply too lucrative for publishers and even some developers to ignore. But the evolving self-publishing options will hopefully get at least some publishers to put the brakes on some of the more unreasonable tactics used to relieve gamers of their cash. The growing number of gamers who refuse to be a part of the IAP cycle is also encouraging.
Source: PocketGamer, Strategy InformerFive episodes of the first season of “Marvel’s Daredevil” were provided for review purposes prior to broadcast.
Fans of Marvel’s iconic, red-suited blind vigilante have long waited for an adaptation that was true to the source material and captured the very things that made the Man Without Fear so beloved in the first place. Unfortunately, Mark Steven Johnson’s 2003 film starring Ben Affleck left much to be desired, immediately putting a stop to what could have been a lucrative and exciting franchise.
It took twelve years, several false starts and a rights shift from 20th Century Fox to Marvel Studios to resurrect the character, but if this new series is any indication, it was well worth the wait. Daredevil is most definitely a bold step in the right direction for Marvel and Netflix’s new superhero television endeavour, which will continue with shows featuring Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, before culminating in a team-up miniseries dubbed The Defenders.
Marvel has already extended its ever-expanding and ambitious cinematic universe to television, albeit with mixed results. It took a season and a half for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to find its footing and prove its worth within the MCU, and while Agent Carter was far better received from the outset, there’s no telling if the miniseries will hold any weight in the MCU or just exist as a fun, one-off Captain America: The First Avenger companion.
Daredevil, from the outset, feels like it truly belongs in the world that Marvel has created, despite the fact that it’s very different than anything the studio has done before. It’s a refreshing change of pace for a company that’s been chastised for its cookie-cutter style and lighter tone, and it thankfully opens the door for darker characters like Blade and the Punisher to exist under the same banner as Tony Stark and Thor.
The series plays out not like a straight-forward origin story or superhero drama, but instead an extended 12-hour movie. As such, I foresee that many will binge-watch the entire thing once it premieres and will likely be rewarded for the time investment.
While its sudden bursts of brutal (and often bloody) violence and darker tone make it feel like a fresh take on the Marvel formula, Daredevil is, frankly, not something we haven’t seen before. In fact, it reminds me a lot of what we’ve seen from Marvel’s rival, DC Comics, in projects like Batman Begins, Man of Steel and Arrow. It employs Christopher Nolan’s flashback-heavy approach to a superhero origin tale and Arrow‘s city-saving vigilante mission and rough fighting style. It works well in the context in which it’s presented, but I have to wonder how the approach will hold up once Matt Murdock makes the inevitable jump to the big screen and shares some screentime with the likes of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
We’ve heard a lot about how the new Netflix shows will shed some light on the “street-level” side of the MCU, but how that would be accomplished was a bit of a mystery. Thankfully, Daredevil finds clever ways of tying in to the larger cinematic universe while remaining hyper-focused, with small but smart allusions to the world at large.
Daredevil‘s world is, at its core, shaped heavily by some of the bigger events in films like The Avengers, but not in a way that feels tongue-in-cheek. In fact, any and all mentions of the Battle of New York or other Marvel heroes feel incredibly, and impressively, organic. This helps carve a small place in the MCU for the Daredevil series and the titular hero, while allowing both to stand on their own. Those completely unfamiliar with any of Marvel’s cinematic efforts won’t miss a thing by watching Daredevil, making the show both an extension of the larger universe and a possible entry point for newcomers.Wine Announcement
The Wine development release 1.7.9 is now available. What's new in this release (see below for details): - Improved window moving/resizing in the Mac driver. - Some DirectDraw palette fixes. - Reduced code duplication between C++ runtime versions. - Various bug fixes. The source is available from the following locations: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.7.9.tar.bz2 http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/wine/source/1.7/wine-1.7.9.tar.bz2 Binary packages for various distributions will be available from: http://www.winehq.org/download You will find documentation on http://www.winehq.org/documentation You can also get the current source directly from the git repository. Check http://www.winehq.org/git for details. Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bugs fixed in 1.7.9 (total 47): 8320 DirectInput joystick timestamps are wrong 10844 Need for Speed 2 demo fails on startup, claiming "insufficient memory" 11919 foobar2000 with foo_facets.dll: clicking popup menu item to display facets pane/view does nothing 12503 Firefox with Oracle/Sun JRE 6/7 Java plugin fails the verification website of Java 14740 Combat Arms 3.7 installer html-based UI layout is distorted 14783 Cannot closed WMP 9 after minimizing. 17715 Incorrect translation of D3D asm instruction "expp" 17784 Runscape (web-based Java game) fails to terminate upon user request 19959 Rome Total War loading screen has incorrect colors, rendered twice 20354 Sony Vegas has encountered an Error: 'WIA-Manager could not be initialized' 21054 Platform SDK 2003 web installer download unreliable 21755 Heroes of Might and Magic V demo doesn't run 23472 PokerStars crashes/UI remains unresponsive on startup 23748 Need for Speed Shift demo: movies repeat until you press Enter 23802 Need for Speed Shift demo: slow framerate on showroom floor 24167 Boxes are not drawn in Double Dragon Forever 24328 Filter Forge 2 demo fails to launch with error: <class XFW::OSCallError> ::GetScrollInfo failed. (ExeCryptor protection) 24600 Saira: some fonts are messed up 24819 Grand Ages: Rome installer: "Couldn't get the string value for the game tasks folder" 25248 Brothers in Arms Road to Hill Demo needs msvcr71.__security_error_handler 26541 Dragon Saga crashes randomly on startup (needs ntdll.DbgUiConvertStateChangeStructure, ntdll.KiRaiseUserExceptionDispatcher, ntdll.NtSetDebugFilterState stub exports) 26668 Language macros are not defined during an.rc file compilation 27850 Severe graphic issues in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit II 28001 ExeCryptor protected apps/games complain with 'Clock manipulation detected!' (World War One Gold demo, Universal Mechanic) 28440 Deus Ex Invisible War installer sometimes asks for non-existent disk 0 28487 [Halo CE Trial] X Error bad value: XF86VidModeGetGammaRamp 29290 Ubisoft - The Settlers: Rise of Cultures - disc authentication failure (SecuROM v7.37.0014) 29550 PaintTool SAI installer complains about missing administrator rights (Wine defaults to NTFS for unknown fs type, FSCTL_GET_NTFS_VOLUME_DATA support needed) 30717 Janetter crashes on startup (ISWbemLocator interface/stub missing) 31039 Visual C++ 2005 Express SP1 install fails 32762 Worms Forts Under Siege crashes on startup (Safedisc v4.00.000) 33342 Blur: rear view upside down with backbuffer ORM 33801 World of Warplanes Downloader crashed 33895 Tomb Raider 2013 mouse does not work with the changes made to the winemac.drv in the version 1.5.30 33963 WINE Wordpad crashes when selecting text from line end to line start 34294 64-bit SMPlayer 0.8.6 installer claims "64-bit Windows Operating system is required to install this software" 34327 Adobe Acrobat X Pro/Standard installer fails to extract files (insufficient directory permissions) 34713 Treasure Adventure Game: dialogue text unreadable 34902 Ableton Live 9 Suite v9.0.x (64-bit) crashes on startup, needs msvcr90.dll._vsprintf_l 35058 Lattice Diamond 2.2 Active-HDL crashes due to unimplemented function atl90.dll.AtlComModuleRevokeClassObjects 35067 Populous: The Beginning crashes on start in D3D mode 35109 L.A. Noire 1.3 (Steam version) crashes on startup 35122 NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit v5.5 installer fails, claiming "An unknown error has occurred." (failure to return 'url' property from DOMDocument) 35144 NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit v5.5 installer fails (SetupDiGetINFClassW whitelists only 'Chicago', ignoring WINEPREFIX WinVer setting) 35149 RSA SecurID token v411 installer hangs during processing of EULA (large RTF passed twice: window text and richedit streamin callback) 35166 NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit v5.5 installer fails (NtQueryKey with KeyNameInformation info class unsupported on server side) 35178 FL Studio 11.x 'DirectWave' plugin doesn't work (unsupported FSCTL_IS_VOLUME_MOUNTED ioctl) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Changes since 1.7.8: Akihiro Sagawa (2): gdi32: Return ANSI character code as glyph index for bitmap fonts. gdi32: Use ANSI character code as glyph index for bitmap fonts. Alexandre Bique (5): msvcrt: Implement _vsprintf_l. msvcrt: Implement missing sprintf functions. cmd: Update the string of the ver command. winealsa.drv: midiSeq must be protected by a critical section. ntdll: Fixme once for NtFlushInstructionCache(). Alexandre Julliard (27): make_xftmpl: Report errors in standard format. make_xftmpl: Allow the C define names to be specified in the source file with pragmas. makedep: Generate rules for.x template files. user32: Don't check for comctl32 class for integer atoms. makefiles: Explicitly specify source directory in Makefile dependencies. makefiles: Explicitly specify source directory in spec file dependencies. makefiles: Explicitly specify source directory in font dependencies. makefiles: Add separate clean targets even in the non-recursive case. makefiles: Generate rules from makedep for.in files. makefiles: Get rid of the VPATH directive. makefiles: Automatically create object sub-directories when needed. makefiles: Get rid of the no longer used PO_SRCS variables. makefiles: Automatically update the IDL_H_SRCS variable. makefiles: Don't use Make.rules in the top-level Makefile. makefiles: Generate individual.gitignore files corresponding to the build targets. makefiles: Generate the top-level.gitignore from configure. msvcp90: Add MSVCP_ prefix on more of the string iterator functions. msvcp71: Share the string.c implementation with msvcp90. msvcp71: Share the ios.c implementation with msvcp90. msvcp71: Share the locale.c implementation with msvcp90. makedep: Add support for reading source variables directly from the makefile. msvcp90: Always print stream sizes and offsets as long long to support various sizes. msvcp: Add macros to switch the string type used in the locale information structure. msvcp90: Set the thiscall parameter count according to the size of the stream size and offset types. msvcp100: Share the source code with msvcp90. msvcr: Add import libraries for all versions. msvcp: Import the corresponding version of the msvcr library. Andrew Eikum (1): dinput: Fix logging typos. Andrey Gusev (1): d3dx9_36: Add one more missing f suffix. André Hentschel (3): winedbg: Improve formatting of context printing. ntdll/tests: Add ARM support for map protection tests. ntdll: Trace NtFlushInstructionCache on x86_64. Aurimas Fišeras (1): po: Update Lithuanian translation. Austin English (4): dinput: Consistently use GetCurrentTime(). ntdll: Return success for FSCTL_IS_VOLUME_MOUNTED ioctl. ntdll: Export a few more functions. server: Set process start time a bit later. Detlef Riekenberg (1): tools: make_authors is no longer used. Dmitry Timoshkov (10): msiexec: Make service thread do nothing by waiting for the kill event instead of using an empty loop. msiexec: MSI service should report SERVICE_STOPPED when appropriate. include: Add taskschd.idl. msiexec: Make sure that SERVICE_STOPPED status is really sent to SCM. crypt32: Add support for decoding serial number property in the certificate attributes. include: Add more Task Scheduler interface definitions. secur32/tests: Use LoadLibrary instead of GetModuleHandle to load advapi32.dll APIs. secur32/tests: Make sure that QueryContextAttributes(SECPKG_ATTR_STREAM_SIZES) succeeds. secur32/tests: Add a test for QueryCredentialsAttributes(SECPKG_CRED_ATTR_NAMES). include: Add more Task Scheduler interface definitions. François Gouget (1): netapi32: Make access_mask_to_samba() static. Frédéric Delanoy (32): ntdll: Use boolean type where appropriate. krnl386.exe16: Fix signature of DOSVM_Int16ReadChar. krnl386.exe16: Make VGA_[Set/Get]Mode return TRUE on success. krnl386.exe16: Use BOOL type where appropriate. krnl386.exe16: Use BOOL type where appropriate. wined3d: Use BOOL type where appropriate. winemac.drv: Use BOOL type where appropriate. dbghelp: Constify some character strings. advapi32: Constify a character string. krnl386.exe16: Use BOOL type where appropriate. inetcomm: Constify some character strings. joy.cpl: Constify some character strings. mscoree: Constify a character string. mshtml: Constify a character string. msi: Constify a character string. msxml3: Constify a character string. rpcrt4: Constify a character string. scrrun: Constify a character string. usp10: Constify a character string. setupapi: Constify a character string. wer: Constify a character string. winemac.drv: Constify a character string. wininet: Constify some character strings. xmllite: Constify some character strings. oleview: Constify a character string. regedit: Constify a character string. start: Constify a character string. winedbg: Constify some character strings. winefile: Constify some character strings. winetest: Constify a character string. widl: Constify a character string. advapi32/tests: Constify some character strings. Hans Leidekker (6): wininet: Return an error when ensure_cred_handle fails. wininet: Separate socket destruction from destruction of the connection object. wininet: Always store the SSL context. ntdll: Report the latest service pack for 64-bit Windows XP. msi: Don't add text to the scrollable text control twice. advapi32: Avoid a crash when storing credentials on MacOS. Henri Verbeet (15): wined3d: Remove the render target check in x11_copy_to_screen(). wined3d: Recreate DIB sections in wined3d_surface_update_desc(). d3d8/tests: Add a test for instructions taking a scalar source. wined3d: Fix the source swizzle for WINED3DSIH_EXP. wined3d: Fix the source swizzle for WINED3DSIH_EXPP. wined3d: Fix the source swizzle for WINED3DSIH_LOG and WINED3DSIH_LOGP. ddraw: Keep a reference to the palette in the surface. ddraw: Don't set the palette on attached backbuffers in ddraw_surface7_SetPalette(). ddraw: Store the palette flags in the ddraw palette. ddraw: Set DDPCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE when attaching a palette to the primary surface. ddraw: Unset the primary surface's palette when the palette is released. ddraw/tests: Add a test for palettes on primary surfaces. ddraw: Just set the palette caps in ddraw7_GetCaps(). wined3d: Explicitly pass the palette size to wined3d_palette_create(). wined3d: Get rid of unused palette flags. Huw D. M. Davies (3): riched20: Ensure the cursors are correctly ordered in the case of a zero (logical) length selection bridging two runs. wbemprox: Add a partial implementation of Win32_PhysicalMedia. mshtml: Remove a double-Release. Jacek Caban (2): oleaut32: Check OANOCACHE variable only on process attach. qcap: Added CLSID_AVICo stub implementation. Jonathan Liu (2): winebuild: Use correct PATH separator on Windows. winebuild: Don't crash when dlltool or ar can't be found. Ken Thomases (9): winemac: Don't change window order for SetFocus(). winemac: Consolidate the logic for deciding if cursor clipping should be active. winemac: While a window is being dragged, suppress mouse events and disable cursor clipping and warping. winemac: Send WM_{ENTER, EXIT}SIZEMOVE before/after window dragging and run an internal event loop during. user32: Fix distance calculation for MONITOR_DEFAULTTONEAREST. user32: Respect monitor work area when sizing or moving a top-level window. user32: In WINPOS_SysCommandSizeMove(), fix constraining a point to a rect's right and bottom edges. winemac: When dragging an undecorated window, keep the title bar vertically within the work area. winemac: When ClipCursor() is called redundantly, don't warp the cursor or discard mouse move events. Lauri Kenttä (1): po: Update Finnish translation. Marcus Meissner (1): winedbg: Added missing breaks (Coverity). Michael Stefaniuc (1): oleaut32: Cast to the correct type instead to void pointer. Nikolay Sivov (5): ole32: Fix a memory leak caused by copy/pasted fragment (Coverity). atl: Implement AtlComModuleRevokeClassObjects(). shell32: Don't call comctl32 on unload time if it wasn't used before. msxml3: Store document url in properties so every instance could see it. server: Return key name info for KeyNameInformation class. Sebastian Lackner (4): crypt32: Set correct return value if CryptMemAlloc fails. ntdll: Fix incorrect value added to out->used in pf_output_stringA. ntdll: Handle error if RtlAllocateHeap fails in printf functions. ntdll: Don't do further calls to pf_output_stringA if previous call failed. Stefan Dösinger (19): d3d9/tests: Test user memory with D3DPOOL_SCRATCH. d3d9: Volume and cube textures do not support user memory. d3d9: Buffers do not support user memory. d3d9: Implement user memory for offscreen plain surfaces. d3d9: shared_handle must be NULL in non-ex d3d9. wined3d: Support getdc with user memory. ddraw/tests: Test user memory and getdc interaction. wined3d: Use surface_get_memory in surface_download_data. wined3d: Call buffer_get_memory in surface_load_pbo. wined3d: Rename surface_load_pbo to surface_create_pbo. d3d9/tests: Test user memory and getdc interaction. ddraw: SetSurfaceDesc does not work on primaries. ddraw: Sysmem overlays are not allowed. ddraw/tests: Use correct ddraw COM macros. wined3d: Don't check for render target usage in wined3d_surface_set_mem. wined3d: Don't store user memory in allocatedMemory. libport: Include stdlib.h on MSVC for getenv. tools: Define getopt in make_xftmpl.c. d3dx9_36: Add missing f suffixes. Stefan Leichter (2): setupapi: Support signature $Windows NT$ in SetupDiGetINFClassA/W too. setupapi/tests: Test signature $Windows NT$ in SetupDiGetINFClassA too. -- Alexandre Julliard julliard@winehq.orgAbout
Domesticated Clowns refers to a series of posts on Tumblr which role play as pet care blogs offering advice on how to take care of "pet clowns" as though clowns were an exotic animal.
Origin
While the origin of these types of posts is murky, Meme Documentation points out that while jokes about clowns have a long history and there are several potential precursors to the meme, a post by kouha on July 29th, 2017 which includes the phrase "mimes are to clowns as dogs are to wolves" inspired the trend of the Domesticated Clown posts (shown below). The post gained over 73,000 notes.
Spread
In reblogs of the post, people contributed their theories on the analogy, which began blending the idea that clowns were exotic animals. On July 31st, 2017, Tumblr user peculiar-little-rabbit added a comment that said "Clowns are actually the watered down, domesticated funny makers to the raw stylings of mimes." This sparked further dialogue on the post, including reblogs by Tumblr user aviculor which stated:
You look at a mime and tell me that doesn’t have the raw, untamed energy of a wolf. The clown is the tamed household one, colorful and designed to warm hearts and bring chuckles and entertain. But a mime…..that is something savage and unbridled from the wilderness. You ask a mime to make you laugh and it will go for the jugular. Not to say a clown is unable to go feral, just the opposite. It’s just that approaching a mime in its natural habitat without due respect, expecting it to be the same creature as your auntie’s pedigree purebred Bozo, will be the last mistake you ever make.
A reblog of the post by bramblepatch took the joke further on August 1st, writing:
Clowns… clearly show the hallmarks of a domesticated creature, and like dogs, a domesticated creature with incredible variety within the population, from sturdy working types such as the rodeo clown, to ancient show types with well-defined breed standards such as the various characters of the commedia dell'arte, to social companion types such as birthday clowns.
As the post spread, others joined in the discourse by creating text posts centering around the joke that clowns are exotic animals. For example, a post by canneddog which talked about "declawing clowns" gained over 21,000 notes (shown below, top). User severalowls created a Starter Pack for people who "probably shouldn't have clowns" that gained over 68,000 notes (shown below, bottom).
severalowls later added lengthy ground rules for taking care of a pet clown, written in parody of animal care guides. For example, one of the ground rules reads:
Clowns are creatures that need to clown. They were not meant to be domesticated and profited from as pets. They are highly active creatures that will self harm from stress in such confined spaces. Circus Clowns are delightful to keep in groups, though they are fine on their own, but every 1 clown adds 30 square feet to the space needed. They need multiple props and performance areas in order to replicate their natural environment. These are examples of proper Circus Clown or other basic clown enclosures.
Meme Documentation covered the spread of these posts on September 21st, 2017.
Various Examples
Search Interest
Unavailable
External ReferencesSince 2012, we’ve been telling you about the mysterious case of Company Doe, a business that had sued the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission over the agency’s SaferProducts.gov database and had convinced a court to let it do so anonymously in order to protect the company’s reputation, setting a dangerous precedent that would allow manufacturers to file such lawsuits completely out of view of the public. But a federal appeals court has sided with consumer advocates and ordered that Company Doe’s identity be revealed.
For those coming late to the game, here’s the quick version: SaferProducts.gov is a Congressionally mandated database set up by the CPSC that not collects and makes public safety-related complaints about consumer products. Just like the database run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it gives businesses the opportunity to examine and respond to reports submitted to the site.
In this case, Company Doe made some sort of product (even the nature of the product is redacted in the court documents) that received a complaint or complaints on the CPSC database. Company Doe then claimed that some statement (or statements) in these complaint (or complaints) were materially inaccurate.
After some discussions with Company Doe, CPSC redacted some of what had been posted to the database. That wasn’t enough to satisfy Doe, which then filed suit against the CPSC and its then-chair, Inez Tenenbaum.
But rather than use the public forum of a lawsuit to make its case and clear its name, Company Doe convinced a court to hide every material fact about the case — the company’s name, location, the type of product, its brand name, the names of all individuals involved — so that the entire matter has so far been litigated behind a steel door of secrecy.
Advocacy groups, including our colleagues at Consumers Union, petitioned the court in 2012 to unseal this information, but the court denied that request. Even the groups’ objection to the sealing was kept under wraps by the court.
In response to today’s ruling, Ami Gadhia, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union, called the decision “a big win for consumers.” She added, “It sends the right message. If a company sues to keep its name out of the complaint database, it can’t use the courts to hide its identity from the public. The decision also underscores the importance of this critical database, which was created for people to report unsafe products after a flood of recalls” of dangerous and faulty items.
In Dec. 2012, the groups, led by Public Citizen, took their case to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which finally heard arguments in the case last fall.
After months of waiting, the court has finally issued its decision [PDF], siding with the advocates and ordering the lower court to unseal the records.
“It is well settled that the public and press have a qualified right of access to judicial documents and records filed in civil and criminal proceedings,” writes |
on a high level view onto SQL Server, you have transactions that are reading data (SELECT queries), and you have transactions that are changing data (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE). Every time when you are reading data, SQL Server has to acquire Shared Locks (S). Everytime when you change data, SQL Server has to acquire Exclusive Locks (X). And both locks are incompatible to each other, means readers are blocking writers, and writers are blocking readers.
With the Transaction Isolation Level you can control now, how long a reader will hold its S locks. Writers will always acquire X locks, and you can’t influence them. By default SQL Server uses the Isolation Level Read Committed, which means SQL Server acquires a S lock, when you read a record, and and when the record was read, the S lock is released. When you are reading row by row, you are acquiring and releasing the needed S locks row by row.
When you don’t want that readers are acquiring S locks (which isn’t really recommended), you can use the Isolation Level Read Uncommitted. Read Uncommitted just means you are able to read dirty data – data that isn’t yet committed. It’s blazingly fast (no one else can block you), but on the other hand it’s very dangerous, because it’s uncommitted data. Just think about, what happens if the uncommitted transaction is aborded after you have read the data: you have data in your hand that doesn’t even logically existed in your database. Your hands are very dirty now. I’m seeing a lot of cases during my consulting engagements where people are using Read Uncommitted or the NOLOCK query hint to get rid of blocking situations in SQL Server. But that’s not the preferred way to handle blocking. And as you will see later, even NOLOCK can block…
In Read Committed you can have so-called Non Repeatable Reads, because someone else can change the data, when you are reading the data twice in your transaction. If you want to avoid Non Repeatable Reads, you can use the Isolation Level Repeatable Read. In Repeatable Read SQL Server holds the S locks until you end your transaction with a COMMIT or ROLLBACK. Means nobody else can make changes to your read data, and you are getting Repeatable Reads for your transaction.
In every discussed Isolation Level so far, you are also always able to get so-called Phantom Records – records that can appear and disappear in your result set. If you want to get rid of these phantom records, you have to use the Isolation Level Serializable, which is the most restrictive one. In Serializable SQL Server uses a so-called Key Range Locking to eliminate phantom records: you are locking complete ranges of data, so that no other concurrent transactions can insert other records to prevent phantom records.
As you can see from this description, the more restrictive your Isolation Level will be, the more it will hurts the concurrency of your database. So you have to choose the right Isolation Level very wisely. Running always in Read Committed doesn’t make sense, running always in Serializable doesn’t make sense. It depends, as usual 😉
By now I have laid out the foundation about Transaction Isolation Levels in SQL Server, and now I will show you 3 different cases, where my descriptions from above will not match. In some specific cases SQL Server has to guarantee the correctness of your transactions by changing the Transaction Isolation Level for specific SQL statements under the hood – without any intervention from you. Let’s start…
NOLOCK never blocks!?
As I have described in the introduction, the NOLOCK query hint also prevents for a specific SQL statement that S locks are acquired during the reading of records. This will make your SQL statements very fast, because the SELECT query can’t be blocked by any other transaction. I’m also referring to NOLOCK as the Turbo-Booster in SQL Server.
But unfortunately NOLOCK can also block when you are dealing with concurrent DDL statements (Data Definition Language) like ALTER TABLE. Before we understand this behavior we need to have a more detailed look on DDL statements, and what happens internally in SQL Server, when we are running a simple SELECT query.
When you are changing a table with the ALTER TABLE DDL statement, SQL Server acquires a so-called Schema Modification Lock (Sch-M) on that table. When you are running now at the same time a simple SELECT query against the same table, SQL Server has to compile in the first step a physical execution plan. And during the compilation phase SQL Server needs a so-called Schema Stability Lock (Sch-S).
And both lock (Sch-M and Sch-S) are just incompabile to each other! This means that even a NOLOCK statement can block, because in the first step you have to compile an execution plan. So your NOLOCK statement blocks even before SQL Server knows the physical execution plan. Have you ever thought about that behavior when you have upgraded your database schema in production? Just think about it… Let’s demonstrate this behavior with a simple example. In the first step I’m creating a new table and inserting some records into it:
-- Create a new test table CREATE TABLE TestTable ( Column1 INT, Column2 INT, Column3 INT ) GO -- Insert some test data DECLARE @i INT = 0 WHILE (@i < 10000) BEGIN INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES (@i, @i + 1, @i + 2) SET @i += 1 END GO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 -- Create a new test table CREATE TABLE TestTable ( Column1 INT, Column2 INT, Column3 INT ) GO -- Insert some test data DECLARE @ i INT = 0 WHILE ( @ i < 10000 ) BEGIN INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES ( @ i, @ i + 1, @ i + 2 ) SET @ i += 1 END GO
And afterwards we are just starting a new transaction and and adding a new column to our table by executing a ALTER TABLE DDL statement:
-- Begin a new transaction and do some work BEGIN TRANSACTION -- Add a new column -- DDL statements require a Sch-M lock on the objects that are modified. -- In this case, the table "TestTable" gets a Sch-M lock (Schema modification lock)! ALTER TABLE TestTable ADD Column4 INT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -- Begin a new transaction and do some work BEGIN TRANSACTION -- Add a new column -- DDL statements require a Sch-M lock on the objects that are modified. -- In this case, the table "TestTable" gets a Sch-M lock (Schema modification lock)! ALTER TABLE TestTable ADD Column4 INT
As you can see from the previous code, the transaction is still ongoing, and isn’t yet committed. So let’s open a different session in SQL Server Management Studio and execute the following SQL statement:
-- The statement is now blocking, even with the NOLOCK query hint! -- SQL Server has to compile the query, and requests a Sch-S lock (Schema Stability lock). -- This lock is incompatible with the Sch-M lock! SELECT * FROM TestTable WITH (NOLOCK) GO 1 2 3 4 5 -- The statement is now blocking, even with the NOLOCK query hint! -- SQL Server has to compile the query, and requests a Sch-S lock (Schema Stability lock). -- This lock is incompatible with the Sch-M lock! SELECT * FROM TestTable WITH ( NOLOCK ) GO
As you will see immediately, the SQL statement will not return a result, because it’s blocked by the other active transaction – even with the NOLOCK query hint! You can further troubleshooting this blocking situation by querying the DMV sys.dm_tran_locks for both sessions. As you can see the Sch-M lock blocks the Sch-S lock.
Using the NOLOCK query hint or the Transaction Isolation Level Read Uncommitted is no guarantee that your SQL statement will complete immediately. In the past I have worked with a lot of customers who have struggled with that specific problem.
Read Committed doesn’t hold locks!?
As you have learned earlier in the introduction about the Read Committed Isolation Level, a S lock is only held during the reading phase of the record. This means that the lock is immediately released as soon as the record is read. So when you reading data from a table, you have at any point in time only one S lock – for the record that is currently processed. This description is only true when as long as your execution plans doesn’t has blocking operators – like a sort operator. When your execution plan has such a operator, it means that SQL Server has to create a copy of your data.
After the copy of the data is done, the original table/index data doesn’t needed to be retained anymore. But creating a copy of the data only scales and performs very well when you are dealing with a small amount of data. Imagine you have a table definition with a column of the VARCHAR(MAX) data type. In that case every row of the column can store up to 2 GB of data. Creating a copy of that data would not really scale, and blow your memory and TempDb away.
To avoid this scalability problem, SQL Server just holds the S locks until the end of your statement. Therefore it’s not possible that someone changes the data in the mean time (S lock blocks X lock), and SQL Server just references the original, stable, unchanged data. As a result, your transaction behaves like running in the Isolation Level Repeatable Read, which hurts the scalability of your database. Let’s create the following database schema to demonstrate this behavior:
-- Create a new table CREATE TABLE TestTable ( ID INT IDENTITY(1, 1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, Col2 INT, Col3 VARCHAR(MAX) ) GO -- Insert some records into the table INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES (1, 'abc'), (2, 'def'), (3, 'ghi') GO -- Begin a new transaction, so that we are blocking some records in the table BEGIN TRANSACTION UPDATE TestTable SET Col2 = 1 WHERE ID = 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 -- Create a new table CREATE TABLE TestTable ( ID INT IDENTITY ( 1, 1 ) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, Col2 INT, Col3 VARCHAR ( MAX ) ) GO -- Insert some records into the table INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES ( 1, 'abc' ), ( 2, 'def' ), ( 3, 'ghi' ) GO -- Begin a new transaction, so that we are blocking some records in the table BEGIN TRANSACTION UPDATE TestTable SET Col2 = 1 WHERE ID = 3
As you can see from the script, I’m just creating a simple Clustered Table with 3 records with the Clustered Key values of 1, 2, and 3. In the next step I’m starting now a new transaction, and we are locking the 3rd record in the Clustered Index. This is now just the setup of this demo. In a separate session we try now to read from the table – of course the SELECT statement will block:
-- This statement only acquires a key lock on the current record SELECT Col3 FROM TestTable GO 1 2 3 -- This statement only acquires a key lock on the current record SELECT Col3 FROM TestTable GO
When we look into the DMV sys.dm_tran_locks you can see very nicely that the SELECT statement waits for the 3rd lock on the Clustered Key value of 3. This is just the traditional behavior of the Read Commited Isolation Level, because we have no blocking operator in our execution plan. But as soon as we are introducing a blocking operator (and reading a LOB data type), things will change:
-- This statement only acquires a key lock on the current record SELECT Col3 FROM TestTable ORDER BY Col2 GO 1 2 3 4 -- This statement only acquires a key lock on the current record SELECT Col3 FROM TestTable ORDER BY Col2 GO
As you can see, we are using now the ORDER BY clause, which gives us a sort operator in the execution plan. Of course, the SELECT statement will block again. But when we look into the DMV sys.dm_tran_locks, you will see a completely different behavior of the Read Committed Isolation Level: SQL Server has now acquired the S locks on the first 2 rows (Clustered Key values 1, and 2), but hasn’t released them anymore! SQL Server holds these locks until our SELECT statement completes to prevent concurrent changes to the underlying data.
Effectively our SELECT statement is running in the Isolation Level REPEATABLE READ. Just think about that side-effect when you are designing your next table schema, and you want to include LOB data types in one of your main transactional tables…
Key Range Locks are specific to Serializable!?
A few weeks ago I have worked with a customer (during a SQL Server Health Check) where they have encountered Key Range Locks in the default Isolation Level Read Committed. As you know from the beginning of this blog posting, SQL Server only uses Key Range Locks in the Isolation Level Serializable. So the question is from where these Key Range Locks were coming from.
When we have further analyzed the database schema, we have found tables with foreign key constraints where Cascading Deletes were enabled. As soon as you have Cascading Deletes enabled for a foreign key, SQL Server uses Key Range Locks at the child table, when you delete records from the parent table. This makes sense, because the Key Range Locks are preventing the insertion of new records during the Cascading Delete operation. And therefore the referential integrity of the tables are retained. Let’s have a look on a more concrete example. Let’s create in the first step 2 tables and define a foreign key between both tables where Cascading Deletes are enabled.
-- Create a new parent table CREATE TABLE Parent ( Parent1 INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, Parent2 INT NOT NULL ) GO -- Create a new child table CREATE TABLE Child ( Child1 INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, Child2 INT NOT NULL, -- The following column will contain a Foreign Key constraint Parent1 INT NOT NULL ) GO -- Create a foreign key constraint between both tables, -- and enable Cascading Deletes on it ALTER TABLE Child ADD CONSTRAINT FK_Child_Parent FOREIGN KEY (Parent1) REFERENCES Parent(Parent1) ON DELETE CASCADE GO -- Insert some test data INSERT INTO Parent VALUES (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3) INSERT INTO Child VALUES (1, 1, 1), (2, 2, 1), (3, 3, 1) GO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 -- Create a new parent table CREATE TABLE Parent ( Parent1 INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, Parent2 INT NOT NULL ) GO -- Create a new child table CREATE TABLE Child ( Child1 INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, Child2 INT NOT NULL, -- The following column will contain a Foreign Key constraint Parent1 INT NOT NULL ) GO -- Create a foreign key constraint between both tables, -- and enable Cascading Deletes on it ALTER TABLE Child ADD CONSTRAINT FK_Child_Parent FOREIGN KEY ( Parent1 ) REFERENCES Parent ( Parent1 ) ON DELETE CASCADE GO -- Insert some test data INSERT INTO Parent VALUES ( 1, 1 ), ( 2, 2 ), ( 3, 3 ) INSERT INTO Child VALUES ( 1, 1, 1 ), ( 2, 2, 1 ), ( 3, 3, 1 ) GO
When you now begin a new transaction, and you delete delete the record with the value of 1 from the parent table, SQL Server also has to delete the corresponding rows from the child table (3 rows in our case), because of the Cascading Delete:
-- Start a new transaction and analyze the acquired locks BEGIN TRANSACTION -- This statement deletes the record from the parent table, -- and the 3 records from the child table DELETE FROM Parent WHERE Parent1 = 1 -- SQL Server uses 3 RangeX-X locks, even with the default -- Isolation Level of Read Committed SELECT * FROM sys.dm_tran_locks WHERE request_session_id = @@SPID COMMIT GO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 -- Start a new transaction and analyze the acquired locks BEGIN TRANSACTION -- This statement deletes the record from the parent table, -- and the 3 records from the child table DELETE FROM Parent WHERE Parent1 = 1 -- SQL Server uses 3 RangeX-X locks, even with the default -- Isolation Level of Read Committed SELECT * FROM sys. dm_tran_locks WHERE request_session_id = @ @ SPID COMMIT GO
When you look during that transaction into the DMV sys.dm_tran_locks, you can see that your session has acquired 3 RangeX-X locks – Key Range Locks! These locks are needed by SQL Server to prevent the insertion of new records during the delete operation. As you can see SQL Server has transparently promoted your Isolation Level to Serializable to guarantee the correctness of your transactions.
Summary
As you have seen in this blog posting, don’t take anything as granted in SQL Server. I’m always asking people if they know in detail the locking behavior of the various Isolation Levels in SQL Server. If they are answering with yes, I’m just confronting them with the various phenomena we have seen in this blog posting.
The most important outcome from this is, that SQL Server is able to promote the Isolation Level for a given SQL statement. So don’t think that SQL Server is always running your queries in the Isolation Level that you have set.
Thanks for reading
-KlausAlan S. Blinder describes his new book, “After the Music Stopped,” as a “second draft” of the history of the financial crisis and the government’s response. He argues that many Americans still do not understand what went wrong, and he contends that the government still does not get enough credit for the successes of its policies.
Book Chat Talking with authors about their work.
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Prof. Blinder, a Princeton University economist and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, judges that the government itself is at fault. He writes in the book, “The two secretaries of the Treasury during the crisis period, Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner, have between them barely given a single coherent speech explaining what happened and – perhaps more important – why they did what they did.”
And he is concerned that the resulting combination of public ignorance and outrage will impede the government’s response the next time that a bubble pops.
The first part of the book, the account of the crisis, is lucid and entertaining. There will never be complete agreement about the causes of the crisis, not least because the stories we tell about the past are shaped by the things we want from the future. But four years later, we have reached the point where those stories can be well told.
The second part, a qualified defense of the Obama administration, reads more like a first draft of history, and it is likely to prove more controversial. The events are more recent, the recovery is still a work in progress, and we won’t know how well the government has prepared to deal with the next crisis until we get there.
The following is a condensed transcript of our recent e-mail exchange:
Q.
You write, “Our best hope is to minimize the consequences when bubbles go splat — and they inevitably will.” How much confidence do you have that when the next bubble goes splat, we will be ready, willing and able to contain the damage?
A.
Less than I wish I had. But I’m at least hopeful that some of the lessons we’ve learned, and some of the actions we’ve taken, will make the next bubble less damaging than the last ones. For example, we now understand better the dangers that lurk in high leverage, overly complex financial instruments, and lax (or nonexistent) regulation.
Q.
While you conclude that government policies were successful in arresting the crisis, you argue that the government should have imposed stronger conditions on banks that received aid, and that it should have acted more forcefully to help people facing foreclosure. Have those failures slowed the economic recovery?
A.
Yes. For example, until very recently, one major factor behind the sluggish recovery was the failure of home building to rebound. And one major reason for that was the seemingly unending waves of foreclosures. How can a builder compete with foreclosed properties coming on the market at 50 percent of construction cost? A second significant headwind is the meager snap-back in bank lending. If the government had made more lending a condition of receiving aid, that would not have changed a D performance into an A. But it might have gotten us a C+ or a B-.
Q.
I was surprised by the weight you place on a third failure: poor communication. Do you believe that the policies would have been more effective if the public better understood what the government was trying to do, or just that the administration would have been able to do more if it had retained public support?
A.
It’s more the latter: not being able to do more. But I also believe — as a small-d democrat — that the public is entitled to better explanations when they are being used as guinea pigs in a massive socioeconomic experiment. That said, my greater fear is that rampant misunderstanding of what was done in 2008-9 will make it harder for us, politically, to cope with the next crisis.
Penguin Group (USA)
Q.
Of all the choices made by policy makers during the crisis, you express the greatest anger over Secretary Paulson’s three-page TARP bill, which sought to exempt the program from pretty much any oversight or accountability. You variously describe it as an “outrage” and “an assault on the Constitution.”
A.
Well, first of all, let’s note that the mistake was rectified quickly, in large part because of the torrent of criticism that followed. So the actual damage was limited. But the original three-pager certainly didn’t instill confidence in the Paulson Treasury — at a crucial time. I was particularly angry because it showed such disrespect for the Constitution, e.g., by banning judicial review. At the height of the crisis, we needed a dose of “big government” to save us from economic ruin. The first TARP proposal gave big government a bad name.
Q.
You credit the Fed for its efforts to stabilize financial markets. But you also write that the bubble in bond prices “does start with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.” How much blame, then, does the Fed deserve for starting the fire it later extinguished?
A.
The “error” of holding interest rates too low for too long was only obvious after the fact, not before. In fact, the Fed had good reasons to hold interest rates very low in the early 2000s: The recovery was pathetic, and we faced a real risk of deflation. And those who place primary blame for the house-price bubble on the Federal Reserve are exaggerating so much that it smacks of a put-on. When home buyers believe that house prices will keep on rising at 10 to 15 percent a year, would, say, a half-percentage-point increase in the mortgage interest rate stop speculation?
Q.
The book ends with a new version of the Ten Commandments. The second is, “Thou shalt not rely on self-regulation.” You describe the very term as “an oxymoron, maybe even a cruel deception.” Yet your third, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth commandments call on financial companies to do a better job of self-regulation. The ninth, for example, says compensation should be aligned with risk. You write, “This commandment ought to be enforced by C.E.O.’s and corporate boards; but if they won’t do the job, we may need the heavy hand of government.” Some people would say we’ve let that experiment run long enough. Why prioritize improved corporate conduct?
A.
In truth, we need both. I say repeatedly in the book that foxes don’t make good chicken-coop guards. We need far better government regulation and supervision than we had before the crisis. But supervisors cannot be everywhere. In the regulatory game of cat-and-mouse, the mice will sometimes (often?) fool the cats. This is particularly true, I think, in the area of executive compensation. We need — or perhaps I should say, we should hope for — better management and more alert boards of directors.McLaren has released its vision for the future of Formula One by designing a concept car featuring futuristic technology.
Although the design is only a marketing exercise, the MP4-X showcases real technologies McLaren believes could be put to use in the future. Much like the Ferrari concept car released earlier this year, it also offers a glimpse of what Formula One's future might look like.
The MP4-X features energy recovery systems along the same lines as the ones in use today, but McLaren says it would have a "new approach to the internal combustion engine" and "thin batteries" that form part of the crash structure. It would also feature solar panels built into the bodywork that would contribute to the car's power... although not at night races.
From a safety perspective, the car features a canopy over the cockpit, an idea that has gathered momentum following the death of Justin Wilson in IndyCar earlier this year.
"I was one of many drivers who said, 'This is open-cockpit racing, it should stay as open-cockpit racing,' but I think we've had enough now," McLaren driver Jenson Button said. "We've got to get a canopy on the car of some sort, because we can't have these sorts of accidents happening as much as they have over the last few years. It's not the 1970s any more, we should know better. Canopies probably are the way to go, but obviously that takes time."
But it's not all new technology, the MP4-X has been designed with ground-effect aerodynamics -- a concept that was banned in Formula One in 1982. The smaller internal combustion engine and fuel tank would allow for huge Venturi tunnels in the car's floor to create a "powerful aerodynamic effect".
In addition, McLaren claims the chassis would change shape to adapt to different aerodynamic demands -- think super-advanced DRS. The shape-shifting bodywork would also feature digital billboards that can tailor sponsors' messages to its audiences.
"Just like the webpages you view, the adverts are chosen specifically for you -- meaning that the car will look different to everyone," McLaren claims.
Put simply, the MP4-X will be able to read your mind.Alipate Aloisio Leone[5] (born October 15, 1982) is a Tongan American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Tama Tonga. He is currently signed to Japanese professional wrestling promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a founding member of Bullet Club. He is the nephew and adopted son of professional wrestler Haku/Meng and forms the tag team Guerrillas of Destiny with his cousin/adoptive brother Tanga Loa. He is currently one-half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions (his fifth reign with Tanga Loa). He has also worked with NJPW's partner promotion in Mexico, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) where he has held the CMLL World Tag Team Championship twice.
Early life [ edit ]
Leone and his younger brother Taula were adopted by their maternal aunt and her husband, professional wrestler Tonga Fifita – better known as Haku or Meng – from his native island of Tonga while they were visiting in 1991.
They took him back to Poinciana, Florida where he grew up with his biological cousin and adoptive brother, fellow professional wrestler Tevita, and his older sister Vika.[6]
After graduating from Poinciana High School high-school, he joined the United States Air Force and was stationed for six years at Whiteman Air Force Base, serving as a B-2 Spirit mechanic. At the same time, his brother Tevita was playing college football with the UTEP Miners. During a phone call in 2004 they decided they would become professional wrestlers once they had finished their respective obligations three years later.[7][4]
Professional wrestling career [ edit ]
Training and early career (2008–2010) [ edit ]
In January 2008, the brothers approached the Dudley Boyz to use the ring they had at the Team 3D Academy of Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment training school they operated in Kissimmee, Florida. They did not join the school at the time as they were being trained directly by their father and Ricky Santana, a family friend. To practice more frequently they eventually joined the Academy proper and were partly trained by Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley.[4][8]
The brothers made their professional debut in November 2008, wrestling as a tag team under the name The Sons of Tonga (referencing their father) in Southern Championship Wrestling (Florida). They continued wrestling under the same name in World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) and Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council (WWC) until early 2009.[9] Also in November 2008, they took part in a WWE tryout camp, two months later they were told that Tevita would be offered a contract by the company (he would later appear on television as Camacho) while Alipate would not. [10]
Alipate continued wrestling as Kava in WXW during the year, winning the WXW Television Championship on 20 June 2009 though he lost it the same day. In the first part of 2010 he returned to WWC, first as a singles wrestler with the moniker King Tonga Jr. (his father had also wrestled in Puerto Rico as King Tonga). He later teamed with Idol Stevens, billed as The New American Family they briefly held the WWC World Tag Team Championship.[9]
New Japan Pro-Wrestling [ edit ]
Debut (2010–2012) [ edit ]
Leone went to Japan in 2010, initially going to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) to train, he impressed enough to be hired by the company. [11] He made his NJPW debut in May 2010 under the name "Tama Tonga". His debut match came as part of the 2010 Super Junior Tag Tournament, where he teamed up with Davey Richards, losing in the first round to El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto.[12] Tonga was one of sixteen wrestlers who competed in the 2010 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He defeated Nobuo Yoshihashi,[13] and Akira,[14] but lost to Ryusuke Taguchi,[15] Fujita Hayato,[16] Kenny Omega,[17] Koji Kanemoto,[18] and Taiji Ishimori, ending with four points, second to last his group.[19]
He teamed up with Hirooki Goto to compete in the 2010 G1 Tag League tournament. They defeated the teams of Togi Makabe/Tomoaki Honma,[20] and King Fale/Super Strong Machine,[21] but lost to the teams of Manabu Nakanishi/Strong Man,[22] Masato Tanaka/Tomohiro Ishii,[23] and Yuji Nagata/Wataru Inoue,[24] which meant they finished fourth in their group with four points. He also entered the 2011 G1 Tag League tournament, this time teaming up with Strong Man. He had less success than the previous year with a solitary victory over the team of King Fale/Yuji Nagata,[25] and losses against the other teams. On 4 January 2012, Tonga appeared in a dark match during Wrestle Kingdom VI (considered as NJPW's most important show), teaming with Captain New Japan to defeat Kyosuke Mikami and Tomoaki Honma.[26]
Excursion to CMLL (2012) [ edit ]
In September 2012 it was announced that Tonga would go to Mexico from 10 October 2012 and work for NJPW's partner promotion, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).[27] His debut match for CMLL saw him participate in the 2012 version of CMLL's Leyenda de Azul tournament. The match was a 16-man torneo cibernetico elimination match, from which Tonga was eliminated when Atlantis and Shocker double teamed him.[28] Following the tournament Tonga worked with a number of CMLL's top stars, including the Leyenda de Azul tournament winner Diamante Azul. On November 13, Tonga and El Terrible won the CMLL World Tag Team Championship from Atlantis and Diamante Azul.[29] Tonga next made it to the finals of the 2012 La Copa Junior Tournament, where, on December 14, he was defeated by La Sombra in the main event of CMLL's 2012 Sin Piedad ("No Mercy") show.[30]
Bullet Club and Guerrillas of Destiny (2013–present) [ edit ]
Tonga returned to NJPW in early 2013, just in time to compete in Wrestle Kingdom 7 on January 4 where he teamed up with Captain New Japan and Wataru Inoue to defeat Jado, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi by pinning Jado.[31] On April 7, Tonga and El Terrible successfully defended the CMLL World Tag Team Championship against La Máscara and Valiente at New Japan's Invasion Attack event.[32] On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Tonga followed Prince Devitt and Bad Luck Fale ringside after Karl Anderson's loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi where they all attacked Tanahashi. The four of them founded a new villainous stable named Bullet Club under Devitt's leadership.[33][unreliable source]
On July 5, Tonga and El Terrible lost the CMLL World Tag Team Championship to Tanahashi and Jyushin Thunder Liger.[34] Tonga regained the title from Tanahashi and Liger on September 14 with new partner Rey Bucanero.[35] Tonga returned to CMLL with Bucanero in early October.[36] On October 18, Tonga and Bucanero were stripped of the CMLL World Tag Team Championship when they were unable to defend the title against La Máscara and Rush due to Bucanero being sidelined with an injury.[37][38] Tonga remained in CMLL until the end of the year.
Returning to Japan in 2014, Tonga participated almost exclusively in tag matches the next two years, [9] He took part in the 2014 World Tag League with Bad Luck Fale in November of that year. They finished at the bottom of their block with a record of three wins and four losses.[39] Tonga and Fale would team up again in the 2015 World Tag League for a worse result, picking up two wins for four losses to finish penultimate with four points.[40]
On 4 January 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10, Tonga teamed with Fale and Yujiro Takahashi to take part in a match to determine the inaugural NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions, they were defeated by Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe and Toru Yano when Jay pinned Tonga.[41] On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, Tonga, Fale and Takahashi defeated the Briscoes and Yano in a rematch to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[42] After a three-day reign, the three lost the title back to the Briscoes and Yano at The New Beginning in Niigata.[43] On March 3, Tonga scored the biggest singles win of his career by defeating former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and reigning IWGP Tag Team Champion Togi Makabe in the first round of the 2016 New Japan Cup.[44] The following day, he was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by Hirooki Goto.[45]
In March 2016, Tonga announced he would reform his tag team with Tevita in NJPW, recruiting him into the Bullet Club as Tanga Loa. The team was named "Guerrillas of Destiny" (G.O.D.). On April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, G.O.D. defeated Makabe and Honma to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions.[46] They lost the title to Jay and Mark Briscoe on June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall.[47] In late June 2016, Tonga returned to CMLL with his brother for a month-long excursion and the two competed in the 2016 International Gran Prix, where Tonga was the last eliminated, losing to winner Volador Jr.[48]
Tonga was announced as one of the participants of the 2016 G1 Climax from 18 July 2016. NJPW's most prestigious tournament, it entitles its winner to a IWGP Heavyweight Championship title match at the next Wrestle Kingdom., Tonga's participation in the G1 was seen as a major step-up.[49][unreliable source] In his third tournament match on 25 July, he scored the biggest win of his career by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi (who had won the previous year's G1).[50] Tonga finished the tournament on August 12 with a record of four wins and five losses.[51]
Returning to tag team competition with G.O.D., he and his brother regained the IWGP Tag Team Championship from the Briscoe Brothers on October 10 at King of Pro-Wrestling.[52] They reached the final of the 2016 World Tag League but lost to Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma on December 10.[53] On January 4, 2017, Tonga and Loa lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano in a three-way match, also involving Makabe and Honma.[54] On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, Tonga and Loa defeated War Machine to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the third time.[55] They lost the title back to War Machine in a no disqualification match on July 1 at G1 Special in USA.[56]
Tonga participated in his second G1 Climax by entering the 2017 edition in July. He finished with a record of four wins and five losses.[57] |
Source: Inderscience Publishers press releaseGet the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Retailer GameStop has announced a version of Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 that will be sold exclusively at the store. Called the "golden bundle," it comes with a copy of the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, as well as a Golden Funko 3" figure. The package altogether costs $65.
GameStop described the bundle as being a "limited edition," with stock expected to "go fast."
If you're a GameStop PowerUp Rewards member and you preorder the game, you'll get a GameStop-exclusive poster and early access to the following characters and content:
Sasuke (The Last: Naruto the Movie)
Naruto (The Last: Naruto the Movie)
Sakura (The Last: Naruto the Movie)
Hinata (The Last: Naruto the Movie)
Character Costume: Kakashi Sixth Hokage
Playable Characters: Boruto & Sarada
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 launches on February 9 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.Ah yes, the all-new and stunning 2016 Volvo XC90. Not only is it the brand’s first redesign in ages of the full-size, 7-passenger SUV; it’s also the first vehicle in Volvo’s lineup with an entirely new design from the ground up since the brand was purchased by the Chinese.
This means that this XC90 is very much a Volvo effort, making it more Swedish than your IKEA kitchen set.
Made in Sweden also means that during the week I had this seriously insane looking truck dressed up in R-design sports gear, and an appropriately named Bursting Blue Metallic paint job, I attracted more attention than if I had been driving a supercar. People from all ages, sex, and social classes thumbed me up, gazed, smiled, and straight up complimented the XC90’s looks. That being said, when an Audi Q7 owner comes up to you at the fuel pump to tell you he’s considering a trade in, you know Volvo has accomplished its mission of delivering an expensive luxury vehicle that actually deserves its spot in an overcrowded segment.
Hammer of Thor Headlights – Because Sweden
As you may all know by now, I’m not a big fan of SUVs in general. Simply put, I find that once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Also, since I’m blessed to drive a whole bunch of different cars all the time, it takes quite a lot to make an impression on me. But the 2016 Volvo XC90 is simply a whole new level of awesome. Not only is it the first time I fall in love with an SUV, it’s one I actually aspire to own one day.
I mean, just look at this thing.
Like a Swedish supermodel, you just can’t get your eyes off of it.
The attractiveness, of course, begins with the Hammer of Thor LED headlights; a reference to the god of thunder in Norse mythology – not the Marvel superhero. Those headlights not only allow this redesigned XC90 to distinguish itself from other luxury SUVs; aka Q7s, X5s and Range Rovers, but also do a fantastic job of reinforcing the brand’s identity. Expect to see these headlights appear on other upcoming Volvo models.
But the XC90’s looks go much deeper than just an elegant pair of LED headlights. From every angle, this thing looks absolutely stunning. Volvo designers have done a great job of retaining the traditional wagon-like 2-box design of the last generation XC90, while adding just enough visual cues to make it feel fresh. This is a big truck, and Volvo isn’t hiding it. The XC90 sits high, with a squared-off roofline, long hood, short overhangs, and bulging fenders. The end result is a truck that looks as if a Mercedes-Benz G-class and a Range Rover had a child, and then had it adopted by a Swedish family.
My tester, the R-design model, added an extra layer of Scandavian flair thanks to its more aggressive front and rear bumpers, chromed out mirrors, R-design lettering, massive 20-inch low-profile wheels and upgraded brakes; which holy crap made it look good.
Inside, the XC90 continues to impress with a fantastically well-crafted interior, a simplistic yet elegant design, and a meticulous attention to detail. The R-design package adds aggressively bolstered leather seats that would not only fit perfectly in a private jet, but also offer a wide range of settings for optimum comfort and support; as is expected of a Volvo. Very similar to the Tesla Model S I drove a few weeks ago, the centre stack in the XC90 is almost entirely button-free, with a large I-pad like interface to control most of the car’s available features.
The system looks sharp, with beautifully presented menus, adaptive backlighting, and intuitive controls. It also boasts one of the most attractive navigation systems I’ve ever witnessed in an automobile.
It also came with its share of fingerprint smudges.
Yes, even the navigation system is sexy in a 2016 Volvo XC90.
All the buttons that were not taken out are the ones that matter, such as a large, beautifully designed volume knob with a Pause/Play button integrated into it. Kudos to Volvo for not going down with the frustrating touch-operated volume controls offered by other carmakers (Tesla, Honda). Not only is that knob perfectly positioned, it can easily be manipulated wearing a pair of winter gloves.
In front of the driver is another LCD screen for gauges and other driver info. Again, the layout is perfect, with customizable displays and an overall elegant design. Make no mistake, material quality, fit and finish, and refinement are impressive in the XC90. Yet, everything remains subtle and understated, it never tries to brag about what it is, it simply welcomes you into its soothing and quiet interior. In R-design trim, wood grain inserts are replaced by carbon fibre. And I swear, those diamond-cut controls on the centre console look like they were taken directly out of a jewelry store.
Just look at the starter button.
This fanatical attention to detail sets the XC90 in a class of its own, but it never feels like it’s trying to mimic the competition. It feels like a genuinely unique product. The end result is a luxury SUV that feels truly special behind the wheel.
Turbocharged and Supercharged
Under the hood, things can become rather confusing. While this truck wears the traditional T6 badge we’ve come to expect from past Volvos, there’s nothing reminiscent of an inline 6-cylinder about the drivetrain.
Instead, this 2760 kg truck is powered by a tiny 2.0L 4-cylinder engine.
Wait, what?
That’s right. But get this: it’s turbocharged and supercharged to crank out an impressive 316 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. Towing capacity is also good for 2250 kg.
Now that’s what I call progress.
And while I can’t wait to test drive the 400 hp T8 hybrid twin engine model, I must say I was rather impressed with the way the T6 behaves. Except for a somewhat unrefined sound on idle, it’s a satisfyingly smooth powertrain, one which delivers good low-end torque. There are, unfortunately, annoying power peaks caused by turbo lag and throttle-by-wire, but thanks to the exquisite 8-speed automatic transmission’s ability to convert to manual mode through the wheel-mounted paddle shifters, drivers can willingly let this little engine rev freely to extract its maximum torque.
Different drive modes are available which, unlike those of the S60 Cross Country I drove a few months ago, actually alter the XC90’s personality. Drivers can choose from Eco, Comfort, Off-road, Dynamic, and Individual drive modes; each setting altering throttle response, brake feel, steering heft, and suspension settings accordingly. Set the XC90 in off-road mode and the entire truck suddenly lifts off the ground, adding the required clearance to attack that freshly plowed snowbank in your driveway. In the event that you’d want your 7-passenger SUV to feel like a track machine, set it to Dynamic, and the XC90 slams to the ground, with transmission, throttle response, brakes, and steering suddenly converting to full on attack mode.
And although Dynamic is the coolest of all the settings, the 2.0L engine unfortunately can’t keep up. It was just not designed for performance. That said, except for added handling, Dynamic doesn’t add much dynamic driving characteristics. This is a 7-passenger SUV after all. It does, however, make it look seriously badass with that lowered stance and those diamond-cut 20-inch wheels.
Should be a hit with the kids.
Still, the XC90 feels solid behind the wheel, and to my surprise, it never felt cumbersome to drive given its bloated dimensions. It feels nimble, and even with the excessive body roll caused by the high centre of gravity, it does stick to pavement rather well and never complains when pushed hard. I do have one complaint with those 20-inch wheels though, which make the ride a tad on the rough side. Even with the XC90 set in Comfort mode, the R-Design is very stiff.
Out of all the available drive modes, believe it or not, Eco was the one that impressed me the most. It allowed this massive SUV to achieve an astounding 6.0 L/100 km average on the highway.
Six.
In some cases, it even went down in the low 5s. Jesus- I can only imagine how frugal the T8 twin engine must be.
Expensive, but Worth Every Penny
There’s no denying the fact that the 2016 XC90 is an expensive vehicle. Starting at an entry price of $61 300, it tops out at a whopping $81 250 for a T8 Inscription model.
Yikes!
Volvo isn’t exactly giving you a bargain, are they? But then, why would they? There’s nothing cheap about the way the XC90 feels. And while some luxury carmakers jack up the price on cars that share components with some of the entry-level divisions, everything in the XC90 feels premium, and exclusive to this truck. Believe me, that’s worth shutting up and giving Volvo your money.
If it were up to me, I’d get the R-design, like my tester. It just looks so damn cool. With that sexy blue paint job, it sells for $66 650. Now, when you consider that an Audi Q7 starts at $65 200, and a BMW X5 won’t cost you under $66 200, the XC90 suddenly makes a whole lot of sense.
Truth be told, it feels great to see Volvo back in action with their full-size SUV. A few years ago, I was praying for the brand to remain alive, and here I am today, reviewing what is probably the best vehicle I’ve driven this year. This is definitely a sign of great things to come at Volvo, and I can’t wait to sample their upcoming S90/V90 sedans and wagons.
To sum it all up, I was totally mesmerized with this truck. More refined than a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a lot more distinctive than an Audi Q7, and offering more character than a Range Rover, the 2016 Volvo XC90 is not only a home run for Volvo, it raises the bar of what we should expect from a luxury SUV. If you’re looking for the new benchmark in the segment, it’s no longer German or British, it’s Swedish. And I’m totally ok with that.
Clavey’s Verdict Review of the 2016 Volvo XC90 R-Design by William Clavey – *2016 Top 10 Contender 10 / 10
Luxury Full-Size SUVs
+
+ Stunning exterior design.
+ Wonderfully appointed interior with high levels of refinement.
+ Innovative and efficient powertrains. –
– 20-inch wheels contribute to a stiff ride.
– Can become pricey with options.
– Waiting for a real high performance version.
Clavey’s Corner is located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Prices and trim levels discussed in this article reflect the Canadian car market.
Special thanks: Volvo Canada
Photography: Appearance
Contact the author: william@claveyscorner.comFor the brisket: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Put the brisket in a small roasting pan. Score the thick top layer of fat (known as a fat cap) a few times with a sharp knife. Rub all over with the liquid smoke. Mix the chili powder, salt, cumin, garlic powder, paprika and pepper, and rub all over the brisket. Make sure the brisket is fat-cap-side up in the pan. Add 1/2 cup water to the bottom of the pan and then tightly cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil.
Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the meat reads around 190 degrees F, about 3 hours (a thin knife should easily pierce the meat but it should not be falling apart). If cooking a second cut brisket, make sure to take the temperature in a few different spots as the different muscles can cook at different rates. Let the meat rest in the pan for about 30 minutes, and then transfer to a cutting board. Pour the juices into a large measuring cup. Then skim off the fat from the top and reserve.
For the barbeque sauce: While the brisket roasts, heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion. Cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the ketchup, Worcestershire, vinegar, molasses and sugar. Stir in 1/2 cup water, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Simmer until slightly thickened and the flavors have blended, 15 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper and hot sauce. Set aside.
Chop the brisket, trimming away and discarding excess fat as you cut. Put the chopped brisket into a pot and mix with 1 cup of the barbecue sauce and 1/2 cup of the reserved juices. Keep warm over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, while you prepare all the other components.
For the Gut Pak: Place the smoked sausages in a medium nonstick skillet and cook over medium heat until warmed through, about 5 minutes. Slice the sausage. Put the beans in a medium bowl with 2 tablespoons of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave until warm, 2 minutes.
On each of 4 large plates, put 2 1/2 cups corn chips and some Cheddar. Evenly distribute the sausage, brisket, beans and a drizzle of the remaining barbecue sauce on top. Serve each plate with 2 slices of bread, chopped white onion, dill pickle slices and pickled jalapeno slices on the side. GO BEARS!I haven’t felt that I’ve done the great British institution of fish and chips full justice. I’ve only written about chippies once before in this column – and that was the effete southern version found on the south coast at Hastings (I thought the piece unexceptionable, although it earned me the lasting enmity of the burghers). Finding myself in Wigan, I decided to remedy this deficiency – it is the pie capital of the world and host to the annual World Pie-Eating Championship. Surely in this rugged and forthright northern town I would find the sincerest of cuisines?
Miner detail
My guides to the mysteries of Wigan’s fast-food culture were three natives, Sam, Graham and Patrick, mutual friends of mine and the composer Robert Lockhart, who died in January after a heart attack brought on by choking on a steak sandwich. Robert used to rail against the insipid social mores of his adoptive southland, but I still think dying outside a gastropub on the Uxbridge Road was an unjust fate.
As a tribute to their d’Artagnan, I asked my Lancastrian musketeers to fire me in the direction of the most authentic chippie they knew and as one they chorused, “Well, if you’re reet clempt that’d have t’be Maureen’s in Springfield. She’s got the best jackbit in town.” Meaning: “If you’re hungry, Maureen’s serves the best food.”
The derivation of “jackbit” is from the expression for a miner’s snack lunch (also called “snap”, a reference to the sound the tin box it was kept in made opening and closing), and so ingrained in Wigan dialect is the now-vanished mining industry that my guides also laid claim to the expression “eat humble pie”, citing a strike in the 1900s during which the Wigan miners went back to work, while those in nearby Leigh stayed out. The Wiganers’ revenge has been to brand the Leigh folk as “lobbygobblers”, which is to say consumers of sliced, baked potatoes mixed with mince. Yuck.
This I took with a pinch of salt – but Maureen’s thick-cut chips came with a generous shaking and a gush of vinegar. Sam told me that the absolutely echt approach to Maureen’s was to pitch up with your own Pyrex dish and ask for: “A babbiesyed – leave t’elmet on – chips an’ pea wet.” Here’s the received pronunciation of this puzzling vernacular request: “A baby’s head [meat pudding], with the tinfoil on it and chips with the juice from the mushy peas [“pea wet”] poured over them.”
Other distinctively Wigan chip-shop eatables are smacks and scraps. You might think, upon entering Maureen’s austere premises (no sign above the door, plate-glass window with nets, a glassed-in heating cabinet) and discovering a pegboard with “Smack 30p” on it, that you had stumbled on some hellishly flagrant circle of post-industrial deprivation, but in fact smacks are slices of potato battered and fried – a cheaper alternative to Maureen’s chips, which come in huge £1.20 portions, mounded on bilious styrofoam trays and then parcelled in sheets of newspaper. Scraps, by contrast, are the freely given twists and curlicues of fallen batter – the toenail clippings of the great fried food god.
Thus you can have a barm (a bread roll), a chip barm – or, if you’re going for the full trinity of carbohydrate foodstuffs, a smack barm (with pea wet, naturally), for the bargain price of 55p.
Another northern phenomenon is a ladle of gravy on your chips – indeed, there seems to be a local preoccupation with moistness, as if it were necessary for your styrofoam tray to become a sort of homologue of the surrounding town, which encompassed us with its oblong buildings and dank thoroughfares. I had gravy and also a meat pie, but Patrick had mushy peas on his chips – a great green avalanche, lumpy with leguminous boulders. How it was ever remotely possible for Peter Mandelson to mistake mushy peas for guacamole is beyond me. He must have pea wet on the brain.
Life of pie
Through the door at the back of the shop I could see a fire merrily blazing in its blackened grate; on the wall were a number of jolly signs with gags on them (“If arseholes could fly this place would be an airport”), but there was little floor space, so we repaired outside to Gidlow Lane, where we stood around a concrete tub full of flowers and ate our lunch. We chatted about Robert Lockhart’s father, John, who was a sales manager for Greenhalgh’s, a local bakery and pie-maker. My own meat pie, once I had forked open its pastry, was a tightly coiled nubbin of greyish meat – but isn’t that the very essence of contemporary Britain? Are our minds not trapped in claggy inanition, while our jaws go on senselessly opening and closing? Then every so often one of us chokes – and dies.Ten more cities have signed on to the Chicago Climate Charter, a now 67-city pact to fight climate change in the face of President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) announced the new signatories, which include Louisville, Ky.; San Jose, Calif.; Saint Paul, Minn.; and Boulder, Colo.
“While the Trump administration continues to bury their heads deeper in the sand when it comes to climate change, local leaders are confronting the challenge head-on,” Emanuel said in a release.
10 additional cities have signed the #ChicagoCharter! 67 Mayors are now committed to achieving emissions reductions and moving forward with climate action. https://t.co/yk6AvIfwBc pic.twitter.com/y3yTMLWGGI — Mayor Rahm Emanuel (@ChicagosMayor) December 26, 2017
The Chicago Climate Charter, which requires participating cities to adhere to many of the climate guidelines set by the Paris agreement, was first signed at the North American Climate Summit earlier this month. Former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE, who helped solidify the Paris accord, spoke at the event. Emanuel served as Obama’s chief of staff in the White House.
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In addition to mayors from other U.S. cities, the Chicago charter has been signed by leaders from Mexico City, Vancouver and Paris.
Denny Doyle, mayor of Beaverton, Ore., signed on to the charter Wednesday, saying that he was “proud” to sign.
“While the current administration continues to deny the impact of climate change, we in Beaverton understand that we must confront the truth about climate change, not hide from it,” Doyle said in the release.
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris agreement in June, saying that the climate commitment was unfair to the U.S. “at the highest level.” The U.S. is the only country not in support of the agreement, after Nicaragua and Syria signed on to it earlier this year.Usually around Christmas there are at least two or three teams that find their playoff hopes going up in smoke. Last season the Sixers, Nets, and Lakers were already at least eight games back from the eight seed in their respective conferences. This year there are none. Even the Sixers (7–23) and Nets (8–22), with the two worst records in basketball, are both within eight games of a playoff spot. Out west, the Suns and Mavs, both 9–22, are just five games out. With so many teams still in contention, Suns general manager Ryan McDonough believes the league is open for business, with teams hoping to make trades to bolster their playoff chances.
“If I had to guess I’d say there would be more early action this year,” McDonough told Bright Side of the Sun. “Where teams are saying, ‘Alright, we’re not going to wait until February, the trade deadline. Let’s do a deal in mid-December and solidify ourselves that extra 2-plus months to integrate a guy and climb up the standings to make sure we are in the playoffs.’”
That attitude could create an interesting trade environment without clearly defined buyers and sellers, though armchair general managers and trade-machine aficionados will still search for potential deals. So here are some musings and ideas to keep in mind with trade season approaching:
Should the Clippers Trade Blake Griffin?
The Clippers are 2–3 since Blake Griffin underwent “minor” surgery on his right knee, the first reported injury to his right leg after he suffered a long list of injuries to his left leg. Griffin will be out for a chunk of games for the third consecutive season, and the Clippers tend to perform well without him. Since the 2013–14 season, they’re 44–27 without Griffin. By comparison, the Clips are 16–15 without Chris Paul over that same time frame.
You’ve probably seen numbers like that tossed around before, but they don’t tell the whole Clippers-without-Griffin story. They do raise the question, though: Why don’t the Clippers lose much oomph without Griffin, but turn into an average team without Paul? It comes down to Griffin’s outside shooting. Griffin deserves respect for morphing from a dunk machine into a post/iso threat with range out to 21 feet, but he’s still not a threat from 3 at only 22.7 percent.
In the Doc Rivers era (since 2013–14), in the regular season and playoffs combined, the Clippers score 117.6 points per 100 possessions when Paul and Griffin are both on the floor, per NBA Wowy. That drops to 114.6 when Paul is on without Griffin, but it plummets to 103.7 when Griffin is on without Paul. Here’s a more detailed look:
The Clippers offense is still dominant, which makes it easy to understand why their record is still so good without Griffin. Their assist percentage is also remarkably higher; 69.9 percent would place them a smidge behind this season’s league leader, the Warriors at 71.9 percent. Their scoring efficiency is three points worse, but their effective field goal and true shooting percentages are nearly identical.
When CP3 is out, the Clippers point guards have been Austin Rivers, Jordan Farmar, Raymond Felton, Pablo Prigioni, and Lester Hudson, among others. Without Griffin, the Clippers have typically played small with 4s like Paul Pierce, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Wesley Johnson, Matt Barnes, Jeff Green, and Josh Smith. You can’t replace a star point guard with a journeyman, but teams across the league are swapping post-up monsters with skilled shooters and losing virtually no firepower on offense. The Clippers are no different.
Here’s how the Clippers shot distribution breaks down since 2013:
The Clippers attempt 6.6 percent more 3s when Griffin is off the floor, an unsurprising number considering the collection of stretch forwards listed above. With different personnel, the Clippers’ shot distribution changes, and they’re only scoring three fewer points per 100 possessions. Maybe the increased floor spacing mitigates the difference a scorer like Griffin makes, despite the fact that L.A. doesn’t actually add anything when it loses Griffin. But what if they did? What if the Clippers traded Griffin for a package including tons of value assets and a 3-and-D small-ball forward like Jae Crowder? With three max players on the roster, the Clippers have a math problem that forces Doc to scrape the bottom of the free-agent barrel each summer. They’d lack that third star without Griffin, but they’d add a great deal of financial flexibility while changing their roster complexion.
It’s at least possible they’d be better off. But it’s probably too late for the Clippers to maximize a return. Forget the fact that Griffin is hurt right now. Forget the fact that there’s legitimate concern about his long-term health. Forget the fact that he’s an awkward fit for modern offenses. Doc can’t expect a king’s ransom because Blake can opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent in July. Even with a wink-wink promise to re-sign, a team isn’t going to go empty its treasure trove of assets for a rental. At last season’s trade deadline, the Hawks reportedly wanted the 2016 Nets pick from the Celtics in return for Al Horford. Boston balked at that demand, waited, and outright signed Horford in free agency. There are only a handful of teams with the assets to allow the Clippers to keep their seat at the NBA’s contender table, but not many are realistic destinations where Griffin would re-sign. Griffin would need to pick up his $21.4 million option for most teams to even consider it.
It’s not like the thought of a Griffinless Clippers team hasn’t crossed Doc’s mind. As The Ringer previously confirmed, the Celtics expressed interest in Griffin this summer, but they were merely exploratory trade conversations — talks that were no more serious than you or me shooting the shit in a fantasy basketball league. They were casual, hypothetical, and nothing more. Rivers vehemently denied the rumors, but it’s not unusual for general managers or decision-makers in any business to consider and plan for different scenarios. That’s what leaders do. If the Clippers continue to thrive without Griffin for the next four to six weeks, maybe then Rivers will be more inclined to take incoming trade offers seriously. It’s too bad that by that point it’ll probably be too late.
Cashing in on Andrew Bogut
Mark Cuban said last month the Mavericks won’t consider tanking until “game 75 or maybe game 70,” which is understandable, since tanking isn’t necessary with so few true bottom-feeder teams in the league. Dallas should still consider trading Andrew Bogut, though. Bogut is 32, and a free agent next summer. And he comes with knee issues. But the Aussie is still a brick wall when defending the interior, and he has tangible value to a contending team once he returns from his current knee injury.
A front-office executive told me in November there’d be “plenty” of interest if Bogut were available, which has since been conveyed by other outlets. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said several league sources believe the Mavs could get a first-rounder for him, though that sounds like a bit much considering his latest health scare. Still, even an early-second-round pick would give the Mavs a shot at a quality prospect (or an extra trade chip).
There are multiple playoff teams in need of a rim protector. The Blazers need an enforcer perhaps more than any team in the NBA, but they’d have to be really optimistic about their playoff chances to move their current no. 9 pick in a stacked draft class. They’d also have to move either a core player or engineer a three-way trade to make the salary figures work, since they’re already well over the cap.
The Rockets are without center Clint Capela for four to six weeks and, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, they’re “probing” the trade market for bigs. They have a handful of young players and two mid-second-round picks (Denver’s no. 40 and Portland’s no. 39). They could use Corey Brewer’s $7.6 million deal as filler and have Sam Dekker or K.J. McDaniels absorb Brewer’s minutes. Keep in mind that the Rockets expressed interest in trading for Bogut this summer, but Bogut chose Dallas, according to MacMahon. A deal is historically unlikely, though, since the cross-state rivals rarely do business together. The last time the Rockets and Mavericks made a midseason trade was at the 1995 trade deadline, when Morlon Wiley and a second-round pick were sent to Houston for future NBA head coach Scott Brooks!
Toronto has the pieces — both its own first-round pick (no. 27) and the Clippers’ (no. 25) — but they don’t have the right placeholder salaries to make a deal work seamlessly. The Raptors have depth at the position, but none of their big men can match Bogut’s defense. The Celtics own Minnesota’s second-rounder, currently slotted at no. 36, and they have expiring salary-cap filler to match in Amir Johnson or Tyler Zeller. If the Mavs want a young wing who can stroke 3s, James Young seems like a player who’d be available after he was on the roster bubble this preseason.
The Mavs were beneficiaries of Kevin Durant’s decision to sign with the Warriors, adding Harrison Barnes as a free agent and Bogut in a sign-and-trade. Now might time for them to cash in.
Moving on From Rajon Rondo
The Bulls are a strange playoff-bubble team. They have wins against the Cavaliers and Spurs, and losses to the Lakers, Mavericks, Wolves, and Wizards. They have a starting backcourt of Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo, who only a few years ago called each other out for making “dirty” and “punk” plays. Chicago is last in 3-point makes and takes, and with a league-worst 3-point percentage of 30.7, only three teams since 2003 have shot it worse (2013 Wolves, 2012 Bobcats, and 2003 Nuggets). Wade played the role of Captain Obvious last week and admitted the Bulls have a spacing problem.
The future Hall of Famer had a point though; their lack of spacing puts a lot of fourth-quarter pressure on Jimmy Butler. The Bulls are a mess when the game slows down and teams start hustling back on defense, and they’re an anemic scoring team in the fourth. Overall, they have the sixth-best transition scoring offense, according to Synergy Sports, and the third-worst half-court scoring offense. In the fourth, they post a 97.0 offensive rating with assists on 49.4 percent of their makes.
“We got to get more action, more body movement,” Wade said, and he’s right. If the Bulls want any chance of making noise in the playoffs, they need to start moving the ball better, because feeble half-court scoring teams don’t survive in the postseason. Their problems run deep, but the most obvious and most fixable issue is their ball-dominant point guard. Rondo scores only 0.66 points per possession, which is the fourth-worst of all players to log at least 100 possessions, per Synergy. But Rondo still touches the ball enough to pass it more than any player in the NBA, per SportVU. I could show video of Rondo lollygagging on defense, but that’s already been done. Things only got worse in Boston, Dallas, and Sacramento, just as they will in Chicago. The Bulls need to find a new point guard, even if it means agitating the locker room. The players will get over the change if it helps them win.
One problem with moving on from Rondo: He has no value on the trade market because he’s not good anymore and most teams already have a starter at point. Rondo does have an expiring $14 million contract (with a partial guarantee of $3 million for next season) that could be used as filler as part of a larger deal. Maybe the Bulls could package Rondo with a young player (like Bobby Portis or Denzel Valentine) and multiple draft picks. (They have all of their future picks and Sacramento’s top-10 protected first in 2017. The Kings are in the lead for the eight seed, so it’s always possible that it converts.) Even if a deal isn’t consummated, the Bulls should at least explore that option.
The argument could be made that the Bulls don’t even need to find a point guard if they trade (or release) Rondo. They could always attempt to make a philosophical change and increase the playmaking responsibilities of both Wade and Butler. When Rondo is on the floor, Butler and Wade combine for 10.5 assists per 100 possessions, compared with 14.3 when he’s off. They aren’t necessarily true point guards, but if Chicago could land a wing like Allen Crabbe or Will Barton, the two best Bulls could share the point guard responsibility while better spacing the floor.
If the Bulls do upgrade at point guard, there’s big problem no. 2: There aren’t many options. Teams are looking to buy, not sell, since so many franchises are in the playoff hunt. A lower-end guy like Timberwolves second-year point guard Tyus Jones could be available since he’s buried on the bench behind Ricky Rubio and Kris Dunn. Jones is a high-IQ player and a significantly better shooter than Rondo who plays hard on defense and can run a tight pick-and-roll. Then there’s Goran Dragic, whom Miami has reportedly pursued trading, according to The Vertical’s Chris Mannix. (Mannix noted that Dragic is open to a deal, which Dragic forcefully denied.) Dragic is theoretically a good combo-guard fit in Fred Hoiberg’s read-and-react offense; he’s shot 39.1 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s since 2013, per SportVU, compared to 35.7 percent for Rondo. Beyond the percentages, Dragic simply demands more attention from the defense when the ball isn’t in his hands.
Wade and Dragic didn’t exactly mesh playing over a full season together in Miami, but it might be worth a shot. If Dragic helps short-term, then that’s fantastic, but the long-term impact still matters most. The Bulls must assemble a winner before Butler hits free agency in 2019. No matter what they do now, Wade and Rondo could be long gone by then. Dragic has a relatively cheap contract that also runs through 2019 (both he and Butler have options for 2020). If a Butler-Dragic pairing shines, the Bulls would have the cap space to attempt to sign a big-time free agent in 2018.
All stats current as of Monday evening.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Corey Brewer as Booker in one instance.The number of entrepreneurs starting new businesses dropped 10% in the wealthiest nations last year and fell 24% in the U.S., according to a report released Wednesday.
“Throughout the world, would-be entrepreneurs reported greater difficulty in obtaining financial backing for their start-up activities, especially from informal investors– families, friends, and strangers,” says Bill Bygrave of Babson College, one of the founders of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which issued the report.
But sentiment was improving. A quarter of new entrepreneurs in 2009 felt the prospects for their businesses are rosier than a year earlier, according to the report. New entrepreneurs tended to be more optimistic than established business owners.
“Of course, the finding that entrepreneurial activity declined in many countries was not a surprise,” says Niels Bosma, GEM’s director of research and a researcher at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. “What surprised me was that as much as one in four new entrepreneurs in wealthy countries believed that the global slowdown had created more opportunities for their business, not less. This is a significant and interesting group. They are more likely to be young, well-educated and expect to create a lot of jobs for others.”
Confidence alone isn’t sufficient to create new jobs in an economic downturn, and the drop in new businesses highlights the difficulties faced by the job market. About half of the U.S. work force is employed by small firms.
“What is needed is for entrepreneurs to feel comfortable venturing out again, because they are the real engine for creating new jobs. Unfortunately, there is not a silver bullet for |
prepared to surrender nearly all of it.
Unspoken publicly in this latest controversy, but clearly understood among veterans of Hillary Clinton’s circle, is her belief that the pious clamor for more disclosure and more revelation is fundamentally insincere. The media-political complex is not seeking a window into matters of public interest; it is looking for a weapon, one that will be brandished to produce still more stories or start still more investigations.
What’s more, it is an article of faith among Clinton confidants that demands for public disclosure tend to get used more against Democrats, and more against the Clintons specifically, than against Republicans. The subtext: Do you think Dick Cheney worried that the editorial pages were mad that he held secret meetings with energy CEOs or tried to keep wide swaths of White House decision-making about terrorism secret from both the media and Congress?
It was against this context that Hillary Clinton on Tuesday sought both to project nondefensiveness— Sure, I’m happy to answer some questions—and draw some unmistakable lines— I don’t give a damn if you don’t like my answers.
She was simply unresponsive when it came to the question of how and whether it will affect her plans to run for president in 2016, plans that are well advanced and in fact may now be moved forward as a result of the email controversy. Then again, that, too, may not entirely be a surprise: People with long memories will recall that Clinton presidential campaigns have a way of launching amid awkward questions about the past.
In September 1991, just weeks before Bill Clinton formally announced his first presidential campaign, political advisers like Mickey Kantor, Frank Greer and Stan Greenberg worked up the nerve to tell the Clintons they would simply have to address a matter slightly more delicate than today’s somewhat wonkish dispute over custody of State Department emails: Rumors that Bill Clinton’s extramarital wanderings could sink his campaign the same way fellow Democrat Gary Hart’s had four years before.Former Westlake High School teacher Haeli Noelle Wey is is charged with two counts of improper relationship between educator and student, both 2nd degree felonies. (Photo: Travis County Sheriff's Office)
A court appearance set for Tuesday for former Westlake High School teacher Haeli Noelle Wey has been rescheduled for December.
Wey is charged with two counts of improper relationship between educator and student. Both counts are 2nd degree felonies.
She was a math teacher at Westlake High School until October 30, 2015.
According to court documents, Wey and one of the the victims had been communicating with each other through social media since the start of the school year in 2015. The alleged incident that led to the current charges happened during a hike in September. The arrest affidavit listed a series of texts between Wey and the victim that shows her inviting the victim on the hike and then asking the victim to delete the conversation from their phone.
Court documents say a juvenile witness found the exchange on the victim's phone and alerted authorities. The victim then provided details of the improper encounter to investigators during an interview.
The incident with the second student occurred during the summer. According to the affidavit, Wey invited the victim to her home where they had intercourse. The sexual relationship allegedly lasted several months. Authorities became aware of the incident after the victim made an outcry to their parent, who then alerted law enforcement.Berdych during his semi-final with Federer (Getty)
Twitter lost the plot this afternoon when it was spotted that Wimbledon semi-finalist Tomas Berdych has Novak Djokovic’s face on his shoes.
Playing against Roger Federer on Centre Court for a place in Sunday’s final, Berdych was wearing a pair of Adidas trainers.
Roger Federer confirmed to make clay court return at Madrid Masters
Nothing particularly unusual about that.
But close ups of his footwear revealed that the Czech tennis player was sporting shoes with Djokovic’s mug on the tongues.
A close up of Berdych’s shoes (Twitter)
Djokovic was effectively knocked out by Berdych in the quarter-finals (Getty)
With Berdych having been Djokovic’s final opponent before the Serbian retired from the tournament it seemed a bizarre choice.
Twitter certainly thought so…
Why is Berdych wearing trainers with Djokovic's face on them?! 😂🙈 #Wimbledon — Rebecca Turnbull (@Becca_Turnbull) July 14, 2017
Berdych has a "Bird" on his shoe…. and the name & face of Novak Djokovic! 😮😯🤔 pic.twitter.com/xmdb5umyxX — Genny SS (@genny_ss) July 14, 2017
Berdych playing with Djokovic shoes?! He must have watched Alonzo Ball playing in Kobe's shoes. 😂 #Wimbledon — defensor gly (@glydefens) July 14, 2017
Now that's weird. #berdych is playing the semifinal against #federer wearing shoes with a picture of #djokovic on each shoe. #wimbledon — Balarapolis (@balarapolis) July 14, 2017
Djokovic made it to the semi final after all…..on the tongue of Berdych trainers ☺️ #Wimbledon — 💕 Louise 💕 (@Ls2787) July 14, 2017
Err, it looks like Tomas Berdych really does have a picture of Novak Djokovic on his trainers (?!) #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/QelKos2XOe — Susanna Lazarus (@SusannaLazarus) July 14, 2017
Berdych channeling his inner Djokovic. — MB (@mbthecool19) July 14, 2017
This year's Wimbledon conspiracy – why does Berdych have a picture of djokovic on his shoes? And where can I get some? — 🌿 Pagan 🌿 (@PaganKm) July 14, 2017
Why is there picture of Djokovic on Berdych's trainers? What on earth? #Wimbledon2017 — Jou (@JouBercetche) July 14, 2017
…why does Berdych have a picture of what looks like Djokovic on his shoes…?! 😂🤷🏼♀️ #Wimbledon — Annie (@anniebradney) July 14, 2017
Berdych playing with Djokovic shoes WTF😂😂😂 #Wimbledon — Noah (@____Noah___) July 14, 2017
Metro.co.uk at Wimbledon 2017 Click here for live coverage direct from SW19
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It would seem that rather than Berdych being some sort of creepy Djokovic super fan, or indeed wanting to take a bit of the Serbian’s ‘sole’ with him on court, his choice of shoes owes more to him liking the Adidas range that features the three-time Wimbledon winner.
Djokovic is sponsored by the German brand and has a special pair – called the ‘Novak Pro Shoes’ – designed in his honour which is what Berdych wore on court for his semi-final.
MORE: Marin Cilic reacts to reaching first Wimbledon final
MORE: Garbine Muguruza in awe of evergreen Venus Williams ahead of Wimbledon finalThe doomed phablet might have been discontinued by its manufacturer, but it makes a great (if risky) fancy dress option
Everyone knows that the best Halloween costumes are the topical ones. And usually the worst, too.
On top of the obvious ones – there are going to be a lot of Trumps and Clintons hitting the streets at the end of this month – there’s the all-important meme selection to pay attention to.
Harambe costumes are easy enough: just dress up as a gorilla and carry a doll. Ken Bone, who is a man who asked a question, requires nothing more than a red cardigan and an air of bafflement. But the Galaxy Note 7 is harder to pull off.
That did not deter Imgur user excit3d.
The costume.
Yes, that’s a smoking stack of Note 7 boxes. The phone, which has been on fire (not figuratively) for several weeks now, has officially crossed the threshold to “Halloween costume”.
As well as giving a brief breakdown on how he made it (spoilers: a lot of empty boxes and a tube for blowing smoke through them), excit3d also described his fiancée’s matching costume: “The finished costume will add caution tape and my fiancée is dressing as a firefighter and she will be following me around with a fire extinguisher.”
It might not be such a good idea to copy him unless you’re pretty sure you won’t need to go in a public space wearing your costume, though. Even online, people have confused his costume for a fake suicide vest to the point where he had to post a disclaimer.
“The Galaxy Note 7 sizzles and catches on fire, which is really shitty but it doesn’t ‘explode’ like everyone in the media is saying. So though it may LOOSELY resemble a suicide vest, that was not my intent.” Please do not get shot by police who think you are wearing a suicide vest. That would be a bad Halloween for all.It’s very easy to associate one person with one thing. Indeed our culture is strongly geared up to recognise people for one trait, or achievement, or offence.
“It’s that bird off X-Factor.” or “Didn’t they used to go out with so-and-so.” or even “It’s that nonce off the telly!”
We like summing people up quickly, but has this led to a overly cruel culture? Do we live in a world where tabloids get away with being nasty about people, because we are incapable of seeing someone as a three dimensional, multi-layered human being?
It is not just with celebrities, but with each other. When describing someone to someone else, we pick up on their most distinguishing (and often derogatory) physical characteristics.
“You know Kev? ‘Big Fat’ Kev!”
“Pete? No not 'Short’ Pete, 'Bent’ Pete!”
I do worry about how people who come across my blog, or meet me in real life perceive me. It’s not that I yearn to change myself in order to gain acceptance from certain groups of people, but I do wonder how much of me people actually see.
A cursory glance at my blog screams 'Angry Trans Person’ and yes, there are inequalities prevalent in society that I will shout and stomp and rant and rave about. But the problem is, how much of my message, or indeed the message of anyone like me, doing what I do, actually gets past the choir and out to those who cannot relate to my one obvious characteristic.
Would I be better off writing a blog about Football and making the odd Pro-LGBT comment there? Or perhaps an Eastenders fansite, or maybe something to do with 'Breaking Bad’ which I never watched but hear lots of people talk about.
The problem with being an activist is relatability. If a non-LGBT person who had a reputation for doing something else like acting or sports, started standing up and saying 'hang on, this isn’t right’, then they will reach the people that relate to them on the other stuff. I sometimes feel that all my shouting and ranting seems to be to people outside the LGBT community, and my immediate circle of very diverse friends, is just another little 'Tranny-Fag’ shouting out about its own self interest.
Like everyone else, I have many loves, dislikes, phobias, passions and hobbies. Am I falling into the trap of people only picking up on the obvious about me?
I like:
Steam Trains, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, J.R.R Tolkien, Roald Dahl, Tim Burton Films, Stephen Fry, Silent Witness, The Fable Games, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig as James Bond, Family guy (although not so much these days), American Dad and the Simpsons. Desperados, cocktails, Cheesecake, peanut butter, Chinese food, Indian food, Salt & Vinegar Crisps, Fajitas, home cooking, clothes, shoes, shoes, shoes and going to the seaside. I love chips, and seafood, hugs, kisses and cats.
I dislike:
Spiders, Needles, Religion and intolerance. Bullies and abusers, those trousers where the crotch comes down to the knees. Margaret Thatcher, greed, touching slugs and eating Brussels sprouts. Socks with Sandals, wearing a trilby almost vertical on the back of your head. Sexism, Racism, exclusionism, NIMBYism, Christmas adverts in August, and talent shows that exploit the dumb and delusional for national entertainment.
Yet to most, and even to some of my friends, I guess I will always be “Tammy? Oh, the Trans one!”
Tamz xXxF242 on ballistic pendulum. The rigid pole passes through the prototype so it can be moved vertically.
Dear readers,
F242 thrust has been improved up to 2.56 grams! I would like to share with you the details of this achievement through a direct translation from the original article on ASPS website written by Laureti:
As I said before the violation of action/reaction principle implies a different inertia law. More precisely what does “different inertia law” mean to PNN? It means that when power supply is cut off the prototype slowly loses its acceleration. I don’t know yet the specific dissipation law but it depends by the contact with laboratory environment [1]: air, coaxial cables etc.
In other words the prototype remains tilted on ballistic pendulum even with null power supply! We could ask ourselves what happens if power supply is maintained? At the same input power experimentally (I repeat experimentally) the thrust increases and the measuring system goes out of scale! This is what I’ve measured on April 22nd 2016 by conveniently increasing thrust duration and by reducing input power at about 180 W.
The prototype has acquired an unknown type of mechanical energy in addition to the kinetic one. Practically I’ve obtained, after a thrust interval inferior to 4 minutes, approximately 2.56 mg of thrust with F242 abundantly surpassing the 190 mg thrust previously measured. Because the measurement procedure on the new ballistic pendulum is complex it will be redone and a detailed report will be published on Nova Astronautica [ASPS official periodical].
I don’t exactly know the mathematical increment law for PNN inertia but I hope it won’t be of exponential type (hardly controllable from a certain instant onward) as described on Calmagorod website [English here]
Now, if thrust increases there is also the dissipation with terrestrial environment [1] which I don’t know yet what equilibrium point it could have.
Naturally with the thrust increment under VHF power supply (> 100Mhz) the temperature increase prevents me to maintain the prototype thrust period above 4 minutes in order to avoid internal meltdowns (more than 200°C measured with thermal camera).
I believe that thermal increments are mostly due to the low efficiency of the materials I’m forced to use as I haven’t got specific knowledge and resources to build better ones.
Even if I haven’t got suitable building materials and the prototype lacks of any active/passive thermal control my measurement systems say that for the same energy delivered the system thrust increases.
How much can it reach? For the moment I don’t know.
I can’t show the whole structure of the ballistic pendulum because it isn’t patented.
[Laureti said that the structure architecture will be a gift to the investors who come to see the demonstration, because they can replicate it for testing other kinds of propellantless thrusters]
Thrust measurement system (a laser which detects the movement of an index covered by an aluminum rectangle) is located below, at the base of the ballistic pendulum. It must be kept as far as possible from electromagnetic field to avoid its destruction. Covered by adhesive tape is the “occhiale” [spyglass] which focus the laser beam on the index.
As personal speculation i add that both lateral sections of the prototype might house an array of thruster units (remember? In the previous article Laureti said he put together all units in F242)
However my concern, for future practical applications, is the thrust period limited to 4 minutes because it means that the thruster can easily burn out (like a light bulb) and leave an hypothetical spaceship adrift.. but this scenario would be probably years ahead and for the moment we can clearly see that this is “only” a DIY setup, so let’s focus on the incredible achievement reached by the thruster.
[1] I asked Laureti a clarification for this phrase. I’ll update the article when I’ll receive it.
UPDATE April 28 2016:
Apparently the prototype as long as it’s integral with Earth mass behaves according to Newtonian law of inertia. For this reason it is essential to isolate the whole block that contains the prototype (box, passing through staff, coaxial cables) by placing the system as far as possible from terrestrial environment: the lower the total mass of the prototype is in contact with it, the better. Within certain limits the ballistic pendulum invented by Laureti seems good at it, but its limits are still under testing.A large, burning object seen breaking up over the Prairie provinces Friday night was likely a rocket booster re-entering Earth's atmosphere after taking supplies to the International Space Station.
People in Saskatchewan and Alberta witnessed a bright light streaking across the sky, with what appeared to be parts breaking up and burning as it fell.
The object was visible across a large swath of Saskatchewan and Alberta, with sightings in Regina, North Battleford, Gravelbourg, Pierceland, Clavet, Zehner and Punnichy, Sask., as well as Medicine Hat, and Seven Persons, Alta.
The event baffled witnesses, who guessed it could have been a plane burning up or a meteor. Some posted videos to social media and on YouTube in their search for answers.
'Fireball' was likely rocket booster re-entry
It now appears the "fireball" was likely the Antares rocket body used to propel the Cygnus spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station.
North American enthusiasts tracking the rocket body online have connected the bright light seen in the Prairies to the timing and location of the re-entry.
According to the Aerospace Corporation, the rocket was launched on Nov. 12 as part of the Cygnus CRS OA-8E ISS resupply mission.
Its predicted re-entry time was 11:09 p.m. CST on Friday.
CBC News has reached out to the U.S. Strategic Command and to Orbital ATK, which developed the Antares.
Thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/Dunlap_Obs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Dunlap_Obs</a> -folks did indeed witness the reentry of <a href="https://twitter.com/OrbitalATK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OrbitalATK</a>'s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Antares?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Antares</a> rocket booster NORAD ID 2017-071B over <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Saskatchewan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Saskatchewan</a> this AM- timing+location matches Space-Track prediction. <a href="https://twitter.com/CBCCanada?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBCCanada</a> article: <a href="https://t.co/HuubCyjBve">https://t.co/HuubCyjBve</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/amsmeteors?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@amsmeteors</a> page: <a href="https://t.co/rCQBcf031O">https://t.co/rCQBcf031O</a> <a href="https://t.co/LPUdMtJGGH">pic.twitter.com/LPUdMtJGGH</a> —@Astroguyz
Eric Briggs is a volunteer with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He witnessed the re-entry of a Russian spacecraft component from the Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ont., about 13 years ago.
He said the videos posted online after Friday's event look exactly like what he would expect from the re-entry of a rocket component.
Briggs had also been following the Antares.
"I'd expect to see something flying from west to east, faster than an aircraft at high altitude with a trail following behind it and it appearing to break up into pieces," said Briggs.
According to the Aerospace Corporation, this was the predicted ground track of the Antares rocket body re-entry from space. (Aerospace.org) Multiple sightings from Alberta and Saskatchewan were reported to the American Meteor Society.
Bright light baffles witnesses
Dallas Bitternose was sitting outside his house on the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan when he saw a bright light in the sky coming from the west shortly before midnight.
He initially thought it could be a satellite or a plane coming down because it appeared to be breaking away and sparking as it fell. Bitternose pulled out his phone to make sure he had video evidence.
"When you melt metal it jumps all over when you're melting it, kind of thing, and that's kind of exactly what it was doing," said Bitternose.
"Some was falling off backwards and some was going forwards in front of it."
Bitternose said the fireball travelled west to east and appeared to be higher in the sky than a plane would travel.
Streak moved slowly: witness
Lorne Warkentine, who lives near North Battleford, Sask., also thought the bright light could have been a plane on fire. He watched it streak across the sky through his living room window.
"It was kind of exciting but then you start kind of thinking of things, like what could it really be?" said Warkentine.
He said it was visible for about 20 seconds.
"I thought it was going too slow to be a meteorite or anything. It just wasn't going very fast."10 most romantic cities
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It could have something to do with the heat, but residents of Phoenix, Ariz., shelled out more dough in the days leading up to Valentine's Day than any other city nationwide.
Those in Arizona's largest city spent, on average, $160.41 per transaction on Valentine's-related gifts and gestures, such as chocolates, flowers, jewelry and yes, lingerie, according to Mint.com, a personal finance site that tracks expenditures of its more than 3 million members.
The site aggregated purchases at retailers such as Godiva, FTD, 1-800-Flowers, Victoria's Secret, Tiffany, Blue Nile and Zales between Feb. 1 and Feb. 10.
Houston was the second most romantic city, followed by San Francisco and Philadelphia. New York City rounded out the top 5, with New Yorkers spending $130.30 per transaction, according to Mint.
The city that never sleeps may not be the most romantic city, but it could be the sexiest, based solely on lingerie purchases. At Victoria's Secret alone, individuals spent more than $80 per transaction in the days before Feb. 14. San Francisco and Boston tied (the knot) for the second most intimate city.
And if New York is sexiest, than Houston is the most sentimental. That city topped all others when it came to sending flowers, averaging nearly $100 per transaction at 1-800-Flowers, where not surprisingly, a dozen long-stem red roses were the top seller.
Across the country, Valentine's Day related spending is up 11% this year, according to the National Retail Federation's 2011 Valentine's Day survey.
The average person will shell out $116.21 on traditional Valentine's Day merchandise this year, up from $103 last year. Total holiday spending is expected to reach $15.7 billion, the NRF said.Carl Paladino: If Establishment Forces Trump Out, I Will Urge Voters To "Stay Home And Put The Republican Party To Bed Forever"
Former Republican candidate for governor in New York Carl Paladino goes all-in for Trump in an interview with Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto.
CARL PALADINO: I followed him all through upstate New York -- I prepared the schedule... We drew crowds two and three times what we expected. Here in Buffalo is going to be a boomer... He'll be here at 7:00... We distributed 28,000 tickets...
NEIL CAVUTO: You said, if they try to steal this election and give it to one of their cronies, the people will be very, very upset. They are not going to show up at election time, are you saying you would rather people sit on than vote for whoever the nominee is if it is not Donald Trump.
PALADINO: If it is not the peoples' choice, than the Republican leaders should be --they should be driven from party. And the only way to do that is to stay home [in Nov. 2016] and put the Republican Party to bed, once and forever. They don't own it, it is not theirs. It belongs to the people.Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-St. Louis) has been censured Wednesday after state lawmakers decided to formally reprimand her for a Facebook post she made calling for President Trump’s assassination.
The Daily Mail reports that the Republican-led Missouri Senate voted 28-2 to formally censure the lawmaker and also called for Nadal to resign.
It is the first time in Missouri history that a state lawmaker has been censured.
Chappelle-Nadal posted on her Facebook page in August, “I hope Trump is assassinated,” before deleting the post.
Her post prompted an investigation by the Secret Service and many calls from her fellow lawmakers to resign.
Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Parson also called for Chappelle-Nadal’s resignation, adding that if she does not resign she could face expulsion by a two-third majority vote in the Senate.
Chappelle-Nadal says she apologized for her actions, noting that she wrote the post out of “frustration” over Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence
She said, however, that she will not step down, despite the growing number of calls for her to resign.
Chappelle-Nadal claims that her constituents do not want her to step down from her position.
“The calls I get are, ‘You did something wrong, and we stand by you,”’ she said.
Missouri Senate leaders also decided to strip the St. Louis-area lawmaker of her committee assignments before the vote.“The solution to America’s weight problem lies in what I call the French food model, a model that is very social, as opposed to the individualist approach of the Americans,” Bignon began. “If I were the minister of health in America, and I was in charge of the battle against obesity, the most powerful, brilliant thing I could do would be to communicate this message: let’s not worry too much about what’s on the table. I’d say let’s concern ourselves with sitting at the table together and preparing a meal.”
Eating a full meal together at the table — a first, light dish, then a cooked meat or fish with starch and a vegetable, followed by cheese or yogurt and possibly fruit — provides enough sustenance, she suggested, to stave off that bête noire of American eating habits, snacking. She explained how the presence of others also ensures the social reinforcement of healthy dining habits, like helping yourself to only so much, and it builds the habit of discipline and moderation, as diners wait for all to be seated and served before beginning the meal.
“You know what I find totally crazy?” Bignon asked, momentarily sidetracked. “Le Self. You know this system? It’s American. You take a plate, there’s a line, you take some salad....” She was referring to what we call self-serve, an option so neutral to me that Bignon might as well have been decrying the rise of the photocopy machine. “In school cafeterias, there used to be a gentleman who made the meal and a madame who served it, and everyone ate together at the table, as they do at home,” she said. “But Americans hit on this system that is fast, it’s cheap, you take what you want — and now it’s everywhere in France!” she said. “I am anti-Self. It’s bad for rapport, and it’s bad for health — it’s too individualistic.”
Her comment provided an appropriate moment to return to Jenny Craig. In France, as in the United States, Jenny Craig provides dishes in individual portions. Consumers are instructed to supplement those meals with dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables. Nonetheless, the idea that these microwaveable dishes built for one could fit into traditional French meals, which are built on the foundation of communal dining — with each person, including small children, eating the same thing — seemed counterintuitive. In France, the French social anthropologist Claude Fischler theorizes, a meal is considered a kind of communion, an intimate sharing of experience. In the States, he argues, it represents a contract, a negotiation over aversions, allergies and dietary needs.
“Jenny Craig is part of the evolution,” Bignon explained. “You have your Jenny Craig meal, but at the table, with the others. You don’t have the stress of making your own comparable meal or eating quickly in the kitchen to hide that you are on a diet. No, you heat it up and have your meal with everyone else.” I was intrigued by the notion that for French women, Jenny Craig might offer an alternative to hiding your diet food in the kitchen. The Web site for Jenny Craig in France prominently features one young blonde woman whispering in the ear of another. “My secret is Jenny Craig,” she tells her friend, who looks fascinated and a little bit thrilled.
Photo
“It is not looked upon highly, in France, to be on a diet,” Bignon said. “Because, in principle, it’s not really necessary.” This sentiment surprised me, given that the company she worked for had purchased a diet company for $600 million. She explained to me how easy losing weight should be: “The main course is passed around on a big plate, and you take what you want. So if a French woman takes from the meat dish at all, she takes just a little. It is rather easy to do her diet without mentioning it to anyone.” Bignon also serves on the advisory board of the corporate foundation for Nestlé France, a program interested, she explained, in “reviving the French culture of nourishment.” She seemed torn between defending her country’s food culture and promoting a product that offers a defense against the results of its erosion so far.
After our conversation, we went to a fine restaurant, where Bignon continued to critique American individualism, linking it to the declining health of our nation, both literally and figuratively. She took a piece of bread but ate only a little; by the end of the meal, her squab still had much of its meat on its tiny bones. “I’m not someone with a big appetite,” she said with a smile. When we left the restaurant, Bignon paused on the corner. She tilted her face toward the sun to bask in its warmth, then lighted a cigarette and inhaled deeply.
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At Jenny Craig’s European headquarters in La Baule, a wealthy seaside community in Brittany, Erick Moreau offered me a choice of Jenny Craig lunches. I chose hachis parmentier, seasoned ground beef smothered by a layer of mashed potatoes. Like the Jenny Craig meals in America, it was food I would finish without protest but never crave.
Before working on Jenny Craig, Moreau started a Nestlé business delivering nutritious packaged meals to people requiring home care. His work at Jenny Craig has required marketing finesse of a different kind. “We really wanted to avoid the idea that we imported U.S. solutions,” he said. The dishes naturally had to be French, but even the Web site’s exercise videos had to have what he called “European ambience.” The fitness clips are set in a modern apartment where some furniture with good lines has been pushed out of the way. A track coach well known in France walks a woman through some low-key exercises, like arm swings and biceps curls with water bottles for weights. There is much talk of breathing. Although gyms have proliferated in the last 10 years in France, rigorous exercise is still not considered a requirement of responsible adulthood the way it is here. “In the U.S., there’s more, ‘Yes, you can!’ ” Moreau said. “We wanted the exercise to be something to take pleasure in, like food.”
As is true in the United States, Jenny Craig clients in France are expected to meet, by phone or in person, once a week with a Jenny Craig consultant. In France, however, the consultants are all dietitians, whereas the American model relies on laypeople trained in the Jenny Craig technique. If the French take their food seriously, they also see dieting as a serious affair, something that could be hazardous to your health without appropriate supervision. The word “diet” has negative enough associations in France that Weight Watchers recently came up with a new marketing campaign there: “Stop the diets. Relearn how to eat.”
To understand the most essential difference between Jenny Craig in France and Jenny Craig in America, you need look no further than the three-inch chocolate-covered peanut-butter-flavored Anytime Bar. The high-fiber Anytime Bar, billed as a nutritious snack, is not offered in the French plan. In France, the phrase “nutritious snack” is oxymoronic.
“We eat three times a day, ideally no more,” Patrick Serog, a doctor who is the nutritional consultant for Jenny Craig in France, told me. This idea has been driven home by recent books like “Bringing up Bébé” and “French Kids Eat Everything,” memoirs of French child-rearing customs that are irresistible to American parents inclined toward self-flagellation. But increasing numbers of French people do, in fact, snack, which partly explains why they do, in fact, get fat. Last year, a study found that 61 percent of the French snack at least two out of three days and on food that constituted 20 percent of their daily calories. In 2005, France’s sweet and savory snack market was found to be growing at a steady rate of 3 percent a year; a Department of Agriculture report advised U.S. manufacturers that in France “strong growth opportunities do exist for breakfast bars, nuts, chips/crisps and extruded snacks” (extruded being the technical term for shaped snacks, like Cheetos).
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By tradition, however, adult snacking is off limits. This is partly for philosophical reasons: snacks are usually consumed on the go, and alone, not together around a table. But frequent snacking is also considered a health hazard, which became clear as I spoke to Serog, who helped Jenny Craig plan its menus.
The French formula for Jenny Craig, Serog explained to me when I met him at the Nestlé office in Paris, does allow for one snack: a small cereal bar, which dieters might enjoy at 4 p.m., like le goûter, the snack that French children have when they arrive home from school. But there are no choices — no chips or pretzels — lest Jenny Craig be responsible for instilling bad American habits. There are also no pseudo-rich desserts offered anywhere on the French Web site for Jenny Craig. “In France, dessert is fruit,” Serog said. “Cake is for special occasions.”
In France, where food is eaten on a schedule, the Anytime Bar would be considered a call to culinary anarchy. Eating three times a day “allows the body to organize itself,” Serog asserted. “The Anytime Bar — the body is organized so brilliantly! Why would you....” He trailed off, momentarily baffled. “With such a thing, the body has no more signposts. It cannot regulate.” He shook his head. He put his forefinger up to his temple and twisted it to indicate exactly how crazy this seems to him.
In the United States, by comparison, the plan calls for six food experiences a day. “The healthy way to lose weight is three meals a day and three snacks a day — you’ll see that in most standard healthy programs,” says Dana Fiser, the chief executive of Jenny Craig.
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What we eat and how much we eat is clearly a cultural construct, but when it comes to weight loss, you might think the solution would be universal. In 2010, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association deemed the Jenny Craig diet, with its six food intakes a day, an effective weight-management program. The study found that at the end of the second year of the diet, 60 percent of the users had managed to keep off at least 5 percent of their weight. (Critics pointed out that the J.A.M.A. study relied on clients who were given food and counseling free for the duration of those two years, a value of some $6,000 dollars, and therefore lived in something of a frictionless food universe.) Still, no diet has proved fail-safe in the long term. A 2007 study in American Psychology pointed out that one-third to two-thirds of dieters eventually regained more weight than the amount they lost on their diets.
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In the absence of any surefire method of weight loss, the French would naturally stick to tradition: no snacking. “You have to resolve the weight-loss side with the culture we’re dealing with,” Fiser said, “and we know the French are very different.”
If it seems impractical that Jenny Craig would market its product in France, the country with the highest percentage of underweight people in Western Europe, consider this: People who live in a country where there is a high premium on being thin might just be people who will buy diet plans.
Catherine Garçon, a client of Jenny Craig’s in La Baule, showed up for an appointment with her counselor the same day I was visiting. Garçon, who works as an emergency-room |
and fundamentally Madrid have won the league because they are extremely strong: the side that went to Camp Nou cost over €400m, and the work they have done under the Portuguese coach – analysed here – has been effective. They've scored more goals than anyone else in Spanish league history.
Madrid have succeeded in competing against the team many considered the best ever. Yet that equation can be turned on its head: Barcelona have competed against one of the most powerful teams ever assembled too. They have competed with each other, taking this to another plane. No one else has been able to compete with them, Valencia are 32 points off the top. Four years later, Madrid came out on top. This time, the lights went out on Barcelona. Something shifted in Spain on Saturday night.
Talking points
• Sevilla's match with Levante was delayed until 10.30pm on Saturday night, instead of occupying the normal 10pm slot, meaning that it finished well into Sunday. The reason was simple: so as not to clash with Barcelona-Madrid. But, you protest, Barcelona-Madrid kicked off at 8pm – it would be well finished by then. Ah, but this was designed to make sure that it did not clash with the post-match fallout from Barcelona-Madrid. "Stop the game," ran one banner at the Sánchez Pizjuán, "Mou's talking!" Sevilla fans, who have watched their side play in a lot of the least hospitable slots this season were hasta las pelotas. Literally, up to the balls. So they decided to show just how hasta las pelotas they were – by throwing hundreds of tennis balls on to the pitch in protest.
• Arda Turan. Woof! He scored two golazos as Atlético beat Espanyol 3-1. Both they and Athletic Bilbao are up to 48 points – just one off Levante and three off Málaga and in with a genuine chance of the final Champions League slot.
• Remember Ali Syed? Remember how he took over Racing Santander and celebrated in the directors' box when they beat Sevilla? Remember how he promised signings? Remember when he said that they would challenge Madrid and Barcelona? Remember? Racing Santander are down, 11 points from safety with 12 left to play for. As for Syed, he's disappeared.
• A point for Granada, a point for Villarreal … slowly inching their way to survival. Zaragoza and Sporting's grip on the first division loosens.
• Real Madrid played the world's best team this weekend. Real Madrid B, that is. And they lost too. But still won the league. Oviedo 1-0 Real Madrid Castilla.
Results: Mallorca 1-0 Zaragoza, Sporting 2-1 Rayo, Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid, Sevilla 1-1 Levante, Granada 1-0 Getafe, Real Sociedad 1-1 Villarreal, Racing 0-1 Athletic, Atlético 3-1 Espanyol, Valencia 4-0 Betis. Monday night: Osasuna-Málaga.
• Latest La Liga standingsAustralia could slip to sixth in Test rankings if they lose series 2-0 to Bangladesh
Posted
Australia risks an embarrassing slide down the Test rankings if it is unable to conquer Bangladesh in the upcoming two-match series.
Steve Smith's side landed in India earlier this year with a chance of reclaiming top spot on the International Cricket Council's charts.
Now it will tumble to number six if Bangladesh wins both games during the two-Test series that starts on August 27.
The prospect of sitting above only Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would hardly instil confidence ahead of this summer's Ashes.
Such a fall from grace is unlikely but far from impossible.
Bangladesh, which defeated England at home in 2016, is no longer the hapless group of easy-beats that Jason Gillespie memorably mauled during his unbeaten double century in Chittagong some 11 years ago.
Current Test rankings India (Rating points: 123) South Africa (117) Australia (100) England (99) New Zealand (97) Pakistan (93) Sri Lanka (92) West Indies (75) Bangladesh (69) Zimbabwe (0)
"It'll be hard and I don't think they believe it will be anything but hard," former Australia skipper Ian Chappell said.
"Not so much because of the pay dispute, it'll be hard because the conditions there are difficult and in the last 12-18 months Bangladesh have really improved.
"This will be a difficult tour."
It will be Australia's first outing since the bitter pay saga came to a head, partly because of players' refusal to tour Bangladesh without an agreement.
Smith and the vast majority of his teammates haven't donned the whites since losing a four-Test series in India some four months ago.
Some Test squad members were slated to tour South Africa with Australia A last month but that trip was boycotted amid the industrial standoff.
"It obviously took a bit longer than both parties would want. Certainly as a coach, you wanted it sorted a bit quicker," coach Darren Lehmann told radio station Triple M when asked about the dispute.
"It was a little bit frosty, wasn't it? But they'll certainly get back together.
"Now the challenge for us is to play some bloody good cricket … and entertain the fans, get the fans back on side."
Australia snapped a nine-Test losing streak in Asia with a shock victory over India in Pune in February. They were competitive throughout that series in a 2-1 loss.
The Test squad, including recent additions Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird, will head to Darwin for a pre-tour training camp later this week.
AAP
Topics: cricket, sport, bangladesh, australiaBy: Miami Heat Beat Staff
February has passed and our expert staff at Miami Heat Beat along with a few guests from the local media are here to tell you how to think! Exciting right? We’re borrowing on ESPN’s 5-on-5 idea where we take five of our staff writers – with the possibility of guest columnists – and ask them all the same questions to hear their different opinions (hot takes) on what’s going on with the Heat. So without further adieu, let’s get started.
1. Who has benefitted the most from Chris Bosh’s absence?
Ryan Yousefi: I don’t like this question. This is like asking who benefited most when the hot wife’s husband died. Technically, someone will eventually benefit, but it’s horses*** to phrase it that way because A MAN IS DEAD! Since I am under oath here (I’m assuming every blogger at Miami Heat Beat is under oath), my answer would have to be Goran Dragic because he hates big people that get in the way of his Sonic the Hedgehog-ass.
Harrison Cytryn: Fortunately for the Heat, a ton of guys have benefitted from Chris Bosh being out. The Heat’s “next man up” mantra has allowed the stocks of Goran Dragic, Hassan Whiteside and Josh Richardson to rise significantly after the All-Star break. But no player has benefitted more than Luol Deng. Deng has mostly been the scapegoat when things went awry the last two years in Miami, but his move to the 4 has opened up the Heat’s offense. They can play faster, with a more wide-open style, and Deng is a mismatch nightmare for opposing power forwards. He’s become a walking double-double since the All-Star break, and defensively, he’s matched up well against much bigger opponents. The question now isn’t “will the Heat re-sign Luol Deng?” It’s how much will the Heat pay him?
Jack Alfonso: It’s hard to say that anyone has benefitted from Chris Bosh’s absence because he’s such an incredibly unselfish player who makes everyone around him better. However, Luol Deng has definitely shined in his new role as the starting power forward on a smaller, faster Heat team. Since the All-Star break, Deng’s numbers have improved dramatically.
Deng is averaging 16.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists on 48.5 percent shooting in comparison to his 10.6 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, and 1.5 assists per game on 43.1 percent shooting before the All-Star break. His true shooting percentage has also risen slightly despite his increase in usage (20.2 usage rate post-All-Star break as opposed to 15.8 percent pre-All-Star break). Miami’s recent commitment to small ball has seemed to help everyone, but Deng, in particular, has stepped his game up.
Chris Cochran: Well, when a team has gone on a five-game winning streak and took the Golden State Warriors to the final minutes of a game, I would say the whole team has benefited but that is not a shot at Bosh. It could be a small sample size or it could be the players roles have adjusted. Whiteside, who’s still coming off the bench, fell short of Player of the Week honors, which is amazing. The pecking order has changed in Miami which might be the reason why the team has played great, or it could just be a mirage and the players are still learning how to play together.
Alf: Erik Spoelstra. Just like in the 2012 playoffs, a Bosh injury has forced the Heat coach to get creative with his lineups. And this time, I think, it gives him an excuse to play a style of basketball he’s wanted to play all season. The problem is when Pat Riley works all Summer to hand you a starting lineup that should be top-two in the East “on paper,” you have to do everything in your power to make it work.
That means suffering through segments of the game with two seven-footers on the floor and with a point guard who is built to run. Spoelstra tried valiantly and even built a decent record to boot. But now with Bosh out, he has no choice but to play the “one big” lineup that has proven the most effective this season. Suddenly, “pace and space” is a thing again and Spoelstra is being heralded as an innovator.
2. Is the “Joe Johnson” effect sustainable?
Yousefi: I’m assuming you mean the spacing because he can hit threes, not like some global warming thing I’m not aware is happening, because I’ve been watching House of Cards on TV with the Heat game on my laptop on mute. Yeah, I’d say at the very least it will be sustainable this season until the Heat doesn’t play the Suns or Sixers, and then we’re going to fire him on Twitter.
Harrison: The “Joe Johnson Effect” is real and it’s sustainable. Yes, the Heat haven’t faced the best competition recently, but it’s more the way “JJ” has been playing that makes me optimistic this can continue. I was nervous about Johnson as he’s been the number one or number two option on his team for nearly the last decade, but his transition to the Heat has been nearly flawless. The key is that he isn’t forcing anything. Since arriving in Miami, he’s taking 9.6 shots per game at a 60.4 percent clip, while also hitting 66.7 percent of his three-point attempts. Johnson moves the ball well – “hunts” for his shot (similar to Shane Battier) – and takes the big shots when he needs to. His defense hasn’t been too shabby either. He has been a godsend for the Heat and the “Joe Johnson Effect” is a sustainable one.
Jack: I definitely think Joe Johnson’s effect on the team is sustainable. The things he has done to help this Heat team are things that he has proven to be able to do consistently over his career. Johnson has shot 37 percent from beyond the arc for his career, and that consistent shooting touch has done wonders for Miami’s offense. His ability to drive and work from the post occasionally also seem sustainable. Joe Johnson has fit in with this Heat team perfectly so far and I do not expect that to change.
Cochran: I think it is. Yeah, the Heat will have some off nights and they’ll lose a couple games in a row, but the Heat aren’t asking Joe Johnson to do too much. He is just another weapon to play through and possibly take a last second shot. I am all for bringing good players to mentor Justise Winslow while contributing to the team at the same time. Can’t forget Tyler “Bumpy” Johnson has a chance to come back and we’re all optimistic when it comes to Chris Bosh.
Alf: It would seem so, wouldn’t it? One thing that’s evident from watching Joe Johnson over a small sample size is that he knows how to play. Fast? Slow? Post? Perimeter? Facilitator? Scorer? He can do a little bit of everything. And for a Heat team, that always seemed to be missing a little bit of something, he’s a great fit. But is Johnson at the point of his career where he’s okay with being the fourth and sometimes fifth option? That remains to be seen. But so far so good. If nothing else, it’s just nice to have a guy who, when he shoots from three, inspires even a little bit of confidence.
3. What is Luol Deng worth this Summer considering his increased role?
Yousefi: Luol Deng is a zombie. He was dead, now he is alive. Do you watch Walking Dead? When is the last time you saw anyone on that show pay a zombie? I’m no Albert Nahmad, but I’m pretty sure every NBA player will make at least $45 million per year soon. So, I’d say he’s worth at least another two-year, $16 million deal. But I’m also convinced the Hornets or some other sleepy team nobody cares about will give him double that because they need to replace Gerald Henderson. All of them. They all have a Gerald Henderson.
Harrison: Luol Deng was going to cash in this summer regardless. Even if he would have opted out of his contract last year, he was going to get paid, but he did the Heat a huge favor by opting in for $10 million. With Deng’s recent play at the 4, he could command a lot of money on the open market. Deng will be 31 in August, which is relatively young for the free agency market, but he has a lot of miles from his Chicago Bulls days. I think a three-year deal in the $36 million range is his market value, but I could see him cutting the Heat a deal and re-signing in the three-year, $24 million range, even with the cap explosion. We’ll just have to see how much Luol really likes playing in Miami.
Jack: Luol Deng’s worth is difficult to gauge right now. As I said earlier, his play as of late has been phenomenal and he seems to be a great fit as a small-ball power forward in today’s NBA. He isn’t getting any younger, but if he can sustain his recent level of play I could see him generating a fair amount of interest this summer among hopeful contenders looking for a solid veteran role-player.
Cochran: This is a loaded question and an awful one at that. I might have changed my answer nine times, but it boils down to bringing back Luol Deng. If you’re invested in Winslow and you want him to get better, there is no better player to learn from than Deng. The cap is rising and Deng will be a value contract and who wouldn’t want to finish their career in Miami? Crap, Deng is only 30-years old. I hate Thibs, but it’s the smart move to bring back Deng.
Alf: This is tricky because it depends on who else is available. If the choice is Al Horford or Luol Deng, what’s the answer? Does a Horford/Whiteside front line slow you down again? Nic Batum? Is Batum an 82-game answer at power forward? What if the Heat go on a deep playoff run and a Bosh return looks likely? What would Deng’s role be? Has Deng’s recent resurgence taken him out of the Heat’s price range completely?
The way I see it, if the Heat wants to continue to play to Dragic’s strengths and commit to Whiteside long-term, there really might not be a better option. Deng has proven himself to be a viable stretch four and seems to enjoy playing in Miami. Bottom line: Can Heat GM Andy Ellisburg make the numbers work and can Pat Riley convince Deng to sign the deal?
4. Is there a correlation between Whiteside’s new public attitude and his better play, or does it just feed into the sports mythology of attitude winner guy?
Yousefi: I think he sees the finish line. Imagine walking on a highway and knowing your exit was very far away, you’d get tired after awhile. There would be issues along the way. But then imagine you can see your exit in the distance, and at that exit, strippers are dancing inside of one of those machines where dollar bills are blowing around. You’d start to get your sh** together. You’d be visibly happier. Whiteside sees the strippers.
Harrison: I don’t know if there’s necessarily a correlation between Whiteside’s reduced time on social media and his improved play, I just think something finally clicked with him. There was a Barry Jackson column that said Spoelstra sat down with Whiteside for a 90-minute meeting and told him he’s a top-15 talent in the league, but he just really needed to apply himself. Since the All-Star break, he’s been a monster on both ends.
He’s playing smarter defense while still blocking everything and everyone, his picks are better and more impactful, he’s very technical with his rolling to the basket and he’s become a pretty good free throw shooter. I’ve never seen any player make this drastic of an improvement in the middle of the season. Props to Hassan! And if it has to do with him buying more into the team or spending less time on Snapchat, I’m all for it. I just hope he can keep it up.
Jack: I’m not sure if there is any connection between Whiteside’s new public persona and his improved play. And I think it would be somewhat lazy and reckless to assume for certain that there is a connection. It could definitely be possible that Whiteside has transformed overnight from a knucklehead that many Heat fans were losing patience with into a perfect Pat Riley disciple who has completely bought into the championship culture.
It is also possible that people were being too hard on him when he was struggling, and his recent play is nothing more than a natural progression of a still young and very inexperienced player. I am neither Whiteside’s psychologist nor a psychic, so I cannot testify to what happened. What I do know is that if Whiteside continues this level of play, Pat Riley will have no choice but to give him a fat paycheck.
Cochran: As far as Whiteside’s play, I don’t think there is a correlation between his play and public attitude. He’s the same guy on Snapchat talking to his French Bulldog or trash talking people playing pop-a-shot. I think once your coach tells you that you’re a top-15 player, and knowing your Head Coach has been surrounded by plenty of players who were top-15 in their eras, it means something.
It gives you a rational confidence that you can make an impact whenever you step on the court and be the best player on the court. Not to mention the pecking order has changed in Miami and Whiteside coming off the bench allows him to feast on the scrubs of the second unit.
Alf: I think the only thing that has changed about Whiteside’s attitude is his public statements. He’s finally learned how to play the game with the media and give the answers that make Heat fans swoon. It’s all crap that makes the social media psychologists run to their keyboards to give their personal half-assed diagnosis. So here’s mine: When Whiteside was benched he saw how quickly it could all be taken away, couple that with a suspension and closed door meetings with Spoelstra, Riley and Alonzo Mourning (who may or may not have been brandishing a blunt instrument), and the light came on.
If Whiteside wants his contract and long-term security, nothing but a consistent effort will suffice. He has not proven enough in this league where he can take a single play off. Someone got through to Whiteside and let him know the that everyone is watching, especially the ones who write the checks.
5. Do you think what Miami has done since acquiring Joe Johnson is diluted by their easy schedule?
Yousefi: Yes. I think we are all such dummies, honestly. If the Dolphins murder a 1-14 team at the end of the year, it means nothing to us. If everything was equal and this stretch happened on that damned Circus Road Trip, the Fire Spo crowd would be posting d*** pics to Snapchat in celebration. Do people celebrate that way? I still haven’t figured out Snapchat. I’m assuming that happens. Reality falls in the middle. The Heat are a good four seed, probably a bad three seed, but definitely a team nobody wants to have to deal with because they have the guts.
Harrison: Sure, the schedule has lightened up for the Heat, but that makes sense after they went through the gauntlet in January. The Heat is fortunate to have the third easiest schedule left in the NBA, but I don’t think that dilutes what they’ve done since Joe Johnson came aboard. Plus, the Heat has some good teams left on their schedule (at Tornoto, home vs. Cleveland, at San Antonio, at Portland and at Boston), which will all be great playoff litmus tests for this team.
Let’s hope the Heat can continue on the roll they’ve been on, and try and get the three seed in the Eastern conference. It would set them up pretty nicely for the playoffs.
Jack: It is certainly possible that Miami’s easy schedule has helped them look better than they really are, but it’s undeniable that this is a completely different looking Heat team than it was at the beginning of the season. Dragic has finally found his rhythm, Whiteside is doing all of the little things he needs to do to be successful, Joe Johnson and Josh Richardson have provided a much-needed boost in the outside shooting department and the ball is moving freely and purposefully.
Every player on the team seems to have bought into their role, and the new small lineups are flourishing. Miami may not be the Golden State Warriors, but they are certainly a force to be reckoned with in the East if they can keep this up … actually, forget what I just said.
THE HEAT WILL NEVER LOSE AGAIN! MIAMI IS ON A WARPATH TO THE FINALS! JUSTISE WINSLOW IS GOING TO DUNK ON KLAY THOMPSON SO HARD HIS STUPID LITTLE GOATEE FALLS OFF! LET’S GO HEAT! LET’S GO HEAT! LET’S GO HEAT!
Cochran: No, I do not think what the Heat have done since acquiring Joe Johnson is diluted; the reason being is it take times for players to adjust. Yes, Johnson is a good player but I can’t fathom how difficult it can be for a team/player to arrive in New York City and get inserted into a starting lineup and contribute.
Yes, it is basketball and some of these guys have played together in the past and Johnson knows what to do when you simplify things, mainly in transition and running the break. But look at is this way, the easy schedule is giving the Heat the extra reps to get acclimated with Johnson and the absence of Chris Bosh while still competing.
Alf: I remember losses to the Nets and Knicks during the first half of the season that had Heat fans contemplating tanking. So, forgive me if I bask in the glory of a five-game winning streak built on the corpse of Elton Brand. Before this recent run, when was the last time you went into a Heat game feeling supremely confident of the outcome? The answer: Not since Mario Chalmers left. I’ll take the blowouts against the bad teams as long as it comes with strong showings against the league’s elite. I want to be cocky Heat fan again, even if it’s against glorified D-League competition.
Want more Miami Heat Beat commentary and insight? Follow our writers and guest columnists on Twitter:
Ryan Yousefi (@Rizzmigizz), Chris Cochran (@Cochran790), Harrison Cytryn (@hlcytryn), Jack Alfonso (@alfonsohoops), The Greater Alf (@Alf954)."The Hoff" is a global sensation, particularly in Germany More than 6,000 people have already signed up to David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff's new social networking site since its recent launch. He set up his own so-called Hoff Space because he was tired of fakes posing as him on other social networking sites. The US actor and singer told BBC Radio 1 the site was about "getting a pulse on all the crazy people out there". Hasselhoff, 55, is in London to guest host Channel 4's Sunday Night Project with Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr. 'Hoff thing' At the time of writing, his site www.davidhasselhoff.com had 6,740 members. "I couldn't really get the internet together but because Knight Rider and Baywatch and this Hoff thing has taken off so much around the world, we put together our own Hoff Space," he said. "I was on MySpace and Facebook and I was getting a lot of phoneys. "A lot of people were coming in posing as me or my children and I had to stop it, so I opened my own that is going to be fun and I can regulate it. "It's a way of going around the world from Russia, to Japan, to Europe and getting a pulse on all the crazy people out there." Hasselhoff, who first came to the world's attention as Michael Knight in the cult TV show Knight Rider before starring in Baywatch, has also had a prolific music career. Talent judge His last single Jump In My Car hit the top of the UK and European charts, and the video was downloaded more than six million times. He is currently appearing as a judge, alongside Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan, in America's Got Talent, or "America's Got Whackers" as he called it. "I think I have seen every transvestite and every transsexual in America," he said. "We found some pretty amazing talent this year. It is just good fun and we need good fun on television." On his fellow judges, he said Sharon was "great" but refused to comment on Piers, other than that he liked to talk. A new series of Knight Rider is in the pipeline but he said he will not be starring in it. Instead, he said he was looking for a new James Bond-style series but remained tight-lipped about his latest project, which involves a game.
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StumbleUpon What are these?America’s rural and suburban communities are experiencing epidemic levels of heroin use. Estimates suggest that 90 percent of new heroin users during the last decade are white. Sunday evening’s episode of the TV news magazine "60 Minutes" devoted a segment to this problem called “Heroin in the Heartland.”
“Heroin in the Heartland” was an exposé on the human cost of drug use, the families destroyed and the lives lost. It was also an example of how, in the War on Drugs, black and brown people receive hefty prison sentences, while white people are shown, above all else, sympathy. Lady Justice is not blind. Her scales are heavily weighted against people of color, the poor, the working class, the disabled, and the “mentally ill.” To understand why this applies to Sunday's "60 Minutes" report, we first have to take a step back and establish some basics.
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The effects of the racial and class disparities at almost every level in America’s “criminal justice” system are cumulative. They begin at the moment of arrest and continue through to sentencing and parole. The sum result of this process is that even while a black man may be President, the United States has more black people under the control of the “criminal justice” system than were held as human property during its slave regime.
(The United States also locks up far more black people per capita than South Africa did during Apartheid.)
The carceral society has effectively removed millions of black men and women from participation in the polity by stripping them of voting rights, denying them the ability to find employment (white felons have a far easier time returning to the workforce), and placing entire communities in a state of civic paralysis, a condition that political scientist Vesla Weaver describes as “custodial citizenship.”
The news media’s coverage of crime is racialized. For example, social scientists have repeatedly shown how America’s corporate news media over-represents the percentage of crime committed by black people and exaggerates how often white people are victims of crime. Meanwhile, entire categories of crime that are almost exclusively committed by white people such as domestic terrorism, mass shootings, financial fraud, treason, and other offenses are grossly underreported.
What's more, violent crime is at record lows in the United States, and what crime does occur is intra-racial -- but you wouldn't know it from watching the news. From Emancipation to the present day, America’s corporate media, politicians, and other opinion leaders have created a menace whose name is “black crime.” There is no equivalent language of “white crime” in America’s dominant political discourse.
This bias is pervasive.
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By focusing on White America’s heroin epidemic, "60 Minutes" attempted to subvert the dominant racial narrative. But in fact, “Heroin in the Heartland” actually reinforced the realities of white privilege. Its first few moments were representative of how the segment would struggle to escape this organizing logic.
Host Bill Whitaker began the segment as follows:
"You might think of heroin as primarily an inner-city problem. But dealers, connected to Mexican drug cartels, are making huge profits by expanding to new, lucrative markets: suburbs all across the country. It's basic economics. The dealers are going where the money is and they're cultivating a new set of consumers: high school students, college athletes, teachers and professionals. "Heroin is showing up everywhere -- in places like Columbus, Ohio. The area has long been viewed as so typically Middle American that, for years, many companies have gone there to test new products. We went to the Columbus suburbs to see how heroin is taking hold in the heartland."
This is an example of how colorblind white racism does the day-to-day work of white supremacy through the use of “race neutral” language. In America’s racial lexicon, “inner-city” is code for “black and poor.” “Teachers,” “professionals,” “the heartland,” and “Middle American” are the unqualified (and thus assumed) mentions of whiteness.
(The power of white racial erasure is omnipresent in “Heroin in the Heartland.” As such, the word “white” does not appear once in the segment even though it is focused entirely focused on drug use by white people.)
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Such a trend would continue throughout the segment, in which white people -- in particular young white women -- were featured as examples of drug addicts who don’t look like drug addicts. Whitaker even described one of these imperiled young white women, who is caught up in the nation’s newest racially tinged and gendered moral panic, as "young and fresh," as "the girl next door."
In the public discourse of “post-racial” America, the diminished status of the Other is present even while often not explicitly signaled to. The normality of “good,” “normal” white people who just “made a mistake” is a given, even if not explicitly stated.
An accurate context is essential for a sophisticated understanding of the social and political world. The "60 Minutes" story on White America’s heroin epidemic was, like many other discussions of race in the United States, devoid of that nuance and context.
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In the United States, rates of drug use are comparable across racial groups. But, black and brown people are incarcerated at much higher rates for these offenses than whites. And as was seen in New York’s “stop and frisk” program, while white people may have a higher chance of having drugs on their person, people of color are more likely to be harassed and arrested. White drug users are also much more likely to be put in diversionary or alternate treatment programs as compared to African-Americans. Blacks get prison and jail; whites receive a second chance and other types of assistance.
The struggle for justice along the color line is not limited to fighting segregation, wealth inequality, stopping police thuggery and legal murder, protecting voting rights, or ending job discrimination against black and brown Americans. It is also a story about expanding the boundaries and limits of empathy and respect.
"60 Minutes’" depiction of white heroin users was sympathetic and humanizing:
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Bill Whitaker: I'm sure there are some who would be watching this and would say, "Heroin addicts are junkies and they brought this on themselves, so why should we care?" Tracy Morrison: Because we don't throw diabetics who sit on the couch eating Bon Bons and smoke and they weigh 300 pounds in prison. We don't belittle them and there's not a big stigma; we don't do that to people that chain smoke and develop lung cancer. It's a chronic relapsing brain disease, period, amen, end of story and we need to accept it-- even if it makes people uncomfortable. And if people don't like that, I'm sorry.
And yet, given the complexities of America’s racist and classist War on Drugs, such sentiments are likely uncommon among the white public towards black and brown Americans in the same situations.
In the-post civil rights era, it bears reminding that white racism and white supremacy can take many forms. They can be overt and ugly. Likewise, such sentiments can appear in the form of “dog whistles” or “coded speech.” And yes, white racism and white supremacy can be signaled to by ostensibly “race neutral” comments that are reminders of how a sense of decency and human empathy is neither consistent nor fair along the color line—especially when drugs and crime are the topics of discussion.The ACC Men's Basketball Tournament (popularly known as the ACC Tournament) is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The tournament has been held every year since 1954, the ACC's first season. It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. The winner, declared conference champion, receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Tournament Champions [ edit ]
Since July 1, 1961, the ACC's bylaws have included the phrase "and the winner shall be the conference champion" in referring to the tournament, meaning that the conference tournament winner is the only champion of the ACC. The ACC is unique in college basketball in that it does not recognize a regular season champion in any way, although it does permit the regular season winner to hang a banner if it wishes, so long as the banner makes it clear that the title is not official.[1]
a b c The Charlotte Coliseum on Independence Boulevard opened in 1956, closed in 1988 when the Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola Road opened (that arena was demolished 2007), reopened in 1993 as Independence Arena. Cricket Wireless held naming rights from 2001 to 2006, and Bojangles' has held naming rights since 2008.
Venues [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
* Denotes the venue for a future ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.
^ The Greensboro Coliseum is next scheduled to host the tournament in 2020. ^ Charlotte Coliseum (Independence) adopted its current name of Bojangles' Coliseum in 2008, but after reopening in 1993, it was also known as Independence Arena and Cricket Arena, but never hosted an ACC men's tournament under any of its later names. (It hosted the ACC Women's Tournament from 1997–1999 as Independence Arena.) ^ Capital One Arena was known as MCI Center when it hosted in 2005, and the Verizon Center in 2016. ^ Spectrum Center was known as Charlotte Bobcats Arena when it served as the 2008 host. It was later known as Time Warner Cable Arena, but never hosted under that name. ^ Amalie Arena was known as the St. Pete Times Forum when it hosted in 2007. It was originally known as the Ice Palace, and later as the Tampa Bay Times Forum, but never hosted under either name. ^ State Farm Arena was known as Philips Arena when it hosted in 2012.
Tournament championships by school [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
GeneralBitcoin’s biggest miner, BitFury, says it is launching the world’s largest two-phase immersion cooling project.
As part of its new $100m data centre in the Republic of Georgia, the firm will cool more than 40MW of processing power in 3M’s engineered ‘Novec’ fluid.
Masterminded by Allied Control, the immersion cooling startup BitFury acquired in January, the project will help the miner reduce energy costs as it continues its rapid expansion.
BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov said in a statement:
“We’ve taken many steps to optimize our infrastructure for securing the blockchain and blockchain transaction processing … These experiences and technologies could be useful for next generation data center constructions of high performance computing and supercomputing.”
Phase one is on track to achieve a power usage effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.02 – meaning that for every 1.02 watts the centre takes in, 1 watt is transferred to its equipment. According to a 2014 survey, the average reported by data centres is 1.7.
Bitfury, which is also bitcoin’s best funded miner, has two other facilities, a 20MW centre in Gori, Georgia, and another in Iceland, with a PUE of 1.05. Last week it mined 16.6% of bitcoin blocks, nearly double rival KnCMiner.
Cool solution
With a deflated bitcoin price and increasing competition, running costs are more important for miners than ever. While power is often the biggest overhead, cooling equipment that runs 24/7 is another.
In an interview last April, Allied Control’s vice president of engineering, Alex Kampl, told CoinDesk immersion cooling, while costly, is a perfect fit for the bitcoin mining industry:
“Passive 2-phase immersion cooling is extremely promising, but miners are probably the only ones with the density, flexibility and the need for rapid deployment to use it here and today.”
The process works by immersing hardware in a liquid with a very low boiling point. Once heated, the liquid will evaporate |
in Uttar Pradesh the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site did not a represent Indian culture.
BCCL
So, the Yogi government recently decided to replace the Taj replica which was gifted to foreign dignitaries with a copy of the Gita.
Even in the recently announced UP Budget, the Taj Mahal was 'left out'. According to the government, the 16th-century structure isn’t part of Uttar Pradesh’s cultural heritage.
PTI
Don't Miss 94.4 K SHARES 48.6 K SHARES 64.9 K SHARES 19.2 K SHARES 35.3 K SHARES
But it seems like the government which snubbed the'monument of love' because the minaret wasn't Indian enough is okay with adopting something foreign to attract tourists.
That is, the 'Krishna Land', a proposed theme park in Mathura the birthplace of Lord Krishna.
Uttar Pradesh tourism officials have been asked to develop the blueprint of the project which the government aims to begin construction this year itself.
According to officials the 'Krishna Land' will be modeled based on the Disneyland in the US.
PTI
“We plan to reconstruct the entire stages of Krishna's life. There will be a jail where Devki and Vasudev were imprisoned and it was here that Krishna was born. We will also create an artificial river like Yamuna that is linked to several aspects of Krishna’s life,” an official said.
The World Bank funded 'Krishna Land' is one of the number of projects the Yogi government has proposed to make UP a religious tourism center.U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, was recently targeted by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Rep. Frank Wolf voted to allow terror suspects to buy guns," the group proclaimed on a web ad.
We decided to look at this claim, which clashes with Wolf’s tough-on-terrorism record. The 32-year congressman has accused the Obama administration of covering up details about a terrorist attack last September on an American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. He has vehemently opposed efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and allow civilian trials for 9/11 terrorists.
Kelly Steele, a spokesman for the mayors’ group, said the ad is based on a July 17 vote in the House Appropriations Committee on an amendment to the nation’s Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., would have allowed the attorney general "to deny transfer of firearms to persons known or suspected to be engaged in conduct related to terrorism." It failed on a largely party-line 29-19 vote. The mayors’ group has targeted each of the representatives who voted against the amendment.
"Under current law, someone can be too dangerous to board an airplane -- but can still legally buy guns and explosives," the group says in a web posting. "This dangerous loophole in our gun laws is called the Terror Gap."
The group is focused on an omission in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which the federal government and most states use to screen those buying firearms from licensed dealers. People may be barred from buying guns for a number reasons, including felony convictions, fugitive status, drug addiction, adjudication as mentally defective, status as an illegal immigrant, stay in the U.S. on a non-immigration visa, dishonorable discharge from the Armed Forces, a domestic violence conviction and criminal indictment.
But the ban does not extend to those who are suspected of terrorist activity and are on the FBI’s terrorist watch list. That could include U.S. citizens, people in the U.S. on immigrant visas and people here from about 40 allied nations for which the U.S. does not require a visa.
Since 2004, the federal government has kept data on the number of prospective firearm purchasers who are on the terrorist watch list. The 2011 cumulative figures showed of 1,453 people on the terrorist watch list who sought to purchase firearms or obtain an explosives license, 132 were denied for other reasons, while 1,321 were allowed to proceed. The FBI could not determine whether the purchase was actually made.
The Bush administration in 2007 asked Congress to pass legislation to allow the attorney general to deny a firearm purchase or explosives license "when the background check reveals the purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist and the attorney general reasonably believes that the person may use a firearm or explosives in connection with terrorism."
Every session since 2007, a bill to that effect has been introduced by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it has never come up for a vote. The National Rifle Association has strongly opposed the legislation, saying it could be used to persecute law-abiding gun owners. A 2009 report by the General Accounting Office said if Congress wants to ban firearm sales to suspected terrorists, it should require the Justice Department to establish guidelines to protect privacy and civil liberties.
Wolf is open-minded to closing the "terror gap", but believes the thorny issues should be resolved in the Judiciary Committee, according to Dan Scandling, the congressman’s chief of staff. Scandling said the congressman’s vote against the bill reflected his dissatisfaction with the "gotcha" procedure of bringing it up in the Appropriations Committee.
Matthew Dennis, a spokesman for Rep. Lowey, said the congresswoman sidestepped the Committee because the it was killing ground for the legislation. "Members of Congress who support closing this dangerous loophole have tried every avenue possible," he said.
In 2011, Lowey offered an identical amendment in the Appropriations Committee that was defeated by a 27-18 vote with Wolf voting against it. An article in The Hill said Wolf offered to work Lowey to "refine the amendment," but the congresswoman rejected his offer.
The article said, "Wolf said the amendment affected too many Americans since more than 500,000 people are on the terrorist list, according to the Justice Department. He noted that he regularly helps ordinary constituents get off the no-fly list after being put there by mistake."
A few final notes: Tom Culligan, Wolf’s legislative director, said the congressman supports the federal background check system and has voted to expand its funding. We should also mention that Wolf was endorsed by the NRA in last fall’s elections and received a B+ rating from the organization.
Our ruling
There’s no doubt that Wolf, sitting in the House Appropriations Committee, voted against an amendments to budget bills that would have allowed the attorney general to deny firearm sales to those suspected of abetting terrorism. Wolf had concerns that the legislation could trample the civil liberties of innocent people and objected to the procedure of bypassing Judiciary Committee -- a panel that has quashed similar bills since 2007.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns goes a step further in saying Wolf "voted to allow terror suspects to buy guns." That’s an inflammatory statement that suggests Wolf put gun rights ahead of protecting the nation from terrorists. It ignores Wolf’s spurned offer in 2011 to work with the sponsor of the amendment to find a compromise that could keep guns away from suspected terrorists while protecting the rights of those who have been unfairly placed on the government’s watch list.
So the mayors’ statement has accuracy, but omits important details about Wolf’s position. We rate it Half True.Thiruvananthapuram: An inquiry report on the medical college affiliation case involving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state leaders has been altered with the bribe money becoming consultation fee, it has emerged.
The name of an aide to the state president was also reportedly removed from the report submitted to the national leadership. The BJP state unit had come under a cloud recently after an internal party commission report surfaced in the media, which stated that a party functionary had allegedly received Rs 5.60 crore for getting Medical Council of India clearance to a private medical college at Varkala.
The state leadership submitted the altered report to the national leaders, but a member of the inquiry panel passed on the original to BJP national president Amit Shah, it has emerged. With both the reports in hand, national leaders are aware of the meddling and are set to probe it.
The BJP state leadership had reportedly received legal advice that the altered report would foil a state Vigilance inquiry into the bribery charges. It will also help to argue that the original report was fake. Besides, action can be avoided against those close to the Kerala BJP leadership.
Two prominent state BJP leaders had traveled to Delhi and handed over the altered report to national leaders.
The BJP had earlier taken disciplinary action against its state secretary V.V. Rajesh for allegedly leaking the internal report connected with the scam.
Read more: Kerala News | Easily irritable, but not violent, minister Shylaja defends husbandFirstly I am a graphic designer. One whose type design skills are almost entirely self-taught and honed in those precious hours between work and bed. I am dedicated to the process and craft of making beautiful and functional typography. As a result, what sleep I have is typically only sufficient enough to get me through the next working day.
Developing a font not only means drawing a beautiful group of letters,(that’s about 20% of the work) but also considering the metrics, diacritics, kerning, hinting let alone developing the visuals to promote the font. And after all of this, perhaps even making some money. In my case, it has been fairly nominal thus far, but that hasn’t stopped me believing in type and how type has shaped my ability to tackle work and personal problems.
It is a challenging process and one that demands a lot of energy, discipline, and patience. In this text I will guide you through my process of drawing letters, developing fonts and will end by sharing some tips for designers.
Ever since I attended an open calligraphy class at the University of Fine Arts in Lisbon led by Jorge dos Reis, calligraphy and lettering have always been a great influence on my work.
It’s been roughly 5 years since that class and ever since I have been practicing my calligraphic skills both on paper and on screen.
It is a tough process and one in which you need to invest a ludicrous amount of time to even begin to see satisfying results. Finding the right pens, finding the right stock and indeed uncovering the secrets of how best to trace letterings into beautiful vector shapes, are just some of the first things one needs to address.
Before I discovered calligraphy, I was already playing around with font development. Discovering the in’s and out’s of type can at first be very frustrating. Things such as defining the kerning and creating the right shapes in seemingly impossible letters. The challenge of the bumpy “S” (no pun intended) and inconsistent thickness, to name but a few.
“Stroke widths” by Ian Moore
And then you learn things like an optical illusion, and dive into the theory behind typography, its history, the legacy of masters such as Paul Renner, Tony Dispigna & Herb Lubalin and how many different voices a simple letterform can carry. And that’s why I kept and indeed keep going.
I could have done as most graphic designers would, and apply these ideas through brand guidelines, a logo or in motion graphics, but instead, I chose the painful path of kerning, hinting and OTF features.
“Film Classics” by Tony Dispigna
For my thesis, I challenged myself to develop an experimental font that aimed to question the Latin alphabet as we currently know it. To summarize: a font that didn’t carry a message, but a font that also serves as a tool for producing knowledge.
IVO font sample
Here’s what I wrote about it back then:
This typography project assumes that there is a graphic evolution associated to the Latin alphabet.
With this assumption, the Ivo typography breaks the common graphemes that compose the Latin alphabet, elevating it to a whole new level of graphic formulation. It is upon this logic that the reader has an opportunity to learn a new graphic language, based on a reading process that is associated to the Latin alphabet (regardless of the language used.)
Ivo Typography is an interpretation of the graphemes used in the Latin alphabet. Its aim is to focus on a good differentiation between letters and the building of a harmonious alphabet.
Ivo typography aims to look for failings and flaws in the field of Latin literature. It enforces the notion that typography serves not only to facilitate the reading of the text but also to question and educate the reader about the alphabet being used.
In case you want to have a look at my thesis I can happily share it with you. Portuguese only I’m afraid!
In the meantime, you can always download the font for free (you’re welcome).
If you want to be blown away by the power of context, just apply the 3 levels of IVO [Level 1 for the 1st paragraph, Level 2 for the 2nd paragraph and Level 3 for the 3rd paragraph], and you will see how you can read something that just feels so strange.
At this point, I still couldn’t summon the courage to attempt a calligraphic font. Instead, the complexities of it made me want to practice on different styles.
This began with a Sans Serif and collaboration with Bruno Rodrigues. Together we developed BIG.
BIG sample
BIG is an elegant condensed display font created for strong and impactful headlines. It comes from a series of hand printed specimens taken from a wood type that reassembles an industrial Victorian style. This font has great OpenType features, allowing the user to compose the headlines in two different heights with matching punctuation and symbols.
Following this first approach to create a commercial font, I had the OpenType calling and felt the need to explore the world of swashes and ligatures. That’s when I created Memória.
Memória Font sample
Memória font was a great exercise on a production level. The modular structure of the letter allowed me more time to explore the complexities of OTF features like swashes. It is great to look back on a font like this and remind myself (and everybody) about the importance of kerning…and why there are so many free fonts… like this one! Download the font for free.
After I had finished Memória and while we were producing BIG, I started to work on another, no less challenging project: my own brand.
Creating your own brand, as most designers will know is far harder than it looks. You really need to know who you are and be aware of your impression in the world. Sometimes you have words, thoughts or even movements that help to define that. Even still, it doesn’t feel like enough material to visualize yourself. But if it is ample material for a client why shouldn’t it be enough for yourself?
At this point, it was pretty obvious to me that I had to develop my own font. That way I didn’t need to rely on the idea of a specific style to define myself. When I look at my portfolio, I don’t really fit in one style. I like to explore different media and styles, albeit with one consistent thread: the use of typography.Bus driver Cathal Carroll asks if I’ve heard the news this morning. I haven’t. Four thousand souls have just been rescued from the waters of the Mediterranean, he says. All of them African refugees. All fleeing hunger and persecution in their native lands. What do I think about that?
A Roscommon man himself, Carroll recalls the 1,500 inhabitants of Strokestown, Co Roscommon, who were marched en masse to board coffin ships at the height of the Great Famine. Many of them perished on the high seas. “It should be in our nature to want to help these people,” he says.
He pulls to a stop outside the Old Convent in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo. Perched on a hill, surrounded by high walls and a remote-controlled gate, this cold, imposing building has always stood aloof from the life of the town below.
The nuns who lived here when I was a boy have left, and the institution has been repurposed as a direct provision centre for asylum seekers.
Across the State, some 5,000 people live in more than 30 of these centres. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work or to receive social welfare. Instead they are given full-board accommodation and allowances of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child per week.
The roughly 250 (mostly African) residents packed in to the Ballyhaunis centre today are separated from the local community by even wider chasms of language, culture and circumstance.
Ballyhaunis is Ireland’s most ethnically diverse town. The foreign-national population here was 42 per cent at the 2011 census. A majority of children in the local primary school, Scoil Íosa, do not speak English at home. And the refugees housed in the Old Convent are only a small part of that ethnic mix.
The town is home to a well-established community of Pakistanis and Syrians, who came here in the late 1970s and built Ireland’s first purpose-built mosque on Clare Street not long afterward. A sizeable contingent of eastern Europeans also arrived during the economic boom of the mid-2000s, as well as a large number of Traveller families.
‘We don’t really know each other’
In a town where almost as many shop fronts are boarded up as are open for business, these communities have so far lived in peaceful, but parallel, coexistence.
“We don’t know each other really,” says Gerard McGarry, president of the local GAA club. The club hosted an integration day at the local pitch at the end of May. Ballyhaunis is a vibrant club, winning senior hurling and intermediate football county champions in 2014. And based on the number of volunteers mobilised today, backing for the initiative is widespread.
The integration day was the brainchild of Darran Conlon, a hurling coach and former boxing champion. Conlon says his own two boys mix freely with children from different backgrounds at school. “They play together and go to birthday parties with the eastern European kids and the kids in direct provision. They have respect for each other’s cultures and I hope that continues.”
A garda by profession, Conlon is aware of the potential pitfalls ahead for a town like Ballyhaunis.
“We’ve seen ghettos and gangs emerge in other countries. We’re lucky in that we’ve never any problems like that here. And what I see now is a chance to ensure that we never do. The GAA is central to that effort, in my opinion, because the GAA is central to this community.”
The response from children so far is enthusiastic. Indeed, so many young sport enthusiasts are lined up outside the Old Convent when the bus arrives, it takes Carroll three runs to ferry them all to the pitch.
One young Nigerian girl, an Irish dancer, is so excited she’s 1-2-3-ing nervously on the spot.
Carroll greets several of the children by name. He’s been driving the bus from the Old Convent to Carrick National School, a few miles out the road, for more than a decade now. Despite their carefree smiles today, he says, many of them have witnessed terrible things in their lives.
Carroll’s son, Phelim, is a captain in the Irish Army, currently deployed in the Golan Heights, Syria. “One day I mentioned to them that my son was a soldier,” Carroll says. He mimes the children’s visceral reaction. “They said, ‘Your son is a bad man? He kills people?’ I said ‘No, no, no. It’s okay.’ It took me a while to convince them that Irish soldiers are good soldiers. Irish soldiers are peacekeepers.”
‘Hurling is scary to me’
At the GAA pitch, the scent of barbecue is wafting in the air when we arrive. The convent children are handed paper tickets, entitling them to sweets, fizzy drinks and burgers. They exit the bus in record time.
In the pitch area outside, a face-painting tent, a DJ, a male voice choir, Irish dancers and a marching band vie for their attention.
Under-six and under-eight football and hurling matches are already under way on the playing field. Girls and boys of different races throw themselves into the fray. Watching from the sidelines is Faith Kayange, from Malawi. Her six-year-old son, Mike, has been a member of the club for more than a year.
Kayange says the first time she saw small children carrying sticks and wearing helmets, she was a little alarmed. “Hurling is a bit scary to me,” she says, laughing. But Mike has grown to love Gaelic football and his mother is appreciative of the encouragement he has received.
Today’s event is more than just a token gesture, her partner adds. The club have really gone out of their way to make children and parents feel welcome. Mike is wearing a Mayo jersey. Maybe someday he’ll get to wear that jersey for real? “Maybe,” his mother agrees. “Who knows?”
That isn’t exactly an idle thought. On the pitch, Darran Conlon is keeping a close eye on his new recruits. He is outspoken in his criticism of the direct-provision regime, in which refugees are prohibited from working for years on end while their asylum applications are processed. He believes direct-provision centres are “the Magdalene Laundries of our time”.
Yet he freely admits the club’s interest in refugee children is not entirely altruistic. “They’re natural athletes,” he says. “One boy from the convent picked up a ball and started toe-tapping like the Gooch. I said, ‘Where’d you learn to do that?’ ” The boy shrugged.
“Absolutely, we want the best players on our teams. And we want to be able to field teams at every level. That’s important, of course.”
Africans are relatively new arrivals on the Ballyhaunis GAA scene. But the club has scarcely fielded an underage team in the past 15 years that didn’t include at least a couple of players of Muslim origin. Nearby, Hannan Iqbal pucks a sliotar among group of novice players. The 21-year-old is the walking embodiment of the social and sporting dividends the club’s integration policies are paying.
‘Everybody knows where Ireland is now’
Iqbal’s family moved to Ireland from Pakistan when he was seven. “Never mind the GAA,” he says. “I don’t think people in Pakistan had even heard about Ireland at the time. Then Pakistan lost to Ireland in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Now everybody knows where Ireland is, I think.”
When Iqbal took up hurling, aged 11, he wasn’t yet fluent in English. Today his accent is indistinguishable from those of his Irish-born teammates.
“All the coaches were pure sound to me starting out,” he says. “When you’re a kid coming in from a different community, you think you’re going to be treated differently. But you’re not. The GAA is just like a family. When you’re part of a club, it becomes your second family.”
Did he ever experience racism on the field, I ask? Not in hurling, he says. The Mayo hurling fraternity is small. Having represented the county from under-14 level upwards, his opponents have tended also to be his friends. So there have never been any real problems.
What about football? He appears to be racking his brain. “Once,” he offers. “One time, I was in goal and the opposition just couldn’t score against me. They got a bit fussy and stuff. Saying a few words about me.” Did that bother him? “Nah,” he shakes his head. “If someone can’t score against me, obviously they’re going to say stuff to put me off my game. I don’t give a sh*t. I let it in one ear and out the other.”
Iqbal is studying biochemistry at NUI Galway, where he is secretary of the university’s GAA club. He also does PR work for the GAA’s Connacht Centre of Excellence at Knock, Co Mayo. He’s so devoted to hurling, he spurned the opportunity to study abroad on Erasmus because he couldn’t bear to be away from the game.
For Dr Orla McGarry, a migration sociologist at NUI Galway, it was her own experience studying on Erasmus in France that first inspired here to undertake a serious sociological examination of conditions for migrants living in Ballyhaunis.
“I remember seeing barbed wire around areas where Algerians lived in France,” says McGarry, daughter of Ballyhaunis GAA president Gerard McGarry. “That was just so shocking to me. And it got me thinking about my own home town.”
McGarry’s PhD thesis, on identity formation among Muslim teenagers in Ballyhaunis, was published in 2012. “Between Irish and east European people, there are many cultural similarities,” she says. “They both go to the pub. They both socialise in very similar ways. Whereas, Muslims don’t have that. That’s one facet of Irish society that’s completely incompatible with their religion.”
(For the record, Iqbal says he visits pubs occasionally. “Obviously, I don’t drink or smoke,” he says. “That’s against our religion. But when one of the lads has a birthday or whatever, I go along. My parents know they can trust me. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”)
“When it comes to asylum seekers, socialising is more of an economic problem,” says McGarry. “They haven’t the money to go out even if they wanted to. So what’s important here is to seek out things each community has in common, common thresholds at which we can meet halfway.
“For the Pakistani children, there is no disjuncture between sport and their religion. The two go hand in hand. For the young lads who get involved in the GAA, it really does prove a gateway into wider Irish society.”
Hijabs and hattricks
Of course, not every child is going to be interested in playing sport. And among the Muslim community, at least, female participation in Gaelic games appears to be taboo. McGarry acknowledges these points.
“I’m always wary of diagnosing Muslim girls as marginalised,” she says. “They are very resourceful and tend to find other ways of expressing their identities.”
She mentions Hijabs and Hattricks, an initiative launched by a Dublin soccer club to show that Muslim women can play football without compromising their female modesty.
“But yes, I would love to see participation in sport become as viable an option for Muslim girls as it is for their brothers and male cousins.”
On the pitch outside, the children are wrapping up festivities for the day by marching, in their club and county colours, under the national flags of Pakistan, Palestine, Mali, Liberia, Ghana, Angola, Kosovo, Ireland and a half a dozen other countries whose colours I fail to recognise. The rain is bucketing down. But the kids stand tall. It’s a moving spectacle.
In the viewing stand, a trio of local TDs, John O’Mahony, Michelle Mulherin and Dara Calleary, are all effusive in their praise for today’s event. Ballyhaunis GAA president Gerard McGarry even suggests the town’s multicultural experience might help guide policy at a national level.
“We’re trying to solve problems here,” McGarry says. “We’re trying to get to know our neighbours better. The immigrants from Pakistan who came here in the 1970s have integrated into the club and into the local community very successfully. They’ve managed to retain their culture while providing us with a lot of very skilful hurlers and footballers.”
“The club is now hoping to continue this integration process with the newer immigrants who’ve arrived. The club could probably survive without these newcomers getting involved. But the community couldn’t.”
Problems still exist in Ballyhaunis, and the fault lines aren’t always where you’d expect. Dr Orla McGarry’s research uncovered latent tensions in the secondary education system between Punjabi-speaking Muslims in the established community and the mostly Urdu-speaking Muslims living in direct provision.
Another native Irish volunteer, whose efforts I compliment today, tells me he’s happy to have helped out. The immigrant children are a delight. “It’s some of those closer to home...” – he gestures towards the queue for the barbecue, where boisterous Traveller children have forced their way to the front – “I wouldn’t be quite so enthusiastic about.”
But community relations anywhere are always going to be a work in progress. Ballyhaunis, at least, appears to have set its course in the right direction.
A couple of hours after the crowds disperse here, organiser Darran Conlon tweets a photo of local black, white and Asian children holding up a large “Give Respect, Get Respect” banner.
“Every day is Integration Day in Ballyhaunis GAA,” he writes. “Today we just celebrated it.”Feb 18 2016 by Alison Mai
I was one of those typical kids who tried everything growing up - gymnastics, soccer, dance, piano, violin, everything. But one thing stuck with me growing up - swimming. I was the third child with both of my older siblings being swimmers as well, so I guess you could say it was in my blood. By the time I was born, my brother was almost 10 years old and winning States, so you could also say I had a high bar to reach.
I was quite the stellar swimmer as a kid, as my parents and coaches said. But when I moved to France, my whole mentality about swimming changed along with all other aspects of my life. Suddenly, I wasn't living and breathing the sport. I became much more involved with myself (self-discovery and all, ya feel) as well as my new city and friends. So when the time came to apply to colleges, swimming wasn't really on my mind until my college counselor suggested it. "It can't hurt", she said. And boy, was she right.
Being overseas, the recruiting process was a bit different but I still paid visits to potential schools and communicated with coaches from universities all over the U.S. Once I thought about doing it, there was no turning back; I wanted to live and breathe the sport again, to feel the adrenaline rush through my veins and the satisfaction of out-touching someone by.01 (or even, the disappointment in losing by that much).
I accepted my offer to Emory and I say this to myself every day, "Emory and the swim team are the greatest and smartest decisions I've ever made." I don't say that because Emory's women's varsity swim team is currently on a 6-year streak of NCAA Championships (although that definitely helps), but because the team environment has helped me so much, through thick and thin. My coaches are my most trustworthy mentors, my team captains became some of my most valuable friends, and my team has supported me in any endeavor. Even though swimming may seem like an individual sport, we've all come to the conclusion that this is a team effort: we do what we do because it's for the good of the team. That mentality was something that I had completely forgotten about, that had escaped my mind in my path to self-discovery during my time in France.
Freshman year can be intimidating, and I know that I was overwhelmed going into a whole new environment meeting 100 new people every day for the first few weeks. Swimming allowed me to have an automatic group of friends from the second that I stepped foot on campus; like a family, we all love each other and support one another unconditionally. This team has unwavering loyalty to each other, something that I found is scarce among a sea of backstabbers. Not only has this team been my family and helped me feel included in a crowd of new people, but they've also been an incredible positive influence on me, both socially and academically. I didn't have as many awkward encounters as a freshman, as my friend group was almost chosen for me. With my team, I know that I can fall back to them no matter what happens to me.
I didn't bounce between friend groups at the beginning of freshman year like so many of my friends off the team did. I didn't wander awkwardly in the dining hall searching, hoping for a familiar face. I was thrown into a family, a group of people who understood me not only as an athlete but as a student. Training 20+ hours week with the same group of 70 people can be exhausting (physically and socially), sure, but I wouldn't trade my team for anything in the world. And while I'll say that my two closest friends are off of the team (because, like a family, we all need our time away form each other), my team always has my back: unconditionally. They're the people you fight for, live for, die for, and my freshman year would be so different without their steady support.
Lead Image Credit: Alison Mai
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Want more Fresh U? Like us on Facebook!On a recent January evening, tourists and a few Habaneros sat under a palm frond canopy sipping rum cocktails, listening to a live band playing Cuban folk songs — and eating notoriously difficult-to-procure lobster, a special of the day.
California Cafe, a paladar, or newly legal, privately owned restaurant in a country where the state has controlled almost all businesses for the past half century, is owned by a couple who met in San Francisco. Paver Core Broche is Cuban, Shona Baum is American, and they decided to return to Havana to open a restaurant in February 2015, not long after the regulations for private businesses started loosening.
“In some ways it was really easy,” Baum says about the process of opening a paladar in Havana. “You can’t even open a coffee cart in San Francisco without a million permits and tons of money, and here… we bought the space, and applied for a license, and it didn’t take that long.”
But in Cuba, most businesses can’t simply call up a bulk vendor or wholesaler purveyor to place a produce order, since most means of production are controlled by the government. The country uses two currencies, Cuban convertible pesos (CUCs) and Cuban pesos (CUPs), the former tied to the U.S. dollar and known as the “tourist currency,” the latter, valued at 1/25th of the CUC, used by the government to pay its oversized labor force. (Paladares and private businesses might charge in either.) Running a restaurant can be complicated in the best of situations, but it’s especially challenging in a country where most aspects of daily life are tightly regulated — and where much of the economy operates a la izquierda, or “on the left.”
Restaurant owners say if they want to stay in business, they have to buy certain things a la izquierda.
As California Cafe grew, both Baum (who works the front of the house) and Broche (who cooks) had to learn to navigate the labyrinth of sourcing food and supplies in a place where the state-run corner bodega might have 100 imported fruit cakes on the shelf but no toilet paper. Baum says the reality in Cuba is that product availability is sporadic. “When they have mayonnaise, they have three million [jars of] mayonnaise, and then it’s gone and they have three million of something else,” she says.
To find many necessary items — from condiments to serving plates — one has to travel around the city visiting various markets. That process can quickly become time-consuming, and Broche and Baum hired a full-time person to help with sourcing. They also rent a storeroom to stockpile enough nonperishables to last a few weeks of service, and they plan their menu around ingredients that are usually available. The result is a style they call “Californian-Cuban fusion,” with vegetable-heavy dishes like pork and vegetable “California” skewers.
But the inconsistent availability of products is only one aspect of sourcing that makes operating a paladar a complicated endeavor in Havana. The other is the persistence of a la izquierda — the Cuban black market. There are many ingredients and products needed by restaurants that are either illegal to buy or else often expensive or scarce, such as lobster or non-processed cheese. And staples like toilet paper, vinegar, and beer can also suddenly become hard to find, or “esta perdido,” (literally “it’s lost”), Baum says. Numerous restaurant owners note that if they want to stay in business, they have to buy certain things a la izquierda.
Alexi, a paladar owner near Cuba’s second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, worked for many years in the state-owned hotel industry before opening his own open-air restaurant with tented tables right on the Caribbean. “You must be enterprising to get all of the things you need for your restaurant,” he says. “Today we have something, but tomorrow it will be quite difficult to get that same thing … and it is illegal to buy some things. For example, the government has made all kinds of seafood illegal to buy. So sometimes I have to buy products other ways.”
The Cuban black market works in many ways to circumvent the government’s control of goods. One is the common — and complicated — practice of state-owned-store employees holding back certain goods to sell a la izquierda, while accepting pay-offs for other goods — procured illegally by individuals — to be sold in their shop instead. The government has strict regulations on the sale of almost every food sourced, from seafood to coffee to tomatoes, setting the harvest goals and prices for each farmer or fisherman and prohibiting the sale of excess through private channels. To make extra money, almost any person within the supply chain might reserve products to be sold at a price he or she dictates.
Buying products a la izquierda is so integrated into daily Cuban life that it often does not look much different than most other transactions to the average non-Cuban — these sales aren’t all happening in dark alleys with secret handshakes. Rather, there is a complex system of bribery and separate record-keeping that many employees of both state- and private-run businesses take part in.
Both Alexi and a former military cook, Marcus, who lives in Santiago de Cuba, attribute this in part to the government prioritizing state-run restaurants and hotels when they distribute the best-quality food. “If I have a good paladar, then that means people are going to eat at my paladar and they are not going to be a good customer for the government,” Marcus says. “That’s [the government’s] loss, and they don’t want that.” Marcus is currently attending a military cooking school, but hopes to soon work in a tourist hotel and eventually own his own restaurant, a dream that wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago.
“If I have a good paladar, people are going to eat here... that’s the govern-ment’s loss, and they don’t want that.”
Paladares were technically legalized in the 1990s, partially in reaction to |
launch Zomato Base and has just acquired US based NexTable (source), a restaurant reservations and table-management platform that competes against the likes of Priceline’s OpenTable and SeatMe from Yelp (here's what you need to know about Yelp). Terms of the deal haven't been disclosed except that it is a cash and stock deal. NexTable's team will join Zomato.
Deepinder Goyal, CEO of Zomato had mentioned the launch of table reservations yesterday in a tweet. The new service will be called Zomato Book.
Zomato Book (table reservations). Coming to you in July - starting with Australia, UAE and India. pic.twitter.com/nfLAqa75pO— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) April 22, 2015
Even though NexTable is US based, Zomato Book will be launched in Australia, UAE and India first. For NexTable, the acquisition made sense since they were looking for the firepower to grow. The company has very humble beginnings as they say in their 'about us' page,"It all started with a passion to build something that could solve the problems facing an Asian Fusion restaurant in Charlotte North Carolina. TC DeSilva, our head software architect, was having lunch there one day with Chi Zhang, who ran the restaurant with his brother-in-law, Phong Luong. They saw the waitress taking orders and reservations manually while the computer lay useless running some outdated software." Robert Tyree came on board and the trio started their journey. Completely bootstrapped till now, NexTable has joined ahnds with Zomato to reach the next stage.
This is Zomato's second acquisition in the US (ninth in all), after gobbling up the massive UrbanSpoon. As a Zomato fan summarizes in this tweet, it'd be pretty difficult for the urban population (atleast in India) to think of food without Zomato.
Pretty soon it’ll be impossible to eat/order food without Zomato.— Harpreet (@Harry_Jerry) April 22, 2015
Apart from listing and reviews, Zomato will now own the communication channel between hotels and customers via online ordering and table reservations. This also opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of monetization. The food tech space is spicy hot in India right now and Zomato would salivating at the prospects.Telltale Games really struck gold when they first released The Walking Dead, a title set within the same universe as the hit comic book and AMC drama series, but with new characters. We got to see our protagonist Clementine grow up and face a world filled with the undead and corrupt groups of survivors, but for season three we should be seeing a different side of Clementine.
Announced at PAX, Telltale Games has unveiled a release window for their upcoming The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, which is set to release this November. In a technical standpoint, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is the beginning of The Walking Dead season three. However, it was revealed that the development team has created a story that would suit not only longtime fans of the series but newcomers as well.
We don’t have too many details surrounding the story for this episodic video game release quite yet. What we do know is that the game would once again feature Clementine, who is now in her teenage years. With her is a new face to the series, Javier, who will uncover mysterious details of Clementine’s past.
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will have a total of five episodes released within the season. Though we don’t know a specific date for when the first episode will be up for grabs this November, Telltale Games has confirmed that the game will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and mobile platforms.MUSKEGON, MI – The Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office has released a surveillance video of last month’s
and said it has charged 17 students in the incident.
The video, from a camera some distance away, shows students surging at one end of the lunchroom during the brawl as others stand on chairs to watch.
Two 17-year-old females were charged as adults with misdemeanor violations of Muskegon city ordinance. One was charged with resisting and obstructing police and fighting, while the other was charged with fighting. In Michigan, 17-year-olds are always regarded as adults for the purpose of criminal charging.
In addition, 15 students between the ages of 14 and 16 were charged as juveniles with a variety of misdemeanors, including:
• Resisting and obstructing police.
• Fighting.
• Assault and battery.
• Disorderly conduct
• Disobeying lawful instructions.
Muskegon County Probate Judge Gregory C. Pittman will oversee all of the cases, according to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat.
Of the 15 juveniles charged, the prosecutor’s office has requested that seven of the more serious cases be directly assigned to the judge rather than handled informally by other juvenile-court staff. That could result in more serious sanctions for the seven juveniles, Maat said.
The March 26 fight broke out shortly after 11 a.m. The fight started with two female students and escalated from there, police said. No one was seriously injured, although one pregnant student was hospitalized after she was pushed to the ground.
Police used pepper spray to subdue the situation.
Muskegon Public Schools Superintendent Jon Felske earlier said the fight began during the school's first lunch period, which has mainly freshmen and sophomores. Students involved in the fight were facing school punishment in addition to the misdemeanors, he had said.
Email John Hausman at jhausman@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @johnshausmanIn the past, Lara Croft didn't need protecting. She was a fearless daredevil, a crack shot in short shorts with enough attitude to scare off a pack of bloodthirsty gorillas.
But in the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot, things will be different. She hasn't become that woman yet. And executive producer Ron Rosenberg says you'll want to keep her safe.
"When people play Lara, they don't really project themselves into the character," Rosenberg told me at E3 last week when I asked if it was difficult to develop for a female protagonist.
"They're more like 'I want to protect her.' There's this sort of dynamic of 'I'm going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her.'"
So is she still the hero? I asked Rosenberg if we should expect to look at Lara a little bit differently than we have in the past.
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"She's definitely the hero but— you're kind of like her helper," he said. "When you see her have to face these challenges, you start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."
The new Lara Croft isn't just less battle-hardened; she's less voluptuous. Gone are her ridiculous proportions and skimpy clothing. This Lara feels more human, more real. That's intentional, Rosenberg says.
"You start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."
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"The ability to see her as a human is even more enticing to me than the more sexualized version of yesteryear," he said. "She literally goes from zero to hero... we're sort of building her up and just when she gets confident, we break her down again."
In the new Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will suffer. Her best friend will be kidnapped. She'll get taken prisoner by island scavengers. And then, Rosenberg says, those scavengers will try to rape her.
"She is literally turned into a cornered animal," Rosenberg said. "It's a huge step in her evolution: she's forced to either fight back or die."
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It's some dark material, the type of content you might not expect from an action-adventure game like Tomb Raider. But Rosenberg isn't worried about alarming people too much. He says players will see right away that this is a darker, "more mature" version of Lara's story. He compared it to the origin story of a comic book like Spider-Man or Batman, saying he thinks it "has that feel to it."
"We're not trying to be over the top, shock people for shock's sake," he said. "We're trying to tell a great origin story."Sets aside death sentence, life imprisonment awarded to four convicts
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday set aside the capital punishment awarded to Shahrukh Jatoi and one of his accomplices in the famous Shahzeb Khan’s murder case and referred the case back to a sessions court for retrial.
In August 2013, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi handed down death sentence to Jatoi and Nawab Siraj Talpur for killing Shahzeb Khan on the night of December 24, 2012 when Shahzeb was returning home along with his sister after attending a wedding.
The ATC had also awarded life imprisonment to Jatoi’s accomplices – Sajjad Talpur and his servant Ghulam Murtaza Lashari. Later, Jatoi and others had challenged their conviction in the SHC.
The SHC held several rounds of proceedings to review Jatoi’s application for retrial by a juvenile court, his compromise with the victim’s family, the appeals of the other defendants and a reference sent by the ATC seeking confirmation of sentences.
Farooq H Naek, who represented Jatoi, argued that the convict was a juvenile at the time of crime and, therefore, his case should not have been tried by an ATC. He claimed that the murder was a result of personal enmity and pleaded the high court to order retrial of the case by a sessions court.
Shahzeb Khan murder: Shahrukh Jatoi may walk away from the gallows
After conclusion of the arguments, the two-judge SHC bench, headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, on Tuesday set aside the ATC’s judgment and remanded the case back to the sessions court for retrial.
“We find that this was a case of personal vendetta; hence Section 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Act was misapplied by the police as well cognizance and trial was not proper,” ruled the bench in its judgment.
In his plea, Jatoi had also mentioned of the compromise struck with the victim’s legal heirs. In the compromise, Shahzeb Khan’s family had said they had pardoned Jatoi without accepting blood money.
Fleeing the country: Shahrukh Jatoi, nine others to be indicted
With regard to the compromise, the SHC ruled: “The trial court will be competent to decide the compromise application within four months within the four corners of law; as well as any other application before the trial court.” However, the judges dismissed the criminal revision application of Jatoi, seeking his trial by the juvenile court under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000. The court also answered in the negative the reference sent by the ATC’s judge for sentences’ confirmation. Shahzeb Khan’s killing had sparked a debate on whether the country’s elite could be held accountable for crimes they commit. The murder was followed by protests of civil society members that prompted the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take suo motu notice of the incident.
Read full storyRoss Ulbricht, the convicted founder and operator of online black market Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after being found guilty of narcotics and computer hacking charges in February.
The severity of the sentencing quickly set off a firestorm of comment and criticism, with debates centering on the alleged hypocrisy of the federal government and the morality of its handling of illicit Internet crime in context of its actions against the traditional financial sector.
Such criticisms, however, were interspersed with live drama, as standing outside of a New York courthouse, Lyn Ulbricht voiced concern for her son Ross Ulbricht’s safety as he heads to maximum security prison.
“I fear for his safety,” she said, according to footage of the press conference. “I fear for his life.”
Lyn Ulbricht added that a medium-security prison, in her opinion, would be more appropriate given his behavior since his arrest in late 2013, but acknowledged that “with his sentence, I don’t know if that can be possible”.
During her comments, Ulbricht criticized the government for keeping Silk Road open, suggesting that federal officials should share the blame for deaths said to be tied to the dark market’s operation.
She told reporters:
“Two of those overdose deaths happened while the government had the server. They owned and controlled it, and they kept it open, open for business, and those two deaths happened. And by their logic, are they liable as well?”
Ulbricht went on to criticize the fact that some information remains under seal regarding the indictment of two federal agents accused of going rogue during the US government’s investigation of Silk Road.
Defense attorney Joshua Dratel also spoke during the press, declaring his disappointment with the outcome and vowing once again to appeal the conviction.
Dratel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter reacts
Even before the sentencing hearing, Twitter was abuzz with thoughts on the then-pending result.
Often times the law is wrong. It’s the lawbreakers who move society forward. Think Rosa Parks, or Harriet Tubman and perhaps, Ross Ulbricht. — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) May 26, 2015
Ross Ulbricht is being sentenced today. He did more to reduce violence in the drug trade than probably anyone in history. #bitcoin#silkroad — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) May 29, 2015
After the sentence was handed down, many observers shared their disappointment with the outcome.
If he was no different than any other drug dealer, why give him life? — Cody R. Wilson (@Radomysisky) May 29, 2015
Honest question: Has anyone in history ever been more harshly punished for something they did with a computer? http://t.co/qvYB8rid17 — Andy Greenberg (@a_greenberg) May 29, 2015
I hope 1000s of new Dread Pirate Roberts were born today. #freeross — Bitcoin Error Log (@BitcoinErrorLog) May 29, 2015
Some commentators pointed out how, under US law, some crimes directly related to the death of another person often result in more lenient sentences.
You literally get less for getting drunk and ploughing through some innocent kids with your car. #TruFax#SilkRoadTrial — Dani Gearbench (@DaniGearbench) May 29, 2015
Other comments questioned the alleged hypocrisy of federal prosecutors who demanded a life sentence and millions in ordered payments for Ulbricht’s involvement in Silk Road while major banks implicated in multi-billion dollar market rigging schemes have been handed penalties that are significantly less severe.
Some reacted to the sentencing outcome through donations to Ulbricht’s defense fund. One donation topped 5 BTC, according to the official FreeRoss.org Twitter account.
Government celebrates outcome
Shortly after the sentence was announced, representatives in the US government soon took advantage of the occasion to celebrate its successful case against Ulbricht.
In a Justice Department press release, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara described Ulbricht as “the face of cybercrime” and lauded the outcome of the trial, stating:
“Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people. Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law.”
According to a statement attributed to US Distric Judge Katherine Forrest, the trial proves that “all stand equal before the law”.
“There must be no doubt that you cannot run a massive criminal enterprise and because it occurred over the Internet minimize the crime committed on that basis,” she noted.
Image via FreeRoss.orgA Life Without Fear
Jesse Neider for NPR
The drama class had just gotten out, and everybody was standing around talking when Jessica noticed her 9-year-old, Isabelle, making her way over to an elderly woman Jessica had never seen. The woman was neatly dressed, most likely just a well-meaning suburban grandmother who had come to retrieve a grandchild on behalf of an over-extended parent, most likely a perfectly harmless person.
Isabelle, as she usually did, exchanged hellos and struck up a conversation. It was the usual post-drama-class conversation until about two minutes in. Then Isabelle dropped the bomb.
"Will you take me? Can I go home with you?" Jessica heard Isabelle plead.
Driven To Trust
Jessica's daughter, Isabelle, has Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder with a number of symptoms. Children with Williams are often physically small and frequently have developmental delays. But also, kids and adults with Williams love people, and they are literally pathologically trusting. They have no social fear. Researchers theorize that this is probably because of a problem in their limbic system, the part of the brain that regulates emotion. There appears to be a disregulation in one of the chemicals (oxytocin) that signals when to trust and when to distrust.
This means that it is essentially biologically impossible for kids like Isabelle to distrust. (NPR is not using full names in this story for privacy and safety reasons.)
"They don't have that kind of evolutionary thing that other kids have, that little twinge of anxiety like, 'Who is this person? What should I do here?' " Jessica explains. "They just don't have it. She just doesn't have that... early-warning system."
For Jessica, there are good and bad things about parenting a child with this kind of personality.
For instance, when Isabelle was younger, she was chronically happy. She smiled at anything. She loved everyone: family, friends, strangers. She reached for them all, and, in return, everyone loved her. Strangers would stop Jessica to tell about how adorably loving Isabelle was.
In those days, Jessica says, she and her family were more or less tolerant of Isabelle's trusting and loving nature. "We would try to restrain her, but it was somewhat half-heartedly, because we didn't want to embarrass her by calling her on the carpet about how open she was," Jessica says.
The Danger Of Unconditional Trust
But as Isabelle got older, the negative side of her trusting nature began to play a larger role. A typical example happened a couple of years ago, when Jessica and her family were spending the day at the beach. Isabelle had been begging Jessica to go to Dairy Queen, and Jessica had been putting her off. Then Isabelle overheard a lady just down the beach.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jesse Neider for NPR Jesse Neider for NPR
"She was telling her kids, 'OK, let's go to the Dairy Queen,' " Jessica says. "And so Isabelle went over and got into the lady's van, got in the back seat, buckled up and was waiting to be taken to Dairy Queen with that family."
Jessica had no idea what had happened to Isabelle and was frantically searching for her when the driver of the van approached her and explained that she had been starting her car when she looked up and saw Isabelle's face in the rearview mirror.
The woman, Jessica says, was incredibly angry.
"She said, 'I am a stranger, you know!' " Jessica says. Essentially, the woman blamed Jessica for not keeping closer watch on her daughter -- for neglecting to teach her the importance of not getting into a car with someone she didn’t know. But the reality could not be more different. "It's like, 'My friend, you have no idea,' " Jessica says.
In fact, because of Isabelle, Jessica has had to rethink even the most basic elements of her day-to-day life. She can not take Isabelle to the dog park. She tries not to take Isabelle to the store. And when the doorbell rings, Jessica will leap over a coffee table to intercept her.
It's not just Jessica and her family who must be vigilant. Every teacher at Isabelle's public school has been warned. Isabelle is not allowed to tell them that she loves them. Isabelle is not supposed to tell other schoolchildren that she loves them. And there are other restrictions.
"She's not allowed to go to the bathroom alone at her school, because there have been numerous instances of girls with Williams syndrome being molested at school when they were alone in the hallway," Jessica says. "And these are like middle class type schools. So it's a very real problem. And, you know, I'd rather her be overly safe than be on CNN."
Raising A Child With Williams Syndrome
Jessica spoke with me for over an hour in the family's home in their woodsy, suburban neighborhood while we waited for her three children to come home from school. Then, just after I turned off my recorder to take a break, I felt two small arms circle my neck from behind. It was Isabelle. She had crept in from school and was giving me a hug.
I turned around, and quite suddenly, the room was filled with questions. Who was I? What was I doing here? Which TV show did I like? Did I know the Muppets?
Then Isabelle took my microphone in her hands. She had decided to sing me a song:
"You're my friend... You're my friend in the whole world," she crooned. "You look so nice and so beautiful and so sweet."
When Isabelle speaks, she has a slight nasal slur. She also has some cognitive issues. Though she goes to a regular school and sits in a regular third-grade class, her attention is very jumpy, and she needs aids to help her.
These cognitive issues make Jessica's job more difficult. Jessica has decided that the most important thing for her to do is to teach Isabelle how to distrust. For years, that has been her life project -- a battle pitched against biology itself.
Jessica and her husband have made Isabelle books about how to behave around strangers. They have rented videos, they have bought educational toys. They have modeled the right behaviors, constructed sticker charts and employed every other trick they could possibly think of. But distrust, it seems, is almost impossible to teach their child. Sometimes Isabelle manages to remember not to tell perfect strangers that she loves them. Mostly, she doesn't.
But Jessica is determined. "We just have to restart every time," she says. "It's just what we have to do."
It's what they have to do, Jessica reasons, because she won't be around to protect her daughter forever. And though Isabelle trusts the world completely, the world is not a place worthy of complete trust.
Even in their current life, Jessica says, there are moments when she realizes that she's just an instant away from something terrible.
"We live a very sheltered life, but I can think of times when we were at the pool and I turn around to talk to someone, and I see her practically sitting on some man's lap at the pool, and he looks very uncomfortable," Jessica says. "And I just think: This is not good."
Unconditional Love, And A Mother's Worry
Fortunately, Jessica says, the experts tell her it will eventually get better. She needs to just keep at it. One day, they tell her, Isabelle will be able to learn not to feel distrust, per se, but to master a set of algorithms that will allow her to safely navigate the world. She will learn, for example, not to get into a car with a stranger if she has become lost or disoriented, but to ask some person in a uniform for help instead.
In the meantime, Jessica says there are plenty of rewards to this life -- a life with a child with boundless love and trust.
"She'll ask me, 'So how are you today, my darling?' " Jessica says. "And it just makes you smile."
In fact, late in the afternoon on the day I visited, everyone in the family gathered in the kitchen to eat dinner. Isabelle, who loves music, decided to play a CD.
The CD player stuttered then came to life, and Isabelle approached her father.
"Will you dance with me, my sweetie?" she asked.
Her father picked her up in his arms. He spun her round and round.Forbes seems to get it. They use the term “Southern conservatives” but outside of university towns and retirement communities or other areas which are packed full of non-Southern transplants and foreigners we display incredible ethnic loyalty at the ballot box. That is how Trump was able to win States such as Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and Georgia despite their very large Black or Mexican Democratic populations. The native White people of Dixie are an enduring nation trapped within a political system which makes them a permanent minority.
Chris Ladd writes:
All the while, an unacknowledged and unofficial third party has survived inside these alignments. A party of Southern conservatives, aligned originally with Democrats, has remained a distinct political entity, complete with their own institutions, practices and values. Elsewhere in America, Democrats and Republicans dueled their way through a two-party democracy. By contrast, Southern states never tolerated partisan competition. Southern states have always been governed by a single, distinct local party, an arrangement that continues today.
Read the whole article. Ladd makes excellent points about our cultural conservatism and antipathy towards globalism and unrestrained capitalism:
Southern conservatism finds freedom and equality, by its unique definitions, through adherence to a social hierarchy based on race, Christianity, a male duty to protect women, and a commodity-driven economy. Though they have always been intensely hostile to government intervention in markets, this should never be interpreted as an affinity for capitalism, which they have always found to be grubby and low. Few forces are more disruptive of a perfect social order than the constant, churning creative destruction that accompanies capitalism.In an interview with NPR, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta claimed that the U.S. doesn't carry out drone strikes when women and/or children are present.
However, NPR follows Panetta's remarks with evidence that the claim is dubious.
Here's the transcript:
NPR: How did the civilian deaths and the risks of civilian deaths weigh on your decision making process?
Panetta: Frankly, we made very clear that if there were any women or children we would not take the shot. I mean, that became a rule that we abided by.
NPR: That, if there were women or children on site, the strike was called off?
Panetta: That's right.
Subsequently, NPR reports:
There is at least one case where U.S. officials, including Panetta, knew that a woman was present at a possible strike site, and the attack was ordered anyway. A U.S. official told NPR a strike with non-combatants in the area would only happen in "exceptional circumstances against very high-level terrorists."
TSgt Effrain Lopez
Blogger EmptyWheel details one of these strikes: that of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who committed terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
When Mehsud was killed by a drone strike on August 5, 2009, the CIA knew that he was with a "young girl who had recently become his second wife," and that other women and children lived at the targeted house.
Jo Becker and Scott Shane of The New York Times detailed the strike in their piece about Obama's "kill list":
Then, in August 2009, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, told Mr. Brennan that the agency had Mr. Mehsud in its sights. But taking out the Pakistani Taliban leader, Mr. Panetta warned, did not meet Mr. Obama's standard of "near certainty" of no innocents being killed. In fact, a strike would certainly result in such deaths: he was with his wife at his in-laws' home.
... Mr. Obama, through Mr. Brennan, told the C.I.A. to take the shot, and Mr. Mehsud was killed, along with his wife and, by some reports, other family members as well, said a senior intelligence official.
As for children, the Obama administration targeted 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, the son of New Mexico-born cleric and al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki. The administration doesn't have to reveal its legal justification for that strike (or any carried out by the CIA), but Panetta's apparent fib raises doubts about the administration's claims that the covert drone program is on firm legal ground.
SEE ALSO: John Brennan's 2011 Claim About Civilian Drone Casualties Is Increasingly Inexplicable
SEE ALSO: The NYU Student Tweeting Every Reported US Drone Strike Has Revealed A Disturbing Trend
SEE ALSO:The Military & Defense Facebook page for the latest updatesThe Whiskey Boy’s third studio album, “Time Machine” marks an exciting milestone for the band, as the album debuts the additions of Banjo, Mandolin and Bass to the group as well as 10 new original tracks. The full, powerful sound of this album displays the artistic development of the band and further builds The Whiskey Boy’s reputation as an exciting and powerful voice in today’s Americana music scene. As Brian Carroll writes on popular Americana blog Redline Roots
The Whiskey Boys have undergone a transformation over the past year, and it has really boded well for the group. Fleshing the outfit to include 5 total members (guitar, bass, fiddle, banjo, and mandolin), the sound is fuller, more powerful, and really grabs you by the head with two hands, pulls you in close and screams “LISTEN!” right in your face. Singer, fiddler, songwriter, and band leader David Delaney has truly found his voice in this new line up. His voice is more confident and robust and he has matured deeply as a songwriter and lyricist.Janitors protest a day before renewed negotiations
Protesters sit in the intersection of Dallas and Smith Streets in protest of janitors' current wages Wednesday, August 1, 2012, in Houston. Civil rights and labor activists are currently demonstrating civil disobedience and supporting janitors who are entering their fourth week of an unfair labor practices strike. less Protesters sit in the intersection of Dallas and Smith Streets in protest of janitors' current wages Wednesday, August 1, 2012, in Houston. Civil rights and labor activists are currently demonstrating civil... more Photo: Cody Duty, Houston Chronicle Photo: Cody Duty, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Janitors protest a day before renewed negotiations 1 / 10 Back to Gallery
About 150 Houston janitors were downtown Wednesday morning to protest wages, as a four-week strike comes to a boiling point on the eve of renewed bargaining talks.
The organizers of the protests said they expect there will be dozens of arrests by the end of the day. The morning protest is on Louisiana street downtown, where the janitors and their supporters are trying to be visible for the morning rush hour traffic. During this evening's rush hour, about 500 protesters are expected to rally in the Galleria area.
The bargaining will continue between the janitors and the Houston Area Contractors Association on Thursday. According to the protest's organizers, the Houston office cleaners are some of the lowest paid in the nation, with an average yearly salary of $9,000. The janitors, most of whom currently earn a top wage of $8.35 an hour, are seeking a raise to $10 an hour. About 475 janitors are on strike at about 50 buildings.
Paloma Martinez, a union spokeswoman, said by the end of the day, she believes 30 people could be in jail.
"It's all coming to a boiling point," Martinez said. "Janitors want to make a big statement. We are going to do whatever it takes. It's not about janitors anymore, it's about being the city we want to be."
Martinez, who was at the protest Wednesday morning, said the atmosphere is electric and that the workers and their supporters feel empowered.
"They are invisible when they are cleaning after hours at 6 p.m.," she said. "We are invisible no more out in the streets, you can't ignore us."
She said the issue demonstrates the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
"This state is doing well, but who is it doing well for? The people at the top," she said.
The second protest will be held at Williams Tower at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, seven protesters who linked arms and sat down at the base of the escalator at One Allen Center were arrested by police, marking another effort at civil disobedience to protest the wages of striking janitors.
Four janitors from Chicago and three out-of-state labor activists were among those arrested as they protested in support of the striking janitors in Houston, said Renee Asher, assistant director of communications for the Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C.
Other protests earlier this summer also led to multiple arrests after union supporters tied up traffic and blocked busy intersections.
The seven were charged with trespassing, a Class B misdemeanor, said Victor Senties, Houston Police Department spokesman. The protesters could face up to 180 days in jail.
The Houston Area Contractors Association represents three of the biggest cleaning firms - ABM Janitorial Services, GCA Services and ISS Facility Services - and has been acting as the negotiating lead. There are seven contracting firms in total.The Lehr und Wehr Verein ("Educational and Defense Society") was a Chicago-based socialist military organization founded in 1875. The group had been formed to counter the armed private armies of companies in Chicago.[1]
The Lehr und Wehr Verein (LWV) was registered with the Illinois state authorities on April 19, 1875 with about 30 Bohemian and German members. The organization used to train and drill in anticipation of an envisaged confrontation between Capital and Labor.
In 1879 the State Legislature passed an act establishing a state militia and obliging all other militias to obtain a license from the Governor. That December the LWV paraded 40 strong, armed with rifles. They were headed by Herman Presser, a socialist worker armed with a saber. Presser was arrested, as the organization had no license.
Lawyers for the LWV argued that the new law breached the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Presser v. Illinois became a test case which proceeded through the criminal courts, to the Illinois Supreme Court, and to the Supreme Court of the United States. In each court Presser conviction was upheld The Lehr und Wehr Verein never again paraded in public.[2]
Further reading [ edit ]
Heiss, Christine. Der Lehr- und Wehr-Verein von Chicago, 1875-1887: Ein sozialgeschichtlichter Beitrag zur Radikalisierung deutscher Arbeiter in den USA ("The Lehr und Wehr Verein: A social history of its contribution to the radicalization of German workers in the USA"). Master's dissertation. Munich: Ludwig-Maximilians University, 1981.
("The Lehr und Wehr Verein: A social history of its contribution to the radicalization of German workers in the USA"). Master's dissertation. Munich: Ludwig-Maximilians University, 1981. LeBlanc, Paul. "Revolutionary Socialism in America, 1877-1887." Master's seminar paper. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1979.
See also [ edit ]The small pile of books resting on my bedside table is entirely stuffed with men. Despicable men, perverse men, egocentric men; men who lie, who whore and cheat, men who let their own throbbing members do the thinking. I keep them very close.
“I can’t believe you actually like this shit,” my friend snorted while handing me back my precious dog-eared copy of Sabbath’s Theater, Philip Roth’s 1994 tour de fuckfest. “This guy is disgusting,” she complained. “The book is so sexist!”
Philip Roth’s sexism is yesterday’s news: It feels dusty, stale. Still, we cannot seem to get over it. Ever since he made his “cunt crazy” Jewish protagonist Alexander Portnoy masturbate into a piece of liver in 1969’s Portnoy’s Complaint, Roth has been labeled a misogynist. His explicit sex scenes, his neverending use of the c-word, his super-macho protagonists and lack of female leads have made him a rich target for feminist scorn. The most common argument about Roth’s writing is that he sees women only as sexual objects, not real characters. He is never inside the heads of his females; they are flat, not grounded in complexity and exist only as outlets for men to either rage at or ejaculate into. By way of his male protagonists—his bad boys—Roth spews venom at women.
“These filthy, lowlife, rectitudinous cunts who tell you children these terrible lies about men, about the sinister villainy of what is simply the ordinary grubbing about in reality of ordinary people like your dad and me,” Sabbath sneers to a female student about the feminists at his university.
Many have been provoked by passages like these, but often for the wrong reasons.
The Tøffelhelt doesn’t disturb or provoke. In short: He’s dull.
In a 2008 essay in Harper’s, Vivian Gornick dismissed Roth’s entire post-Portnoy oeuvre: “In all the books to follow over the next thirty years, the women are monstrous because for Philip Roth women are monstrous,” she wrote. Three years later, the feminist publisher Carmen Callil fled the Man Booker International Prize jury after her fellow judges chose Roth as their winner. “It’s as though he’s sitting on your face and you can’t breathe,” she complained. Around that time, I was halfway through Sabbath’s Theater, my toes curling in delight over its utterly revolting protagonist.
I consider myself a feminist. My bookshelf is crowded with Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, Alice Munro, Anaïs Nin—and plenty of Roth. Why am I drawn to Roth’s bad boys like a raccoon drawn to an overfilled trashcan? Why do I rejoice over their lack of morals and warped view of women?
I am Norwegian, and as you probably know, Scandinavia does gender roles differently. In Norway, being “feminist” is not controversial, and we don’t need Beyoncé to reclaim the word for us. We also have a way of describing a certain kind of man. The Tøffelhelt is a man who’s kind, harmless, reliable, supportive. Any Paul Rudd character would give you an idea. The Tøffelhelt doesn’t disturb. He doesn’t provoke. He agrees with you. In short: He’s dull.
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could have a system of gates where it was open for a while at a certain time of year, or decade, or whatever, when you could go in and out freely. But if you were inside it when the gate closed, you'd be making a commitment to stay in until it opened again. And I talked about clock monks who would tend the clock. I put that idea in cold storage because I was working on the Baroque Cycle. When I recovered, I decided, what the hell, I'm just going to try writing this."
Stephenson measures his novels not by word count but by visually assessing the printout. "You've got manuscripts that are relatively short, and then you've got manuscripts that are taller than they are wide, and then you've got ones that are taller than they are long." Anathem falls into category three. "I was thinking shorter, but once you've done all the work to build the project and get the reader into it, there's the temptation to keep it going," he says.
In a sense, the length of Anathem, as well as its challenges to the reader, are part of its theme. Despite the monastic trappings of the clock-tenders, the avout are not driven by faith. What binds them is a commitment to logic and rationality. The robes and rituals, Stephenson says, are not religion but "their way of glorifying and expressing respect for ideas and thinkers that are important to them." Outside the walls ("extramuros," as the term goes—by the time you're a couple of hundred pages in, this language thing begins to fall in place), people zip around in an ADD haze of fast-food joints, persistent gadgets (instead of CrackBerry, they are addicted to handheld "jeejahs"), and evangelical religion. Stephenson sees a parallel to the George W. Bush-era wars between science and religion, made possible because the general population is either indifferent or hostile to extended rational thought. "I could never get that idea, the notion that society in general is becoming aliterate, out of my head," he says. "People who write books, people who work in universities, who work on big projects for a long time, are on a diverging course from the rest of society. Slowly, the two cultures just get further and further apart."
Hillis is thrilled about Stephenson's choice of subject matter. "One of the more interesting things about the project has been what anybody adds to it," he says. "Clearly, Neal's imagination is extraordinary. He creates a whole world in his mind; he's got every building imagined in more detail than it's described in the book." Long Now executive director Alexander Rose is also delighted but makes it clear that Stephenson's ideas aren't exactly in sync with the foundation's plans, which include construction of the clock inside a mountain in eastern Nevada, where it will draw power from temperature changes and visitors stopping by to wind it. "We're not planning on locking up people for thousands of years," he says.
In every Neal Stephenson novel, there are characters who regard the world with an insatiable yet bemused curiosity; they are fascinated with the way things work and are forever eager to lay on hands, tinker, tweak, and obsess. In other words, they're hackers. In Anathem, the narrator, Erasmas, though not a techie, shares this trait. So does the author. Stephenson was born in 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland, a son of academics (his dad taught electrical engineering; his mother was a biochemistry researcher). He grew up in the college town of Ames, Iowa, a self-described theater geek who also had a streak of the hacker in him. "I played the role of Mephistopheles in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and on the technical side made a full-size mechanical Kong hand that, at one point in the play, reaches through a window and drags somebody offstage," he says. He graduated from Boston University in 1981 and moved to Seattle with his wife, Ellen, who did her medical residency there.
His early books, a satire about big universities and an eco-thriller, were well received but not huge sellers.22 In 1991, Stephenson says, his career "was moving along at low rpms." Then he wrote Snow Crash, a book that postulated the Metaverse, an exquisitely fleshed-out vision of a digital alternative world, and Stephenson found himself at the front ranks of cyberpunk authors. "I was sort of going for broke with Snow Crash," he told me a few years back. "I had tried to write stuff that was more conventional and that would be appealing to a large audience, and it didn't work. I figured I would just go for broke, write something really weird, and not be so worried about whether it was a good career move or not."
Other triumphs followed—The Diamond Age, a near-future chronicle set in Shanghai in which a young woman owns a nanotech book that puts the Kindle to shame; Cryptonomicon, a multithreaded excursion into the wonders of cryptography; and the ultimate steampunker, the Baroque Cycle, which rocketed the mathematical conflicts between Newton and Leibniz to best-sellerdom.
Stephenson spends his mornings cloistered in the basement, writing longhand in fountain pen and reworking the pages on a Mac version of the Emacs text editor. This intensity cannot be sustained all day—"It's part of my personality that I have to mess with stuff," he says—so after the writing sessions, he likes to get his hands on something real or hack stuff on the computer. (He's particularly adept at Mathematica, the equation-crunching software of choice for mathematicians and engineers.) For six years, he was an adviser to Jeff Bezos' space-flight startup, Blue Origin. He left amicably in 2006. Last year, he went to work for another Northwest tech icon, Nathan Myhrvold, who heads Intellectual Ventures, an invention factory that churns out patents and prototypes of high-risk, high-reward ideas. Stephenson and two partners spend most afternoons across Lake Washington in the IV lab, a low-slung building with an exotic array of tools and machines to make physical manifestations of the fancies that flow from the big thinkers on call there.
"In Neal's books, he's been fantastically good at creating scenarios and technologies that are purely imaginary," Myhrvold says. "But they're much easier imagined than built. So we spend a certain amount of our time imagining them but the rest of our time building them. It's also very cool but different to say, 'Let's come up with new ways of doing brain surgery.'"
That's right—brain surgery is one of the things Stephenson is tinkering with. He and his team are helping refine some mechanical aspects of a new tool, a helical needle for operating on brain tumors. It's the kind of cool job one of his characters might have.
Which indicates that Stephenson's afternoon job, besides letting him get his hands dirty on weird machines, is maybe not so different from the activity he undertakes in his basement. Myhrvold, while making sure his company is decidedly commercial, is still a sucker for big ideas from big brains. He's also a major funder of the Long Now and even has a prototype of the 10,000-year clock in his home.
It makes sense that people like Stephenson and Myhrvold are drawn to the Long Now's cosmically improbable but cerebrally galvanizing effort. "It's an insanely ambitious project; it is a total folly," Brand says of the clock effort. "It presents itself as rational, but that's like presenting the pyramids as rational. You can argue with it, but if you put it out there as this gonzo, over-the-top-crazy but weirdly plausible, adventurous thing to do, then people want to be part of it. About two out of 10 light up, and the other eight are going, 'Don't you have something better to do with your time?'"
Hey, that sounds like the reaction to a Neal Stephenson novel.
This fall, Stephenson will reluctantly break from his cherished routines to promote Anathem. "If I had to do a book tour every day it would kill me. But four weeks every four years isn't too much to ask," he says. The tinkerer in him has stuffed some extra elements into the final package. The book includes three appendices consisting of passages that didn't make it into the text—fascinating digressions involving puzzle-like conundrums (sort of the hard-copy equivalent of the bonus deleted scenes on a DVD). Another subsidiary project is a CD that re-creates the spooky a cappella hymns, based on mathematical proofs and behavior of cellular automata, sung by the clock-tenders inside the concents. David Stutz, a former Microsoft techie now involved in early classical music—and an HBC member—composed and produced the effort, which is being considered for widespread release. "It's a pseudo-liturgical use of mathematics and higher thinking," Stutz says. Actually, to the untrained ear it sounds like the neo-Gregorian chanting that accompanies ritual baby sacrifice in horror films.
Anathem asks a lot of its readers, but Stephenson's got a lot of devoted ones. The hardcore (Brand's "two out of 10") will just buy his books no questions asked. It will be interesting to see what the rest will do. "It's really about the difference between people who can sit down and focus their attention for a long period of time on something complicated in a patient and steady way—versus people who never read anything longer than a sentence or paragraph and who get very impatient if you try to go on at any length," Stephenson says.
The author himself concedes that's he's got one foot on either side of the Saecular/mathic divide. He's trapped in his own theme, our society's secret war between the Long Now and the now. "When I'm working on a book, I need to be uninterrupted—a long-attention-span kind of thing. On the other hand, there are a lot of things in my life that are important and keep me communicating over email. It's harder for me even to read books than it used to be, and there's an obvious irony there." But after the Anathem tour ends this fall, he fully expects to be back in the basement, using a fine-nibbed fountain pen to fill up another cinder block of paper.
Senior writer Steven Levy ( steven_levy@wired.com)* also writes about the Chumby in this issue (16.09) of* Wired.
Researchers Recover 1,000-Year-Old Viking DNA
The Sci-Fi Rejection Letter That Time Forgot
Sci-Fi Solves 100-Year-Old Siberia Mystery With Apocalyptic PlotlinesIt’s been quite some time since the Toronto Maple Leafs made a major player acquisition. Today, Toronto acquired 26-year-old goaltender Frederik Andersen from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a 1st Round pick in 2016 (30th overall), and a 2nd Round pick in 2017.
Following the trade, they signed him to a five-year contract worth 25 million.
[Photo: Amanda Bowen of AKB Multimedia].
Prior to this move, Toronto had the tandem of Jonathan Bernier and Garret Sparks heading into the 2016-17 season. Both goalies were bottom-ten in the NHL for GAA last season, so this is definitely an big upgrade in the net.
Anderson has 125 games of regular season NHL experience as well as 28 games in the playoffs. He’s split the crease with John Gibson over the past two seasons. This deal is an indication Anaheim has decided they would like to move forward with Gibson getting full-time. GM Bob Murray referred to the deal as one that “had to happen”.
Both a 1st and 2nd do seem like a pretty steep price to pay with caliber goalies like James Reimer already going to free agency and Ben Bishop reportedly on the trade market. But, let’s not forget that the 1st Rounder is at 30th overall, and the Leafs still have the 31st overall pick as well as rights to 10 other picks throughout the 2016 draft.
The Leafs have made several notable goaltending acquisitions over the last decade and none of them have really gone as planned: Raycroft, Toskala, Bernier. Meanwhile, one of the goaltenders they decided to trade away during this time period in Tuukka Rask has gone on to thrive with the Boston Bruins.
Many are comparing the addition of Anderson to the acquisition of Jonathan Bernier in 2013. Similarly, Bernier was another young, highly touted goaltender with the LA Kings who was traded away due to a crowded depth chart; Jonathan Quick had already established himself as the starting goaltender which made Bernier expendable.
Here’s a comparison of both goaltenders and their pre-Leafs careers. The data definitely suggests that Anderson is a better goaltender than Bernier was when he arrived to the Leafs. Anderson beats Bernier in every category.
PLAYER GP GAA SV% QS% 5ON5ADJ.FSV% F. Anderson 125 2.34.916.679 0.69 (70th Percentile) J. Bernier 62 2.36.912.574 0.00 (40th Percentile)
QS% stands for Quality Start Percentage. “A quality start (QS) as a game when the goalie stops more than the median save percentage for the League or gives up less than three goals while stopping.885 or more of shots faced.” – NHL.com.
5ON5ADJ.FSV% stands for Adjusted Fenwick Save Percentage in Even-Strength situations. It basically looks at the difference between a goaltender’s actual save percentage and their expected save percentage based on the quality of shots they faced. As you can see, Bernier was below average in this stat before coming to the Leafs. Meanwhile, Anderson has been one of the best goalies in the stat over the past three seasons (top 30%).
We’ll have to wait and see if those numbers translate into on-ice success this upcoming season.
Anderson on starting with 30th-place Leafs: “They’re better than their record shows. I know how hard they work (from games in Anaheim).” — Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) June 20, 2016
[Stats: Corsica Hockey].Deputy takes man's Xbox during traffic stop David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday November 21, 2008
Print This Email This The known hazards of "driving while black" may have to be amended to add those of driving while black, dreadlocked, and toting an Xbox.
When Kenyatta Hillman and a friend were pulled over by a Orange County traffic cop for speeding outside Orlando, FL, the deputy claimed to smell marijuana and searched the car. No drugs were found, but the deputy did spot an Xbox and eight games and seized them from Hillman, alleging they might have been stolen.
Even after the deputy checked the serial numbers and nothing came up, he insisted he wanted to hold onto them in case they were reported later. Hillman told WFTV News, "He said, 'When you've got your receipt and your box and stuff, call me and we'll meet someplace, and you show me the receipt and I'll give you your game.' I didn't understand him."
Hillman believes he was targeted because of his clothing and his dreadlocks. "It's probably the neighborhood, it's probably looking at me because of my hair, I've got gold in my mouth, probably the way I dress."
Hillman later went to the sheriff's office with the original receipt and packaging, but staff were unable to find his Xbox and games. "They was actually saying, 'We don't know what's going on,'" Hillman explained. "'It wasn't no arrest, it wasn't no police report filed, it's no case number, we can't find it.'"
The Orange County Sheriff's Office told WFTV there had simply been a miscommunication and the gaming system had not yet been transferred to the evidence room.
Hillman later reached the supervisor, who said he had the system and could return it, but not before the end of the week. "'I can't do anything this week,'" Hillman said the man told him. "'I'll call you Friday and I'll meet you Friday and then give you your Xbox back.'"
Ironically, Hillman heads a rap band called "Central Flawda's Most Wanted." On the band's MySpace page, Hillman says of himself:
"Born and raised right here in the 'O' and this is where I'm gonna die at (ya feel me) I was raised in these streets and had to adapt to them. so I do I what I say and I say what I do. And when I say it I speak the truth. And I also had to face changes. Some trials and tribulations but you have to go through that type of stuff some times in order to become a better person so I guess why I am who I am........Orange County stand up."
The WFTV report can be read here.
This video is from CNN.com, broadcast Nov. 20, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.comThis article is over 3 years old
The Bureau of Meteorology warns of below-average rainfall across Australia after El Niño brings record ocean temperature increases
El Niño, one of three strongest recorded, brings high drought risk for Australia
The El Niño in the Pacific is now one of the three strongest ever recorded.
The Bureau of Meteorology said sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, a key driver of the climatic phenomenon, were 2.4C above average – the highest since the El Niño was declared six months ago.
El Niño usually brings below-average rain and increased daytime temperatures, particularly to eastern Australia in the southern spring. The bureau’s latest El Niño southern oscillation wrap-up said the strength compares with the two strongest recorded – in 1997-98 and 1982-83.
Both brought devastating droughts to eastern Australia.
El Niño could leave 4 million people in Pacific without food or drinking water Read more
“International climate models suggest the peak in El Niño sea surface temperatures is likely to occur before the end of the year, then gradually ease in the first quarter of 2016,” the wrap-up said.
Typically, El Niño’s influence on rainfall decreases, although warmer daytime and night-time temperatures tend to persist.
But record warm sea-surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean may cause below-average rainfall to drag on across Australia, the bureau warned.
This warming, known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), has existed for more than three months, with temperatures now 0.88C above average – the highest anomaly since reliable records began in 1981.
The record has already been broken twice this spring – in September (+0.52C) and October (+0.65C).
An above-average IOD tends to reinforce the effect of an El Niño, especially in the south-east. It is expected the dipole will begin to degrade later in November.
Despite recent rainfall in some areas, parts of inland Queensland, northern and western Victoria and southern South Australia have severe or record rainfall deficiencies stretching back as much as three years.Hey friends, I’m going to try and do these recaps each week or every other depending on what's going on. Here’s a few items I can talk about:We are going to be introducing a fix with DLC 1 that will resolve the issue and retroactively reward the gifts you didn’t get.: Tuesday to be exact. We will be providing some of the first details about DLC 1.it will also include a patch with a number of fixes and changes that we will provide info on in an accompanying blog. I can’t speak to specifics yet but that information is coming.– Thanks all that have been giving thoughtful feedback. We’ve seen the survey and many more suggestions from all over. I’ve enjoyed reading the debates! The team is always looking for community feedback and reads a lot of it. Any changes that are pushed whether it's a patch or hot fix will be posted in the Game Updates section.- we've seen feedback about players getting maps repeatedly and we'll be reducing its likelihood in a hotfix coming next week.- We're investigating ways to reduce the frequency of join-in-progress matches, while making it a more rewarding experience when it does happen. Some of our ideas require further iteration and testing, but be assured that we've heard your feedback and will address it in the future.– We use Fairfight for catching cheaters in game and so far any follow ups we’ve done on reported cheaters has showed that they were already banned. If you do see cheaters, it’s best to capture video of it and send to [email protected] We take cheating seriously and continue to look at how we improve catching them. Fairfight does not do immediate action on cheaters but is catching them and banning.– If you folks are reporting this please include dxdiags from PC users so QA can see the entire spec and driver dates/versions used and this also allows us to try and reproduce on our end.I'm also looking into getting more context around PING and localization issues. Have a great weekend all! We'll have lots of fun stuff to share and talk about next week.Newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci answers questions at a press briefing on July 21, 2017. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)
At his first briefing as White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci acknowledged that he wasn’t ready to answer every question reporters threw at him -- including one about whether there were 3 million illegal votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.
At one point, a reporter asked Scaramucci, "Do you stand by some of the factual claims that have been made by this administration? Three million illegal votes cast for president? Do you now endorse all those statements of fact?"
Scaramucci responded, "So, it's a little bit of an unfair question, because I'm not up to speed on all of that. I'll just candidly tell you that."
The reporter pressed: "He said 3 million people voted illegally."
Scaramucci then said, "Okay, so if the president says it -- let me do more research on it. My guess is that there's probably some level of truth to that. I think what we have found sometimes is that the president says stuff, some of you guys in the media think it's not true. It turns out it's closer to the truth than people think. Let me do more homework on that and get back to you."
We can be of help here.
Last November, PolitiFact gave a Pants on Fire rating to President Donald Trump’s statement that he "won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
In fact, we found zero evidence for Trump’s charge, as well as a lot of reasons to conclude that it didn’t happen.
Almost 3 million vote margin
A comprehensive vote-tracking analysis is published by David Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. According to Wasserman’s calculations, Hillary Clinton led Trump by roughly 2.87 million votes -- specifically, 65,853,516 for Clinton, 62,984,824 for Trump, and 7,801,446 for other candidates.
So "3 million votes" would be enough to hand Trump the popular-vote victory as well as an Electoral College victory.
For a sense of scale, 3 million votes is more than were cast for any presidential candidate in three dozen states plus the District of Columbia. And 3 million people is more than a quarter of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States — a group that Alex Jones’ conspiracy website InfoWars specifically singled out as the source of 3 million illegal votes.
As evidence of its claim, InfoWars referred to a report from VoteFraud.org and tweets from Gregg Phillips, whose Twitter profile said he founded VoteStand, a voter fraud reporting app.
However, there was no report from VoteFraud.org, and Phillips told PolitiFact he is not affiliated with that website. Tweets by Phillips on Nov. 11 and Nov. 13 said that "we have verified more than 3 million votes cast by non-citizens" and that Phillips had "completed analysis of database of 180 million voter registrations. Number of non-citizen votes exceeds 3 million. Consulting legal team."
Phillips did not respond to PolitiFact’s queries for additional information. He had told us previously that he has chosen not to release more information because he is still working on analyzing the data and verifying its accuracy. Phillips would not say what the data is or where it came from, or what methodology he used. He said he would release the information publicly once he is finished. He does not appear to have done so publicly.
Voter fraud uncommon
Research of other elections suggests that voter fraud is not widespread.
• News21, a national investigative reporting project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, found just 56 cases of noncitizens voting between 2000 and 2011.
• A report by the liberal Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law found that most cases of noncitizens voting were accidental. "Although there are a few recorded examples in which noncitizens have apparently registered or voted, investigators have concluded that they were likely not aware that doing so was improper," reads the 2007 report.
• In 2012, Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s administration started an effort trying to crack down on noncitizens voting by comparing driver's license data against voter rolls. The Florida Department of State created a list of 182,000 potential noncitizens that had voted. That number was whittled down to 2,700, then to about 200 before the purge was stopped amid criticism that the data was flawed given the number of false positives — including a Brooklyn-born World War II vet. Ultimately, only 85 people were removed from the rolls.
Meanwhile, ProPublica, an investigative journalism project, tweeted that "we had 1,100 people monitoring the vote on Election Day. We saw no evidence the election was ‘rigged’ " and "no evidence that undocumented immigrants voted illegally."
Experts unconvinced
Experts dismissed the substance of Trump’s claims about the election.
"This is patently false," Costas Panagopoulos, a Fordham University political scientist, told us in November. "There would need to be a massive national conspiracy and coordination effort to do this, and illegal aliens would need to be on the voter rolls in states across the country months earlier to be eligible to vote. It is also very convenient the estimated fraudulent vote is just enough to give Trump the popular vote. Not likely a coincidence."
University of Denver political scientist Seth Masket said the claim was short on basic logic.
"It’s bizarre to claim that Clinton had the ability to generate millions of illegal voters but not use them to help her win the Electoral College," Masket said.DAKAR, Senegal — Government security forces were implicated in the deaths of at least 90 of the hundreds of people killed in religious violence in the central Nigerian city of Jos last month, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.
At least 400 people died when fighting broke out between Muslim and Christian gangs in the city on Nov. 28 and 29 after a dispute about local elections. Each side accused the other of rigging the vote.
Muslims and Christians mingle uneasily in the so-called middle belt region of Nigeria, and tension frequently flares along religious, ethnic and political fault lines.
Initial accounts of the killing in Jos indicated that the gangs had set upon each other’s neighborhoods, burning churches, homes, businesses and mosques.
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But based on testimony from witnesses interviewed in the aftermath of the violence, Human Rights Watch researchers documented seven shootings in which the police had killed at least 46 men and boys, almost all of them Muslim.Here's what the Mummy: The Curse Storyteller's Screen includes:
Full color, 11" x 25.5" collage of selected beautiful art from Mummy: The Curse
Three 8.5" x 11" pages of collected charts and tables selected to make your Storyteller job a bit easier
One cover sheet with the product info on it
About Mummy: the Curse:
Imagine being both dead and deathless at the same time. Imagine being cradled in the arms of death for years, sometimes decades on end, but all the while knowing that you will eventually not only arise again, but awaken to an unfamiliar world that mostly fears and hates you. Now imagine that your purpose, your entire existence, is bound within this cycle -- that you are chained to it for all eternity. You sleep, you wake, your serve your Judge's will in the lands of the living, and you return to the death-sleep once more. The ancient culture that empowered you is gone, lost to the sands of time... yet you endure.
In Mummy: the Curse, a Storytelling game set in the World of Darkness, you play one of these beings. Those who know they exist, from the cultists who serve them to the dark forces arrayed against them, call them the Deathless.
We call them mummies.According to the report, 70.4% of students who started in 2008 at a Michigan public university had graduated by 2014.
Buy Photo Michigan universities are doing a good job of getting student to graduate, a new report says. (Photo: Detroit Free Press file photo)Buy Photo Story Highlights 70.4% of students who started in 2008 at a Michigan public university had graduated by 2014
The national average for total completions is 62.85%
Michigan's public universities are doing a good job of making sure students who enroll are graduating, even if the graduation comes at a different university, a new report shows.
The state's community colleges aren't performing as well when measured against the national average, the same report, compiled by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, shows.
The report, issued today, tracked students who enrolled in college in the fall of 2008 and where they were at the end of the school year in 2014. Unlike other college completion reports, this one followed transfer students and looked at how they were doing, giving a clear picture of college completion, said NSCRC's Associate Director Afet Dundar.
Details for individual universities were not available.
Michigan is outperforming the national average at the four-year university level. According to the report, 70.4% of students who started in 2008 at a Michigan public university had graduated by 2014 and 13.87 % were still enrolled in school somewhere. Of those who started in 2008, 60.51% graduated from the university they started at, while 9.88% had graduated from a different school.
The national average for total completions is 62.85%, with 49.80% graduating from the university they started with 13.06% graduating from a different university and 14.44% still enrolled.
Micah Thomas, 22, of Ypsilanti, is among those who started at one university and then then headed elsewhere.
"I went to Western (Michigan University), but my freshmen year, my mom got sick and I got homesick," the current Eastern Michigan University senior said. He's on pace to graduate this spring.
"I liked Western, but Eastern is a better fit for me – for my whole life, not just the school stuff. I know a lot of people who have transferred to another school for all kinds of reasons."
The numbers aren't as good at the community college level.
In Michigan, 35.87% of those who started at a public community college had graduated six years later, 24.55% at the community college they started at. In Michigan, 14.01% had graduated from a four-year university six years after starting community college and 19.62% were still enrolled somewhere.
Across the nation, 39.13% of those who started at a public community college in 2008 had graduates, 26.14% from the community college they started at. Nationally, 16.18% had graduated from a four-year university and 17.93% were still in school somewhere.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1ErREWMManagement Summary: Greenlight Re is an interesting special situation in my opinion combining 2 bets in one stock: 1. It is a bet that David Einhorn will come back after his worst year ever and 4 years of underperformance
2. Greenlight Re, the Reinsurance company whose investments he manages “mean reverts” at least closer to its historical price book ratio. This “bet” should be relatively uncorrelated to the overall market and due to the construction of the investment mandate, Einhorn can charge only half of the performance fee for some time. Disclaimer: This is not investment advise. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!!
“Put your money to where your mouth is” is something I do preach indirectly since I started the blog 5 years ago. In my 5th anniversary post last week I said the following with regard to David Einhorn:
As I have said many times, I do think Einhorn is one of the very good HF investors. He really had a hard year. If I would be responsible for allocating money to hedge funds, I would actually increase my investment as good managers very often come back strongly after a bad streak.
As a private investor, I don’t think that I would be able to invest in one of his funds. But then I remembered that there is a possibility to do so even for “small guys” like me:
Greenlight Re is a Cayman based, US listed Reinsurance company with one specialty: The investment portfolio is managed by DME advisors which is basically David Einhorn and he is Chairman of the company.
The idea behind it is relatively easy: It is some kind of “Berkshire light” company. You have equity capital plus reinsurance. The reinsurance creates “float” which allows the company to leverage Einhorn’s investment results by a certain amount. Ideally, the leverage doesn’t cost anything but could even add to the overall result if the do good underwriting.
Reality check
So far the theory. If we look at Greenlight’s stock chart since its IPO in 2007, we can see that the strategy didn’t work that well, at least compared to the chart of the “real Berkshire”. Actually the stock price is now lower than the 19 USD IPO price back in 2007:
The drop in the current year clearly has to do with Einhorn having a horrible year. Interestingly, Greenlight Re discloses Einhorn’s Performance on a quarterly basis back to 2004. -20,2% for 11 months in 2015 is clearly a disaster.
Digging deeper: Insurance vs. Investments & structural value creation
In order to assess if Greenlight Re is a proxy for Einhorn’s performance, we need to check if the “structure” is value creating or not. “Value creating” means that the Greenlight Re shareholder actually gets at least the same return (Return on equity) as the return on the investments.
There is a simple way to do this: Greenlight Re reports Einhorn’s performance as well as the investment result separately. We can therefore pretty easily compare the investment result with the overall result in the table below:
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Einhorn Performance 5,90% -17,60% 32,10% 11,00% 2,10% 7,10% 19,60% 8,70% Invest result 27,6 -126,1 199 104 23,1 78,9 218,1 122,6 Total result 35,3 -120,9 209,6 90,6 6,8 14,6 225,7 109,6 Equity 605,6 485 729,2 839,2 845,7 860,4 1086,3 1194 Comprehensive Income 36,5 -120,6 244,2 110 6,5 14,7 225,9 107,7 Greenlight ROE 7,95% -22,12% 40,22% 14,03% 0,77% 1,72% 23,21% 9,45% vs. Stated perf, 2,05% -4,52% 8,12% 3,03% -1,33% -5,38% 3,61% 0,75% “Leverage” 135% 126% 125% 128% 37% 24% 118% 109% “Leakage” 7,7 5,2 10,6 -13,4 -16,3 -64,3 7,6 -13,0
This table does 2 things: It calculates the “leakage”, which is the overall result of the company minus the investment results. A positive result means they made extra money with the insurance business, a negative result means they lost money and had to “pay” for the float. In total, the “leakage” was around 76 mn USD or around 9,5 mn USD per year. So clearly the “float” and the structure do not come for free.
The “leverage” shows how much better or worse the actual ROE was compared to the underlying performance of the investment portfolio. In the beginning, this was around 1,25-1,3 but declined. In years with low returns the “leakage” of course has a bigger impact and in years with negative performance the leverage via the float of course works the other way.
Now we can calculate in a second step the compounded effect of leverage and leakage and see if the overall structure adds value or destroys value. Those are the results for 2007-2014:
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 CAGR 2007-2014 Einhorn Perf 105,90% 87,26% 115,27% 127,95% 130,64% 139,91% 167,34% 181,90% 7,77% GL ROE 107,95% 84,08% 117,90% 134,44% 135,47% 137,81% 169,79% 185,83% 8,05%
So the good news is: The Return for shareholders is slightly |
exceeds VR Ready specifications. The AERO 14 is a mobile powerhouse when it comes to gaming and professional work.Not everything is only focused on performance, GIGABYTE has also put emphasis on the aesthetics. With three colors to choose from, each color is finished with “Nano-Imprint Lithography” (NIL) top aluminum cover, showcasing fine details and textures that screams unique qualities.AERO 14 has especially targeted work professionals. The AERO 14 is equipped with a QHD ISP 2560X1440 resolution display, users can be assured to experience crisp, high resolution, and accurate color images. When stationed, the AERO 14 can be connected to two external 4K 60Hz monitors through HDMI 2.0 and Mini DisplayPort, pushing productivity and entertainment to the next level.When it comes to power mobile users, laptop makers tends to sacrifice components in order to increase mobility and battery life. The AERO 14 steers away from these trends by supporting the latest DDR4 memory and a large 1 TB M.2 PCIe SSD with up to 2000MB/s read speed, outstanding built in speakers and internal SD card reader.GIGABYTE has further added a whopping 94.24 Wh battery, with almost twice the capacity compared to other laptops, taking mobility to a whole new level. The AERO 14 is the professional laptop that everyone is waiting for.*Specifications are subject to change.Anthony Mundine-Danny Green Facebook streamers apologise after Foxtel warnings
Updated
Two men who streamed the Anthony Mundine v Danny Green fight live on Facebook have offered almost identical apologies after warnings of legal action from Foxtel.
The pay-per-view fight, which was sold to Foxtel users for nearly $60, was broadcast to hundreds of thousands through the Facebook accounts of Brett Hevers and Darren Sharpe.
Mr Sharpe received a call from Foxtel representatives during the fight instructing him to stop the stream, and Foxtel boss Peter Tonagh later confirmed the pay TV provider would launch legal action against both men.
But that threat looks to have been placated by the apologies offered by Mr Hevers and Mr Sharpe, which read remarkably similarly.
This was posted on Mr Hevers' Facebook page on Friday.
Last Friday I streamed Foxtel's broadcast of the Mundine v Green 2 fight via my Facebook page to thousands of people. I know that this was illegal and the wrong thing to do. I understand that Foxtel and the event promoters invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce the fight and to broadcast it. I unreservedly apologise to Anthony Mundine and Danny Green, to the boxing community, to Foxtel, to the event promoters and to everyone out there who did the right thing and paid to view the fight. It was piracy, and I'm sorry.
And on Thursday, Mr Sharpe posted this to his Facebook page.
Last Friday I streamed Foxtel's broadcast of Mundine v Green 2 fight via my Facebook page to thousands of people. I know that this was illegal and the wrong thing to do. Foxtel and the event promoters invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce the fight and to broadcast it. I unreservedly apologise to Anthony Mundine and Danny Green, to the boxing community, to Foxtel, to the event promoters and to everyone out there who did the right thing and paid to view the fight. It was wrong and I apologise.
Both men had set up GoFundMe pages to raise money for any potential fines, which lawyers estimated could be as much as $60,000.
But with that threat eased, the money has been passed on to charity.
Topics: boxing, sport, television-broadcasting, broadcasting, information-and-communication, australia
First postedPresident Obama's liberal use of his executive authority has been defended by progressives as being firmly in line - and even less so - than the executive powers claimed by previous presidents. They'll point to the number of executive orders that President Obama has issued as evidence that his use of this authority is not abnormal.
Over at FiveThirtyEight, Dhrumil Mehta argues that President Obama has been more restrained in his use of executive orders than every President since Grover Cleveland:
We looked at data from the American Presidency Project and found that the use of executive orders peaked in the era of the New Deal (FDR set the record) and has been on the decline since. In the past 100 years, Democrats have used them more than Republicans. Here’s every president’s tally per year that he served in office.
Mehta shows that executive orders peaked with Franklin Roosevelt but have fallen since then, and that Barack Obama has actually issued the fewest executive orders per year in more than 100 years.
This kind of analysis is incomplete. The number of executive orders is not the sole lens through which we should view this kind of executive authority. It should be the way in which a President exercises it.
At the Mercatus Center, Patrick McLaughlin has come up with a better way:
While other analysts have examined the number of executive orders issued by different administrations, we have used RegData, a database producing statistics based on the Code of Federal Regulations, to examine some of the content of these executive orders and proclamations for the past six presidencies, through the end of Obama’s first term. In particular, we examine the usage of restrictions—words that create binding, legal obligations, such as “shall” and “must.” Although the current administration has issued fewer executive orders than other modern administrations, the figures below show that its total usage of restrictions in executive orders and proclamations exceeds that of any of the past six administrations, with the exception of Clinton’s first term.
Take a look:
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President Clinton is still the reigning modern champion of executive orders, but President Obama is right there with him. It's possible that President Obama also catches up to Clinton - his attitude about dealing with the incoming Republican congress might get his executive order pen itching to issue a few.Sentai Filmworks announced at its panel at Anime Expo on Thursday that it has licensed the Legend of the Galactic Heroes and both seasons of the When They Cry - Higurashi (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) anime series, as well the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei OVA.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes video anime series adapts Yoshiki Tanaka's space opera novel series. The story follows the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and Free Planets Alliance, as well as the personal stories of Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the Alliance's Yang Wen-Li. Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint has licensed the original novel series and plans to release the first three novels in spring 2016.
The late director Noboru Ishiguro (Macross, Orguss, Megazone 23) and his Artland anime studio spent more than a decade adapting the novels into a theatrical and video anime franchise, with over 100 installments, from 1988 to 2000.
The 10 main novel volumes and four side-story volumes in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga have sold 15 million copies and earned Tanaka a Seiun Award. Besides Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Tanaka also wrote the original novel inspirations for The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Ryoko's Case File, Sohryuden - Legend of the Dragon Kings, and Tytania anime projects.
A stage production of the series had announced last year that a new anime adaptation was in the works. The new anime is not a remake of the earlier anime, but another anime adaptation of the original novels with a new staff.
Funimation originally released When They Cry - Higurashi in North America in 2008 after acquiring the license from Geneon Entertainment. Funimation then announced in 2011 that it was going to let its license of the series expire.
07th Expansion's original Higurashi no Naku Koro ni visual novel software revolved around murders that coincide with an annual festival in a quiet rural village. The software inspired two television anime series, several video anime projects, two live-action films, and manga adaptations by several artists.
The 26-episode television anime series originally aired in 2006. Chiaki Kon ( Nodame Cantabile: Paris/Finale, Umineko - When They Cry) directed the series at Studio DEEN off of scripts by Toshifumi Kawase (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Umineko - When They Cry).
NIS America released Umineko When They Cry in North America on Blu-ray Disc in 2012.
Update: Sentai Filmworks confirmed with ANN that the OVA it has licensed is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei.Witnesses representing musicians, record labels and a small radio company asked MPs to amend the government's copyright reform bill when they appeared on Tuesday before a committee studying C-11.
The Canadian Federation of Musicians, Re:Sound Music Licencing Company and an Ontario radio company called Pineridge Broadcasting told the special legislative committee they support the government's efforts to modernize Canada's copyright law, but that the bill still needs some work.
Bill Skolnik, CEO of the Canadian Federation of Musicians, said its members are self-employed business owners who often earn less than $20,000 a year and that earning income depends on Canada having robust copyright laws and royalty rules.
"Just because digital technology has made it easy for works to be reproduced it doesn't mean that it should be free," he said. "Technological advances cannot be a rationale for diminishing or depriving creators and performers of their rights to be rewarded for reproducing and using their work. Music has value. Unfortunately, in too many places this bill removes the value."
Skolnik said the CFM takes issue with a number of provisions in C-11, including a proposal to reduce the penalties for those who break copyright laws for non-commercial purposes.
He said there haven't been cases where Canadians have had to pay exorbitant fines for infringing on copyright and there is no need to drop the fines, adding that it shouldn't matter whether the law was broken for commercial purposes or not.
"Such a distinction conveys the wrong message," he said.
Re:Sound, a non-profit organization that collects and distributes royalties for performers and record labels, has been lobbying the government to hear its case and recently sent letters to MPs asking them to support their proposed amendments.
The association argues that radio stations currently get a subsidy from the government because the royalty scheme, which is tied to advertising revenue, currently mandates that only $100 has to be paid to Re:Sound on the first $1.25 million in revenue.
The group says this exemption amounts to an estimated $8 million in lost revenue for musicians and record labels annually and that radio stations should be forced to pay more.
Ian MacKay, president of Re:Sound, said a handful of large, profitable radio companies are benefiting from the rules and that artists and record labels aren't getting fairly compensated.
'Serious market distortion'
"This is a serious market distortion that benefits a very profitable industry at the expense of those who create the content that drive that industry," he said.
A radio station president, Don Conway, said lifting the $100 exemption would "significantly impact" his business and that small companies like his are already under tremendous financial pressure.
"If I can't hire someone else, I can't grow my revenues. If I can't grow my revenues I can't pay the artist any more," he said when asked about the royalty rate.
Conway said his company, Pineridge Broadcasting, a private company operating in eastern Ontario, is being held back from expanding and from being good corporate citizens because of increasing tariff rates.
"We believe in supporting the artists who make the songs that allow us to put a product on the street, but we believe in fair play. And I don't think being forced to pay multiple times for the same thing is fair," he said.
The committee also heard from representatives from the education sector at Tuesday's meeting. They also expressed general support for C-11 but want to see some amendments made.
A provision in the bill that would require students and teachers in online education to destroy notes with copyright-protected material within 30 days of the course finishing is stirring strong reaction.
"This amendment is unreasonable and impractical," said Cynthia Andrew with the Canadian School Boards Association. "It does not reflect current practices in online learning, where teachers reuse their course materials each year that they teach the same course."
The committee will hear from more groups representing musicians and artists on Wednesday.During March, the renowned film scholar Adrian Martin and the film critic Cristina Álvarez López are conducting a series of public workshops and lectures on a new and exciting phenomenon of digital film culture: the audio-visual essay.
Barely ten years old, the audio-visual genre has generated thousands of international works. The growing number of forums for it, such as AUDIOVISUALCY, which contains more than 1,000 essays, demonstrate the scale and diversity of this new genre.
Audio-visual essayists intensively re-edit and recombine images and sounds from preexisting film, TV and digital works.
Coinciding with the rise of YouTube since 2005, the format was first embraced most enthusiastically by film fans, who could pay homage to their favourite works by capturing the thematic preoccupations of a director or the peculiarity of an actor’s performance.
Such analyses and homages might privilege particular scenes, gestures or looks – that kiss between Kim Novak and James Stewart in Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) or the cigarette that Humphrey Bogart lights, again and again, in To Have and To Have Not, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.
Flickr
But the new creative and critical potential of the audio-visual essay was also gradually appreciated by film critics, cinema scholars and educators.
Many universities now offer courses on audio-visual practice. Several online film-studies journals, along with the educational blog Film Studies for Free, publish curated sections dedicated to audio-visual criticism.
Since critical and theoretical writing on cinema developed in the early 20th century, there have been three elements to the standard film studies “toolkit”: plot summary; vivid, descriptions of film style; and static, single-shot illustrations extracted from the film.
Single-frame illustration technique was perfected in the 1970s as a methodology of “frame by frame” analysis. It put together sequences of consecutive frames to “get closer” to nuances of facial expression, degrees of movement or interplay of light and shadow.
The emergence of VHS tapes and, later, of DVD allowed greater access to film material, as well as – in the case of DVD – information in the form of commentaries, featurettes, cuts and out-takes.
But it was only with the development of non-linear, video-editing programs (allowing you to dismantle the original footage, even separating image and sound) that it became possible not only to demonstrate and comment on certain features of the film, but to transform it.
Thus digital technology allowed scholars and critics to engage with screen material in a way that was impossible for the most of the 20th century – by directly working on the film’s moving image and sound.
This has led to the development of an innovative performative practice that generates new types of insight, particularly in relation to the way a film evokes feeling and emotion.
Some audio-visual essays relate to a film-maker’s themes or elements of style, such as visual motifs, recurrent settings, or a specificity of framing.
Adrian Martin and Cristina López’s essay Melville Variations astutely identifies a number of props used by the French director of the “noir” era Jean-Pierre Melville, including guns, phones, fedora hats, white gloves, and black and white tiles. It assembles them into a visual montage accompanied by a soundtrack of the signature tune of Le Samourai by François de Roubaux.
Other audio-visual essays are more theoretically oriented, often combining visual excerpts with textual commentaries. Catherine Grant’s work shows how feminist issues, queer issues or interest in the body and affect can be explored through video-graphic work.
Another audio-visual essayist, working under the name of KOGONADA, demonstrates how film history can be illuminated by illustrating the differences between Italian approaches to film-making after WWII and Hollywood cinema of the classical era.
A third group of audio-visual essays tries to do something entirely different – taking the original footage as a point of departure for a deeply reflective, poetic and creative transformation.
What happens if we trace how Ingmar Bergman treats the motif of female characters looking into mirrors in various films and superimpose on these excerpts a reading of Sylvia Plath’s poem The Mirror? KOGONADA’s Mirrors of Bergman is a profoundly moving work that pays homage simultaneously to both Bergman and Plath.
The proliferation of audio-visual essays has prompted various interest groups to pose some anxious questions.
How are we supposed to understand authorship under these new conditions? What is the relative impact of the original author versus the producer of the audio-visual essay?
What about respect for the original work and its integrity or cohesion, which essayists feel increasingly free to cut and splice, dismantle and recombine?
There are also complex questions about fair use or fair dealing for non-commercial, scholarly and critical purposes and contexts.
The audio-visual essay has also been met with confronting questions within the academy. Is it really a form of film criticism and theorising or is it just a testimony to the fan’s imaginative play – not much different from mash-ups or remixes?
There is still considerable resistance to the genre from a large group of scholars who believe that film analysis should remain what it has been for decades: writing that is grounded in methodologies and infused with theoretical concepts, and only invoking the film material as “evidence”.
Another camp believes that the most productive use of the audio-visual essay format for scholarly purposes is one that combines it with more traditional textual explanation, reflection or commentary.
While these debates will no doubt rage for a while yet, we can be sure of one thing: the rise of the audio-visual essay is now unstoppable.
Its rich and varied artefacts are testimony to the fertility of the encounter between passion for cinema, digital technologies and the tradition of film scholarship within screen studies.
Adrian Martin and Cristina Álvarez López will be giving a public lecture, Hitting the Target: Hou Hsiao-hsien Style, at Monash University on March 15, 5pm to 7pm.Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, email, his Friday chat, and any other outlet you prefer. He’ll pick one each day (except for Saturday) to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation.
Should the Red Sox fast-track Rafael Devers to the majors? He’s their best prospect, he’s crushing it in Portland and third base is a dumpster fire. It worked with Andrew Benintendi. Why not be aggressive? It can’t be worse. – Rich O.
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Yeah, we got into the disastrous state of the Red Sox’ third base situation here at the Sports Q on Thursday. There may have even been a Wilton Veras reference, which tells you the level of desperation we’re dealing with here. Maybe Luis Ortiz is still in Pawtucket? Ted Cox? Cole Liniak? Someone should check on this.
So yesterday I dismissed the idea of bringing up Devers, the 20-year-old third baseman and a consensus top 20 prospect in baseball, even though he’s raking in Portland (.333/.366/.590) and is reputed to be an excellent defensive third baseman.
I’ve thought about it more — the prospect of a Josh Rutledge/Chase D’Arnaud platoon make a man contemplate things — and I’m sticking with the belief that it would be a mistake to rush Devers, even though I do understand why fans might want to accelerate him.
That fast track has worked with Benintendi, who has a.300/.362/.452 slash line as a major leaguer and looks like he’s been here for a decade. But he was a more polished prospect, with the potential to possibly become a generational talent. He set a bar that few prospects should attempt to reach, let alone are capable of achieving.
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Instead, consider Mookie Betts, who is a decent ballplayer himself. In 2014, he played 53 games at Portland as a 21-year-old, slashing.355/.443/.551 before moving up to Pawtucket. In 45 games there, he continued to rake:.335/.417/.503. The final third of his season, essentially, was spent in Boston, where he again succeeded, delivering a.291/.368/.441 line in 52 games.
His success on that rapid path might look like a reason to speed Devers along. I don’t think it is. Betts and Benintendi were both a year older than Devers is now when they got to Boston. They also were much more patient at the plate — Devers has just 4 walks to 17 strikeouts this season in 82 plate appearances — and better-conditioned athletes.
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It’s easy to forget now, but Betts did struggle initially, hitting.228 through his first 63 plate appearances while taking a couple of trips on the Pawtucket shuttle while learning how to play the outfield. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Devers, who has spent a season of developmental time at each level so far, would struggle right away.
You know what the big promotion for Devers should be this year? To Pawtucket, maybe midway through the season, presuming he keeps hitting like this.
I suppose the argument can be made that the Red Sox’ third base situation can’t be worse. But it can. Devers could be hurried to the big leagues, only to fall on his face initially and have to deal with failure and self-doubt.
He’s the long-term solution at third base, if Dave Dombrowski doesn’t trade him and six other Sea Dogs for Todd Frazier or Mike Moustakas. Let’s be patient in the short-term until we know for sure he’s ready.
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What do you guys say? Should the Red Sox fast-track Devers? Or is patience the way to go? Take your cuts in the comments.The Nextbit Robin has been out for a little more than a year now and has been the subject of many different discounts, including a permanent discount to just $299. However, if you’re in the market for a cheap unlocked smartphone, you may want to check out this new deal from Amazon.
Nextbit Robin Specs: Processor: Snapdragon 808
Memory: 3GB RAM / 32 GB onboard / 100 GB online
Screen: 5.2” IPS LCD 1080p
Rear Camera: 13MP with phase detection autofocus, dual tone flash
Front camera: 5MP
Battery: 2,680mAh
Fingerprint sensor
NFC
For a limited time, the 32GB Nextbit Robin has been reduced to just $199 and comes with free 2-day shipping through Amazon Prime. Additionally, you can get the Nextbit Robin in either the Midnight or Mint color variations. Although this device is discounted frequently, you may want to jump on board now, even if it’s just to have a spare device while you wait for your Galaxy Note 7 replacement to arrive.Non of us here at swtorstrategies were at the Boulder event, so the information below is from Lumberj, and all credits goes to him.
The tour was just like most others, a Q&A round, followed by trivia to a room full of nerds and then a meet and greet. Who was there? Courtney Woods, some Australian dude who lost a arm wrestling match, Blain and Cory Butler.
First off, they said they could not talk about strongholds other than what was originally announced.
The exact details of what the legacy storage could hold was still being worked out in response to a? about placing bound items in them.
Guild ship battles is on the Wall of Crazy (WoC)
Space PvE — WoC and no current plans
Open space Pvp – WoC
Class Story – Not at the moment, would rather have story that all classes can experience such as what they’ve done so far.
More GSF maps on the way.
They look at what players are doing all the time to see what is working or not.
The Cantina tours are VERY important in figuring out what players want.
Paazak – WoC
No plans on a MAC client
On organizing buffs and debuffs — It’s something that they are talking about, not sure where it is in the planning stage.
Several PvP questions were asked that were all ready answered last week on the forums.
Something is in the works for World PvP that’s “really cool” related to rewards on a global scale. It won’t be anything like Ilum though..
More planets are in the pipeline.
They really LOVE the Voss……
On achievement rewards they are looking at other items than just cartel coins and titles
The level cap IS going up and we should hear something about that sooner than later
Weapon itemization is staying the same, so no seeing bounty hunters walking around with rifles.
More raid(s) coming this year, Courtney couldn’t say when.
Boulder thumbdrive assets
Concept Arts
Cartel Market
(Visited 764 times, 1 visits today)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it was returning about $1.5 million to Taiwan that came from the sale of U.S. properties the government alleges were bought with the proceeds of bribes paid to the family of former Taiwan President Chen Shui-Bian.
According to complaints filed in the case, Yuanta Securities Co Ltd paid a bribe of 200 million New Taiwan dollars, worth about $6 million, to Chen’s wife Wu Shu-Jen in 2004, during his administration, officials from the U.S. Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement.
“The former first family used Hong Kong and Swiss bank accounts, shell companies and a St. Kitts and Nevis trust to transfer the bribe proceeds needed to purchase the properties in Keswick, Virginia, and New York,” it said.
After U.S. District Courts in Virginia and in New York entered final forfeiture judgments against the two properties in October 2012, the U.S. government sold them for about $1.5 million, the statement said.Sketches of Exodus: Interviews With Rohingya Refugees
Migrants collect rain water on plates to drink at the Kayin Chaung temporary camp. Burma does not recognize its 1.1 million Rohingya as citizens. Credit : Nyunt Win/EPA
It was in 2012 the world first became aware of a small minority called the Rohingya who live in Myanmar's western Rakhine State. The Rohingya are ethnically darker and Muslim, where the state's majority, Rakhine, are typically lighter in complexion and Buddhist. Riots beginning in the summer of 2012, targeting the Rohingya, effectively displaced 140,000 of them by the fall of the same year, forcing them into squalid camps where access to food and medicine has been precarious at best. Meanwhile more than 700,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar under tension and threat of further attacks by the Rakhine majority, or threats of violence and extortion by police and military.
This is occurring while laws against the Rohingya—who have been considered non-citizens in the country since they were stripped of citizenship in 1982—restrict their movement, ability to work and provide for their families, obtain access to medical treatment, and limit the kind of work they are allowed to perform. This, coupled with calls from the government to expel the Rohingya from the country as non-citizens, has led many to believe that the Rohingya are at very least under threat of ethnic cleansing, and is the reason why so many have fled the country by the thousands every year by whatever means possible.
Most often Rohingya attempt to immigrate to Malaysia or Indonesia on small, crammed trafficking boats. The journey often lacks adequate supplies, carries great risk of death in sinking, and almost always leads to further extortion by traffickers, or for those unable to pay extortion fees it may result into modern slavery or imprisonment in trafficking camps. It is estimated that 100,000 Rohingya, ten percent of the total population, have tried to make this journey in the past three years. There is no data on how many have been lost at sea, nor are comprehensive numbers on those imprisoned in trafficking camps.
The following is a collection of first-hand accounts from Rohingya in four different countries who have managed to flee from Myanmar. Their stories recount why they left, and how they escaped. All names included have been changed and some details and locations have been omitted to protect those interviewed.
Editor's note: Accompanying this essay is a collection of photos Richard took while traveling the region of Sittwe and IDP camps in February 2014.
Thailand: Nasir Salam
Nasir Salam was born in Bangladesh in 1994, the second son in a Rohingya family that had fled from Myanmar two years earlier. “My family is from Maungdaw, but they left after the police beat my grandfather. They arrested him and kept him for ten days, beating him. They told my father if he didn't leave Myanmar they would kill him.” Nasir's family left during one of the larger, though often overlooked, exoduses of Rohingya from Myanmar.
Inside the camp, life was restricted for Nasir. He was unable to attend school outside of the camp, and his family had a very difficult time earning money. Like many, he and his older brother fled as a means to support their family, to ensure their survival, and with hope they could even be prosperous if he was able to earn enough to support them.
In the spring of 2012, Nasir paid human traffickers 25,000 Bangladesh taka ($322) to travel to Thailand, where he hoped to be transferred by a smuggling network to neighboring Malaysia. He spent the next 10 days at sea on a small boat crammed with 150 other people so tight they were all forced to huddle into balls; holding their knees to their chest. “After five days we ran out of water. The captain of the ship, he beat many people. Some of the people jumped off the boat to commit suicide, they thought it is better to die like this. We went without water for four days and we had no food. On the ninth day it rained. People filled their water bottles with the rain. The rain water, everyone said God sent the rain, Al-ḥamdu lillāh [Thank God],” Nasir recalls. The following day their ship arrived at shore in southern Thailand.
The relief was short-lived, as Nasir and the others were transferred to a jungle trafficking camp. There the traffickers attempted to extort more money from him and his brother. “They tried to take another 175,000 taka [roughly $2,300], and said if we gave it to them then we could go to Malaysia. We didn't have any money so they beat my big brother. They put me and my brother together and beat my brother, they called my family to demand the money, but they didn't have it so they kept beating my brother every time they demanded. They didn't beat me, just my brother, because at that time I was too young, and he was older than me. They beat many people in the camps, one of them died from it. This is when we decided to escape.”
In the middle of the night Nasir, his brother, and nine others escape the trafficking camp. “We ran anywhere we could. We didn't know where, we just ran. Finally, we came to a Muslim area and we went inside the Masjid. There we met some Muslim people who let us stay there, they gave us food and rice. They let us stay for one day, but the following morning the Thai police came to take us. I don't know who told them we were there.”
Nasir and his brother spent the following year detained in an immigration center on the Thai Malaysian border. They were released after a year, at which point they both promptly tried to cross again into Malaysia. Nasir's brother made it, guided by Thai Muslims, but Nasir was caught by the police again, and transferred to the Thailand Immigration Detention Center (IDC) in Bangkok.
Nasir was assigned to a cell in the Detention Center he shared with nearly a hundred other people, sleeping and using all the same facilities. “It was a bad place. There was a time the leader from the cell, the police, and 20 men beat a man from Vietnam to death. People there were from many places. Somalia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Pakistan, some people from Laos. They came from many places.” Nasir befriended people in the IDC from varying religious and national backgrounds. He befriended Somalis fleeing war, Pakistani Christians and Ahmadi Muslims fleeing persecution, Tamil asylum seekers; they shared the experience of escaping similar threats, only to end up confined without knowledge of when they would be released, or to where they would be released.
After a year Nasir was released on bail. “My family paid the bail. My mother she didn't have enough money when I came to IDC to pay my bail, but she saved for me over a year's time, and she was able to get me out.” She had to pay 50,000 taka ($650).
Nasir was free, and given stipend by the UNHCR for living expenses as his resettlement was processed. He has been approved for relocation to the United States, but at the time of this writing he doesn't know which city he will be settled in. “Maybe in one or two months they will resettle me. I have a health examination coming up. When I get to the U.S.A. I hope first I can pay my mother back. Then I hope also to get education, I don't know how to read or write well. I want to get a job so I can send money back to my family. I want to make sure my younger brother can go to school. If he has money he can go to school even outside the camp if he pays to be allowed.”
Nasir still considers himself lucky, and emphasizes the condition of those back in Bangladesh and Myanmar that is the cause for so many going to sea with human traffickers as he had. In a strange twist Nasir read of one of them in news recently, “It was last week maybe, the Bangladeshi soldiers attacked many traffickers, one of the men they killed, I knew him. He was my agent [trafficker]. He was from Myanmar, a Rohingya. The traffickers are mostly Bangladeshi, Thai, but also some Rohingya.”
This is a Rohingya boy and girl in front of a fishing boat at the Rohingya IDP camp in Rural Sittwe. Credit: Richard Potter
Bangladesh: Omar, Yusuf and Hasan
Omar, Yusuf, and Hasan are three young men living in the Nayapara refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. Their families have each lived there since the camp was formed in 1993, responding to a massive influx of Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar. There are two massive registered refugee camps for Rohingya in Bangladesh, housing nearly 30,000 Rohingya, and an astounding 200,000 unregistered who have accumulated over the years in severely impoverished camps where conditions are much worse.
Omar, the eldest of the three men at 28, was born across the river from the Nayapara, in Maungdaw. He left his home in 1992 with his family, at only five years old, and was relocated to Nayapara by the UNHCR the following year. Yusuf, 21, and Hasan, 24, were both born inside of Bangladesh after their parents fled from Myanmar. Yusuf was born inside the camp, while Hasan was born in a nearby village called Dhamdumia. All of their families left Myanmar more than two decades before the 2012 riots that would come to make the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya known globally, after suffering from restricted movement, religious oppression, forced labor, and indiscriminate killings by the police and military. Hasan recalls the stories from his parents, how his grandfather was shot and killed by the Burmese military, when he was in forced labor for them and unable to carry the loads they demanded of him. Each of the young men are largely self-educated, and work in secret as teachers inside of Nayapara, attempting to offer ease of access to the education that they had to strive to access growing up.
“Many students tried to study from class one to class five [year one to year five], including of Burmese language, then it was informed and known to the government and they tortured the students. We didn't even have simple education in the camp, so very secretly some students studied in a house made of leaves and sacks, when it was known to the Myanmar government they deployed the police and intruded on the camp. Those students were arrested and tortured. They tortured them by breaking their fingers. They would ask which hand they used to write, and then they would break the fingers on that hand. They would pull the nails out of their fingers,” Omar remembers, stating that it wasn't until 1997—four years after the camp had been established—that any education system would be offered to the refugees.
Hasan recollects an event from his childhood, where a young boy was playing a game with a stone and accidentally hit the Refugee Camp's Camp In Charge (CIC) in the head with a stone, “The CIC got hurt and was bleeding from his head. He called the police and told them to shoot the refugees. Following his command they shot the refugees. Men and women. My uncle was shot and killed in this violence.”
In 1997, the Bangladeshi government attempted to forcibly repatriate the Rohingya in the camps back to Myanmar, but collectively they refused to return home where they thought they would still face persecution. Omar reminisces: “The refugees were reluctant to go back, so Bangladesh tried to force them. We refused many times, and then one day the refugees had a meeting and decided to refuse all humanitarian assistance from UNHCR and WFP [World Food Program]. They stopped taking food rations. It lasted 52 days.”
During the boycott of UNHCR and WFP, families had to find new ways to sustain themselves. Omar remembers the villagers leaving to go to nearby hillsides to collect whatever food they could find for their families, risking arrest or attacks from Bangladeshi citizens who didn't want them there. “We used to cook banana leaf in water for food, sometimes the whole tree, we would cook it just to have food. Some people were dying from hunger at this time, and then one day the police arrived at the end of the camp so no one could exit and |
Never Ending Story
5-MeO-TMT
Citation: nndpt. "The Never Ending Story: An Experience with 5-MeO-TMT (exp108493)". Erowid.org. May 11, 2016. erowid.org/exp/108493
DOSE:
90 mg oral 5-MeO-TMT insufflated 5-MeO-TMT
BODY WEIGHT: 244 lb
This occurred at home, and it was late eveningSebastian took the sample of 5-MeO-TMT from the bag, and weighed out approx 90mg and swallowed it. He had heard about this place in a book written by a wizened old man. An ancient tome filled with the never ending story, every dream imaginable in every land. Sebastian foolishly dove in unafraid, thinking he knew what lied ahead. He sent a telegram to reality, telling him where he was going to travel. Reality told him to enjoy. Sebastian spoke again, saying that it's more a matter of what I can learn, but still, I take this journey. He didn't realize that the words he wrote would ring out as prophetic. The childlike princess held Sebastian tight as the nothing began to take over the land. It came quicker and quicker.Foolishly Sebastian reached out for the nothing (5-MeO-TMT) and snorted more. 'This is sadness powder, pure sadness in a yellow powder' Sebastian said as Rick told Morty his place in the universe. Sebastian echoed his words to a small corner of the internet, before the internet got swallowed by the nothing. Sebastian went into the nothing to try to find the internet (turns out Jen had it. The silly elders let her hold onto it) and returned in front of the glowing picture window. Suddenly the pictures, the words, the childlike princess, all of them got swallowed by the nothing.There is Nothing to be said about the Nothing, as there is Nothing thereIt is literally Nothing.The Nothing swept over the land for several hours, keeping Sebastian in a stranglehold. Outside of the world of fantasy the real princess held her man's hand, and was stronger than anyone could have ever imagined. She reached through the void and brought Sebastian back from the Nothing.Sebastian's first memories were of a clinician saying that 'this is a recording device, you keep looping, it's to keep track of time in a way you could understand'. Sebastian sees 4:20 roll by on the recorder. Smoke weed everyday, he thinks to himself. A thought! He thinks.... He ponders this for a second. I think... Therefore I am? I must be then, cause I'm thinking this.He suddenly feels guilt about what has happened. He flipped out, and was totally in psychosis. His lover (the clinician, the princess) had watched over him and kept him safe, because of love. He was coming back now. So much sorrow. So much guilt. How could he ever fix it? He didn't know. So he locked the memories away for in a vault, a vault which I, the narrator, have found, and have transcribed for you here.I haven't commented on Michael's much-talked-about piece in The New Republic, in which he argues -- and I haven't read it closely-enough yet, so pardon any possible misinterpretation -- that the mission of the Goldstone report is to essentially deny Israel the right to self-defense -- because I'm so effing busy with actual journalism right now. But I thought this reaction from Andrew is interesting, and I'll try to write about the whole thing later. Israel, Andrew writes, should try to "get some perspective and to see, for a moment, how things might look from the outside."
I can see why they may feel encircled and alone. But they're not. Even those of us who have been made angry by their recent actions and seeming unconcern for the needs of their most powerful friend, want to help. God knows I love Israel and its people; and I understand that some of the extremism among neocons is really an excess of passion and love rather than mere belligerence and orneriness. But, seriously guys, get a grip. Help the US help you. And try to see the wider picture.
I remember once in Beirut an American diplomat complaining to me about Israel, as American diplomats will often do, especially in places like Beirut. She said, in essence, "I don't understand why Israel behaves the way it does. It has the support of the most powerful country in the world, a powerful military, an educated population, and nuclear bombs. If I had that, I wouldn't feel so lonely." What she was doing was mirror-imaging, not seeing the world through the eyes of the people she was ostensibly trying to understand. In other words, she was seeing Israel's world through the eyes of a Christian American. The point is, the past can be used to predict Israel's behavior, just as it can be used to predict most anyone's behavior, and the Jewish past was very often a bitch.
But while the world has an obligation to understand Israel and its motivations (or, at least, an abiding interest in gaining such an understanding) Israel has an interest in understanding why the world might see some of its actions as excessive. I'm not referring here to Israel's reaction to the Goldstone report, which was a pre-cooked travesty, but to more legitimate criticism about its settlements and its actions in Gaza. I'm not arguing that Israel must agree with every criticism, but I am arguing that not every single criticism of Israel is motivated by a desire to exterminate the Jewish state.Rick Perry has taken a lot of heat for signing an executive order in 2007 requiring HPV vaccination for all girls in Texas. Michele Bachmann accused him of doing so because he was lobbied by Merck, the drug company that produced the vaccine.
But at this week's debate, Perry had a pretty good answer to that accusation. In fact, it was probably his finest moment during an otherwise very unimpressive performance:
"I got lobbied on this issue. I got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady who had Stage 4 cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her. She came by my office, talked to me about the program."
Perry isn't exactly known for his compassion, but that's a pretty compelling reason to mandate vaccination. And it sure sounds a lot better than some of the other suggested reasons he might have been moved to support mandatory vaccination:
Over the past five years, it turns out that Merck [the company that manufacturers the vaccine] gave over $350,000 to the Republican Governors Association, a period in which Perry was heavily involved with the group, and the RGA in turn gave $4 million to Rick Perry. And wait some more! Merck's lobbyist on the vaccine issue was Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. Toomey recently co-founded a super PAC that plans to raise over $50 million for Perry's campaign.
And that's on top of the $30,000 Merck has donated directly to Perry in the past. But Perry insisted that all that money—well, the $5,000 he was willing to admit he'd received, anyway—wasn't the reason he signed an executive order mandating the vaccine. No, it was because he was lobbied by one young woman suffering with cancer. Just one problem—it's not true:
Perry on Feb. 2, 2007, signed the order directing the state Health and Human Services commissioner to mandate human papillomavirus vaccination for all girls before admission to the sixth grade. Perry at the time released a statement saying that the vaccine "provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," which HPV can cause. Perry met Burcham after Feb. 2, 2007, campaign spokesman Mark Miner told CNN Friday, but he was not sure of the precise date. Miner said Perry never claimed to have met Burcham before he signed the order.
So Perry is claiming that he signed this order in an act of compassion because he was lobbied by someone he didn't meet until after he signed the order. And he was so moved by her story of suffering, after he actually did meet her, that when the legislature passed a bill to repeal his order, he didn't veto the bill. He let his order go down in defeat. That's how moved he was.
We don't know why Rick Perry really signed that order. But we do know one thing: it wasn't because he was lobbied by a "31-year-old young lady who had Stage 4 cervical cancer."NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With a 2015 recruiting class that already ranks in the top-100 nationally, Lipscomb baseball coach Jeff Forehand has added a 5-star recruit to the group with the signing of Brooks Russell to a National Letter of Intent.
Touted as an unbelievable talent by the recruiting experts, Russell is not your typical 5-star recruit who is choosing whether to go the college route or wait to hear his name called in the Major League Baseball draft. You see, Russell is five years old and is battling a pediatric brain tumor.
“In signing the letter of intent, you can know that the Lipscomb Baseball program will promise Brooks and his family that we will be actively invested in his life as a player, person, brother, son, and teammate” said Forehand. “Teammates Matter is what we pride ourselves on and with Brooks it will be no different. As coaches we are thrilled to have Brooks and his family on our team and as a part of our family of Bisons.”
The entire Lipscomb baseball staff is thrilled to have Russell as part of the Bisons program.
“It’s an honor to sign Brooks to a letter of intent with the Bison family,” said Lipscomb baseball recruiting coordinator Brian Ryman. “Guys like Brooks have a passion for the game of baseball and will make each one of us better.”
Russell was paired up with the Lipscomb program through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation that helps improve the quality of life for children and their families who are battling pediatric brain tumors.
“We are honored and excited for Brooks to be a part of the Lipscomb family and we are extremely thankful for Friends of Jaclyn for helping to make this happen,” said Keri Russel. “Lipscomb just picked up one heck of a baseball player! Go Bisons!”
Brooks will also serve as bat boy for the Bisons when his schedule allows.
For more information on Friends of Jaclyn Foundation visit. www.friendsofjaclyn.org.Republicans are looking for a path forward on ObamaCare amid conservative opposition to key elements of their plan.
The leaders of the two top conservative groups in the House, Reps. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), on Monday said they could not support a leaked draft GOP plan because it featured tax credits to help people buy coverage, which they warn is creating a new entitlement.
The two groups have enough votes to sink a bill, meaning their opposition would doom legislation.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Tuesday distanced GOP leaders from the leaked legislation.
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“That draft is not even representative of where we are,” Scalise said.
He added that leadership has been in “direct conversations with the chairman of the [Republican Study Committee] as well as others about the best way to build a consensus to pass a bill to gut ObamaCare.”
The conservative objections to refundable tax credits pose a major problem for GOP leadership, as those credits are a central aspect of the party's plan to repeal ObamaCare but provide people with insurance coverage.
Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) defended the idea of tax credits and the House’s approach in general to reporters on Tuesday, saying it looks like a previous plan from former Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), now the secretary of Health and Human Services.
“The Price plan was considered the conservative gold standard at the time last year,” Ryan said. “Many conservatives co-sponsored that plan. That plan looks a lot like what we’re working on right now.”
Conservatives don’t appear to be buying that argument.
Meadows and two other conservatives, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (R-Ky.), bashed the leadership plan in a call with reporters Tuesday.
Meadows criticized the refundable tax credits, as well as a plan to start taxing generous employer-sponsored health plans that would be used to pay for the cost of the credits.
Jordan said the opposition from conservatives was not jeopardizing the repeal effort.
“We actually think you should do what you said you would do,” he said, referring to GOP vows to repeal as much of ObamaCare as possible.
Paul and fellow conservative Sens. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas) and Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeePush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (R-Utah) said Monday that they will vote against a repeal bill that preserves more of the law than a far-reaching bill from 2015.
Those three have enough votes to defeat a measure in the Senate, but their demands, if met, could cost a Senate bill the support of centrist Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.) acknowledged Tuesday that congressional Republicans and President Trump need to get in sync on their ObamaCare strategy — but they aren't there yet.
“The goal is for the administration, the House and the Senate to be in the same place. We're not there yet,” he told reporters.
Meadows said he had not spoken to leadership this week about his ObamaCare concerns.
“I've had ongoing conversations with leadership over the last couple of months,” he said. “I don't see any real movement in terms of their position on tax credits.”
Scalise predicted that at the end of the day, Republicans would rally around the final repeal-and-replacement legislation and pass it.
“We will keep working with our members until we finally pass the bill,” the majority whip said. “We will pass the bill.”
— Jessie Hellmann contributed.Is their long game no creatives at all?
Last week Publicis made a very major and very public announcement regarding their desire to become, and roadmap for their evolution toward being, a “platform.” The announcement covered two main points. The first: they will cease to enter award shows or attend any industry events in fiscal 2018. The second: they will be investing what they would have spent on those award shows and events on the development on a corporate-wide machine-learning/A.I.-based collaboration platform called Marcel (named after Publicis founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet).
Viewed independently, perhaps those two points might appear benign. But the fact that those two ideas were intrinsically linked appears to signal that one of the largest marketing and communications companies in the world has embraced, and is preparing for, the post-subjective (read: post creatives) era for the industry. To better explain what I mean, let’s look at the collateral implications of these two factors.
Devaluing subjectivity
It is generally understood that major awards are the professional currency of agencies as a whole, but they are, perhaps, most valuable to the individual creators within the agency. Awards improve a creative’s free agency potential. An award-winning creative can more easily jump ship to another agency and, as a result, negotiate higher wages from the potential new, or existing employer. A quick glance at the contact us. Or, click around our site to see all of the other ways we help we help our clients outsmart, outmessage and outmarket larger competitors, to steal their most profitable customers.A Washington federal judge blocked President’s Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military — a victory for transgender service members who claimed Trump was violating their constitutional rights, according to Reuters.
In July, Trump announced he would prevent transgender people from serving in the military — a move which would reverse former President Barack Obama’s policy of accepting them and stop years of efforts to dispel obstacles to military service based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, the report said.
The transgender service members filed a lawsuit in August to block the ban that has yet to go into effect and U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved an injunction halting enforcement of it until their case was resolved.
The service members claimed Trump’s policy breached their rights to due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. Kollar-Kotelly said the plaintiffs would most likely prevail in their claims stating the ban was unconstitutional because the administration’s reasons for it “do not appear to be supported by any facts.”
After Trump announced the policy on Twitter, he endorsed a memorandum in August which told the military to not approve transgender individuals as recruits and prevent government funds to be used for sex-reassignment surgeries for active service members unless the process was already underway.
The memo directed Defense Secretary James Mattis to submit an agenda to Trump by Feb. 21 on how to enforce the changes and the Pentagon created a panel of senior officials for that purpose, the report said.
In July, Mattis already postponed permitting transgender recruits to join the U.S. military on July 1 as initially scheduled, the report said.
“This is a hugely important decision and confirms that transgender people can and should be able to serve in the military if they are qualified to do so,” said the plaintiffs’ lead attorney and director of the transgender rights project for the anti-discrimination group GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Jennifer Levi.
“The court saw through the smoke screens that the government tried to throw up to hide what is actually going on here, which is straight-on bias and prejudice against transgender people,” Levi added.
The Justice Department said the ruling was a disappointment and it is weighing its next move. Spokeswoman Lauren Ehrsam said the lawsuit was hasty because the “Defense Department is actively reviewing such service requirements, as the president ordered, and because none of the plaintiffs have established that they will be impacted by current policies on military service.”
Trump’s policy was welcomed by his hard-line conservative supporters and in February, he also removed protections implemented under Obama for transgender students in public schools, according to Reuters.
— WN.com, Jubilee BaezShares
Online discussions on the merits of alternative medicine can get quite heated. And its proponents, given enough time, will inevitably cite the same drug as “evidence” of the failings of science. Call it Gavura’s Law, with apologies to Mike Godwin:
As an online discussion on the effectiveness of alternative medicine grows longer, the probability that thalidomide will be cited approaches one.
A recent comment on my own blog, regarding the homeopathic product Traumeel, is typical:
If the scientific method is all that separates an accepted claim, ie Thalidomide, Vioxx, Bextra, Darvon, from mere anecdote, of what benefit is the Science? As a non-scientist consumer, I’ll take the anecdotes and my own experience. Thank you. If scientists want to be taken seriously, they must stop selling themselves to the highest bidder becoming corporate whores without a shred of decency. To my mind, that’s how the claims for Thalidomide, Vioxx, Bextra, Darvon were accepted, making the scientific method utterly worthless.
To this commenter, “science has been wrong before.” And that invalidates science, and apparently validates homeopathy. It’s a fallacious argument. But does thalidomide actually represent a failing of science-based medicine? No, not even close. It’s so wrong, it’s not even wrong. Thalidomide is good example of the importance of science-based medicine and why allowing alternative medicine to be sold in the absence of good science is a concern.
The broad strokes of thalidomide causing thousands of birth defects are well known. But the details are important to understand the implications to regulation, and to science-based medicine, today.
Thalidomide was first marketed in 1958 in Germany by Chemie Grünenthal. While its developmental origins are somewhat unclear, it was initially marketed as a treatment for seizures, and later as an anti-nauseant and sedative. At the time, barbiturates were frequently used as sedatives. And compared to barbiturates, which were highly toxic in overdose, thalidomide was well tolerated, even in overdose. Based on its apparent safety, no prescription was required. Eventually its attractiveness as an anti-nauseant led to its use in pregnancy for morning sickness.
It wasn’t known at the time, but fetal exposure to thalidomide between days 35 and 48 was causing severe limb and organ defects in 20-30% of children. In the 1950’s it wasn’t even recognized that drugs could cross the placenta and cause adverse effects to the fetus. Thalidomide hadn’t been tested on pregnant animals prior to marketing for use in pregnancy. Regulators didn’t require it. And the consequences were horrific.
Thalidomide became a popular drug because of its apparent safety and effectiveness, and it was marketed alone and in combination with other drugs in Germany, the UK, Canada, and other countries. But within a few years, babies started being born with characteristic limb and organ deformities. In 1961, two independent researchers identified thalidomide as the likely causal agent. The manufacturer sought to undermine and discredit the findings, but it was clear – the drug had caused catastrophic harm to thousands of fetuses. Subsequent animal testing confirmed this.
The USA largely escaped the thalidomide tragedy – due to stronger regulations, and the action of a single employee.
American drug regulations have evolved over time. The Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906) did not require that drugs be tested for safety and efficacy before sale. It was the regulator’s responsibility to demonstrate a product was unsafe. In 1938, the S.E. Massengill company manufactured a liquid version antibiotic sulfanilamide, mixing it with diethylene glycol -a poison more commonly used as antifreeze. When patients started dying, a massive recall was implemented – but not before over 100 people died. The tragedy brought about significant reforms to drug regulations in the form of the Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act (1938) that required manufacturers to obtain FDA approval for any drug sold, prior to any sale.
Frances Oldham Kelsey was a reviewer with the FDA in 1960, and was responsible for evaluating the thalidomide marketing application. Kelsey refused to approve the drug in the absence of safety data. Her concern was peripheral neuropathy – not teratogenicity, which wasn’t even considered at the time. She described the application process in a paper she published in 1965:
The New Drug Application for thalidomide was presented in September, 1960. The drug had been marketed in Germany since 1957 where it was available without prescription, and in Great Britain since 1958. However, it was felt that the evidence submitted in the application was not adequate to indicate the safety of the drug. In particular, although this drug appeared to be remarkably nontoxic in animals and human beings, little or no information was available concerning its absorption, distribution in the body, or its excretion. Since the possibility existed that the low toxicity of the drug in certain species might be related to poor absorption in those species, and that under certain conditions the absorption in other species might be increased, further work was requested relative to the metabolism of the drug.
As the FDA studied the side effect profile, the teratogenicity of the drug became clear as and the application for licensure was discontinued. Kelsey was hailed as hero. Yet despite the refusal to formally approve the product for sale, millions of doses had been administered as part of “clinical trials” (in name only). Yet due to Kelsey’s refusal to approve the drug, the drug was not widely used, and only 17 children were born in the USA with thaldomide-induced effects.
Regulators worldwide acted to ensure another thalidomide tragedy would not occur. In 1962 the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments were passed, increasing the rigor of the drug approval process, requiring the demonstration of safety and effectiveness via objectively designed and executed clinical trials. These amendments also implemented the requirement for adequate preclinical trials before any human studies, including animal studies to evaluate fetal risks. Marketing requirements were also implemented, restricting manufacturers from making unfounded, unsubstantiated claims of safety and efficacy. Finally, the amendments ushered in the requirement for manufacturers to collect and report all adverse events associated with drug use – measures designed to capture any events not otherwise identified in pre-marketing clinical trials. Similar actions occurred in other countries. Today, over 100 countries now collaborate with the World Health Organization to pool adverse event reporting and look for signals of drug harms.
Lessons Learned
The worldwide disaster of thalidomide led to most of the current framework we have in place today to evaluate the safety and efficacy of drug products. Ironically, these are the same requirements that manufacturers of supplements and other “alternative” medicine products have been largely successful in circumventing. In the USA, it’s DSHEA, which (as blogged about regularly at SBM ) removed the onus of demonstrating safety and efficacy from the manufacturer and put the requirement to demonstrate harm on the FDA – exactly the same scenario as drugs in the early 1900’s. In Canada, the Natural Health Product regulations has introduced a lowered bar for non-drug supplements: Today even homeopathic remedies are deemed safe and effective and approved with unique recommended uses.
The Resurrection of Thalidomide
Almost 30 years after thalidomide was withdrawn, it’s back on the market in the United States, Canada and many other countries. It’s been found to be effective for a number of conditions including erythema nodosum leprosum, multiple myeloma, and is being investigated for efficacy in an array of other conditions. There’s an analog of thalidomide now marketed, lenalidomide, also used to treat cancer. To minimize the teratogenicity risk, intensive programs are in place to minimize any possibility of use in pregnancy. So while the drug has known harms, it seems to be highly effective for some medical conditions where few effective alternatives exist. Access, therefore, is based on a careful evaluation of the risks and benefits.
Does Thalidomide Invalidate Science-Based Medicine?
Cases like thalidomide provide a good example of why SBM authors argue against regulatory double-standards, and advocate for a single, science-based standard for evaluating all products: drugs as well as supplements. There is no intrinsic reason to think any product, regardless of its source, is safe or effective – we must evaluate it, objectively. Thalidomide’s history is a cautionary tale reminding us that assumptions without good evidence can lead to terrible consequences.
And that leads to the logical fallacies that the thalidomide retort represents. Thalidomide is an effective drug for some conditions – but it is a teratogen. It’s not alone in this regard – other drugs have been identified as teratogens. The sale of any drug is based on an evaluation of the known benefits and risks.And getting back to the comment I received at the top, those that support alternative medicine will reject the science-based approach: This is the system that gave us thalidomide (and Vioxx, etc). Therefore, it’s a failure, and we should reject it. This is the perfect solution fallacy.
Admittedly, medicine is not perfect. Regulators don’t identify all the harms before a drug is licensed. Drug manufacturers can behave badly. And drugs don’t always work the way we want them to, and they can cause harms. They commenter I cite above took objection to an evaluation of homeopathy. Yes, homeopathy has no toxic side effects (usually) and causes no teratogenicity – but it also has no demonstrated efficacy beyond placebo effects. The harms and problems of science-based approaches add no support to the efficacy claims of any alternative medicine system. Homeopathy, acupuncture, and reiki don’t become effective because drugs can have side effects. SBM may not be perfect, but it delivers the goods.
More generally, comparing science-based medicine to any alternative medical system a is false dichotomy. Unlike the different alternative medicine systems (homeopathy, naturopathy, reiki, etc) which are typically based around a fixed set of rules, the only thing that science-based medicine interventions have is common is that they work. SBM is not immutable to change – treatment shown to be safe and effective become medicine, and those that are not, are discarded. So although thalidomide causes birth defects, it is also an effective medication when used properly. We don’t have to make a choice between a system that produced drugs that cause birth defects, and alternative medicine. We choose to use treatments where the expected benefits outweigh the known risks.
Citing thalidomide as an argument against science-based approaches is also a straw man argument. The way drugs are regulated today bears little resemblance today to when thalidomide was licensed and sold. Safety standards are far more rigorous, in part because of the lesson of thalidomide. Today, the only products that are not subject to these same strict safety and efficacy standards are usually the alternative medicine treatments.
Citing thalidomide is also an appeal to fear. We hear the word and we immediately think of children born with birth defects. We don’t want that to happen. But like the perfect solution fallacy, the catastrophic side effects of thalidomide in pregnancy add no merit to to claims of efficacy of any alternative medicine treatment or system. We still need the evidence.
Conclusion
Thalidomide was a very real tragedy with a huge human cost. It’s most important lesson is that assumptions of safety and efficacy, in the absence of evidence, can be catastrophic. Citing thalidomide as a a reason to reject science-based medicine is not only fallacious, it reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of the lessons learned.Vijay Jolly Vijay Jolly
BJP workers on Thursday protested outside the residence of Tehelka's former Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury, demanding her immediate arrest for allegedly trying to cover up sexual harassment complaint filed against the magazine's Editor Tarun Tejpal by a woman journalist.Raising slogans against Chaudhury and Tejpal, scores of BJP workers held demonstration outside her Saket residence in South Delhi.The protesters said she had failed to take corrective measures in the sexual assault case and demanded her immediate arrest.Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Jolly said, "My head hangs in shame. She (Chaudhury) did not stand up in support of her woman colleague and for the past one week she has been trying to suppress the complaint and facts in the case.""It was least expected from her to report the matter to police immediately. She should have also asked Tejpal to submit himself to the law of the land. He should have appeared in the police station and have the guts of accepting that he is guilty and submitting to the law. None of this happened," Jolly said."I will do this 1000 times", said the BJP leader.Chaudhury resigned early this morning from Tehelka, even as Goa police appeared to be closing in on Tejpal who has to appear before it by 3 pm on Thursday.There is speculation that Chaudhury may also be named in the FIR for certain acts of commission and omission after the alleged offence became public.Black Lives Matter activists are calling for tax reform with the release a detailed economic policy platform. It includes proposals to reconstruct the economy. The following is a portion of the report, which calls for a progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state, and federal levels. Its goal is to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.
What is the problem?
There is a desperate need to replace the current practice of collecting revenue in regressive ways with a more just system for collecting taxes.
Across the United States, there are major political obstacles to raising any kind of revenue.
As with most faults in our economic and political systems, regressive taxation has hit Black people, low-income people, and people of color the hardest.
Many municipalities have resorted to privatization and new taxes and fees in order to save money and generate more revenue. As a result, residents are being forced to pay more for services like trash collection, sewage, public property maintenance, parking meters, and to pay new taxes on a variety of everyday goods.
A recent study conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that when one combines all the state and local income, property, sales and excise taxes that Americans pay, the nationwide average of effective state and local tax rates are 10.9% for the poorest fifth of taxpayers, and 5.4% for the wealthiest 1%.
In the ten states with the most regressive tax structures, the poorest fifth pay up to seven times as much in taxes and fees as the wealthiest residents, as a percentage of their income.
While states sometimes shift the cost of some services onto poorer residents, at other times they simply cut services all together. Many municipalities have had to increase public school class sizes, shorten school days, close vital city offices, and eliminate a huge number of public sector jobs.
As the wealthiest Americans and most powerful corporations continue to evade their fair share of taxes, many programs and initiatives that could contribute to racial and economic justice go underfunded or unfunded.
What does this solution do?
Taxing income: Raise marginal tax rates for high earners, specifically the top percentile (for equity and revenue generation reasons —they pay more than 40% of federal income tax revenue, yet their average rate has been reduced to around 20%) and begin by gradually raising the top marginal rate first to 50% and then up to 80%. Remove income caps on payroll taxes that fund social security and unemployment insurance. Raise corporate income taxes, especially on large corporations and end tax deferral for foreign income of multinational corporations.
Taxing wealth: Increase taxes on capital to the point where they are higher than taxes on labor, as wealth inequality is greater than income inequality. Specifically: Increase capital gains tax Create anti-speculation tax on property transfers Increase estate tax Have states shift to an income-sensitized property tax that focuses on homes above a certain threshold and second homes Impose a wealth tax (on tangible and financial assets)
Taxing undesirable activities: Taxing “bads” not “goods”: shift from sales taxes to taxing externalities such as environmental damage where it is difficult to eliminate the damage through regulation, and make this approach income-sensitized to hold low-income people harmless. Create a Tobin tax for international financial transactions, especially for currency speculation. Assess and eliminate tax expenditures such as mortgage reduction, health insurance exemption, etc. Make low-wage employer fees or payroll tax rate proportional to wage disparity. Expand the earned income tax credit. Provide a universal child tax credit. Create mechanisms for sharing tax revenues between localities.
Federal Action:
Create a federal working group or commission to propose a full scale overhaul on tax policy that increases equity, and is particularly sensitive to racial equity.
Develop and pass omnibus tax reform legislation in accordance with racial equity goals.
Expand progressivity of federal income taxes by creating more tax brackets and a wider spread in rates between the lowest and highest brackets.
Eliminate all corporate loopholes.
Increase taxes on private wealth and corporate income and wealth.
State Action:
Each state should create a working group or commission to propose full-scale tax reform consistent with racial equity goals, and then create and enact implementing legislation.
Expand state income taxes and return the revenue to the municipal government from where the taxes are collected.
Lift tax caps and eliminate corporate subsidies and giveaways on property taxes.
Implement tax-base sharing across municipalities to facilitate growth and reduce inequality.
Expand progressivity of federal income taxes by creating more tax brackets and a wider spread in rates between the lowest and highest brackets.
Eliminate all corporate loopholes.
Increase taxes on wealth.
Local Action:
Ensure that property taxes and other local taxes are income sensitized.
Expand Earned Income Tax Credits to ease the burden of regressive revenues, such as fees and sales taxes, on the poorest citizens.
Eliminate corporate tax breaks at the city level, particularly Tax Increment Financing and Business Improvement Districts.
If municipal income taxes exist, expand progressivity by creating more tax brackets and a wider spread in rates between the lowest and highest brackets.
Apply conservation pricing so lower-income households pay a lower rate and bulk users — such as commercial and industry — pay higher rates.
If possible, charge different rates of property tax for residential and commercial and industrial properties with higher rates for higher value land, such as a “mansion tax.”
Provide fixed-dollar exemptions rather than percentage-based exemptions and implement “circuit breakers” so there is a limit on the percentage of income any resident pays in property taxes.
Ally with community organizations to exert political pressure on large tax-exempt institutions to forge Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements.
How does this solution address the specific needs of some of the most marginalized Black people?
Tax policy is so regressive that these solutions will particularly benefit the lowest income families, which are disproportionately single Black women with children.
For alerts to future tax articles, email me at Wood@WoodLLP.com. This discussion is not legal advice.I was about to head inside the Calgary Petroleum Club for an interview Tuesday when a man dressed up as a cowboy accosted me on the sidewalk, stunned look on his face. This is common during Stampede, even in the afternoon.
It happened to be an oil industry lobbyist, who had just left an investor’s forum where Premier Rachel Notley had delivered her first major (private) speech to an industry crowd, two months after her New Democrats won.
This plaid-shirted fellow told me he didn’t expect that kind of speech to the Stampede Investor Forum. Didn’t expect the NDP premier to sound that pro-industry, replete with words of the oil sands’ “tremendous asset,” “job creators” and a province “wide open to investment.” Don Braid, columnist for the Calgary Herald, said the energy sector figures didn |
a proliferation of folks on the left starting up places” like the Huffington Post and Think Progress at a similar point in President George W. Bush’s tenure. In the eyes of the left, the media herd had fatally discredited itself by accepting the Bush administration’s Iraq intelligence. The time seemed right for a more activist era of journalism, and the new liberal blogs—back before blogs were declared over—took as a founding principle the notion that they could be both opinionated and purveyors of news.
That philosophy has since been enthusiastically embraced by media entrepreneurs on the right, who see in what Sarah Palin famously called “the lame-stream media” an establishment hopelessly biased against their cause. The new outlets range widely in size, scope and bent. Smaller, more targeted sites like the Washington Free Beacon and Domenech’s Federalist seek to go deep on the issues and sway the conversation in Washington. The Blaze, founded by Glenn Beck in 2010, sees enormous traffic—more than 20 million unique visitors over the last month, dwarfing its competitors—and is far more omnivorous, almost as if Yahoo! were reimagined by a fierce conservative. (The site’s “ About” page concludes: “We answer to God and you.”) The elder statesman of the group, Breitbart.com, which was founded in 2007 by the late provocateur Andrew Breitbart, seems to be the outlet of choice for Tea Party activists. “If you’re going to be carrying a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag outside the Capitol building, you’re probably going to Breitbart first,” a Republican press strategist told me. The Daily Caller, for its part, sits somewhere in the middle, playing both the inside and outside game.
All together, these outlets add up to a movement with sufficient mass to make a measurable difference in how politics is reported. “Our coverage of proposed immigration reform/amnesty, the attack on gun rights, and the Obamacare debacle shaped both the debate and the outcome,” Alex Marlow, Breitbart’s editor in chief boasted in an email. “We also fought back, successfully, against various media outlets that are hostile to those with Judeo-Christian and conservative values.”
As another conservative put it: “You could spend $5 million on a week of ads, and what do you get for that? For $5 million you can launch a newspaper and beat up the administration all year.”
***
Certainly Carlson, Domenech and the rest have done their share of beating up on Obama. But the idea is to go beyond landing punches and build an actual readership by getting people to stay on the page. So, hours after Obama announced that newly canceled health care plans would be un-canceled for a year, the Daily Caller led with a grabbily headlined news item: “If You Don’t Like My Plan, You Can Tweak It.” But also featured on the site that day were “ Here’s the newest Playboy playmate” and a listicle touting “ 15 hottest moments from the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.” Carlson is unapologetic about the high-low vibe; he just hired gossip columnist Betsy Rothstein from the media water-cooler site FishbowlDC, and he plans to add more sports coverage, too. As for the salacious stuff, Carlson defends the more titillating fare as “celebrating pulchritude in a way that’s edifying and uplifting”—before conceding the more relevant point: “In any case, readers love it.”
Apparently. According to Carlson, the Caller had more than 9 million unique visitors in October, rivaling websites like Slate and, well, Politico. He’s circumspect about the Caller’s financials but said the site has been making money for a little more than a year. “I’ll put it this way,” he said, “in contrast to virtually everyone else in Washington, we aren’t a nonprofit.”
The news organization that Carlson built reflects his own attributes—cavalier, colorful, at times impolitic—occasionally to a fault. In June of last year, Neil Munro, a Caller reporter, interrupted Obama during a Rose Garden speech on immigration, shouting, “Why’d you favor foreigners over Americans?” The outburst earned the Daily Caller a round of finger-wagging from the White House, and from frustrated competitors. Carlson stepped in to cover for his man, saying, “This is what reporters are supposed to do. They're supposed to get their questions answered.” Then in March, the Caller found itself in hot water over a shaky story about two Dominican women who claimed that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) had paid them for sex, which Menendez denied outright, satisfying most other outlets that there was no story. A lawyer for the women came forward to say that someone from the Caller had paid him to find prostitutes who would fabricate such a story. Carlson denied the lawyer’s charges.
“I think the Caller's work over the years has been decidedly mixed,” said Jon Ward, a former White House correspondent for the Daily Caller who now works at Huffington Post. “But I'm cheering for them to keep moving closer to the bar Tucker set in 2009, when he talked about a conservative outlet with the same kind of accuracy and depth and insight in reporting as the New York Times.” In an email, Ward credited Carlson with encouraging him to “swing for the fences more often, to punch hard (my emphasis to him was that I wanted my punches to connect), to not be so worried about angering a government official or a politician.” Carlson, Ward said, “taught me to give fewer fucks.”
This article tagged under: Conservative Media
Fourth EstateIntroduction
Art itself is a cultural universal; that is, there are no known human cultures in which there cannot be found some form of what we might reasonably term aesthetic or artistic interest, performance, or artifact production — including sculptures and paintings, dancing and music, oral and written fictional narratives, body adornment, and decoration. This does not mean that all cultures possess all the various arts. For example, there is no clear analogue in European tradition for the Japanese tea ceremony, which is nevertheless considered by many to be an art form (Okakura 1906). On the other hand, are cases such as the Dinka, a Nilotic herding people who have no developed indigenous visual art or carving. Instead, their aesthetic interests seem to be directed toward poetic expression and, in the visual realm, toward the markings on the cattle that are so important to their lives: they are, so to speak, keen connoisseurs of cattle markings (Coote 1992). Even within the same cultural region there may be sharp contrasts: in the Sepik River region of the northern New Guinea there is an enormous variety of wood carving, while in the Highlands of the same country there is very little carving, with vast effort channelled instead into body adornment and the production of decorated fighting shields.
Universalism in Traditional Aesthetics
Such diverse genres and cultural variability of ways in which aesthetic and artistic interests are focused and expressed raises the question, might it be possible to identify underlying universal features present in all or nearly all artistic forms? It could be argued that much of the philosophy of art and aesthetics has amounted to an attempt to reveal the most important underlying universal features of art. So, to name three aestheticians, Leo Tolstoy believed the universal essence of art is its communicative capacity to tie people to one another (Tolstoy 1959), Schiller argued that art derives from a human impulse to play (Schiller 1967), while Clive Bell found what he considered to be its essential nature in “Significant Form” (Bell 1914). All such attempts to identify universal features of art share an element in common: they presuppose or posit the existence of a fundamental human nature, a set of characteristics, including interests and desires, uniformly and cross-culturally present in the constitution of human persons. In aesthetics, the emphasis on a stable human nature has been taken to entail two further ideas: first, that artistic activity of some kind will be a predictable component of any society (as predictable as, for instance, the use of language, the making of moral judgments, the existence of family organization, and the regulation of sex), and second, that art will itself have predictable content identifiable cross-culturally (just as unrelated languages possess similar syntactic features, kinship systems incorporate some kind of incest avoidance, and moral rules usually forbid in-group homicide).
This universalist conception therefore regards art as a natural category of human activity and experience. This is not in itself a new idea, but goes back to the greatest naturalist of Greek philosophy, Aristotle. He argued that we could expect to find similar arts (by which he also meant technologies) being invented in independent human cultures all over the world. In discussing various ways in which the state has been divided into classes by cultures of the Mediterranean, Aristotle makes his view clear (Politics 1329b25) in an aside: “Practically everything has been discovered on many occasions — or rather an infinity of occasions — in the course of ages; for necessity may be supposed to have taught men the inventions which were absolutely required, and when these were provided, it was natural that other things which would adorn and enrich life should grow up by degrees.” As the existence of these arts and technologies sprang from a shared human nature, Aristotle further believed that their basic forms would also display similarities: so genres of spoken narrative and literary arts would everywhere evolve comedic and serious or tragic forms, there would be carvings, pictures, or other representations, and that, as with the development of Greek tragedy, these art forms would become more complex over time.
Aristotle regarded the visual and dramatic arts as naturally mimetic, in some manner representing something, whether in words, marble, or paint. He viewed the human interest in representations — pictures, drama, poetry, statues — as an innate tendency, and he was the first philosopher to attempt to argue, rather than simply assert, that this is the case: “For it is an instinct of human beings from childhood to engage in imitation (indeed, this distinguishes them from other animals: man is the most imitative of all, and it is through imitation that he develops his earliest understanding); and it is equally natural that everyone enjoys imitative objects. A common occurrence indicates this: we enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose actual sight is painful to us, such as forms of the vilest animals and of corpses” (Poetics 1448b). Aristotle’s frame of reference for generalizations was specific to ancient Greek culture, but it is impossible to dispute the claim that children everywhere play in imitation of their elders, each other, even animals and machines, and that such imaginative imitation appears to be a necessary, or at least normal, component in the enculturation of individuals. The other side of Aristotle’s mimetic naturalism holds that human beings everywhere enjoy to see and experience imitations, whether pictures, carvings, fictional narrative, or play-acting. For Aristotle, the child’s fascination with a doll’s house with its tiny kitchen and table settings is not to be reduced to a desire for adult power, but in its imitative play is based in the instinctive delight in representation as such. This pleasure, he argues, can be independent of the nature of the subject represented: that is why the sight of a large, black fly walking over ripe fruit might disgust us in the kitchen, but can be a source of delight in a meticulously painted in a seventeenth-century Dutch still-life.
A concept of naturalism akin to Aristotle’s, but without its specified content, was advocated in the eighteenth century by Immanuel Kant and David Hume. Kant claimed that judgments about artistic beauty, which he called “judgments of taste,” are more than expressions of merely personal, subjective liking: they have the necessary property of demanding universal agreement from the rest of mankind (Kant 1987). While Kant’s aesthetics treat the demand for universality as a purely logical feature of judgments of taste, Kant also thought that there was a uniformity of human nature that validated the demand. He called this the sensus communis, or shared human sense. The pleasure of beauty for Kant derived from the way in which the experience of a beautiful object engaged the harmonised activity of the imagination and rational understanding in what he called disinterested contemplation, that is, experience of the object cut off from the merely personal and idiosyncratic desires and preferences of the individual. If I receive aesthetic pleasure from a Beethoven sonata, my affirmation of its beauty therefore implies the notion that all other human beings, were they in my position as listener, should agree. Kant’s idea of the uniformity of human nature requires this implication, despite the fact that, as Kant also realized, in actual life there is frequent disagreement on questions of beauty: the are too many personal and cultural variables which affect aesthetic judgements to expect agreement in all cases.
David Hume, in his 1757 essay, “Of the Standard of Taste,” also acknowledged disagreements in questions of evaluating beauty (Hume 1987). He nevertheless held, not unlike Kant, that “the general principles of taste are uniform in human nature.” It is such uniformity, in Hume’s view, that makes it possible that the “same Homer who pleased at Athens and Rome two thousand years ago, is still admired at Paris and London.” While we may be temporarily blinded by fashion or prejudice to the value of classics such as the Homeric poems, we will sooner or later see their beauties, “which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiments” in human beings of every epoch. The best works of art pass Hume’s so-called Test of Time because they appeal to a human nature that remains constant in different cultures and in different historic periods.
Empirical Psychology and Universalism
In the twentieth century, research into the existence of universal aesthetic values has come primarily from psychology and anthropology. Although the speculative psychological theories of art in the work of Freud and Jung no longer excite scientific interest, the same cannot be said for more empirically-based psychology, especially work centered on perception. D.E. Berlyne’s Aesthetics and Psychobiology (Berlyne 1971) summarized the state of psychological aesthetics and inspired considerable research since it was published. Following Berlyne, Colin Martindale has conducted many experiments attempting to establish universal patterns of stylistic change in art (Martindale 1990). In a varied series of studies conducted since the late 1960s, Martindale and his colleagues have shown that artistic change in all cultures rests not on an instinctive “will to innovate” but rather on a universal human desire to avoid repetition and boredom. The craving for novelty is based on well-known psychological principles of habituation, the principle that predicts the tenth mouthful of an interesting and delicious food will not be as piquant as the first, that people will sometimes change perfectly adequate wallpaper, and that ten Vivaldi concertos in a row may well prove tedious. Martindale calls habituation “the single force that has pushed art always in a consistent direction ever since the first work of art was made.” It is the universal mainspring of artistic change.
Among many cross-cultural examples adduced by Martindale is the evolution of similes in French poetry. In the eighteenth century, André Chénier writes, “Beneath your fair head, a white delicate neck / Inclines and would outshine the brightness of snow.” The connection between the white neck and snow might have struck its original audience as fresh; the connection is certainly closer than one found in Laforgue’s later line that the sun “lies on top of the hill...like a gland torn out of a neck.” Sun and gland are more remote images, but not as far apart as the relations given in two still-later lines from André Breton: “I love you opposite the seas / Red like the egg when it is green.” This increase in metaphorical distance — outlandishness — is an example of “a historical movement of similes and metaphors away from consistency toward remoteness and incongruity.” This progression can be generalised as follows: in the arts, a form, genre, or style is invented, and once established is gradually elaborated over time by increasing what Martindale calls the general “primordial content” of the style — its use of emotion, greater complexity and variability, more ornamentation. The “arousal potential” of the style or genre is gradually increased until some end point is reached where it is fully exploited. Attention then turns to the style itself, which is typically changed or abandoned in favor of a new style. The cycle repeats itself and this new style matures, again through the incremental increase of emotion, complexity, etc. Though Martindale does not refer to Aristotle’s evolutionary sketch of the history of Greek tragedy, Aristotle’s account — increasing numbers of actors, the introduction of painted sets, complexity of plotting, language and costuming — fits his theory and so, Martindale is able to demonstrate, do the histories of British, French and American poetry, American fiction and popular music lyrics, European and American painting, Gothic architecture, Greek vases, Egyptian tomb painting, pre-Columbian sculpture, Japanese prints, New England gravestones, and various composers and musical traditions. As audiences become satiated, artists increase the psychic impact of art forms by turning up the volume, increasing density of words, vividness of images, making things more emotional, erotic, or shocking. The history of movies bears out Martindale’s hypothesis well, with general increases in violent and erotic content for the last century. Similar patterns can be seen in the history of music in the progression from baroque to classic to romantic to modern.
The most recent research on universal features in art has come out of evolutionary psychology, which attempts to understand and explain the experience and capacities of the human mind in terms of characteristics it developed in the long evolutionary history of the human species. Evolutionary psychology postulates that human pleasures, such as the pleasures of sex or the enjoyment of sweet or fatty foods, have their genesis in evolutionary history: our ancestors who actively enjoyed sex and consumed fats and carbohydrates survived and left more living offspring than those who did not. The same argument can be applied to countless other aspects of the emotional dispositions of human beings, including, for example, responses to human faces and comportment, or to the threats and opportunities presented by the natural world and its flora and fauna. The argument can also be applied to art and its content.
Studies of human reactions to photographs of landscape habitats show patterns which are stable across cultures (Orians and Heerwagen 1992). Given a series of photographs, older children and adults, familiar with a wide variety of landscape types, showed no pattern of preference for any one type of landscape (scenes included tropical, deciduous, and coniferous forests, desert, and East African savanna). Young children, however, demonstrate a preference for open savannahs, even when the children had never seen such landscapes in real life. This predisposition survives from the adaptive history of the early ancestors of contemporary humans, whose emotional responses to the natural world were adaptively formed in the Pleistocene savannas of East Africa. It is an expression of a general human tendency to prefer landscapes combining open spaces and trees (preferable trees that fork near the ground, i.e., offer escape from predation), water, green flora, flowers, and variegated cloud patterns.
These preferences received unexpected confirmation when two artists, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, gained financial backing to conduct an extensive, systematic poll of the art preferences of people of ten different countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas (Wypijewski 1997). Their poll recorded surprisingly uniform interests in the pictorial content of art worldwide. The most favored color was blue, followed by green. Generally, people expressed a liking for realistic, representative painting, with water, trees and shrubbery, human figures (women and children preferred, or historical figures), and animals, especially large mammals, both wild and domestic. Komar and Melamid used the poll findings as the basis for producing paintings: an America’s Most Wanted painting, and one for each of the nine other countries. The works had obvious tongue-in-cheek elements (the American painting showed children, George Washington, and a hippo beside a lake), but they were accurately in line with the poll results, tending to resemble each other, and moreover to resemble much standard calendar art, photographic or painted, of outdoor scenes. In commenting on the poll and their work, Arthur Danto has suggested that the fact the the Komar and Melamid paintings looked like realistic European landscape or calendar art, rather than resembling the indigenous art of any of the countries where the poll was conducted, demonstrates the international power of calendars to form and influence conventional artistic taste and content preference. Kenyans, Danto notes, preferred an art that more resembled a realistic Hudson River School landscape than they preferred art in any recognisable African style; they also tended according to the poll to have calendars in their homes (Danto, in Wypijewski 1997: 134). Danto’s explanation, however, begs the wider question: why do calendars worldwide feature landscapes that match the very content evolutionary psychology would predict? The answer to that question may well be the evolutionary psychology hypothesis which posits a Pleistocene genesis for such basic pictorial interests.
Another realm of uniformity of content is in narrative fiction. It has been said that the themes and subjects of literature are limitless. While this may be true in principle, in actual fact most world literatures tend to return a limited list of abiding vital human interests (Carroll 1995). These prominently include questions of life and death, sex and love, conflict in social relations, exploration adventure, and struggle and success in overcoming adversity. Aristotle had already noted the tendency for tragic narrative to focus on the disruption of family relations: a mortal dispute between two strangers will be of lesser interest compared to a story of two brothers who fight to the death (Poetics 1453). Indeed, conflict within families is one of the most persistent themes in literature, from the Greek tragedies through Shakespeare, the Hindu epics, Chinese and Japanese literature, down to this afternoon’s television soap operas.
Joining a long line of philosophic speculation that goes back to Plato, the linguist Steven Pinker has argued that drama and fictional narrative have didactic or instructional value for life. Stories are a way to explore strategies and scenarios for social and family relations and the general challenges of life before they are faced in reality: a kind of practice for living (Pinker 1997). If the basic adaptive value of story-telling for human beings was as practice for survival and reproduction, it should not surprise us that the prevalent, universal themes of the history of literature should also involved questions of survival and reproduction: sex, love, and death, as they would impinge on the life of a protagonist and his or her kin.
The interest in identifying such grand universal themes in literature may be granted, but it is hardly the whole story of art. The content of art which evolutionary psychology both partially predicts and partially explains as universal is not peculiar to high or fine art in any cultural tradition: this content is continuous with the content of the most mundane instances of story-telling, gossip, news gathering (including criteria of what counts as news), household decoration, craft traditions, popular entertainments, such as television dramas or sentimental fiction, tourist snapshots and postcards, sporting and patriotic events, landscaping of public parks and private gardens, and on and on, into virtually all areas of life and experience. So what of the so-called high arts? Ellen Dissanayake has theorized that the deepest aesthetic experiences bring together elements that are layered in the aesthetic response to art objects, performances, and occasions. These include the appeal of basic experiential qualities (e.g., sparkling lights, vivid colors, or arresting rhythms); the incorporation of such experience into rituals and activities which have a power to unite people in a sense of common purpose or shared emotion; the achievement of what she calls “evocative resonance,” a feeling that there is deep and rich meaning embedded in the experience; and “satisfying fullness,” the feeling that in the art experience something complete and significant has been accomplished by the percipient (Dissanayake 1997). The sense of intense social involvement in the experience of art is emphasized by Dissanayake, along with the fact that art works of all kinds offer ways in which human beings can enjoy the pleasure putting to work their powers of discrimination and evaluation. The systematic application of these latter capacities, along with extensive knowledge of an art form, becomes connoisseurship.
Universal Features of Art
Given all that cross-cultural investigation has so far accumulated, it is possible to list the signal characteristics of art considered as a universal, cross-cultural category. These features that follow are not necessarily criterial for the presence of art; on the other hand, it would be difficult to imagine a social practice that was characterised by most of them which was not art in some sense. Every feature on the list is, however, also present in non-art experiences and activities; reminders of these are included in parentheses:
(1) Expertise or virtuosity. The manufacture of the art object or execution of the artistic performance usually requires the exercise of a specialized skill. This skill may be learned in an apprentice tradition in some societies or in others may be picked up by anyone who finds that she or he “has a knack” for it. Where the skill is acquired by virtually everybody in the culture, such as with communal singing or dancing in some cultures, there still tend to be individuals who stand out by virtue of special talents. Technical artistic skills are noticed in societies worldwide and are generally admired. (The admiration of a recognisable skill extends to all technical areas of human activity where its presence is made apparent, from cooking to public oratory to marksmanship. In modern society, sport is a major area when technical virtuosity is publicly admired and rewarded.)
(2) Non-utilitarian pleasure. Whether narrative story, crafted artifact, or visual and aural performance, the art object is viewed as a source of pleasure in itself, rather than as a practical tool or source of knowledge. The embodiment of the artwork may be in some respect useful: a tool (a shield, a knife) or a means to information (a sacred poem). Aspects of the embodiment, however, give pleasure in experience aside from these practical or information/communication considerations. (This pleasure is called aesthetic pleasure when it is derived from the experience of art, but the pleasure of sport and play, or of watching larks soar or storm-clouds thicken, could equally be “for its own sake.”)
(3) Style. Art objects and performances, including fictional or poetic narratives, are made in recognizable styles, according to rules of form and composition. The degree of stylistic determination varies greatly, as much in premodern cultures as in the arts of literate civilizations. Some art objects and performances, typically those involving religious practice, are tightly circumscribed by tradition, while others are open to free, creative, individual variation. A style may may derive from a culture, or a family, or be the invention of an individual; styles involve borrowing and sudden alteration, as well as slow, changes. (Style is an element is almost all cultural activities beyond art, from language use to table manners; it is crucially but not uniquely important to art.)
(4) Criticism. There exists some kind of indigenous critical language of judgment and appreciation, simple or elaborate, that is applied to arts. This may include the shop talk of art producers or evaluative discourse of critics and audiences. Unlike the arts themselves, which can be immensely complicated, it has often been remarked that this critical discourse is in oral cultures sometimes rudimentary compared to the art discourse of literate European history. It can, however, be elaborate even there. (The development of a critical vocabulary and discourse, including criteria for excellence, mediocrity, competence/incompetence, and for failure, is intrinsic to almost all human activities outside of art.)
(5) Imitation. In widely varying degrees of naturalism, art objects, including sculptures, paintings, and oral narratives, represent or imitate real and imaginary experience of the world. The differences between naturalistic representation, highly stylized representation, and nonimitative symbolism is generally understood by artists and their audiences. (Blueprints, newspaper stories pictures, passport photographs, and road maps are equally imitations or representations. While imitation is important to much art — notable exceptions being abstract painting and music — its significance extends into all areas human intellectual life.)
(6) “Special” focus. Works of art and artistic performances are frequently bracketed off from ordinary life, made a special and dramatic focus of experience. While there are plenty of mundane artistic objects and performances (such as decorated parts of Baule looms, or communal singing done to pass the time while mending fishing nets), every known culture has special art works or performances which involve what Ellen Dissanayake calls “making special” (Dissanayake 1997). These objects or performance occasions are often imbued with intense emotion and sense of community. They frequently involve the combining of many different art forms, such as chanting, dancing, body decoration, and dramatic lighting in the case of New Guinea sing-sings. (Outside of art, or at its fringes, political rallies, sporting events, public ceremonies such as coronations and weddings, and religious meetings of all sorts also invoke a sense of specialness)
(7) Finally, the experience of art is an imaginative experience for both producers and audiences. The carving may realistically represent an animal, but as a sculpture it becomes an imaginative object. The same can be said of any story well told, whether ancient mythology or personal anecdote. A passionate dance performance has an imaginative element not to be found in the group exercise of factory workers. Art of all kinds happens in the theatre of the imagination: it is raised from the mundane practical world to become an imaginative experience. (At the mundane level, imagination in problem-solving, planning, hypothesising, inferring the mental states of others, or merely in day-dreaming is practically co-extensive with normal human conscious life.)
Relativism Versus Universalism
In the generations that have followed the Second War War, humanistic scholarship has tended to emphasize the cultural context of all human activities. This has meant that in aesthetics, as much as in popular ethics and social theory, relativism has become a dominant orthodoxy: aesthetic values were understood as having their reality only relative to local cultural and historical conditions. A good work of art was therefore “good” only in a specific culture; cross-cultural standards were thought impossible to ascertain. A dismissive attitude toward universal values in art has been bolstered by countless anecdotes seeming to illustrate the cross-cultural unintelligibility of the arts. One such oft-repeated story concerns the Indian sitarist who, performing before a naive Western audience, was vigorously applauded when he’d finished tuning his instrument.
As mentioned earlier, theories of universal aesthetic value, which are dead-set against absolute relativism, go hand-in-hand with hypotheses about the universal nature of human beings; supporters of aesthetic relativism have therefore has been generally hostile to such accounts. Scientific theories of human nature have been branded “essentialist,” and have been portrayed as potentially limiting human creativity and freedom or as having elements in common with racist varieties of biological determinism used by fascist ideologues in the first half of the century. The rejection of universalism, and with it the acceptance of culture as the ultimate determinant of aesthetic value, has also been seen by relativists as a way to oppose the notion of a European superiority in cultural value.
Aesthetic relativism, although adopted with the best of intentions, has blinded investigators to the elements arts have in common worldwide. An instance of putative cross-cultural misunderstanding cannot be turned into an general denial of of the possibility universal aesthetic values. It is important to note how remarkably well the arts travel outside of their home cultures: Beethoven and Shakespeare are beloved in Japan, Japanese prints are adored by Brazilians, Greek tragedy is performed worldwide, while, much to the regret of many local movie industries, Hollywood films have wide cross-cultural appeal. As for sitar concerts, anyone who has sat through the tedious tuning of a sitar might well want to applaud when the music was finally set to begin. And even Indian music itself, while it sounds initially strange to the Western ear, can be shown to rely on rhythmic pulse and acceleration, repetition, variation, and surprise, as well as modulation and divinely sweet melody: in fact, all the same devices found in Western music.
A balanced view of art will take into take into account the vast and diverse array of cultural elements that make up the life of artistic creation and appreciation. At the same time such a view will acknowledge the universal features arts everywhere share and recognize that arts travel across cultural boundaries as well as they do because they are rooted in our common humanity.
University of Canterbury, New ZealandLyndon Rive, who led SolarCity as it developed plans to open a massive solar factory in South Buffalo, will leave the Tesla Inc. subsidiary next month.
Rive told Reuters on Monday he is leaving to pursue a new startup sometime next year. Rive co-founded SolarCity and served as its chief executive as it was bought out by Tesla Inc. last year.
A cousin of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Rive also told Reuters he wants to spend more time with his family and that his passion is "starting and running" companies. He did not elaborate on what kind of company he might start next.
In a statement, a Tesla spokeswoman credited Rive with building SolarCity into the country's top solar provider.
"Because of his leadership, and dedication to our mission, Lyndon has helped position Tesla for an amazing future," the spokesperson said in a written statement. "We know he's an entrepreneur at heart, and we wish him the very best on his next venture."
Rive's responsibilities will be divided among other leaders at Tesla, Reuters reported.
Tesla plans to begin making solar products later this year at the state-owned RiverBend factory in Buffalo, but has not given an exact timeline for manufacturing to begin. It has said it will begin producing its new solar roof tiles in June on a pilot basis at its plant in Fremont, Calif., before shifting production to Buffalo.
[David Robinson: As Tesla's focus has shifted, so have plans for Buffalo solar factory]
Rive, who co-founded the residential solar company with his brother, Peter, in 2006, has often served as the public face of SolarCity in Buffalo. He attended the ceremonial groundbreaking of the RiverBend project in South Buffalo in 2014 and traveled to Buffalo the following year for a news conference with U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer to talk about the effects of extending solar energy tax credits.
The SolarCity project is the centerpiece of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's Buffalo Billion economic development program. Under the initiative, the state poured $750 million into construction and equipment for the company. SolarCity agreed to create 500 manufacturing jobs at the factory, along with nearly 1,000 other jobs in support, sales and administration in Buffalo.
Rive, a native of South Africa, founded SolarCity with financial backing from Musk. Peter Rive will stay with Tesla as vice president of solar products.
Musk served as SolarCity chairman before Tesla bought out SolarCity for $2.6 billion last year. Rive had served as head of sales and services in Tesla's energy division since last year.Wake-up call: Starbucks to post calorie counts
A 16 ounce mocha frappuccino has 270 calories in it. Photo: Starbucks A 16 ounce mocha frappuccino has 270 calories in it. Photo: Starbucks Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Wake-up call: Starbucks to post calorie counts 1 / 13 Back to Gallery
NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks has a new way to wake up its customers: showing the calories in its drinks.
The Seattle-based coffee chain says it will start posting calorie counts on menu boards nationwide next week, ahead of a federal regulation that would require it to do so.
Calorie counts on menus are already required in some parts of the country, including New York City.
But starting June 25, Starbucks Corp. says customers at its more than 10,000 U.S. locations will be able to see that there are 300 calories in a small caramel Frappuccino and 230 calories in a small Iced Caffe Mocha.
Pastry cases will also show calorie information, in case customers want to save some calories and opt for a Morning Bun (350 calories) instead of a blueberry scone (460 calories).
The move by Starbucks comes as the Food and Drug Administration irons out the details of a regulation that would require companies with more than 20 locations to post calorie information on their menus. Other chains including McDonald's Corp. have also moved ahead with posting the information, saying they're providing it to be more transparent rather than because they're being forced to.
In its announcement, Starbucks highlighted the various steps it has taken over the years to give customers choices, such as adding sugar-free syrup in 1997 and making 2 percent milk the standard for core beverages in North America in 2007.
The company notes that it already provides nutrition information on its website, through its iPhone app and with printed brochures in cafes. It also says there are numerous ways people can reduce the calories in their drinks, such as by asking for non-fat milk, sugar-free syrup or no whipped cream.
A representative for the company did not know what percentage of customers ask to have their drinks customized.
It's not clear how posted calorie counts affect what people choose to order. But in announcing its plans to post calorie information nationwide last year, the head of McDonald's USA at the time said that providing the information doesn't really change the company's overall menu mix.
While a few national chains already put calorie information on their menus, a "large majority" are waiting for the FDA to issue its final guidelines, according to Sue Hensley, a spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association.
The group expects the regulation to take effect by sometime next year.Taxpayers in Malcolm Turnbull’s seat received an average benefit of $5,387 each in 2014-15, analysis reveals
Liberal electorates are the main beneficiaries of the capital gains tax discount, according to new research.
The Turnbull government has persistently resisted calls to reduce the CGT discount, despite warnings that the tax concession has been distorting investment decisions and reducing home ownership, particularly among the young.
Treasury figures this year showed the CGT concession on the family home is now worth $61.5bn, almost double the $33bn lost to superannuation tax concessions.
The former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, the Grattan Institute, KPMG and the independent economist Saul Eslake are among those who have called for the tax concession be reduced.
But the treasurer, Scott Morrison, left the CGT discount alone for domestic investors in last week’s budget.
A new paper from the Australia Institute, released on Tuesday, shows Liberal electorates are getting the biggest advantage from the CGT discount.
Using the most recent tax statistics from 2014-15, the paper shows eight of the top 10 electorates that benefit most from the tax concession are held by the Liberals.
How |
Ever. Ask any O.G. in the movement. It's really never been better than this.
If you think there is acrimony in the movement now, you should have just seen us back in the day. Children, we couldn't agree upon where to have lunch. You wonder why they called us "paleoconservatives" back in the day? It wasn't ideology. We used clubs to beat each other senseless.
Kids, this is the bad news. You want to be an activist? I mean you truly want to be an activist? Can we talk you out of it?
Because you stand to loose everything and get mocked by the people you love. You want money? This isn't the place to get it. You want acclaim or love without sacrifice? Run kittens. Run a mile and don't look back.
If you desire punishment for about 5 or 10 years and if you can take it and you can look back and see who is still standing and holding your hand, then kittens, you know what it is like to be an activist.
For our mission is to run and not be tired. No big deal right? How far do we have to run?
However far it takes.
This is something I'm gonna tell you young people. Some of us elders have been running for so long it's all we remember. So if we every actually get there, you are going to have to slap us across the face and say "you can stop running now pop, we're home". You might have to tie us down with ropes.
Hey, what I see is you kids are so hard on each other and yourselves. Hey man, all we had to deal with was a trans-generational enemy of almost unlimited power.This is pretty small stuff compared to what you have to deal with.
So I'm gonna share with you one of our ultimate secret weapons. Truth is I wanted to share this with you for a long time but you had to grow up a bit.
Our ultimate weapon is love and understanding.
Our nuclear option is forgiveness.
Never underestimate yourself, your power and never underestimate the power of forgiveness.
-Oyate miyelo.Our interview series looking at OpenStreetMap communities around the world continues today with a discussion with Mohamed Marrouchi from Tunisia.
1. Who are you and what do you do? What got you into OpenStreetMap?
My name is Mohamed Marrouchi, (OSM id marrouchi), and i’m a software engineer experienced mainly in web development. I’m also the president of Freeways Association. As a FOSS advocate, i’m working on promoting Open Source and Free Software in Tunisia. As part of this i’ve got involved in OSM in summer 2016 and i’ve been enjoyed OSM mapping since.
It all began in August 13, 2016 when we managed to celebrate OSM anniversary. The event was co-organized with Freeways, Nomad 08 and OpenFab Tunisia. The goal of the event was to raise awareness and encourage the use of this free (like in freedom) map environment. There were presentations, workshops and especially a birthday cake.
After this turning point we managed to host a monthly workshop called “Carto’Party” in order to train people on online mapping using ID editor. We did five workshops so far and I hope we will do more! All events are posted in a dedicated Facebook page.
A picture of some mapping training from a recent Carto Party:
2. What would you say is the current state of OSM and the OSM community in Tunisia?
I think that Tunisia has cities that are well mapped in OSM. But they are the cities that have the most number of population and that have the more developed economies. We find that these cities are mostly located in the east coast such as Tunis (the capital), Sousse, Sfax, Djerba …
There is a lack of cartographic data in various cities across the Tunisian territory. They are mainly located far from the east coast and in the south of the country. These regions have been neglected by the government for many years and suffer real problems in infrastructure and a bad economic development. One good example to cite here, is the website watchwater.tn that gives the ability to citizen to post alerts about water shortage in their sector. 80% of the addresses that were posted are not recognized in OSM. We find grey tiles and sometimes it’s hard even to locate the place exactly on the map.
Also, there is a lack of Arabic translation of the locations (Streets, Quatiers, …). Some data are in French and others are in Arabic. The problem here is that an Arabic word can be written in various ways when in French or English. This mainly affects road names and causes problems when searching for locations (geocoding).
In the last months we worked hard on mapping the administrative boundaries (level 5 & 6) and the municipality’s boundaries. It has been very hard since we did not have the chance to get any good data that can easily be imported. I’ve reached out to many public institutions and I did not get any positive response. So we managed to map the administrative boundaries with the help of some pdf documents issued by the government using JOSM and the Piclayer plugin.
This could never have been possible without the help of Ivan Garcia an active OSM member that helped us in getting familiar with JOSM, encourage us and guided us through all the technical difficulties that we were unfamiliar with. Ed Freyfogle from OpenCage Data was there all along, he supported us and thanks to him we produced a better map data quality. The OpenStreetMap Algeria community also helped us by mapping the sectors that nears their country. This work has been made by Tunisian contributors such as hajer-oualha, kleiner knopf, dalimay28 and myself. That said, the State of OSM data in Tunisia is pretty good because there will always be a handful of volunteers that will keep pushing the map always forward.
Here’s a picture of Mohammed presenting about OSM at a @ Software Freedom Day 2016:
3. What is the best way to get involved? Are there events, mapping parties, etc?
Events and mapping parties are a not the best way to get people involved in OSM. From my experience and in my humble opinion, i found that not all participants are interested to continue mapping in OSM after attending a mapping event. I think that gathering those who do work in projects that uses OSM as a base layer is the best and efficient way to contribute in OSM.
4. What steps could the global OpenStreetMap community take to help support OSM in Tunisia?
If there is one thing i could ask from the global OpenStreetMap community, it will be coming to Tunisia and train people to become OSM experts. It is through this sharing of knowledge and this kind of connection that we can form a good link to the global community. It seems to me that we are a little removed. Until now we have managed to train ourselves thanks to the resources that has ben made available on the internet (OSM Wiki and others).
5. In 2014 OSM celebrated its 10th birthday. Where do you think the project will be in 10 years time, both globally and in Tunisia specifically?
I think that in 10 years, OSM will be, as Wikipedia, one of the essential references on the internet. I think also that OSM will offer people another tool to make a better living. The OSM project will prove that we can achieve more when working hand and hand as a community and keep on pushing the free software movement further!
Thank you Mohammed! It’s been a pleasure working with you and the others to help get the admin_levels for Tunisia mapped. My hope is the same as yours - that by getting the basics right more and more people will see that OSM is a great (and free) tool they can use, and that once they start using and depending on it they will also start contributing back. Best of luck to you and the rest of the Tunisian OpenStreetMap community.
- Ed
You can see all the Open Geo interviews here. Please let us know if your community would like to be part of our series. If you are or know of someone we should interview, please get in touch, we’re always looking to promote people doing interesting things with open geo data.Politics
A watershed moment in the ongoing disaster of ObamaCare, as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finally admits that health insurance premiums are rising because of the President’s health insurance takeover, per the Wall Street Journal:
Ms. Sebelius’s remarks come weeks before insurers are expected to begin releasing rates for plans that start on Jan. 1, 2014, when key provisions of the health law kick in. Premiums have been a sensitive subject for the Obama administration, which is counting on elements in the health law designed to increase competition among insurers to keep rates in check. The administration has pointed to subsidies that will be available for many lower-income Americans to help them with the cost of coverage. The secretary’s remarks are among the first direct statements from federal officials that people who have skimpy health plans right now could face higher premiums for plans that are more generous. She noted that the law requires plans to provide better benefits and treat all customers equally regardless of their medical claims. “These folks will be moving into a really fully insured product for the first time, and so there may be a higher cost associated with getting into that market,” she said. “But we feel pretty strongly that with subsidies available to a lot of that population that they are really going to see much better benefit for the money that they’re spending.” Ms. Sebelius added that those customers currently pay more for their health care if their plans have high out-of-pocket costs, high deductibles or exclude particular types of coverage, such as mental health treatment. She also said that some men and younger customers could see their rates increase while women and older customers could see their rates drop because the law restricts insurers’ ability to set rates based on age and gender.
Don’t worry, folks, ObamaCare is blowing premiums through the roof, but there will be subsidies available for lower-income Americans! That means the rest of us will get screwed twice – once when we pay our higher insurance premiums, then again when we pay for all those lovely subsidies.
On the political front, Obama’s cherished young voters are getting rooked, but luckily they tend to be low-information types who don’t hold him accountable for anything – they keep saying jobs and economic growth are their top concern, but they voted to re-elect him, didn’t they? And Sebelius is doing her best to mitigate political fallout from sticker-shocked young people by keeping that “War on Women” narrative going. Those brutish misogynist ObamaCare opponents just want to repeal the President’s magical program because they want insurance companies to be able to discriminate against women!
Sebelius also put some effort into attacking a Society of Actuaries study that predicted an average 32 percent increase in the cost of claims paid out by insurance companies, thanks to the new regulations requiring them to cover people with pre-existing conditions. The effect will be felt unevenly by various states, with the “overwhelming majority” on track for “double-digit increases in their individual health insurance markets,” while a few are expected to see cost reductions. Sebelius tried the same tactic of hiding the corresponding increase in premiums by folding them into the immense red inkblot of general federal taxation and spending:
The Obama administration challenged the design of the study, saying it focused only on one piece of the puzzle and ignored cost relief strategies in the law, such as tax credits to help people afford premiums and special payments to insurers who attract an outsize share of the sick. The study also doesn’t take into account the potential price-cutting effect of competition in new state insurance markets that will go live Oct. 1, administration officials said. At a White House briefing Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said some of what passes for health insurance today is so skimpy it can’t be compared to the comprehensive coverage available under the law. “Some of these folks have very high catastrophic plans that don’t pay for anything unless you get hit by a bus,” she said. “They’re really mortgage protection, not health insurance.” Sebelius said the picture on premiums won’t start coming into focus until insurers submit their bids. Those results may not be publicly known until late summer.
It’s cute when these people pretend to care about the deficit in order to beat tax increases out of us, isn’t it? But when multi-trillion-dollar government programs need even more taxpayer subsidies to function, we’re not supposed to bat an eye. How many “sequesters” will these subsidies be worth over the next decade? Because when the government is asked to spend $80 billion less in the coming year, it’s a world-ending crisis that causes the entire federal system to tremble on the verge of collapse.
Remember back when Barack Obama was lying through his teeth and promising you could keep your plan, if you liked your plan? Well, his Health and Human Services commissar thinks your skimpy high-catastrophic hit-by-a-bus plan sucks, so it’s dead. Welcome to socialist reality, suckers. Just wait until you find out what other promises won’t be kept, like maybe those promises of huge federal subsidies for state Medicaid expansion.
There could be even more taxpayer subsidies on the way, because the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the US Chamber of Commerce is “appealing to the Obama Administration to grant special relief to employers in states that are rejecting federal aid promised under the President’s health reform program.”
In states that are not expanding Medicaid, employers will have to pay $3,000 for each employee who joins a state exchange programme to buy health insurance. In a filing this month, the US Chamber of Commerce urged the administration to exempt employers in those states from the tax penalties. In doing so, the chamber pointed to a decision by the Obama administration to exempt poor people in states that do not expand Medicaid from the “individual mandate”, which requires people to get health insurance or face an individual tax penalty. The chamber said the same approach should be used for employers. “If an employer penalty is only triggered by a would-be Medicaid eligible employee, that trigger should be exempted or excused,” the Chamber of Commerce said.
The additional cost to employers in states that do not expand Medicaid has been estimated as $1.3 billion a year. Of course, if Medicaid is expanded, that’s another fleecing for we, the taxpaying sheep. If we’re going to get our pockets picked anyway, subsidizing businesses sounds like it would be cheaper. And that’s what waiving the notorious “individual mandate” or business mandates amounts to, because the purpose of those mandates is to force every American to buy health insurance right away, rather than waiting until they get sick and invoking that “must cover pre-existing conditions” mandate.
Governor Rick Perry of Texas, which is resisting Medicaid expansion, made this point through a spokeswoman: “This is not free money from the federal government – it’s either being borrowed from China or taken out of taxpayers’ pockets. The state and federal government can’t afford the current Medicaid program as is, and it’s financially irresponsible to continue expanding a program that we know to be broken.”
Who knew all these mandates would be so expensive? Oh, that’s right: ObamaCare critics, the most thoroughly vindicated group in modern American political history.Elon Musk has done a great job pitching Tesla ( TSLA ) to the masses, but there are some problems says one industry titan.
"We still don't have a viable economic model for delivering an electric car," Fiat Chrysler ( FCAU ) CEO Sergio Marchionne told a group of reporters at an event on Monday. "As much as I like Elon Musk, and he's a good friend and actually he's done a phenomenal job of marketing Telsa, I remain unconvinced of a... economic viability of the model that he's pitching."
To Marchionne, the costs of producing an electric car need to come down in order to make them viable. If one can't get the costs down, then Marchionne believes automakers must develop cars that can use both gas and electric for power.
Production delays will only add to Tesla's bloated costs, and likely keep profits a mere mirage off into the distance.
Tesla reported earlier in October that it produced just 220 Model 3s in the third quarter, well below Wall Street expectations of 1,260 according to FactSet. Tesla attributed the miss to "production bottlenecks" and told investors that "there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain," in a statement.The notion that musical training can have positive effects on cognitive functions other than music has long been a source of interest. Research first emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Standardised assessments of IQ and musical ability suggested the two were correlated – and it was thought that participation in musical training could improve IQ.
Recently, research has shifted focus from effects on musical training on global intelligence and instead focuses on benefits to specific skills and tasks in individuals.
Musical training has shown to lead to improvements in a wide variety of different skills, including memory and spatial learning for example. In addition, language skills such as verbal memory, literacy and verbal intelligence have been shown to strongly benefit from musical training.
Musicians are also more adept at processing speech in environments where there are large amounts of background noise, possess a greater propensity for processing auditory signals that are in some way degraded and show an advantage over their musically naive counterparts when it comes to pitch detection in both music and language. Recent advances in technologies have also allowed researchers to probe into the neural (functional, structural and electrophysiological) underpinnings of these adaptations.
The Brain Responds
A new study, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, aimed to assess neurodevelopment in adolescence and the impact that certain forms of experience, such as musical training, could have on this process.
Neuro-physiological methods were adopted to measure subcortical and cortical responses to speech in the brains of two groups of adolescents in a high school in the Chicago area. One group took part in group musical training and one group took part in a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programme. Enrolment on to one of these two programmes was part of the curriculum of the schools with which the lead researcher, Adam Tierney of Northwestern University, worked.
March of progress. Richard Thornton/Shutterstock.com
The method allowed Tierney and his colleagues to assess how their participants' brains encoded speech before and after three years of taking part in the two different types of training. Language skills were also assessed using a phonological awareness task – which included asking the adolescents to create a new word by dropping a syllable or unit of sound from a spoken word. They were also assessed using a phonological memory task, in which they had to repeat back lists of digits or non-English words, and a rapid naming task, where they had to read aloud a list of letters or digits as quickly and accurately as they could.
At adolescence the brain is not fully developed and specific areas are yet to mature, which makes this an interesting age to do these tests. The results showed that both groups made improvements in all of the language tasks, as would be expected over this period in their development – but, in addition, the degree of improvement was larger in the phonological awareness task for the group who had undergone musical training.
The methods used allowed the researchers to track the level of neural development present in the brains of the participants. Through this they were then able to measure the usual time course of changes that occurred at this stage in development and assess any alterations due to participation in either the music training, or officer training.
The researchers observed the normal brain development that occurs at this age in both groups. However, for those who participated in musical training the period of time during which regions of the brain responsible for auditory processing were developing was extended in comparison to those that did the officer training. The musically trained groups also showed an accelerated time course for reaching adult cortical development. The results therefore suggest that participation in musical training can accelerate brain development and that this can benefit literacy skills.
Music And Language
Music could potentially function as a training ground for language skills and may potentially offer an effective, economical and enjoyable activity that could help improve language skills in children around the world if employed in schools. Giving adolescents musical training could help kick-start and accelerate maturation of their brains.
These advantages may also have potential to provide enhancements to a wider range of skills, such as the learning of a second language. The study suggests that musical training could help prolong the window of time in which the brain is developing and is able to deal with complex auditory input, which in turn could make second language learning more achievable to people who otherwise may struggle.
It is important to note however, that although musical training was shown to produce benefits for the phonological awareness language tasks, for the other two tests of phonological memory and rapid naming, no difference between the two groups of adolescents was found. This suggests that although musical training does have the potential to enhance some forms of language skills, there are areas that it does not improve.
Amy Spray is PhD candidate at University of Liverpool.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.We now have real proof that if you legalize, regulate and tax marijuana people will move to this legitimate market. The first official figures from the Colorado Department of Revenue show that during the first month of legal recreational marijuana sales the state generated just over $2 million in revenue from it. The money comes from licensing fees, an excise tax, a special marijuana sales tax, and the regular state sales taxes.
Combined with the revenue generated from medical marijuana taxes and fees the state made just over $3.5 million off marijuana in January. It is worth noting these figures only include revenue that comes directly from marijuana. The state should also generate additional tax revenue from the industry via things like the income tax paid by employees.
It is an impressive haul for recreational marijuana given that relatively few stores were able to open at the start of the year. The numbers are roughly in line with recent expectations.
While marijuana is not never going to completely finance the whole government it is clear that it will be a modest source of funds for Colorado, and legal marijuana could generate much needed cash for other states if they also legalize marijuana.
Every month another state doesn’t adopt marijuana legalization is another month they are denying millions in revenue that could go to programs like eduction or infrastructure improvements. The question for other local politicians isn’t just whether they think marijuana should be legal or not, but whether they believe it is worth forgoing millions every month to keep it illegal.
Jon Walker is the author of After Legalization: Understanding the future of marijuana policySony plans to manufacture records for the first time since 1989. The Agence France-Presse reports that the company will soon start production in a factory southwest of Tokyo, and that records should start rolling out by March of next year. Although Sony didn’t specify the genre of records it would manufacture, AFP says the releases will include older, popular Japanese songs, as well as contemporary music.
The company stopped producing vinyl records nearly 30 years ago to focus primarily on CDs, but given that vinyl sales reportedly reached a 25-year high last year, it makes sense that Sony would consider reproducing the old music format. UK-based HMV also reopened its vinyl-focused store in Shibuya, Japan nearly two years ago after this record resurgence. Sixty percent of the store is dedicated to records.
Vinyl has definitely made a comeback, but Sony says that it’s now struggling to find engineers who know how to make it. Okay, college kids, you get to choose between coding or record manufacturing. You know what to do.A fresh-faced competitor for MS Excel
Sometimes, regular spreadsheets just don’t cut it. Enter Mesh, a JavaScript IDE that’s built to feel like working in a spreadsheet for people constrained by Excel’s limitations.
First things first. Let’s get this out of the way: Mesh is not a replacement for Microsoft Excel. It just isn’t. Chris Pearson, the programmer behind Mesh, is pretty up front about this.
“Mesh is not intended to replace existing spreadsheet programs in all domains,” Pearson said. “Mesh was started because I couldn’t find a way in Excel to output the results of a formula across an arbitrary number of cells.”
Mesh is a spreadsheet UI wrapper around a text file editor. Actions on the grid are automatically translated to changes in the JavaScript code. Basically, it’s meant to help devs who use Excel, but find there are some limitations when trying to use it.
Mesh
Mesh is a JavaScript IDE that feels like a spreadsheet. Basically, Mesh’s goal is to improve the experience for devs using ‘regular’ programming languages. Pearson suggests that people should consider Mesh if they:
use JavaScript, but want rapid visual feedback and a convenient grid UI
use spreadsheets, but feel constrained by Excel’s limitations.
However, fair warning, Mesh is currently in active development. Things are being changed a lot, and it is still in a very rough beta stage.
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So, it’s not Excel
Mesh is a really interesting entrant to the field of spreadsheets, but we’re not saying you should delete your copy of Open Office or MS Office just yet. Existing spreadsheet programs offer location-based referencing and formatting, which is very flexible. This makes them perfect as a calculation scratch-pad, or for viewing or editing data in formats like CSVs.
However, ‘traditional’ programming languages might be a better tool for things like repeated processes with minimal human intervention. In particular, Pearson points out that most spreadsheets are rather poor at processing and generating data of arbitrary length. People use spreadsheets in these cases because they are familiar and readily accessible.
Advantages
Mesh was designed to have specific advantages for writing programs:
Mesh is designed to process, and generate, data of arbitrary length
Mesh is written in JavaScript
the absence of location-based referencing eliminates a class of errors that normally require humans to identify and fix
the Mesh file format is just JavaScript code in a text file, so: diffing is easy (function is built into Windows: FC in CMD, Compare-Object in PowerShell) it integrates with standard version control systems like Git you don’t need Mesh to run a Mesh file, so you can integrate Mesh files into other systems.
Disadvantages
Mesh is a newcomer and under active development. So, that means there are going to be bugs.
Unlike Excel, the whole file gets recalculated every time (no caching of values that won’t change)
Spreadsheet display won’t work well with names whose values change over the course of a file (you may get best results if you adopt an ‘immutability’ convention)
Mesh misses out on Excel’s built-in functions
Can’t rename a name without it breaking other references in the file
So, obviously, there are kinks in the system that still need to be worked out. But, it seems like an exciting new development in the world of spreadsheets.
If you’re interested, you can find Mesh’s GitHub page here and the preview page here. Head on over and see if Mesh is the right kind of JavaScript IDE spreadsheet for you!For seven hours, the passengers on JetBlue flight 504 have been grounded at Bradley Airport, with no bathrooms and no water, according to passengers on the plane who are Tweeting and others who contacted NBC Connecticut.
The passengers left Ft. Lauderdale, Florida just after 10 a.m., heading for Newark, but the flight was diverted to Bradley, where it had been since 1:30 p.m.
"At the three-hour mark they told us by law they had to let us off the plane. They were waiting for a tug to take us to a gate. We heard that same message at the four-hour mark, and continuing until state troopers boarded the plane for a medical emergency," said Robert, a passenger who did not want to give his last name.
A paraplegic on the flight had a medical issue, and about seven hours after the plane landed. It was at that point that police and firefighters came onboard to render medical assistance.
Passengers Stranded for Hours
Historic October snowfall leaves passengers stranded for hours at Bradley International Airport. (Published Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011)
“Still on the plane. We haven't moved. Now EWR closed. Getting ugly in here. People yelling wanting to get off,” Andrew Carter said via Twitter just before 6 p.m.
JetBlue Flight 1013 from Boston to New York has also been grounded for hours and they ran out of water, @HedgeyeENERGY tweets. A vehicle will be towing them to one of the gates.
The airline released a statement Saturday night.
Freak October Snowstorm
"JetBlue is doing everything possible to ensure our customers affected by today's unusual combination of weather and infrastructure issues are being well cared for," said Victoria Lucia, JetBlue spokesperson. "We apologize for the experience."
The JetBlue flights were two of 23 airplanes diverted to Bradley Airport Saturday, according to Gov. Dannel Malloy. The state was trying to move 1,000 cots to the airport late Saturday to help make stranded passengers comfortable, Malloy said.
Even after being let off their planes, frustration levels continued to be high for passengers who were stuck at the airport.
"I'll never fly JetBlue again, and I'll never fly through Connecticut again," Robert said.Image caption Georgina Mills admitted killing Simon Evans on the A30
A driver who was distracted by a spider ended up killing a cyclist and badly injuring another when she took her eyes off the road to throw the creature out.
Simon Evans, 37, from Derby, was on a charity bike ride when he died in the crash on the A30 in Devon in September.
Georgina Mills, of Okehampton, Devon, admitted causing death by dangerous driving at Exeter Crown Court.
The 23-year-old was given a two-year driving ban, a two-year community order and sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work.
The court was told that Mills was driving to work when the crash happened at Tedburn St Mary as a result of a spider dropping in front of her.
Concentration lapse
Prosecutor Richard Crabb said: "She grabbed it, opened the window and chucked it out of the car."
Mr Crabb said Mills only realised she had struck the cyclist when she had looked back at the road.
He added: "It is estimated that she took her eyes off the road for two seconds."
Mills, a civil engineer, told police at the scene that she was not a dangerous driver and said it had been a 'lapse of concentration'.
The sentence passed can in no way repair the sense of loss that we feel and continue to feel each day Keith Richards, Victim's brother-in-law
Simon Evans, an IT manager, was on the second day of a cycle ride from Land's End to Derby when the crash happened.
The court was told he had been riding behind his brother-in-law, Keith Richards, and that he had been inside the rumble strip - not on the main road - when he was hit.
He was pronounced dead at hospital an hour later. Mr Richards, 37, from Reading, suffered leg injuries in the crash.
Defence barrister Rupert Taylor said that apart from the death and injury caused, there were no other aggravating features like speed, racing or drink.
He said that Mills was never going to drive again and described her as a "decent, productive, hard-working member of the community".
The court was told that Mills had a clean driving record, no previous convictions and excellent prospects.
On sentencing her, Judge Graham Cottle said: "There is no basis for disbelieving your account that you took your eyes temporarily off the road to deal with a creature.
"You have never sought to blame any external factors in this case."
Speaking after the sentence Keith Richards said: "The sentence passed can in no way repair the sense of loss that we feel and continue to feel each day."Think of it as a silver lining to the gathering dark clouds. We live in an era of extraordinary disruption, from the serial crises of a changing climate to the wrenching shifts of a globalized economy. But in that disruption lies the potential for positive transformation.
Transition is already underway.
Addressing climate change requires adapting to the impacts that are already here—heat waves, droughts, superstorms and more—while preventing and mitigating future impacts. Taking these challenges seriously calls for radical changes in the way we live. It calls us to zero out our carbon emissions, and to rethink the systems that shape our lives, including the economy, food and power. It calls us to fundamentally transition from a world of domination and extraction to a world of regeneration, resilience, and interdependence.
It’s a tall order, no doubt, but that transition is already underway. In our work with movement builders on the front lines of the transition, we’ve identified two key guideposts—connectedness and equity—that point us toward the world we want.
Connectedness is the recognition that our well-being is inextricably tied to that of other people and the planet itself. It means there are no throwaway people, no throwaway places, no throwaway anything. In fact, there’s no “away”; there’s just here. In practice, connectedness is about lifting up the voices of the marginalized, and it means regenerating forgotten places, from industrial brownfields to hollowed-out rural towns and Rust Belt cities. The second guidepost, equity, is about recognizing and repairing the harm generated by situations of extreme power imbalance. Equity is about building power from the bottom up.
When communities are fully engaged in problem-solving, they come up with holistic solutions that address complex, interlocking challenges. Here are three.
Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York
When Superstorm Sandy ripped through the Eastern Seaboard in 2012, the waterfront neighborhood of Sunset Park was hit hard. Power lines toppled and businesses were shuttered. The neighborhood’s industrial district flooded, washing toxic residue into nearby residential areas.
But as the people of Sunset Park worked together to rebuild, a hopeful possibility emerged. What if the neighborhood rebuilt in ways that made the local economy more resilient and equitable, while limiting the impact of climate change? That’s the vision of UPROSE, a grassroots environmental justice group that took root in Sunset Park 50 years ago.
“Superstorm Sandy was a real wakeup call for our community.”
“Superstorm Sandy was a real wakeup call for our community,” says UPROSE director Elizabeth Yeampierre. “Climate change is here now, and waterfront communities like ours are extremely vulnerable.” The neighborhood’s low-income, immigrant residents were especially at risk, so in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, they turned to UPROSE for a community organizing effort to prepare for a wetter, more uncertain future.
The plan they came up with builds climate resilience while protecting the environment, health, and—crucially—jobs.
The point is not simply to rebuild what was there before; UPROSE members don’t want more jobs in the same dirty industries that had polluted the neighborhood for decades. “We have a lot of businesses on the waterfront, and we want to keep them here because people need places to work,” Yeampierre says. “But we want safe places to work.” To that end, UPROSE has joined forces with labor unions, the Center for Working Families, and business owners to transform Sunset Park’s industrial space into a manufacturing hub that produces environmentally friendly building and construction materials, powered by renewable energy. And they are encouraging these industries to hire locally.
The process of developing the plan was as transformational as the plan itself.
It’s a plan that addresses many problems at once. In a city with skyrocketing inequality and rampant gentrification, it could help preserve the blue-collar jobs that once anchored the middle class. At the same time, it could reduce toxic hazards and make Sunset Park a safer, healthier place to live. And it could reduce the carbon emissions that are driving that change.
The process of developing the plan was as transformational as the plan itself. UPROSE consults with residents on the future they want, then arms them with the tools they need to make that vision a reality. Some residents take on the role of block captains and gather input and educate their neighbors on city planning processes. Through partnerships with researchers, residents conduct participatory action research on issues of concern. It’s a deeply democratic, holistic approach that builds local power and increases community control over resources—key elements of community resilience.
Buffalo, New York
Left behind by the globalized economy, Buffalo has lost more than half its population since 1950. By 2005, when the community group People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo was founded, residents of the West Side neighborhood were struggling with unemployment, rampant blight, and high energy costs.
At that time, there were an estimated 23,000 vacant homes in Buffalo. PUSH took on a state housing agency that was using vacant buildings to speculate on Wall Street, and got the buildings turned over to the community—with funding to fix them up.
PUSH has cultivated a growing network of contractors who are committed to hiring locally.
Next, PUSH brought together hundreds of community residents to craft a plan for a large, blighted area. The result is a 25-square-block Green Development Zone (GDZ), which is now a model of energy-efficient, affordable housing. PUSH and its nonprofit development company rehabilitate homes in the GDZ, installing efficiency upgrades, like insulation and geothermal heating, that dramatically lower residents’ utility bills. The organization won a New York state grant to build 46 new homes, including a net zero house, which produces as much energy as it consumes.
The GDZ doubles as a jobs program. Through its construction projects, PUSH has cultivated a growing network of contractors who are committed to hiring locally. And PUSH successfully advocated for New York’s Green Jobs-Green New York program, which seeks to create 35,000 jobs while providing energy upgrades and retrofits for 1 million homes across the state.
Across the West Side, PUSH has transformed the urban landscape. In partnership with Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper and the Massachusetts Avenue Project, PUSH has turned trash-strewn, vacant lots into state-of-the-art rain gardens, small urban farms, and aquaponics greenhouses. These urban oases bolster food security, while providing much-needed green space.
Richmond, California
A predominantly low-income community of color is challenging the oil giant that has long dominated their city.
In Richmond, the 3,000-acre Chevron refinery looms over the city with towering smokestacks and tangled pipes going in every direction. The largest of its kind in California, the Chevron refinery showers Richmond with unpronounceable toxic chemicals and periodic fiery explosions that put residents at risk. As a major source of jobs and tax revenue, Chevron has long held outsized influence on the city’s politics. But, fed up with their toxic neighbor, residents are working to counterbalance the company’s political muscle.
A predominantly low-income community of color is challenging the oil giant.
The first step |
sea, surface and above surface domains?
2. What critical functions reside in the network?
3. How can integration with current platforms and operations be addressed efficiently and adaptively when developing off-board networked sensors and platforms?
4. What design methodologies are critical to rapidly, reliably and cost-effectively adapting the network and network elements to emerging missions and threats?
5. What maritime platforms, sensors and effects packages create the greatest cost and mission leverage in contested environments?
6. What are the challenges to developing reliable, specialized autonomous unmanned systems?
7. How can off board systems be rapidly, survivably and cost-effectively delivered to contested areas?
8. What tools are available to manage distributed maritime systems and networks, and what tools need to be developed?
DARPA
DARPA last year talked about developing a system of submersible pods that could reside in the world's oceans and be activated for any number of applications days, months or even years later.
The Upward Falling Payload (UFP) project, as DARPA called it, centers on pre-deploying deep-ocean nodes years in advance in forward areas which can be remotely commanded to launch to the surface. "The objective of the UFP program is to realize a new approach for enabling forward deployed unmanned distributed systems that can provide non-lethal effects or situation awareness over large maritime areas," DARPA stated.
Depending on the specific application, DARPA said UFP systems would provide "a range of non-lethal but useful capabilities such as situational awareness, disruption, deception, networking, rescue, or any other mission that benefits from being pre-distributed and hidden. An example class of systems might be small unmanned aerial vehicles that launch to the surface in capsules, take off and provide aerial situational awareness, networking or decoy functions."
"Almost half of the world's oceans are more than four kilometers deep. This provides considerable opportunity for cheap stealth. The vastness and depth make retrieval costs prohibitive. Despite this, the UFP program is specifically not a weapons program, and the risks to losing any single node will be minimal," DARPA said.
Check out these other hot stories:
IBM/DARPA turn out brain-like 5-billion transistor superchip
Intelligence agency wants brain tools to tell: Who’s the smartest of them all?
MIT system will make oxygen on next NASA Mars mission
Federal court system warns of new e-mail jury scamRocket Lab wants to make Model T of space satellite launchers
FTC urges mobile carriers to help send cramming charges packing
NASA looking for out-of-this-world Mars communications services
FTC takes out “tech support” scammers; $5.1 million in fines, retribution
Finding life in space by looking for extraterrestrial pollutionLAROSE, La. -- Deputies in Louisiana say they discovered a woman's ex-boyfriend had been secretly living in the attic of her home after he attacked her, reports CBS affiliate WWLTV.
The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office says Taylor Broussard, 21, forced his way into the woman's Larose home and began hitting her with his fists following a verbal argument May 3. A juvenile who was home at the time reportedly shielded the woman as Broussard allegedly struck her and threatened her with a knife.
Deputies say Broussard slashed bedsheets, cut through a matress and damaged several other items during the attack. The woman was able to escape to a neighbor's home and call for help. Broussard allegedly stole the woman's purse and cellphone and then stole an SUV and fled.
After deputies responded, they learned Broussard had been secretly staying in the attic, stalking the victim, the station reports. Deputies say they found bedding, water bottles, food and plastic bottles filled with urine.
Deputies haven't been able to locate Broussard since. Warrants have been issued for his arrest on two counts of stalking, domestic abuse battery with child endangerment, domestic abuse aggravated assault, theft of a motor vehicle, felony theft, home invasion, unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, and simple criminal damage to property, WWLTV reports.
The stolen vehicle is a dark gray Mitsubishi Outlander with the license plate number XLG572. Anyone with information on Broussard's whereabouts is asked to submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers Bayou Region by phone at 1-800-743-7433 or online at www.crimestoppersbr.org. Tipsters could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000 if the information leads to an arrest.Deposit Accounts for Personal & SMSF customers Terms and Conditions (PDF 12MB)
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7. Westpac everyday account: fees and charges apply on a Westpac everyday account, which can be in the name of the child or a parent signatory. Transfers made by the child are subject to any Parental Controls.
8. Parent signatories: parent or guardian must be an account signatory to view the account. There’s a limit of two signatories per Bump Savings account.
*Expired Westpac Bump promotion:*If you signed up to the 2017 Bump campaign please read the FAQs and following Ts and Cs. Offer deposit will be made within 3 business days of ID verification. $200 offer limited to one per person. The $200 will be available the month of the child’s 16th birthday and will be forfeited if the account is closed before that. Interest earned on the $200 can be withdrawn from the account. A parent or guardian opening the child’s account is required to be an account signatory with their ID verified. Offer may be withdrawn or extended in limited circumstances at the bank’s discretion, with notice provided on our website.Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard unveiled the result of a series of massive drug busts over a 26-day period at a Florida port Tuesday which netted 16 tons of cocaine.
The seized cocaine has an estimated value of $420 million, officials said at a news conference at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. The drugs have a street value of over $1 billion, WSVN reported.
The nearly month-long mission in the international waters of the Eastern Pacific, which included U.S. Coast Guard, Canadian and interagency partners, involved 17 separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interceptions along Central and South America, the agency said in a news release.
The Coast Guard cutter James and HITRON aviation unit were alone responsible for five drug interceptions, which seized an estimated 5.19 tons of cocaine. The new cutter James carries a helicopter and boats that can deploy from the back quickly.
"I am extremely proud of the crew of Coast Guard Cutter James and our embarked HITRON aviation detachment for a highly successful inaugural patrol," said Vice Adm. Karl Schultz, commander of Coast Guard Atlantic Area in a statement. "Our persistent maritime presence in drug trafficking zones from cutters like James, enables us to interdict bulk quantities of drugs at sea, preventing criminal networks' illicit cargoes from reaching the shores of Central America, and land routes into the United States."
During the mission, seven vessels were stopped and at least 30 smugglers were brought into custody during the mission, officials said.
U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor highlighted the dangers crews faced during the mission.
“To look at those bales as just cocaine is short-sighted,” Fedor said. “When those smugglers are racing across the Caribbean or the Pacific, they’re just not carrying cocaine. They’re delivering violence, corruption and instability to a part of the world – the Western hemisphere – that just can’t absorb it.”
Read more from WSVN.com.Electricity rates are going up in Ontario starting May 1, as it will cost more than twice as much for electricity during peak demand periods than off-peak times.
The price for peak periods — weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. — will be 16.1 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with
8 cents for off-peak hours on weekdays from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and all day on weekends and holidays.
The mid-peak rate of 12.2 cents a kilowatt hour will apply weekdays from 7-to-11 a.m. and from 5-to-7 p.m.
The Ontario Energy Board estimates the change to a 2:1 ratio between peak and off-peak rates will add $5.71 to the average household electricity bill.
Prices encourage consumers to use power when electricity market prices are lower.
Category Times - Summer Price Change Off-Peak Weekdays, 7 p.m.-7 a.m., all day weekends and holidays 8.0¢/kWh Increase 0.3 ¢ Mid-Peak Weekdays 7-11 a.m. and 5-7 p.m 12.2¢/kWh Increase 0.8 ¢ On-Peak Weekdays 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 16.1¢/kWh Increase 2.1 ¢
But the board says the change to a higher peak rate gives consumers more of an opportunity to lower their electricity bills by doing laundry and dishes at off-peak times.
The opposition parties say Ontario's already high electricity rates will "go through the roof" if the Liberals proceed with their plan to sell 60 per cent of Hydro One, the province's giant transmission utility.Get Marco Rubio Off The Science Committee!
by: Care2.com
recipient: Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Transportation, and Science Committee
How old is the Earth? 4.54 billion years old. See, that was easy, straightforward, and scientifically accurate. But when Florida Senator Marco Rubio was asked this question, he declared the answer a mystery.
"Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries," said Rubio in an interview with GQ magazine.
A politician sitting on the Senate science committee should be expected to know what most of us learned in elementary school: that the Earth's age was already calculated by scientists.
Instead, Rubio's response was, "I'm not a scientist, man."
Rubio argued the Earth's age has nothing to do with topics like the U.S. economy. But the economy and the technology that drives it were founded on fundamental scientific facts like the Earth's age. To claim otherwise is sheer irresponsibility.
Get Senator Marco Rubio off the Commerce, Transportation, and Science Committee!
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Get Senator Marco Rubio off of the Commerce, Transportation, and Science Committee after his recent declaration that we don't know the Earth's age. He has a right to believe what he chooses regarding the planet, religion, and science--but that does not mean he can sit on a science committee while claiming he is not really about, well, science.
Rubio's opening line when asked about the age of the Earth was, "I'm not a scientist, man." If he's not going to support key scientific facts, then, please, keep him away from the science committee! He argues that a fact like the Earth's age has nothing to do with issues such as the economy. Modern science has everything to do with the economy, technology, education, mechanics, engineering, and--the senatorial science committee.
Your comments added here.
Ask Marco Rubio to step down from the Commerce Transportation, and Science Committee after striking down a core scientific fact.
Sincerely,
[Your name here] Dear Chairman Jay Rockefeller,Get Senator Marco Rubio off of the Commerce, Transportation, and Science Committee after his recent declaration that we don't know the Earth's age. He has a right to believe what he chooses regarding the planet, religion, and science--but that does not mean he can sit on a science committee while claiming he is not really about, well,Rubio's opening line when asked about the age of the Earth was, "I'm not a scientist, man." If he's not going to support key scientific facts, then, please, keep him away from the science committee! He argues that a fact like the Earth's age has nothing to do with issues such as the economy. Modern science has everything to do with the economy, technology, education, mechanics, engineering, and--the senatorial science committee.Ask Marco Rubio to step down from the Commerce Transportation, and Science Committee after striking down a core scientific fact.Sincerely,[Your name here]Governor Sanusi's decision comes only two months after he took over The Nigerian central bank has injected 400bn naira ($2.6bn; £1.6bn) into five banks and sacked their managers. The regulator said the banks were undercapitalised and posed a risk to the entire banking system. Governor Lamido Sanusi said Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank would be run as normal until new investors were found. The move was unprecedented in Nigeria, sending the naira down 2% to 156.9 versus the dollar. 'Questions' "The banks have lost their money in bad loans," Mr Sanusi told reporters in Lagos. "We have questions about the management, so we have put in new management." "We assure every depositor that no-one will lose money and we will continue to support the banks and all Nigerian banks," he said. Armed police secured the buildings of the five banks to protect their assets. Mr Sanusi took over as head of the central bank over two months ago, pledging to clean up the banking system that has fuelled growth in Nigeria. Among the executives removed were senior members of Nigeria's corporate elite, long seen as almost untouchable by the political establishment. "The banking sector is a critical part of any economic system and we believe the steps being taken will deliver an effective solution to a very serious set of challenges," said Michael Hugman, a strategist at Standard Bank. The five institutions account for 40% of banking sector credit in Nigeria. Bad loans Mr Sanusi said the five banks had accounted for almost 90% of exposure to the central bank's so-called discount window, which allows banks to borrow in the short-term from the central bank to meet their needs. "The excessively high level of non-performing loans in the five banks... was attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and the absence or non-adherence to credit risk management practices," he said. Mr Sanusi added the Nigerian government had no intention of nationalising the five banks and that this was a temporary measure. The central bank has completed audits of 10 banks, including the five being rescued, and the Central Bank of Nigeria will now probe all of the country's 24 banks, Mr Sanusi said.
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From the basement of a University of California-Berkeley building, Irina Conboy has been fighting back Father Time.
For over a decade, Conboy and her colleagues at UC Berkeley have been searching for ways to slow down or even reverse aging. Their latest discovery—a small-molecule drug that restored brain and muscle tissues to youthful levels in old mice through stem cells—signalled that the prospect of anti-aging therapy for humans may be on the horizon.
Published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Oncotarget this May, the discovery has been called "fountain of youth" or the "secret to eternal youth" by the media.
Comfortably clad in an oversized hoodie, Conboy burst the bubble in her high-pitch, Eastern European accent: Sorry, the drug won't keep us young forever, and we will all eventually die.
But what her research hopes to accomplish, Conboy said, is a painless, cost-effective way to live when we are old.
The image of the brain's hippocampus show that the TGF-beta1 (stained in red in the old) disappeared in the young tissue after Alk5 kinase inhibitor was applied to the mouse. Image: University of California-Berkeley
Aging-related diseases like adult-onset diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease kill millions every year while draining the economy of billions of dollars on health care costs, and a treatment that keeps people healthier in old age would cut the costs significantly down. A drug that tackles these diseases at its root would also give people more agency how they choose to live late in their lives.
"Aging is a synonym with diseases," Conboy said. "When we are young, we don't have these diseases. But when we are old, it doesn't matter what background or gender or culture, we all have them. If we can better understand the aging process, then we don't need to have different hospitals, departments, and institutes that deal with each disease."
The drug, known as Alk5 kinase inhibitor, target a growth factor called TGF-beta1 pathway which, at old age, overproduce itself and inhibits other pathways to stimulate stem cells. As our body breaks down over time, stem cells—which are responsible for repairing the body and live huddled together in pockets called niches—are prevented by TGF-beta1 from doing its job.
But the TGF-beta1 pathway is no villain. The protein promotes division of embryonic stem cells and then promotes differentiation into functional tissues and organs—a critical component in organizing our body cells. Without it, the body's organs will begin to fail.
As the body ages, however, the TGF-beta1 begins to overexpress itself and become a deterrent for yet unknown reasons. What the Alk5 kinase inhibitor sought to do was not rid the body of the pathway but rather regulate it by attaching itself to the pathway and dulling its signal asking for more expression.
Now with the TGF-beta1 down to youthful levels, stem cells are able to freely repair the body.
"If you have a very bright light but you have sunglasses on, you can look at the light even though the light didn't diminish," Conboy said. "The inhibitor works like the sunglasses and prevents damage even though the light hasn't diminished. When there is too much TGF-Beta, it's blinding organs and tissues and impairs its function."
Due to its crucial role during early development, the TGF-beta1 is found all across the body, from brain to bones. The inhibitor, which was injected into the bloodstreams of mice during its experiments, is able to rejuvenate tissues regardless of its components or purpose. It is already being trialled as an anticancer agent.
Microglia, a type of glial cells found in the brain and the spine as the first defensive line in the immune system, shows little TGF-beta 1 (stained in green) in the young brain (top). In the old brain (bottom), TGF-beta 1 is seemingly everywhere. Image: University of California-Berkeley
In the hippocampus part of the brain, where increased levels of TGF-beta1 was discovered to impair memory and cognition by fellow UC Berkeley researcher David Schaffer, the drug began to generate new neural stem cells which creates neurons responsible for memory formation.
As for using the inhibitor for cosmetic rejuvenation, to not only feel but also look younger, Conboy said the application is theoretically possible, considering stem cells exist in skin cells and hair follicles.
"We haven't really focused on that because our focus has been on diseases," Conboy said.
This one-size-fits-all drug may approach medical use for humans sooner than later. Like mice, the treatment can happen with an injection to our bloodstreams much like a flu shot.
Conboy and the researchers are currently in the fundraising phase to start conducting clinical trials on human beings. But due to limited federal funding on research and development, progress has been slow.
According to a 2014 interview from National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins to USA Today, the NIH rejects half of worthwhile biomedical proposals due to budget constraints.
Death would no longer come with pain or suffering at some hospital with wires and machines keeping the body alive
"Research for biomedicine right now is very scarce," Conboy said. "If you want to have clinical trials or develop new medicine, there are very limited resources for that."
Private funds has been on the rise for anti-aging research, especially among Silicon Valley venture capitalists and tech giants looking for the next frontier to conquer. One of the most active donors has been PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who donated $35 million to an anti-aging researcher in Cambridge Universtiy in 2006 and $500,000 to a biotech start-up in 2010.
Google has joined the fray last year with the foundation of Calico. Described as mysterious and Google's mad science project, Calico revealed plans to build an anti-aging research facility in the San Francisco Bay Area with a cost of up to $1.5 billion.
So far, the Alk5 kinase inhibitor has yet to draw any funds from firms and investors some forty-odd miles away, even though Conboy considered these discoveries "low-hanging fruit."
The researchers remain hopeful that the drug will continue to move forward in pace with the explosive growth of the larger anti-aging research community.
"I look at it as more promising than anything," said Hanadie Yousef, the lead author of the Oncotarget study and currently a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. "When I was starting graduate school five years ago, there was absolutely nothing known about how aging actually happened. The field is growing so rapidly that I would bet within the next decade we'll see effective anti-aging therapeutic methods."
With the probability of anti-aging therapy on the horizon, death may take a different shape in the future. Death, as Conboy's team hoped to accomplish, would no longer come with pain or suffering at some hospital with wires and machines keeping the body alive.
Instead, death will come by more natural causes such as cardiac arrest or a stroke—a relatively quick way to die than fighting years against cancer or similar diseases.
"I hope we'll just die in our sleep with no cancer or disease eating up our organs," Yousef said. "The goals of my colleagues and I are not to live forever. Instead of becoming old and becoming a burden on society, we can age ourselves more with integrity."The most prominent building of DC’s skyline has to be the Washington Monument which finished construction in 1884.
Since I went to the top of the Washington Monument for the reopening I learned quite a bit about the history of this National landmark.
Washington Monument Facts
The Monument is built of free-standing masonry which means there is no cement holding the blocks together. The original elevator ride took 8-10 minutes (A common myth is that the elevator ride was deemed unsafe for women & children when it opened to the public). There are 896 steps to the top of the Washington Monument. The stairs were closed to visitors going up in 1971 and going down in 1976 due to vandalism and safety concerns. Since then there have been ranger led groups down the stairs but due to staffing issues conditions this is often prevented years at a time. To allow visitors to see the inside of the Monument the windows of the elevator defog at certain points to add to the experience. An elevator worker once ran up the stairs in 11 minutes while doing repairs in 1959. The cap at the tip of the Monument is made out of aluminum which was a new and rare process at the time. DC’s height law states that no building can be built more than 20 times taller than the width of the street in front of it or 160 feet, whichever is shorter. Making the Washington Monument is the tallest building in DC (since it doesn’t follow this restriction). The view from the top includes views over 30 miles away. When originally built, the Washington Monument was the tallest building in the world at 555 feet tall. This record was broken in 1889 when the Eiffel Tower was built. The color of the marble changes at the 152 foot mark. Construction was halted due to a lack of funding; when construction started again they used marble from a different quarry. Three different types of stones were used to build the Monument; including stones from Maryland (north of Baltimore) and Massachusetts. It cost $1,187,710 to build the Monument which is equivalent to $30 million dollars in today’s currency. The trowel used to lay the cornerstone of the Monument was the same trowel used by George Washington to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793. The original design by Robert Mills for the Washington Monument included 30 stone columns and statues of Declaration of Independence signers.
Washington Monument on Google Maps
The original elevator in the Washington Monument took 10 minutes! Check out these 13 facts Click To Tweet
How to Get Washington Monument Tickets
This monument has tons of history but here are 13 of the most interesting Washington Monument facts.
NOTE: The inside of the Washington Monument is currently closed until 2019 due to elevator failures.
Now that you know the Washington Monument facts, of course you want tickets to the top.
If you’re planning a sightseeing visit to Washington D.C. you’ll want to get tickets here. If you don’t have tickets in advance you can always show up early for tickets at the Monument Lodge on 15th Street. For more information about tickets visit the National Park Service’s website.
Experiencing the tallest building in DC is a must if you want to get the most out of DC’s attractions.
Why Was The Washington Monument Built?
Construction on the Washington Monument started in 1848 to act as a tribute to George Washington’s military leadership during the American Revolution. As stated previously the monument was completed construction in 1884.
Quick Washington Monument Facts
Address: 2 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20007
Height: 554 ft 7 in
Width at Base: 55 ft
Stones Used: Over 36,000
Materials: Marble, Granite, and Bluestone Gneiss
Opened: February 21, 1885
Architect: Robert Mills
Photos of the Washington Monument
After visiting the Monument hundreds of times here are my favorite photos I’ve taken of the Washington Monument. It’s hard not to love the reflections of the Monument in the Tidal Basin and Reflecting Pool.
Dc Birds Around Monument
Snowy Washington Monument
Washington Monument Fall Colors
Cherry Blossoms Sunrise Monument
Washington Monument Window Interior
Washington Monument Reopening
Lincoln Memorial View from the Top of the Washington Monument
Washington Monument Night Light Trail
These facts have been confirmed by the Department of Interior.3.5 Days of No Power - Hurricane Irma and Florida published by The 1st Amender
Writer Rating: 2.4872
Posted on 2017-09-15
Writer Description: Changing the way people think about news.
This writer has written 178 articles.
I speak for everyone around the Pinellas County area when I write of my own experiences. My experiences are no different from everyone else that has been suffering around me. I would imagine some more so than others. Some affected so badly, has caused the death of a few people just for being without power.
I thankfully am not one of those people. It comes with my condolences that these people try their best to stay safe during the times of no power. I, being of easy discomfort, decided to flee for the hurricane.
Yes that's right. Like a rat on a sinking ship, I fled before it would take me to the abyss. I fled mostly due to my apartment, which had a support beam sagging slightly enough to show on the popcorn cieling slowly starting to dig through exposing a crack simply due to gravity. This alarmed me enough to flee and take a trip to Louisiana, New Orleans.
I must say I had a blast. Though the pleasures of dacquiris, jazz, oysters and cajun were short lived -- as I had to go back to Florida for work time come Tuesday morning.
I came home around 11:30pm with no power. It was miserable. I am sure any Floridian felt it when they saw their homes at night. Pitch black unable to see anything... worry for yourself and your home. In my own apartment I heard the stir of silence, wind, and crickets. Looking around the apartment showed trash. Bottles, a dismembered diaper on the floor which gave the aroma of dehydrated pee. An overflowing dumpster. Stars, moonlight covered by the clouds, unable to light the way.
I was tired. I spent 13 hours driving back in traffic jams and all I wanted was a good night rest. Going inside my apartment the smells didn't get much better. Smells of mustiness, my roommates pet sugar glider had been placed in the living room to shield her from possible glass breaking. Stumbling along with nothing but a phone light, continuing thoughts of "how am I to charge my phone?" and "I have to sleep in this musty heat" trickled through my brain.
I needed ice. I needed water. I figured the hurricane would pass and we would have power and everything would be hunky dory. None of which came to fruition.
It was 3 days of this. Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday. Demands from work, as an IT guy I was tasked with taking care of people's computers onsite. My first onsite visit was one where they couldn't print. They had power running on generators and my visit felt like a blur to me. My own desires for health and cleanliness had supersceded my attempts at professionalism.
I couldn't think straight for days. I thought about how all I wanted was some cold water, a hot shower, and maybe some coffee here and there, and especially a night where I wouldn't wake up in the middle sweating. I remember having a plastic easel I used to help cool myself when I would wake up late at night due to sweating. I had managed to get ice, and some Lacroix from a grocery store and gas station. (I could not find water. All water was taken and the only thing left at the grocery store was some sparkling Lacroix water)
No matter. Water was water. I can charge my phone at some of the restaurants that had food. I can charge up some batteries I use for extending the life of my phone. My phone was in fact the life saver. It was my communication with "How is everyone else faring?"
The phone was a flashlight and the radio. It felt like I was more attached to my phone than I ever was. It helped keep me sane while I listened to another voice. I felt rather alone, though I could call family and friends, what really could we say to eachother other than to meet up and suffer together? I spent time alone looking around, examining my surroundings. Taking in nature like I never did before.
This happened for 3 full days. On the final days I had to go into work... with early days being taken due to lack of internet at work. Eventually I went home after going to a restaurant -- digging into my savings to pay for it of course. I got home and there I saw it.
A single light.
One solitary light standing proud atop of my apartment building. Nothing brought me more joy within the last 2 weeks. Even the biggest plate of raw oysters I recieved from Louisiana could compare to the raw feeling of that light. I rushed into my apartment and there I felt the cool breeze of my AC. The smells already beginning to disperse.
I rushed in a giddy stupor. I was nearly in tears as I turned on the lights. I danced and rushed into my room, seeing all the electronics which had been unplugged to spare from the hurricane. I immediately plugged in my devices and saw my modem had full lights indicating it was online and running.
I rushed into my computer and had the best time of my life browsing the internet. Nothing made me feel more appreciative and happy than I ever had that night. I slept better than I had ever slept in a very long time. I can only thank I am one of the people who only had to go 3 days without power, but that there are also people who are going to go weeks without power. If this pertains to you, and you are looking at this article with envy -- my thoughts and prayers go out to all those who truly suffer, unlike myself.The NFL will discuss at an upcoming meeting the nationwide dispute over whether players must stand during the national anthem, Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a copy of a memo obtained by CNBC.
In the memo sent to NFL teams, Goodell said that the league must "move past this controversy" and that this has to be done in collaboration with its players.
"Building on many discussions with clubs and players, we have worked to develop a plan that we will review with you at next week's League meeting," Goodell said in the Tuesday memo.
While he said the plan would include continued dialogue and promoting the work of its players on key issues, Goodell didn't provide further details on what that proposed plan would entail.
The NFL comissioner said that the league believes everyone should stand for the national anthem. Goodell said the NFL cares about its players and values their opinions on key social issues.BERLIN — The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Italy on Tuesday condemned the rise in anti-Semitic protests and violence over the conflict in Gaza, saying they will do everything possible to combat it in their countries.
“Anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility against Jews, attacks on people of Jewish belief and synagogues have no place in our societies,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France’s Laurent Fabius and Italy’s Federica Mogherini said in a joint statement issued in Brussels.
The three said that while they respect demonstrators’ freedom of speech and right to assemble, they will also do everything possible to fight “acts and statements that cross the line to anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.”
Since the outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas, participants at anti-Israel demonstrations across Germany have frequently used anti-Semitic slogans and also called for Jews to be gassed.
In France, pro-Palestinian youths have clashed repeatedly with police, and on Sunday set fire to cars, pillaged stores and attacked two synagogues in the Paris suburbs, while Italy has also seen pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Jewish groups have expressed shock and disgust about the growing anti-Semitism in Germany and other European countries with strong Muslim communities.
“We have reached a new level of hatred and violence in all of Europe that cannot even be compared to the anti-Semitism seen during previous conflicts in Israel,” said Stephan Kramer, the director of the European office on anti-Semitism of the American Jewish Committee in Brussels. “It needs to be made very clear that violence is not an appropriate means of protesting.”
French President Francois Hollande met Monday with Jewish and Muslim leaders in the Elysee Palace, where he told them that fighting anti-Semitism will be a “national cause.”
In Berlin, police said Tuesday they had banned pro-Gaza protesters from chanting an anti-Semitic slogan at all protests in the city.
Police spokeswoman Cosima Pauluhn also said that they were investigating a sermon last week by imam Abu Bilal Ismail calling on worshippers at Berlin’s Al-Nur mosque to murder Jews. The American Jewish Committee has filed a complaint with Berlin prosecutors seeking charges.
The mosque did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
At a pro-Palestinian protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Berlin on Monday, 13 protesters were detained and police were pelted with stones. A few hours after the protest, a man set fire to his pants in front of the embassy, but the flames were quickly doused by police officers and he was taken to the hospital without suffering serious injuries. The man, whose identity was not revealed other than saying that he was stateless, is currently in psychiatric evaluation.M&G Investments has followed two major finance firms and suspended trading in the UK's biggest commercial property fund following the Brexit vote.
Firms said high levels of uncertainty caused by the referendum have led to investors rushing to withdraw funds.
M&G closed the doors on its £4.4bn fund after Aviva and Standard Life halted trading in similar schemes.
Regulators have put such schemes under review amid warnings that commercial property was a key risk to the economy.
M&G, part of UK insurer Prudential, said it had seen a "marked increase" in customers trying to pull out of the portfolio - which includes retail and office space - after the referendum result.
As with Aviva and Standard Life, the firm said investors would be better protected by preventing any further withdrawals.
Aviva, the UK's biggest insurer, earlier halted its £1.8bn property trust, a day after Standard Life blocked access to its £2.9bn fund.
Image copyright AFP
'Matter of time'
Laith Khalaf, an analyst at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The dominoes are starting to fall in the UK commercial property market, as yet another fund locks its doors on the back of outflows precipitated by the Brexit vote.
"It's probably only a matter of time before we see other funds follow suit."
It takes time to sell commercial property to meet withdrawals, particularly as investors have been heading for the door in the run up to the EU referendum and in the aftermath, he said.
The last time |
is once again resuming its entrance examination process to find disciples. The protagonist Lu Wang, who possesses a special soul that is only available once in a thousand years, decides to take the exam, and he starts down the path toward becoming an exceptional sage. Studio DEEN notes that the anime will be full of gags.
Tsubasa Yonaga (Yowamushi Pedal's Sangaku Manami, Free!'s Nagisa Hazuki, Chihayafuru's Tsutomu Komano) stars as Lu Wang, a rare genius whose IQ and impudence are both unparalleled.
Iku Suzuki (Yumeiro Pâtissière, Maze, Kodocha, DearS) is directing the series at Studio DEEN. Makoto Iino (key animator for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Oreshura, Sword Art Online) is handling the character design, and Yumiko Ishii (Samurai Harem, animation director for Samurai Champloo, Space Brothers) is the chief animation director. Additionally, Hirofune Hane (Gifū Dōdō!! Kanetsugu to Keiji) is the art director, Kazuhisa Yamabu is handling the color key, Kazuya Tanaka (Mushishi, Actually, I Am…, Flowers of Evil) is the sound director, and Half HP Studio is producing the sound.
Soraru (Danganronpa The Animation) and Mafumafu will perform the opening theme song, and Niconico cover artist Kakichoco will perform the ending theme song. Mafumafu is writing and composing the opening theme song.
Chinese company Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Company Limited is producing the series alongside Studio DEEN. The companies plan to air the series simultaneously in Japan and China, and they plan to produce both Japanese-language version and a Mandarin Chinese-language version of the show.
Updated: Added romanizations of original Chinese novel title, novel's author, manga's authors, and protagonist's name. Thanks, Dormcat.
Images © Reikenzan Production Committee
Source: WalkerPlusCHICAGO -- Penn State tailback Bill Belton folded his hands under the table and shifted in his seat. He didn't want to answer the question; he didn't even want to think about it.
How would you guys react, hypothetically, if you're eligible for a bowl this year?
"How would you react if you were on a bowl ban?" Belton asked, before some mild back-and-forth. "I'm just saying, like, if you were a kid in a program and you were in a bowl ban, it would be exciting. That's what I'm saying."
"That's something the guys don't think about," Penn State's Bill Belton said when asked about the possibility of Penn State's bowl ban being lifted. Jerry Lai/USA TODAY Sports
It's an issue that Belton didn't want to dwell on because it's hung over the heads of the Nittany Lions since 2012, when a four-year bowl ban was levied alongside unprecedented sanctions. But the question at Big Ten media days seemed more newsworthy than usual considering two key reasons -- one, the second annual Mitchell Report outlining PSU's progress is expected to be released in early September and, two, several Pennsylvania congressmen recently wrote a letter to the NCAA asking for it to rescind the sanctions.
Belton, a senior, didn't seem to want to get his hopes up. This is his final season, after all, and he's already been forced to come to terms with the fact he'll end his career without another postseason berth. Maybe the only thing worse than that realization is believing otherwise -- only to find disappointment yet again.
"We just continue to work on what we have to do to get better," he said Monday afternoon. "That's something the guys don't think about. All we're trying to do is prepare for UCF."
But there might be some cause for hope. NCAA president Mark Emmert reduced the sanctions on scholarships last season, and Emmert acknowledged last fall that further reductions could be considered this August or September. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the results of the annual Mitchell Report -- which, in all likelihood, will once again be a glowing one for Penn State.
Granted, that's still not a guarantee there'll be a reduction. But it doesn't mean Penn State is locked into its current penalties either. Really, at this point, it's anyone's guess.
"We don't know any more than you guys, to be honest," said kicker Sam Ficken, also a senior. "Obviously, we hope it's lifted. But, if not, we're going to approach the season the same way. That's not going to affect how we play the 12 regular-season games.
"If we get to that point and we're able to do that, that's awesome. That would be a good way to go out. But if it doesn't happen? Well, I still had a heck of a time at Penn State. We all play for each other and play for the fans, and that's not going to change."
Five Pennsylvania congressmen -- including U.S. Rep Glenn Thompson, who invited James Franklin to the State of the Union Address -- signed a two-page letter to Emmert on Thursday to request an elimination of the sanctions. They wrote the penalties "harm innocent student athletes and further erodes the increasingly specious credibility of the [NCAA]."
The politicians also asked Emmert to answer two questions in a timely fashion. For one, they wonder how the NCAA can reconcile its mission statement with the fact many of those affected were high school students at the time of the Consent Decree's enforcement. And, two, if the NCAA already acknowledged it lacked authority to fine Penn State for criminal activity of a former employee, how can it still insist on punitive measures?
Senior linebacker Mike Hull wasn't asked about all the political jargon or whether this group, or that report, would be successful in restoring bowl games or past wins. But he did address that possibility of a bowl game, of a last hurrah for him and the Penn State seniors.
"We talk about it as players off the field a little bit, but we really don't want to get our hopes up," he said. "We want to take it one day at a time, one game at a time, and play the same way regardless of whether we're going to a bowl game or not. It's a special place at Penn State."Lake Pontchartrain Causeway authorities rescued the driver of a pickup that plunged off the southbound span Monday morning (Aug. 8). The motorist, who was plucked from the water 11 minutes after the accident, appeared to be OK and was taken to a hospital in St. Tammany Parish, bridge General Manager Carlton Dufrechou said.
The incident involved two pickups, Dufrechou said. He did not have details about how the accident occurred.
"It's still pretty fluid right now," he said.
The accident took place at about 8:15 a.m., nearly 11 miles from the south shore.
A Causeway police officer went into the water to help the motorist and emergency crews quickly arrived with a rescue basket that was lowered into the lake, Dufrechou said.
Crews are clearing debris from the roadway. "We'll reopen as soon as we can get it cleaned up."
The entire bridge was closed shortly after the accident. The northbound span re-opened at about 9 a.m.
Crews will likely attempt to recover the vehicle later today, Dufrechou said.
Truck pulled from Lake Pontchartrain 14 Gallery: Truck pulled from Lake Pontchartrain
Monday's accident comes just two days before the Causeway Commission is to consider raising tolls to fund $103 million in safety improvements, including a beefed up railing to prevent vehicles from going off the southbound span.
.......
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified the two vehicles in the wreck by make and model. That information has been removed because its accuracy has been called into question.India will miss its export target of $325 billion due to a slump in the global economy but the number might end up below $300 billion by the end of 2015-16, said Department of Commerce Joint Secretary Ravi Kapoor on Tuesday.
Speaking at the sidelines of the India Engineering Sourcing show here, he told reporters: “India has reported exports of $312 billion against a target of $340 billion in 2014-15. The government has set a target of $325 billion for the current financial year. It will be a happy situation if the country achieves exports of $300 billion but it (exports) will end less than $300 billion.”
Kapoor’s admission comes close on the heels of India’s exports contracting for the eleventh straight month in October. The joint secretary said the fall in exports was due to a fall in petroleum product exports, again a function of international oil prices.
India’s merchandise exports dipped 17.6 per cent to $154.29 billion, while merchandise imports fell 15.2 per cent to $232.54 billion in April-October 2015. However, Kapoor said the government had provided a slew of incentives to boost exports. These included the 3 per cent interest subsidy scheme for five years and the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme. He hoped that the interest subsidy scheme would help in controlling the dip in exports and increase competitiveness of domestic products in the global market.President Donald Trump had one of the worst weeks of his presidency, his poll numbers are in the tank, and Republicans are scurrying. Yet it’s the Democrats’ Senate prospects that are going south.
In the midst of the Trump turmoil, the well-respected Cook Political Report moved four Senate races toward the Republican column in its latest 2018 forecast.
Cook moved Indiana, Missouri, and West Virginia from “lean D” to toss-up, and it shifted North Dakota from “likely D” to “lean D.” It did move one race in the other direction, downgrading Nevada from “lean R”to “toss-up.”
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MO AG may challenge McCaskill for Senator
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Media Compare Trump to Hitler To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 10.2.0 or greater is installed. MO AG may challenge McCaskill for Senator MO AG may challenge McCaskill for Senator KFVS - Cape Girardeau, MO http://studio.ndnmediaservices.com/lifezette?ndn.trackingGroup=92353&ndn.siteSection=polizette&ndn.videoId=32778996 BACK Embed <iframe width="590" height="332" src="http://launch.newsinc.com/?type=VideoPlayer/Single&widgetId=1&trackingGroup=69016&playlistId=19132&siteSection=polizette&videoId=32778996" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" noresize marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen></iframe> Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
"The GOP's recruiting strong candidates at this point, and the Democrats are running in states that are hard for them," said Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for the conservative super PAC America Rising Squared. "They're not really in touch with the voters in their states."
Sen Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) appears particularly vulnerable. America Rising Squared is launching a new group, Missouri Rising, to support whichever Republican candidate emerges as the nominee. Most experts expect that to be popular Attorney General Josh Hawley, if he decides to run. Adler noted that Hawley last year got more votes in Missouri than any other candidate on the ballot, including Trump.
Three forecasters have indicated this month that Hawley would perhaps be the strongest Republican challenger in the country. The National Journal wrote that Hawley would give Republicans "one of their strongest recruits in an increasingly conservative state where Trump remains popular." Kyle Kondick wrote for the University of Virginia Center for Politics that McCaskill "probably is the most vulnerable Senate Democrat."
And CNN's Eric Bradner wrote that Missouri is "perhaps the GOP's strongest pickup opportunity."
McCaskill has twice won the Senate seat but is considered weaker than a typical two-term incumbent. She barely cleared 50 percent of the vote during her first win, in 2006. Six years later, she benefited by drawing a weak GOP opponent, Rep. Todd Akin, who imploded after insisting that victims of "legitimate rape" cannot become pregnant.
"She isn't likely to have as easy a path to re-election this cycle," Cook Political Report analyst Jennifer Duffy wrote. "It is not certain that Republicans can avoid a primary, but they aren't likely to let McCaskill and Democrats dictate the terms."
In addition, Duffy noted, Missouri has trended more Republican the past decade. Last year, Trump carried the state by 19 percentage points, while Republicans won every statewide office on the ballot.
Missouri is not the only place where Democrats will be playing defense. Nine other Democrats will face re-election in states that Trump won. Meanwhile, just one Republican is defending a seat that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won. Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Jon Tester in Montana, and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota all figure to have particularly difficult races, depending on whether Republicans nominate top-tier candidates.
This is one of the most important reasons why Democrats may find it hard to capitalize on Trump's low approval ratings, said University of Dayton political science professor Christopher Devine. He said states where Trump's unfavorables are very high — such as California and New York — will not have competitive Senate races. The president has not fallen as far in many states that will feature tightly contested races.
Republicans made major gains in both the House and Senate by nationalizing midterm elections during Barack Obama's presidency. Devine said it is an open question how much success Democrats will have following the same strategy, given that the primary critique against Trump is based on personality rather than policy.
Devine said Republicans ran against Obama's personality to some extent as well.
"But there was a lot of policy content in that, particularly on health care," he said. "You would think issues would be more effective."
Devine cautioned that predictions are hard to make at this stage. Outcomes will depend on the quality of the candidates and turnout, he said. Republicans benefited from a more motivated base than Democrats during the past two midterm elections. But Devine said it might be Democrats who are super-energized next year.
And Republicans are not without their weak spots, he said. He noted that Nevada's Dean Heller and Arizona's Jeff Flake both will face primary challenges. They could lose or limp into the general elections as weakened candidates. And if Republican Sen. Susan Collins decides to run for governor of Maine, that immediately would because a prime pickup opportunity in a Democratic-leaning state.
"There aren't a lot of vulnerable Republicans, but the ones that are, are quite vulnerable," Devine said.
What's more, he added, Tester and McCaskill are savvy operators who have demonstrated an ability to win their Republican-leaning states.
"There's a reason why Claire McCaskill and Jon Tester have won multiple elections," Devine said.
Adler, of America Rising Squared, said his organization will hammer red-state Democrats with their own voting records. He noted that McCaskill opposed many of Trump's Cabinet secretaries and votes with liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren 87 percent of the time.
"But with incumbency also comes problems," he said. "And problems come down to her voting record."
(photo credit, homepage images: Mark Schierbecker/HOW Coalition/AFGE, Wikimedia/Flickr; photo credit, article images: AFGE, Flickr)More than a year ago, an effort began to offer insurance products to companies in the bitcoin space – an intriguing idea at the time given the infancy of the industry and the inability of startups to secure this protection for user funds.
The initiative marked some key early successes – security startup BitGo and wallet service Xapo would go on to acquire insurance by way of those efforts – but at least one of those involved says demand for insurance, particularly bitcoin theft insurance, never fully materialized.
Now, a former president and founder of a business venture dedicated to promoting these insurance products to bitcoin companies is facing serious fraud allegations.
Court documents obtained by CoinDesk allege that Joseph Donnelly, founder and ex-president of Bitcoin Financial Group borrowed $300,000 from Raymond and Suzanne DeBiasa of New Jersey in 2008 to invest the money, but failed to repay the funds.
Instead, it is alleged, Donnelly, along with another individual named Ahuby Donnelly, diverted to funds for personal use – and as a means of funding for Bitcoin Financial Group in the venture’s infancy.
Allegations raised
Bitcoin Financial Group is named as one of the four defendants in the suit, along with the Donnellys and Dovetail Capital. The firm, led by Innovation Insurance Group founder Ty Sagalow, has denied any involvement with the alleged fraud.
Sagalow told CoinDesk that Joseph Donnelly left in December of last year to pursue other business activities after the venture failed to gain significant traction in the industry.
Further, he said that Donnelly never invested any of his own money into the bitcoin insurance venture, and has called the contention that Bitcoin Financial Group is somehow connected to the alleged crimes “unfounded”.
When reached, attorney Jason Spiro, who is representing the plaintiffs in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, reiterated the suit’s claim that his clients were promised proceeds from the revenues of Bitcoin Financial Group.
He told CoinDesk:
“BitCoin Financial identified Joe Donnelly as its president and co-founder, Donnelly told investors they would be repaid out of BitCoin Financial deals, but tellingly BitCoin Financial has now removed all traces of Joe Donnelly.”
Donnelly declined to comment for this story when reached.
Payments problems
The complaint details Donnelly’s alleged investment activities prior to his time with Bitcoin Insurance Group.
According to the agreement outlined in the suit, the Donnellys were required to make monthly interest payments, equal to 12% annually, on top of the $300,000 loaned by the DeBiases.
Those payments, the complaint alleges, stopped arriving in the the fall of 2013, and despite an apparent agreement to pay back the funds in installments, the dispute was never resolved.
It was in the spring of last year, according to the complaint, that Joseph Donnelly told the plaintiffs the Dovetail venture was insolvent and that he was unable to pay them out of those assets. Yet he allegedly offered a solution: he could pay them back through the proceeds of Bitcoin Financial Group.
The filing states:
“As recently as April 2015, Mr Donnelly again asked the DeBiasas for more time to repay their investment, telling them that they would be repaid out of BitCoin Financial’s investment returns.”
According to the complaint, Donnelly told the plaintiffs that “I’m a partner in a BitCoin company…if we get a couple dozen of these deals, then it’ll pay off (which I believe is in the cards)”, according to the complaint.
Alleged misrepresentation
In addition to alleged securities fraud, the plaintiffs accused Donnelly of misrepresenting himself as a licensed insurance broker.
It is alleged that Donnelly’s apparent lack of licensure resulted in disciplinary action from a former employer, Lincoln Financial Group. According to LinkedIn, Donnelly worked as an agent for Lincoln between 2001 and 2010.
The filing states:
“Through their investigation into this fraud and based upon conversations with Mr Donnelly’s colleagues, the DeBiasas further learned that Mr Donnelly was not licensed by FINRA to originate [stranger-originated life insurance] policies. In addition, the DeBiasas learned that Lincoln Financial Group had investigated Mr Donnelly for his unlicensed insurance activities and that Lincoln Financial had revoked his permission to produce Lincoln Financial insurance policies.”
Donnelly’s profile on the Bitcoin Financial Group website, previously removed but viewable via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, states that he “holds his Life and Health insurance licenses as well as having completed FINRA Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 designations.”
Sagalow told CoinDesk that Donnelly had previously indicated that he possessed a license to broker life insurance.
Image via ShutterstockThe power and purpose of PMQs
Theo Bertram Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 3, 2017
Coroner’s reports are not judged on their dramatic qualities. Yet Prime Minister’s Questions, the weekly political equivalent, is reviewed as if it were theatre.
Hardly anyone understands PMQs because, for most people, including those who sit on the benches in the Chamber, all they ever see is the performance in the Commons. The weekly tussle of of predictable questions & rehearsed answers, occasionally elevated by a terrible joke or a political skewering, often feels pointless.
In order to understand the real value of PMQs, one needs to have a seat inside the Cabinet Room on a Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. Here on the long Cabinet Table, briefing documents from every department are coldly laid out like dead bodies on a slab in a mortuary. Each stack of papers contains the evidence of some government or political failure that might be raised in the Chamber. A skilled dissection begins: what happened? How did this thing on the table come to be here: was it accidental or is foul play suspected?
Inside No10, the team whose job it is to carry out these post-mortems is Research and Information. It is staffed with exceptionally adept civil servants and also with one or two Special Advisers, like me. I worked in R&I for Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown and prepared them for hundreds of PMQs. I have seen Whitehall bring out its dead and pile them up on that table.
There are three broad types of case.
The best and most common type of case is brought to us already prepared. Any decent departmental Private Secretary or Special Adviser will have taken the time to analyse the problem and deal with it before the Prime Minister sees it. Open and shut: simple.
The second type of case requires some work. Whitehall is territorial. Departments like to guard their patch. They are even more keen to disown other department’s problems. So, regularly, a problem is caught between two departments: neither is willing to own it and each blames the other. This is where No10 must step in. The PM or her Cabinet Secretary will insist that one of the departments must quickly take responsibility.
Third and finally, there is the worst type of case. There can be no orphans in Whitehall. Ministers cannot unparent their failures and leave them at No10. They cannot be permitted to let the Prime Minister take the blame. This will not be allowed to happen.
So every issue of any worth should be interrogated.
Wednesday mornings are ruthless. In before seven, the small PMQs team head one by one through the gates and up to the door. Later in the day, a custodian will watch and anticipate the arrival of anyone who comes close to the No10 door but at this hour the staffers earn the small privilege of knocking the door for themselves. There is a brass doorbell to the side but there are people still asleep in this house. Staffers know to lift the heavy black handle in the lion’s teeth and knock gently, just once.
Down the corridor, past the Cabinet Room: there is work to be done. On, into the rabbit warren.
The R&I team sit in a little over-crowded room, hemmed in by bombproof curtains, ugly metal filing cabinets and glass-fronted cabinets of old unread books. The clock on the wall, the telephone and the computer: they are all that matter. This is the pathologist’s den.
Five hours until Prime Minister’s Question Time starts.
Switch on the computer.
This is the expertise: scan hundreds of emails, find the problem. Look for the warning signs. They may not be obvious. Look for those symptoms submerged and disguised: the cryptically casual comment in a sub-clause from a Special Adviser, the ‘just-wanted-to-let-you-know-about-one-small-thing’ from a Principal Private Secretary, or the matter-of-fact group email from some cheery researcher in the Whips Office who is just doing what his boss tells him: all calculated to ensure the sender can later say truthfully that the Prime Minister had been informed of this problem before PMQs.
No10 knew. That’s what they want to be able to say. To slip out of the yoke of responsibility and dump it on the PM. No10 knew.
So they work in the expectation that it will slip under the radar. That no one in No10 cares enough about the rest of Whitehall to concern themselves with this little thing.
But if this is what you think will happen, you have miscalculated. Let me explain what is going to happen to you.
It all starts with Switch. The team who handle calls in and out of No10. There is no escaping Switch. They will get you anywhere.
You’re anxious. You probably didn’t sleep well. There is a wrinkle in your thoughts that you can’t uncrease. You just need this morning to go smoothly and then you can relax. It’s not long after 8.30. There is hardly anyone in yet. A quiet morning is all you need.
Keep your head down until PMQs is done. You put on your headphones and pretend to listen to the Today programme.
Your mobile rings. Number withheld. You let it ring out.
Your desk phone rings. Again: number withheld. Don’t answer.
The sanctimony on the radio is cloying. Now the phone rings on the desk next to you. You ignore it.
All three phones are ringing constantly and across the office the diary secretary is now looking at you quizzically. She waves at you. You point to your headphones and stare at your screen, with a frown that suggests you’re working on something important.
There is a tap on your shoulder and she stands beside you. You remove the headphone from one ear, ready to frown. She waggles her own mobile phone in your face. “It’s for you,” she says. “They said they know you’re here but if you’re in the bathroom, they’ll wait.”
You take the phone. A very polite woman, to whom you have never spoken before, addresses you by your first name. “It’s Switch here,” she says crisply. She is unfailingly polite. “PM’s office want to speak to you. Urgent. Putting you through now. Thank you.”
You see there is no escaping Switch. They will find you. You can’t hide. And once you take the call, you are trapped.
As soon as you are on that call, you are seeping information. Even if you say nothing, the fact that you said nothing is information.
Then they put you through to R&I. Here is what we tell you.
Look at the clock: in thirty minutes we will talk to the Prime Minister. Shall we tell her that there is a problem and that you are withholding the solution from her?
We are not interested in fault or blame. That is not our job. We do not threaten or show anger. All we require is information.
It is the Office of the Prime Minister that is asking you now. Not your boss. Whatever instruction you have been given, there is now permission from the highest authority for you to tell us what we need to know. You do not even need to think about this. It is the easiest thing in the world to release your grip on the information you hold.
Let me tell the Prime Minister that you were the first to share, not the one who refused to help.
Information flows to us, like water to the sea. Even if you don’t give it to us, it will find its way to us. It always comes here. It belongs to us.
Things sometimes just go wrong. People make perfectly understandable mistakes. This is not a prosecution: we are not judges. Tell us what you know. We’ll fix it. That’s what we’re here for.
There are some very good people with successful careers who have made a mistake along the way but what makes them very good is that they call us quickly to explain. We do not think any less of them for making a mistake. We admire them more for telling us what we need to know so quickly.
Just tell us.
But if you don’t. If you choose to dawdle, deceive or shift blame, then we will remember. We will add it to our repository of information.
Because we are the people who own information. We collect it. We distribute it. When the right time comes, then we will be unfailingly polite, remarkably helpful, and we will share whatever information is requested about you, just in the right way, at just the right moment. You may never even know we did it but we will fuck you up.
Because this is what we do. We know what information is, how it flows towards power. We know when to collect it and when to give it out.
So you will tell us everything.
This is how No10 interrogates the rest of Whitehall. This is how Government holds itself to account. This is the power and the purpose of PMQs.
Finally, an hour or so before noon on Wednesday, the work has been done. All the cases on the Cabinet Table have been dealt with. Problems solved. Responsibility assigned. Most will never see the light of the day. For the few remaining bodies, we use a few mortician’s tricks to powder them up and send them with the Prime Minister to the Commons.This Lawsuit Could Save Standing Rock
Are you invested in seeing justice for the Standing Rock Sioux and a halt to the build out of the Dakota Access Pipeline? Then you should get familiar with the name Tangerine Bolen. Bolen, a guest in the latest episode of Redacted Tonight VIP, is the founder and executive director of RevolutionTruth.org, an all volunteer organization dedicated to standing up for human rights and preserving civil liberties. Claiming a need for both environmental and racial justice, Bolen talks with host Lee Camp about her effort to bring forward lawsuits that could put an end to the Dakota Access Pipeline and protect the land and water of the Standing Rock Sioux.
While so many people fight on the ground as Water Protectors in North Dakota, millions of others are helping out on social media or by donating money to the cause. Meanwhile back in the nation’s capital, President Donald Trump has chosen the polar opposite of anything to do with racial and social justice to be his senior policy advisor: Stephen Miller. The newest sociopath in Trump’s political circus, Miller, 31, seems to only have demonstrated experience in being racist, xenophobic and homophobic. And he’s using his newfound role to continue to spread Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud, while seeming to ignore the election fraud that prevented millions of eligible Americans from exercising their right to vote in Election 2016. Lee goes back and forth and breaks down Miller’s most recent media appearance.Ontario residents should brace for $270 million in new fees, from a phone bill tax to more expensive driver and fishing licences and a “pay for stay” system in jails, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says. The ideas, found in a draft Treasury Board document obtained by the Conservatives, were revealed Monday as Hudak accused the minority Liberals of trying to “fleece” taxpayers in a bid to erase an $11.7 billion deficit.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne (left) and Finance Minister Charles Sousa are coping with an $11.7 billion deficit. ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star file photo ) Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said Monday the governing Liberals should look for ways to cut spending and given Ontarians a break instead of being “so hungry for taxes and fees.” ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star )
That eight-page paper also mentions “a reintroduction of photo radar speed cameras in high-risk areas” but that measure was the only one on the list that Finance Minister Charles Sousa ruled out. “I can tell you unequivocally we will not bring in photo radar,” the treasurer told reporters after Hudak confronted him with the document in the legislature’s daily question period “These are just recommendations that were brought forward,” added Sousa, whose government is already under fire from opposition parties and Ottawa for looking at $2 billion in annual tax increases to fund a $50 billion transit expansion in the Toronto and Hamilton areas.
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Sousa initially said Hudak “wants to make things up” but later conceded the ideas in the document headlined “2013-14 nontax revenue (NTR) proposals” are simply “proposals.” “We’ve made no commitments of the sort,” Sousa said. Hudak, who plans to keep the pressure on the Liberals over the money-raising ideas at a news conference Tuesday, said they should look for ways to cut spending and given Ontarians a break instead of being “so hungry for taxes and fees.” He was flabbergasted that Sousa accused him of imagining the fees. “That’s your document,” he shot at the finance minister before referring to the whole list and asking, “Will you rule it out?”
Sousa later told reporters the options were prepared by bureaucrats for the government’s consideration. “We’re not acting on any of the recommendations,” Sousa said. “What we’re doing is determining is what is to... go forward.”
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With the federal government’s apparent lack of interest in spending more on transit, Sousa said the minority Liberal government is forced to consider all options to raise money, including a $20 surcharge on speeding tickets and a fishing licence increase. “We have to find ways to fund these (transit) initiatives,” Sousa said. “At this point the federal government has only put up 4 per cent of the requirements that we need to invest in this infrastructure. (That’s) absolutely not enough.” Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said his government has a $70-billion infrastructure fund that can be tapped in addition to millions already allotted for Toronto transit expansion. He has warned the provincial government not to raise the 13 per cent HST to pay for the transit needs of the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area, and said he will not approve a regional HST hike for the GTHA. The Treasury Board document also proposes more red light cameras, an “in-person service charge” at Service Ontario offices, increases in vehicle licence and permit fees, higher fees for fish and wildlife licences, a monthly surcharge of 75 cents on phone bills to help cover the cost of 911 services, new family court fees, a new cost-recovery rate for justice of the peace services, and Drive Clean fees. The nontax revenue proposals were supplied to the opposition parties as part of the documents released to a legislative committee probing the scandal over cancelled power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election. Some existing user fees could also be indexed to inflation as the government looks to a “full cost recovery” model for more services. The government has promised to eliminate the deficit by the 2017-18 fiscal year and is under pressure from bond-rating agencies to keep on track to that goal. Tory finance critic Peter Shurman said the government is “addicted to spending” and has the “audacity to ask taxpayers to cough up more.” When Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair mused about photo radar and expanded red light cameras as a source of revenue for his service earlier this year, then-transportation minister Bob Chiarelli, now minister of energy, ruled it out.
Read more about:Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Baroness’ John Baizley
Up until recently, it felt as though musicians had been issued a strict, unspoken moratorium on talking about Radiohead. It is assumed that all publicity-conscious musicians, wannabe tastemakers, and hipster-audiophiles were to understand that Radiohead’s influence was a given and therefore off the trend lines to examine. This put Radiohead itself in that strange universe of revered musical artifacts best left undiscussed; like Pet Sounds’ production, Leonard Cohen’s lyrics, John Bonham’s grunty isolated drums tracks, Slint’s ahead-of-their-time-ness, Fugazi’s $5 tickets, KISS’ in between song banter on YouTube, whatever it is that everyone deems so cool about the Velvet Underground, and a host of other irrefutable musical facts (note: sarcasm).
I may have even have kept silent on this subject for a few years, but in time I learned to comfortably admit my secret: Radiohead were a huge influence on me as a young musician and continue to be so. OK Computer was not only an incredible first listen in 1997, it has remained one of the most consistently listened to and examined albums in my collection. Each subsequent listen offers up discoveries and a potential inspirational kick in the pants.
What has always impressed me the most with this album is that for all the wonderfully dense layers of orchestration, non-standard time signatures, distorted/chopped/warped sounds, and mournful lyrical imagery, it has a flirtatious relationship with popular music. OK Computer is an unintentional pop record, one of those albums that would |
that mass fluoride exposure may be to blame for the cardiovascular disease epidemic that takes more lives each year than cancer. In 2008, cardiovascular killed 17 million people.
According to the authors of the study:
“The coronary fluoride uptake value in patients with cardiovascular events was significantly higher than in patients without cardiovascular events.”
Amazingly, this is not the first report to come out on the dangers of water fluoridation, however the United States government along with other nations have allowed for the continued fluoridation of the public water supply despite these key findings. In fact, the U.S. government has even gone on record stating that a reduction in water fluoridation needs to occur following the results of a massive study that found water fluoridation affected cognitive function to the point of lowering the IQ of children. It turns out that the announcement was little more than a public relations stunt to curtail the massive wave of activism that followed the findings.
Government Admits Dangers Yet Continues to Pump Fluoride Into Your Water Supply
Over 24 other studies have unanimously concluded that fluoride negatively impacts cognitive function. In addition to these 24 studies focusing on cognition, over 100 animal studies have linked fluoride to an increase in male infertility, diabetes, and a whole host of other health problems. In the latest study on cognition, it was found that that 28% of the children who lived in an area where fluoride levels were low achieved the highest test scores. This means that the children exposed to less fluoride scored normal or advanced, while only 8% of fluoridated children did the same.
In fact, the safety precautions regarding sodium fluoride are quite telling themselves:
Risk and Safety Phrases.
R25 – Toxic if swallowed.
R32 – Contact with acid liberates very toxic gas.
R36/38 – Irritating to skin and eyes.
S1/2 – Keep locked up and out of reach of children.
S22 – Do not breathe dust.
S36 – Wear suitable protective clothing.
S45 – In case of accident or if you feel unwell, seek medical advice immediately (show the label whenever possible.)
But what about cavity prevention?
Since 1962 the government has recommended fluoride levels between 0.7 and 1.2 milligrams per liter in the nations drinking water. Toted as an excellent cavity blocker, fluoride has been praised for its alleged power to prevent tooth decay and boost oral health. Research has now revealed that fluoride, the very substance that is supposed to prevent tooth decay, actually does nothing to prevent against cavities. In fact, vitamin D has been found to be significantly more effective in cavity prevention without the extreme side effects. Instead of damaging your body, vitamin D slashes your risk of just about everything fluoride consumption causes.
According to the latest numbers, over 72 percent of Americans drink water treated with fluoride. Is it any wonder that cardiovascular disease rates are off the charts? Perhaps most concerning is the fact that fluoride does not even prevent cavities, which is the very reason legislators have pushed to keep it in the public water supply despite the links to deadly disease. Even if fluoride was found to prevent cavities, would it be worth the adverse effects?
Fluoride should be completely removed from the international water supply as it is a threat to public health. Until the proper legislation is passed, acquiring a high-quality water filter that removes fluoride is vital for the health perseverance of you and your family.
SourceBy Melissa Dykes
According to the American Trucking Association, there are some 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States alone.
That’s 3.5 million people who may lose their jobs once driverless trucks hit the roads in full force… which appears to be in the not-too-distant future.
Tech Crunch reports that a convoy of these trucks recently drove across Europe and arrived without incident at their destination at the Port of Rotterdam for 75% cheaper than it would have cost had human beings been driving them:
Shipping a full truckload from L.A. to New York costs around $4,500 today, with labor representing 75 percent of that cost. But those labor savings aren’t the only gains to be had from the adoption of driverless trucks…
A large part of the economic efficiency boost will include the fact that driverless trucks never get tired and can drive for 24 hours straight non-stop, whereas humans obviously need to eat, take pee breaks, and sleep. Drivers are restricted by law from driving more than 11 hours a day and are required to take breaks each day. “That means the technology would effectively double the output of the U.S. transportation network at 25 percent of the cost,” Tech Crunch explains.
In addition, truck drivers drive faster because they are paid by the mile and they’re trying to get more done, a situation which throws fuel efficiency out the window in a way that won’t happen with robotrucks which will drive at a steady, set pace the entire trip. There are many ways that robotrucks will enhance the efficiency of the entire trucking industry… but, glaringly, those ways don’t involve humans having jobs.
The list goes on and on but the message is clear: robots and AI are here and millions of people, from factory workers to front desk clerks to truck drivers, are going to have their entire livelihoods yanked away. How are so many people going to be able to put food on the table and pay their rent when there are no jobs for them to get paid to do so?
That’s one percent of the population right there just… unemployed…
Perhaps that’s why law enforcement is training so hard for martial law.
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Melissa Dykes is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa also co-founded Nutritional Anarchy with Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper, a site focused on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Wake the flock up!by Benjamin Hart
It’s hard to pinpoint the moment when New York and also technology started to feel like such a chore. Maybe it was when I urinated in a slim-fit adult diaper while waiting in line for the iPhone 4 for ninety-three hours and pronounced the experience “worth it,” or when I found myself testing out tweets on my wife during foreplay, or when a rat scurried across my face and into my mouth while I was checking Facebook and waiting for a C train that never arrived. But a few weeks ago, on a gray April day, as I ambled by the Duane Reade where my favorite dive bar McHurlihan’s once stood, while joylessly scrolling through my Twitter feed in between reading a saved Instapaper article about how to live in the moment, I realized I had to leave New York and stop using the Internet for a while.
When I moved to Williamsburg in 2002, scraping by in the center of the universe seemed like a grand adventure. I’d drink until dawn at places like The Station, Whirlybird, and JJ’s Good Time Emporium on the Lower East Side (now closed); I’d do lines off the grimy concrete of McCarren Park Pool (now clean); and then take the L to Bushwick and try not to get mugged on my way to a warehouse party (now safe). Instead of staring at my phone compulsively, I’d smoke a cigarette. Inside. I didn’t yet know what a “meme” was. I became passing acquaintances with the guys from TV on the Radio, but I didn’t feel the irrepressible need to share such information with everyone, because social networking hadn’t yet transformed us all into greedy approval-seekers. When I began face-to-face conversations with “I know the guys from TV on the Radio,” people looked impressed, and that was enough for me.
My neighborhood has changed, too. As I occasionally glanced away from my glowing screen to avoid bumping into the twenty-five-year-old hedge funders moving in, I noticed the local color of the place draining out like an Instagram filter. Bobby’s, the mom-and-pop pharmacy that was frequently out of toilet paper but nonetheless charming, was forced to move to Jersey City after its rapacious landlords jacked up the rent a hundred and thirty thousand percent. (The Walgreens that moved in always has toilet paper.) And Zgliewzki, the Polish diner everyone loved (though nobody I know had ever been there) shuttered to make way for Polski, a modern take on Slavic cuisine featuring a forty-two-dollar ramen kielbasa stuffed with sustainably farmed foie gras.
More importantly, my wife and I wanted a family, and thanks to my crippling addiction to Zillow and the Styles section, I knew all too well that a two-bedroom apartment was way out of reach. Friends who had once shuddered at the thought of leaving the city spoke of a happier, healthier lifestyle elsewhere. Some of them even moved to Los Angeles, which they reported didn’t suck after all. During the fifteen-month winter, I became so consumed with jealousy over California Instagram feeds that I deleted the app for seven minutes. The last straw came in February, when, while waiting in a Trader Joe’s line that snaked around the block twice to buy conflict-free hummus, I learned via Periscope that my co-worker Steve had been selected for Amazon drone-delivery beta testing. I teared up and then stepped directly in a giant slush puddle to get into my one-dollar UberPool ride from Chelsea to Eastern East Williamsburg.
That night, my wife and I began scouring real estate listings, and almost immediately warmed to Satchel-on-Hudson, a lovely village two hours north of the city. For a quarter million, which would have gotten us a bed bug-infested closet in the city, we purchased a ramshackle fourteen-bedroom house with a pool, a tennis court, a bridle path, and even former butler quarters, which we could rent out on Airbnb. We have two Priuses, two washers and dryers, a dishwasher, and total peace of mind. Life out here is placid and wonderful, and has afforded me the time and space for things I could never do in the city, like jarring my own salsa and not living in New York. Our Japanese garden is actually planted with the books I told myself I didn’t have time to read. I’m most proud of the War and Peace cacti, which is flourishing.
The same week we closed the sale on our place in Williamsburg, I announced my plan to leap off the grid to everyone I knew, posting lengthy farewells on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Sina Weibo, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Adult Friend Finder, and John Wick message boards. I explained that I wouldn’t be responding to any electronic communication for an indeterminate period of time, so anyone who wanted to get in touch with me would have to pick up the phone and call, or better yet, send me an old-fashioned letter, since they’re inherently more special than emails.
I thought my craving for instant gratification and the big city would be unbearable. And for the first week, it really was. I desperately missed the convenience of email, the immediacy of Twitter, the diversity of the different kind of white gentrifiers on my block, the pizza. And I admit to relapsing once or twice — one Saturday I just took off for New York with nothing but a selfie stick in my hand and the wind at my back before pulling myself together just ahead of the George Washington Bridge. But something funny happened around ten days into my experiment: I slowed down and stopped caring so much. I began not to miss the pinging and the bleeping and the blooping of life in the twenty-four-hour information cycle. Gradually, I even became more attuned to the rhythms of everyday life. In the old days, I’d automatically reach for my phone as soon as I woke up. Now, I meditate for fifteen minutes, then do some recreational roof-thatching while chipping away at Emoji Dick. I feel in tune with my surroundings in new and unexpected ways. Case in point: as I was writing this, a red bird sat on a tree branch outside my office window (I actually have three offices in this house) and I really looked at it. I think it was a robin.
My friends haven’t abandoned me because I’m offline. Just a day after signing off, I got a phone call from my buddy Nick. I had mostly kept up with his life through social networks, so it was nice to actually hear his voice. He told me that his marriage is on the rocks, and that he feels unappreciated at work. Now that’s the kind of thing you don’t get from a status update. My marriage has changed, too. Instead of arguing about what to watch on Netflix, my wife and I argue about which obscure Italian neorealist film to rent from the adorable local video store (we finally settled on The Rock), or which beautiful hiking trail to conquer, or whether to have kids now that we need to fill up so many rooms in our house.
It’s now been a month since I left New York and quit the Internet, and I don’t regret what I did for a second. In fact, I want people to know everything about my life now, but it’s hard since I lost all my followers and nobody gives a shit what some piece of shit from upstate has to say. That’s why I’m writing this letter on parchment paper, and that’s why I’m having it hand-delivered to every major media outlet in America. Because you can quit the city and you can quit the Internet, but you can never quit telling people how much better you are than them.
Photo by Andy AtzertAn impassioned Michelle Obama delivered a blistering indictment against Donald Trump at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton in Manchester, N.H., Thursday.
Though she did not mention the Republican presidential nominee by name, it was clear that the candidate — and the volley of allegations of sexual misconduct lodged against him by multiple women — were the targets of the first lady’s remarks.
“The fact is that, in this election we have a candidate for president of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and over the course of this campaign, has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning, I simply will not repeat anything here today,” she said.
Referring to the recently released 2005 recording of Trump making lewd comments about groping and kissing women without consent, Obama said, “I can’t believe that I’m saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women.”
It wasn’t the first time the first lady has not-so-subtly blasted the GOP nominee. Obama took Trump to task for his divisive rhetoric during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in July, and again for his propagation of the so-called birther conspiracy while campaigning for Clinton in Virginia last month — each time refraining from using his name.
“I can’t stop thinking about this,” she said about Trump’s comments in New Hampshire, as she appeared to choke back tears. “It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted.”
First lady Michelle Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton, Oct. 13, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (Photo: Jim Cole/Associated Press) More
Obama also said that while she would love to pretend the comments heard in the video were “just a bad dream,” to not address them “would be dishonest and disingenuous.”
This was not “just locker room banter,” she said, referring to Trump’s defense of the comments. “It was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior.”
In fact, she added, to “dismiss this as everyday locker room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere.”
Now, Obama continued, presumably referring to allegations that have surfaced in the past 24 hours from four women who say Trump touched them inappropriately, “it seems very clear that this wasn’t an isolated incident, but an example of how he’s treated women his entire life.”
This kind of behavior is “cruel, it’s frightening, and the truth is it hurts,” Obama said, arguing that “too many are treating [Trump’s] comments as just another day’s headline. … As if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted, as if this is normal, politics as usual.”
But this is not normal, she insisted. “This is disgraceful, this is intolerable,” and whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, “no woman deserves to be treated this way.”
Now is the time to say “enough is enough,” she argued, imploring the attentive New Hampshire crowd to consider, “If all of this is painful to us as grown women, what do you think this is doing to our children?”
She went further, noting that the behavior on display in the hot mic video of Trump and Billy Bush, then an “Access Hollywood” host, sends skewed messages to little girls about “what they should look like” and “how they should act.” Then she asked how is it “affecting the men and boys in this country?”
“Strong men don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful,” she said, declaring that, “This is not how adults behave, this is not how decent human beings behave, and this is not how someone who wants to be president of the United States behaves.”
By the time she’d left the stage in Manchester, “Michelle Obama” was among the top trending terms on Twitter, as people emphatically shared the speech far beyond New Hampshire.In November 2015, Toronto Council directed that a consolidated review be conducted of the many overlapping proposals for transit improvements in the waterfront.
City Council direct City staff, working with the Toronto Transit Commission and Waterfront Toronto, to undertake a Phase 1 review of waterfront transit initiatives and options, and provide a status update to Executive Committee in the first quarter of 2016, such review of waterfront transit initiatives and options to include the proposed ShoreLine (closing the gap on the dedicated streetcar right-of-way between St. Joseph’s Hospital and Exhibition Place), the relocation of the Humber Loop, the Park Lawn – Lake Shore Transportation Master Plan currently underway, the possibility of a new GO Transit stop at Park Lawn, the proposed Legion Road extension, the proposed AM peak turning restrictions on Park Lawn Road from the Gardiner Expressway, the Mimico By the Lake Secondary Plan (Mimico 20/20), the Long Branch Avenue Study, and 2150 Lake Shore Boulevard West (former Mr. Christie bakery site).
Although this motion dwells extensively on the western waterfront, all of the proposals for improvements between western Etobicoke and Woodbine Avenue in The Beach are under review.
Two public meetings will be held to present the initial status of the review and solicit comments.
Central Location
Date: Wednesday May 25, 2016
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Open house begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by a presentation at 6:30 p.m.
Location: 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto, ON M5J 2G8 at Brigantine Room at Harbourfront Centre (major intersection is Queens Quay West and Lower Simcoe Street) West Location
Date: Thursday May 26, 2016
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Open house begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by a presentation at 6:30 p.m.
Location: 95 Mimico Avenue, Toronto, ON M8V 1R4 at John English Junior Middle School in the auditorium (closest major intersection is Royal York Road and Mimico Avenue)
At this point, the specifics of options for various segments of the waterfront are only at the conceptual stage. The intent is not to choose specific alignments because factors such as future demand, construction and operational issues, interaction between proposals and cost will be dealt with in detail in a Phase 2 study, if approved, later in 2016.
Presentation materials for these meetings are not yet available online. When they are published, I will update this article.
This phase has a very tight turnaround because a report will go to Executive Committee as part of the overall review of transit proposals on June 28, 2016, and thence to Council in July.Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL
MTV put together a documentary called White People, which highlights the perceived struggle of white people in America as they explore their racial identity. The show will follow the lives of five young people as they confront their white privilege head-on. This trailer features white people talking about how hard it is to “be careful.” Why? “You say the wrong thing, and suddenly you’re a racist.”
The concept sounds ridiculous, but the documentary comes from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. He covered the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, so he presumably knows how to package difficult subject matter. This is MTV, but there’s no better time for a discussion on race than right now.
Will these young white people learn from their experiences during filming? Vargas will force them “to internalize what they’ve done in America.” We’ll find out when White People premiers on MTV on July 22.
(via MTV & Complex)
And for anything else you may have missed on the web today…The City of Madison, Wisconsin is one step closer to constructing a citywide municipal fiber network after obtaining the results from a broadband feasibility study. The consulting firm hired in December 2015 recently completed the study and made it available to the city’s Digital Technology Committee and the public.
The report recommends Madison build an open access dark fiber network and engage a partner to offer services to subscribers via the infrastructure. Westminster, Maryland, and Huntsville, Alabama, use the same approach with partners Ting and Google Fiber. Madison’s network would build on the existing Metropolitan Unified Fiber Network (MUFN), a smaller fiber network that was funded with stimulus dollars through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It connects public institutions such as the University of Wisconsin, Dane County, hospitals, K-12 schools, and DaneNet, which is made up of 28 community groups serving low income families and seniors.
Consultants suggest Madison retain ownership of the infrastructure in order to maintain control of the asset and the city's future connectivity. The City would fund the $150 million cost of building a dark fiber network and their private partner would contribute an estimated $62 million to connect properties. Consultants envision the partner responsible for cable to residences and businesses, network electronics, and consumer electronics, bringing the total cost for the project to approximately $212 million.
"Now here’s the key: that’s a lot of money. The report talks about how to get it and we can bond and do a lot of other things, but it basically says to make this happen, you need a private partner," said Barry Orton, a member of the Digital Technology Committee. Orton went on to say that a more specific cost estimate, including identification of partners, would be forthcoming, as soon as Spring 2017.
An Ongoing Project
While the study reveals significant interest in a municipal fiber network, city officials recognize that big corporate incumbents keep a strong hold on the state's legislative landscape.
“All they are doing is recycling customers,” said Madison Mayor Paul Soglin of big incumbent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the feasibility study press conference.
“They aren’t stepping in, providing the kinds of service that this world needs in the next decade. Not in the next 100 years, now. And so we’re working on a considerable handicap in Wisconsin because of the success the industry lobbyists had in writing the legislation for our Legislature. But we do have the ability, which you are about to see in the report, on how we can take Madison into the 21st Century and do it rapidly.”
Madison has discussed residential broadband access for several years and in 2013 established a Digital Technology Committee to address the city’s digital divide. The committee first looked into universal wireless access, but determined an open access citywide fiber network would better fit the city’s needs. They went on to establish a fiber pilot in four low-income neighborhoods.
Open access fiber networks offer several advantages over fixed wireless models, including longevity and the potential for meaningful competition. In an open access network, multiple ISPs can compete to provide service to residents via the Infrastructure, which leads to better customer service and more affordable rates. In a fixed wireless model, a city typically contracts with one ISP.
Survey Results: The People Want Fiber
Madison’s fiber pilot program is still under construction but all eyes are on the feasibility study. While pilot programs are a good way to obtain data about the interest in a community, Madison may not need to wait for data to begin pursuing a municipal fiber network.
The study commends the pilot program for its role in promoting resident trust in the city as an infrastructure provider, but the survey results suggest demand for citywide fiber access already exists.
While most respondents report they have access to the Internet through a wired connection at home (89 percent) or through a cellular device (77 percent), those numbers drop significantly for low-income respondents: 24 percent of households making $24,000 or less have no Internet access at all.
As for willingness to choose a high-speed connection, the majority of residents would be willing to switch from what they have (cable or DSL) if the price were under $50 per month, even with a one-time hook up fee of up to $250.
Moving Ahead
In 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s administration turned down $23 million in federal funding to improve Internet access, citing “too many strings attached” to the grant. More recently, the state made $1.5 million available to incumbent ISPs to expand service in rural areas; they claim funding will improve service for about 8,500 households. Given their track record of unfulfilled promises, Wisconsinites aren't holding their breath.
Some federal funding for fiber is available, and Barry Orton suggested that Madison expects more will be available after the 2016 election. “We might be, next spring, shovel-ready for whatever federal money is possibly available for cities to pursue these kinds of things,” said Orton in the feasibility study press conference.Energy expert Myron Ebell served as the Trump administration’s head of transition for the Environmental Protection Agency and became the “target” of radical environmental groups’ hate campaigns, he told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview.
He became a focus of protests, with some even even using projectors to shine his name on to the EPA building while chanting, “Stop the Evil Myron Ebell!”
He continues to hit back by explaining how the Trump administration is unwinding strangling government red tape, and highlighting the president’s efforts to stimulate energy, mining, agriculture, forestry and manufacturing in America again.
Ebell, who has been working for decades on energy and environmental issues in Washington, D.C. For the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says in this video interview that his efforts are often swamped by a huge, power-hungry environmental lobbying effort. The top 50 environmental groups, he says, have a total of $3.5 billion in funding, compared to CEI’s annual $8 million.
He firmly believes there is a “strong moral case for energy abundance.” Real consequences result from replacing coal, oil and natural gas with wind, solar or alternative fuels.
When 1 billion people in the world have no electricity, and another billion have minimal electricity, climate change activists should be challenged for their moralizing of this real issue, he says.
“Consider the moral consequences of keeping poor people in perpetual energy poverty.” Too many take what Americans have for granted, he explains.
He calls former Vice President Al Gore someone who wants to be a messiah and authority, while making lots of money from his “pathetic shtick.”
“Time has passed him by,” Ebell says.
Ebell says if Trump hadn’t pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Treaty, we would have had to reduce greenhouse gases by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. This would mean more expensive energy and less jobs, he says.
As for suggestions for Trump, he hopes the president will stay the course on his deregulatory efforts and fix the problems plaguing the slow pace of filling confirmable nominees throughout the federal government.
For more on Myron Ebell, follow him on Twitter.
Videographer Sean Moody is credited with the video work for this piece.
Mrs. Thomas does not necessarily support or endorse the products, services or positions promoted in any advertisement contained herein, and does not have control over or receive compensation from any advertiser.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.CLOSE 11 national deals for Mother's Day, including Starbucks coffee, Macaroni Grill and TCBY. Wochit
Moms receive a free entree on Mother's Day at Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers. (Photo: Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers)
Mothers give and give. But on Mother's Day, it is Mom's turn to get. From free coffee to admission discounts at places like OdySea Aquarium, we've got a roundup that suits many mom tastes. All deals are Sunday, May 14, unless noted.
Carlson Creek Winery
From noon-8 p.m., drop by the Scottsdale tasting room of the family-run Arizona winery and toast Mom with a complimentary wine tasting (a $10 value) that includes five wines from Carlson Creek’s award-winning lineup, along with cake bites. The tasting includes the best-selling Sweet Adeline Riesling, named after the Carlsons’ grandmother, who enjoyed a sweeter wine.
Details: 4142 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale. 480-947-0636, carlsoncreek.com.
Carrabba's
Mom has her own special menu through Sunday, May 14. And when you buy her a $50 gift card, she receives a free, additional $10 gift card.
Details: Valley-wide locations at carrabbas.com.
Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers
It's Mom's night off from the kitchen with a free meal at Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers. The deal is good from 11 a.m. to close at all locations.
Details: Valley-wide locations at coldbeers.com.
The Crepe Club
Moms get a free meal at The Crepe Club on Mother's Day. (Photo: The Crepe Club)
Moms get one menu item for free — no purchase necessary. The special lasts all day at the Phoenix and Gilbert locations. The offer is not valid at Arizona State University's downtown campus
Details: 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m. at Biltmore Fashion Park, 24th Street and Camelback Road, 130, Phoenix. Also, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. at 2268 E Williams Field Road, Suite 721, Gilbert. thecrepeclub.com.
MORE MOTHER'S DAY: 30 restaurants for Mother's Day, brunch to dinner
Fired Pie
Get a free Pookie, or cookie topped with ice cream, at Fired Pie on Mother's Day. (Photo: Fired Pie)
Fired Pie is giving moms a free Pookie, otherwise known as its chocolate chip cookie or macadamia nut cookie dough topped with vanilla bean ice cream. The Valley-owned pizza restaurant with 16 outlets is open for lunch and dinner. Branches will be open at 11 a.m. to 7, 8 or 9 p.m., depending on the location.
Details: Valley-wide locations at firedpie.com.
Fogo de Chão
Fogo De Chao offers mom a gift card for a free future meal on Mother's Day. (Photo: The Republic)
From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., treat Mom to the Brazilian steakhouse and receive a gift card for a future free meal. The gift card can be used Sunday through Thursday through July 13.
Details: 6300 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. 480-609-8866, fogodechao.com.
Hooters
Nothing says "Mom" like a freebie off the Hooters Mother's Day menu. Moms can choose from 10 traditional or boneless wings, a grilled or buffalo chicken sandwich or salad, or a Hooters burger. A drink purchase is required.
Details: Valley-wide locations at hooters.com.
Macaroni Grill
Mothers who eat at the restaurant on Mother's Day weekend receive a coupon for a free appetizer to be used at their next visit before May 31. The eatery also is offering dinner and dessert for $19.99 per person on Saturday, May 13, and Sunday, May 14.
Details: Valley-wide locations at macaronigrill.com.
Mimi's
In addition to its special Mother's Day brunch menu, the restaurant offers a coupon for a free meal for moms on their next visit. The coupon can be used through May 28.
Details: Valley-wide location at mimiscafe.com.
Press Coffee
Press Coffee offers moms a free cup on Mother's Day 2017. (Photo: Press Coffee)
Three locations of Press Coffee are offering Mom a free small drip or cold brew coffee all day long. No proof of motherhood is required, just identify yourself as one to the barista.
Details: Skywater Apartments, 601 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe. Also, Scottsdale Quarter, Scottsdale Road and Greenway-Hayden Loop. And, 2577 W. Queen Creek Road, Chandler. presscoffee.com.
Ruth's Chris Steak House
Dine in on Saturday, May 13, or Sunday, May 14, and get a $25 gift card to use on a future visit. The gift card can be used through July 2.
Details: 7001 N. Scottsdale Road, #290, Scottsdale. ruthschris.com.
Sprinkles Mom box
Get a Sprinkles Mom box featuring cupcake flavors such as dark chocolate, red velvet, vanilla and salty caramel. The cupcakes are adorned with daisies and other sugar decorations.
Details: Friday-Sunday, May 12-14. 4501 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. $45 for a dozen. But customers can buy up to three decorated "mom" cupcakes with no additional decorating charge. sprinkles.com.
Starbucks
The final day of half-price frappuccinos is Mother's Day. Come in from 3 to 6 p.m. and get mom a sweet pick-me-up.
Details: Valley-wide locations at starbucks.com.
Twin Peaks
Mothers eat free with the purchase of another entree at Twin Peaks restaurants on Mother's Day. This includes the favorite buttermilk chicken sliders. (Photo: Twin Peaks)
Moms can indulge in a free entree, salad or sandwich with the purchase of another entree. This deal includes the favorite Buttermilk Chicken Sliders with fried chicken, bacon, jalapeño gravy, honey butter and hollandaise atop buttermilk black pepper biscuits. Or mothers can choose from the pot roast, an old-fashioned BLT and more menu items.
Details: 2135 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix. Also, 8787 E. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd., Scottsdale. twinpeaksrestaurant.com.
Butterfly Garden discount
Moms receive $2 off the admission price at Butterfly Wonderland on Mother's Day. (Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)
Mothers get $2 off admission, and the first 200 to arrive receive a special gift. The exhibit will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Details: 9500 E. Vía de Ventura, Scottsdale. $19.95 regular admission. 480-800-3000, butterflywonderland.com.
Children's Museum of Phoenix
Mothers and grandmothers gain free admission to the Children's Museum of Phoenix from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Details: 215 N. Seventh St., Phoenix. 602-253-0501, childrensmuseumofphoenix.org.
MORE FUN WITH KIDS: The best things to do for kids this week
i.d.e.a Museum free admission
CLOSE A look inside the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa Wochit
Mother's Day means free museum admission for moms from noon to 4 p.m. Enjoy art and nurture creative thinking.
Details: 150 W. Pepper Place, Mesa. $8 regular admission, free for members. 480-644-2468, ideamuseum.org.
OdySea Aquarium discount
Moms receive $10 off on general admission all day, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Details: 9500 E. Vía de Ventura, Scottsdale. $34.95 general admission. 480-291-8000, odyseainthedesert.com.
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Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2qWMVt4Asheron’s Call is sunsetting next week — that much we know. But beyond that, we don’t know a whole lot about the rushed circumstances of the sunset, which is a little bit odd to those of us who’ve now saluted as dozens of games have been lowered into the ground. Turbine’s announcement was bereft of information. Standing Stone Games has refused to discuss Asheron’s Call at all, which must be killing them as they’re the ones who kept it going. It’s left the Save AC community confused and infighting as some folks are racing against the clock to packet-log the game for a future illegal emulator and others are trying to negotiate and raise funds to buy the game outright — or even just license it for player-run servers as was once promised.
One persistent rumor swirling around the MMORPG world right now relates to the day after the sunset. A leader of the Save AC movement told players last week that Turbine and Warner Brothers have formally told the group that they’re “not able to keep the game running or entertaining offers to provide the game to a third party,” but there’s a suggestion that WB will be making some sort of announcement the day after the sunset.
Some folks think Turbine has already sold it to another party, or that the companies need to sunset in a hurry before they can restart it again or lease out private servers without violating the terms of the 50-year lifetime subs agreement players purchased. Other people think it’s over and are just moving to save what they can.
Do you think Turbine and WB are planning a big announcement following the sunset? Or is this a lost cause? What do |
objective newspaper, though he finds its style somewhat too difficult. To deepen his general knowledge he dips into Planète, the slick magical magazine that removes the wrinkles and blackheads from old ideas. With such guides he hopes to gain an understanding of the modern world and become politically conscious!
For in France, more than anywhere else, the student is content to be politicized. But his political participation is mediated by the same spectacle. Thus he seizes upon all the pitiful tattered remnants of a Left that was annihilated more than forty years ago by socialist reformism and Stalinist counterrevolution. The rulers are well aware of this defeat of the workers movement, and so are the workers themselves, though more confusedly. But the student remains oblivious of it, and continues to participate blithely in the most laughable demonstrations that never draw anybody but students. This utter political ignorance makes the universities a happy hunting ground for the manipulators of the dying bureaucratic organizations (from the Communist Party to the UNEF), which totalitarianly program the students political options. Occasionally there are deviationary tendencies and slight impulses toward independence, but after a period of token resistance the dissidents are invariably reincorporated into an order they have never fundamentally questioned.(11) The Revolutionary Communist Youth, whose title is a case of ideological falsification gone mad (they are neither revolutionary nor communist nor young), pride themselves on having rebelled against the Communist Party, then join the Pope in appealing for Peace in Vietnam.
The student takes pride in his opposition to the outdated aspects of the de Gaulle regime, but in so doing he unwittingly implies his approval of older crimes (such as those of Stalinism in the era of Togliatti, Garaudy, Khrushchev and Mao). His youthful attitudes are thus actually even more old-fashioned than the regimes the Gaullists at least understand modern society well enough to administer it.
But this is not the students only archaism. He feels obliged to have general ideas on everything, to form a coherent worldview capable of giving meaning to his need for nervous activity and asexual promiscuity. As a result he falls prey to the last doddering missionary efforts of the churches. With atavistic ardor he rushes to adore the putrescent carcass of God and to cherish the decomposing remains of prehistoric religions in the belief that they enrich him and his time. Along with elderly provincial ladies, students form the social category with the highest percentage of admitted religious adherents. Everywhere else priests have been insulted and driven off, but university clerics openly continue to bugger thousands of students in their spiritual shithouses.
In all fairness, we should mention that there are some tolerably intelligent students. These latter easily get around the miserable regulations designed to control the more mediocre students. They are able to do so precisely because they have understood the system; and they understand it because they despise it and know themselves to be its enemies. They are in the educational system in order to get the best it has to offer: namely, grants. Taking advantage of the contradiction that, for the moment at least, obliges the system to maintain a small, relatively independent sector of academic research, they are going to calmly carry the germs of sedition to the highest level. Their open contempt for the system goes hand in hand with the lucidity that enables them to outdo the systems own lackeys, especially intellectually. They are already among the theorists of the coming revolutionary movement, and take pride in beginning to be feared as such. They make no secret of the fact that what they extract so easily from the academic system is used for its destruction. For the student cannot revolt against anything without revolting against his studies, though the necessity of this revolt is felt less naturally by him than by the worker, who spontaneously revolts against his condition as worker. But the student is a product of modern society just like Godard and Coca-Cola. His extreme alienation can be contested only through a contestation of the entire society. This critique can in no way be carried out on the student terrain: the student who defines himself as such identifies himself with a pseudovalue that prevents him from becoming aware of his real dispossession, and he thus remains at the height of false consciousness. But everywhere where modern society is beginning to be contested, young people are taking part in that contestation; and this revolt represents the most direct and thorough critique of student behavior.
It is not enough for theory to seek its realization in practice;
practice must seek its theory
After a long period of slumber and permanent counterrevolution, the last few years have seen the first gestures of a new period of contestation, most visibly among young people. But the society of the spectacle, in its representation of itself and its enemies, imposes its own ideological categories on the world and its history. It reassuringly presents everything that happens as if it were part of the natural order of things, and reduces truly new developments that herald its supersession to the level of superficial consumer novelties. In reality the revolt of young people against the way of life imposed on them is simply a harbinger, a preliminary expression of a far more widespread subversion that will embrace all those who are feeling the increasing impossibility of living in this society, a prelude to the next revolutionary era. With their usual methods of inverting reality, the dominant ideology and its daily mouthpieces reduce this real historical movement to a socio-natural category: the Idea of Youth. Any new youth revolt is presented as merely the eternal revolt of youth that recurs with each generation, only to fade away when young people become engaged in the serious business of production and are given real, concrete aims. The youth revolt has been subjected to a veritable journalistic inflation (people are presented with the spectacle of a revolt to distract them from the possibility of participating in one). It is presented as an aberrant but necessary social safety valve that has its part to play in the smooth functioning of the system. This revolt against the society reassures the society because it supposedly remains partial, pigeonholed in the apartheid of adolescent problems (analogous to racial issues or womens concerns), and is soon outgrown. In reality, if there is a youth problem in modern society, it simply consists in the fact that young people feel the profound crisis of this society most acutely and try to express it. The young generation is a product par excellence of modern society, whether it chooses integration into it or the most radical rejection of it. What is surprising is not that youth is in revolt, but that adults are so resigned. But the reason for this is historical, not biological: the previous generation lived through all the defeats and swallowed all the lies of the long, shameful disintegration of the revolutionary movement.
In itself, Youth is a publicity myth linked to the capitalist mode of production, as an expression of its dynamism. This illusory preeminence of youth became possible with the economic recovery after World War II, following the mass entry into the market of a whole new category of more pliable consumers whose consumer role enabled them to identify with the society of the spectacle. But the official ideology is once again finding itself in contradiction with socioeconomic reality (lagging behind it), and it is precisely the youth who have first asserted an irresistible rage to live and who are spontaneously revolting against the daily boredom and dead time that the old world continues to produce in spite of all its modernizations. The most rebellious among them are expressing a pure, nihilistic rejection of this society without any awareness of the possibility of superseding it. But such a perspective is being sought and developed everywhere in the world. It must attain the coherence of theoretical critique and the practical organization of this coherence.
At the most primitive level, the delinquents all over the world express with the most obvious violence their refusal to be integrated into the society. But the abstractness of their refusal gives them no chance to escape the contradictions of a system of which they are a spontaneous negative product. The delinquents are produced by every aspect of the present social order: the urbanism of the housing projects, the breakdown of values, the extension of an increasingly boring consumer leisure, the growing police-humanist control over every aspect of daily life, and the economic survival of a family unit that has lost all significance. They despise work, but they accept commodities. They want everything the spectacle offers them and they want it now, but they cant afford to pay for it. This fundamental contradiction dominates their entire existence, constricting their efforts to make a truly free use of their time, to express themselves, and to form a sort of community. (Their microcommunities recreate a primitivism on the margin of developed society, and the poverty of this primitivism inevitably recreates a hierarchy within the gang. This hierarchy, which can fulfill itself only in wars with other gangs, isolates each gang and each individual within the gang.) In order to escape this contradiction the delinquent must either resign himself to going to work in order to buy the commodities to this end a whole sector of production is specifically devoted to seducing him into consumerhood (motorcycles, electric guitars, clothes, records, etc.) or else he is forced to attack the laws of the commodity, either in a rudimentary manner, by stealing, or in a conscious manner by advancing toward a revolutionary critique of the world of the commodity. Consumption mellows out the behavior of these young rebels and their revolt subsides into the worst conformism. For the delinquents only two futures are possible: the awakening of revolutionary consciousness or blind obedience in the factories.
The Provos are the first supersession of the experience of the delinquents, the organization of its first political expression. They arose out of an encounter between a few dregs from the world of decomposed art in search of a career and a mass of young rebels in search of self-expression. Their organization enabled both sides to advance toward and achieve a new type of contestation. The artists contributed a few ideas about play, though still quite mystified and decked out in a patchwork of ideological garments; the young rebels had nothing to offer but the violence of their revolt. From the beginning the two tendencies have remained distinct; the theoryless masses have found themselves under the tutelage of a small clique of dubious leaders who have tried to maintain their power by concocting a provotarian ideology. Their neoartistic reformism has prevailed over the possibility that the delinquents violence might extend itself to the plane of ideas in an attempt to supersede art. The Provos are an expression of the last reformism produced by modern capitalism: the reform of everyday life. Although nothing short of an uninterrupted revolution will be able to change life, the Provo hierarchy like Bernstein with his vision of gradually transforming capitalism into socialism by means of reforms believes that a few improvements can transform everyday life. By opting for the fragmentary, the Provos end up accepting the totality. To give themselves a base, their leaders have concocted the ridiculous ideology of the provotariat (an artistico-political salad composed of mildewed leftovers of a feast they have never known). This new provotariat is contrasted with the supposedly passive and bourgeoisified proletariat (eternal refrain of all the cretins of the century). Because they despair of a total change, the Provos despair of the only force capable of bringing about that change. The proletariat is the motor of capitalist society, and thus its mortal threat: everything is designed to repress it parties, bureaucratic unions, police (who attack it more often than they do the Provos), and the colonization of its entire life because it is the only really menacing force. The Provos have understood none of this; they remain incapable of criticizing the production system and thus remain prisoners of the system as a whole. When an antiunion workers riot inspired the Provo base to join in with the direct violence, their bewildered leaders were left completely behind and could find nothing better to do than denounce excesses and appeal for nonviolence. These leaders, whose program had advocated provoking the authorities so as to reveal their repressiveness, ended up by complaining that they had been provoked by the police. And they appealed over the radio to the young rioters to let themselves be guided by the Provos, i.e. by the leaders, who have amply demonstrated that their vague anarchism is nothing but one more lie. To arrive at a revolutionary critique, the rebellious Provo base has to begin by revolting against its own leaders, which means linking up with the objective revolutionary forces of the proletariat and dumping people like Constant and De Vries (the one the official artist of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the other a failed parliamentary candidate who admires the English police). Only in this way can the Provos link up with the authentic modern contestation of which they are already one of the fledgling expressions. If they really want to change the world, they have no use for those who are content to paint it white.T4
By revolting against their studies, the American students have directly called in question a society that needs such studies. And their revolt (in BerkeleyT5 and elsewhere) against the university hierarchy has from the start asserted itself as a revolt against the whole social system based on hierarchy and on the dictatorship of the economy and the state. By refusing to accept the business and institutional roles for which their specialized studies have been designed to prepare them, they are profoundly calling in question a system of production that alienates all activity and its products from their producers. For all their groping and confusion, the rebelling American youth are already seeking a coherent revolutionary alternative from within the affluent society. Unfortunately, they remain largely fixated on two relatively incidental aspects of the American crisis the blacks and Vietnam and the small New Left organizations suffer from this fact. Their forms reflect a striving for genuine democracy, but the weakness of their subversive content causes them to fall into dangerous contradictions. Due to their extreme political ignorance and naïve illusions about what is really going on in the world, their hostility to the traditional politics of the old left organizations is easily rechanneled into unwitting acceptance of them. Abstract opposition to their society leads them to admire or support its most conspicuous enemies: the socialist bureaucracies of China or Cuba. A group like the Resurgence Youth Movement can in the same breath condemn the state and praise the Cultural Revolution, that pseudorevolt staged by the most gargantuan bureaucracy of modern times: Maos China. At the same time, these semilibertarian and nondirective organizations, due to their glaring lack of content, are constantly in danger of slipping into the ideology of group dynamics or into the closed world of the sect. The widespread consumption of drugs is an expression of real poverty and a protest against this real poverty: it is a fallacious search for freedom in a world without freedom, a religious critique of a world that has already superseded religion. It is no accident that it is so prevalent in the Beat milieu (that right wing of the youth revolt), where ideological refusal coexists with acceptance of the most ridiculous superstitions (Zen, spiritualism, New Church mysticism, and other rotten carcasses such as Gandhiism and Humanism). In their search for a revolutionary program the American students make the same mistake as the Provos and proclaim themselves the most exploited class in society; they must henceforth understand that they have no interests distinct from all those who are subject to commodity slavery and generalized oppression.
In the Eastern bloc, bureaucratic totalitarianism is also beginning to produce its own forces of negation. The youth revolt there is particularly intense, but the only information on it must be derived from the denunciations of it in official publications and from the police measures undertaken to contain it. From these sources we learn that a segment of the youth no longer respects moral and family order (which still exists there in its most detestable bourgeois form), devotes itself to debauchery, despises work, and no longer obeys the Party police. The USSR has set up a special ministry for the express purpose of combatting this new delinquency. Alongside this diffuse revolt, a more coherently formulated contestation is striving to express itself; groups and clandestine journals emerge and disappear depending on the fluctuations of police repression. So far the most important act has been the publication of the Open Letter to the Polish Communist Party by the young Poles Kuron and Modzelewski,T6 which explicitly affirms the necessity of abolishing the present production relations and social relations and recognizes that in order to accomplish this, revolution is inevitable. The Eastern intelligentsia is seeking to elucidate and make conscious the critique that the workers have already concretized in East Berlin, Warsaw and BudapestT7: the proletarian critique of bureaucratic class power. This revolt is in the difficult situation of having to pose and solve real problems at one fell swoop. In other countries struggle is possible but the goal remains mystified. In the Eastern bureaucracies the struggle is without illusions and the goals are known; the problem is to devise the forms that can open the way to their realization.
In England the youth revolt found its first organized expression in the antibomb movement. This partial struggle, rallied around the vague program of the Committee of 100 which was capable of bringing 300,000 demonstrators into the streets accomplished its most beautiful action in spring 1963 with the Spies for Peace scandal.(12) For lack of radical perspectives, it inevitably fell back, coopted by traditional political manipulators and nobleminded pacifists. But the specifically English archaisms in the control of everyday life have not been able to hold out against the assault of the modern world; the accelerating decomposition of secular values is engendering profoundly revolutionary tendencies in the critique of all aspects of the prevailing way of life.(13) The struggles of the British youth must link up with those of the British working class, which with its shop steward movement and wildcat strikes remains one of the most combative in the world. The victory of these two struggles is only possible if they work out common perspectives. The collapse of the Labour government is an additional factor that could be conducive to such an alliance. Their encounter will touch off explosions compared to which the Amsterdam Provo riot will be seen as childs play. Only in this way can a real revolutionary movement arise that will answer practical needs.
Japan is the only advanced industrialized country where this fusion of student youth and radical workers has already taken place.
The Zengakuren, the well-known organization of revolutionary students, and the League of Young Marxist Workers are the two major organizations formed on the common orientation of the Revolutionary Communist League. This formation is already tackling the problems of revolutionary organization. Simultaneously and without illusions it combats both Western capitalism and the bureaucracy of the so-called socialist countries. It already groups together several thousand students and workers organized on a democratic and antihierarchical basis, with all members participating in all the activities of the organization. These Japanese revolutionaries are the first in the world to carry on large organized struggles in the name of an advanced revolutionary program and with a substantial mass participation. In demonstration after demonstration thousands of workers and students have poured into the streets to wage violent struggle with the Japanese police. However, the RCL lacks a complete and concrete analysis of the two systems it fights with such ferocity. It has yet to define the precise nature of bureaucratic exploitation, just as it has yet to explicitly formulate the characteristics of modern capitalism, the critique of everyday life and the critique of the spectacle. The Revolutionary Communist League is still fundamentally a vanguard political organization, an heir of the best features of the classical proletarian organizations. It is presently the most important revolutionary grouping in the world, and should henceforth be a pole of discussion and a rallying point for the new global revolutionary proletarian critique.T8
To create at last a situation that goes
beyond the point of no return
To be avant-garde means to move in step with reality (Internationale Situationniste #8). The radical critique of the modern world must now have the totality as its object and as its objective. This critique must be brought to bear on the worlds actual past, on its present reality, and on the prospects for transforming it. We cannot grasp the whole truth of the present world, much less formulate the project of its total subversion, unless we are capable of revealing its hidden history, unless we subject the entire history of the international revolutionary movement, initiated over a century ago by the Western proletariat, to a demystified critical scrutiny. This movement against the whole organization of the old world came to an end long ago (Internationale Situationniste #7). It failed. Its last historical manifestation was the Spanish proletarian revolution, defeated in Barcelona in May 1937. But its official failures and victories must be judged in the light of their eventual consequences, and their essential truths must be brought back to light. In this regard we can agree with Karl Liebknechts remark, on the eve of his assassination,T9 that some defeats are really victories, while some victories are more shameful than any defeat. Thus the first great defeat of proletarian power, the Paris Commune, was in reality its first great victory, in that for the first time the early proletariat demonstrated its historical capacity to organize all aspects of social life freely. Whereas its first great victory, the Bolshevik revolution, ultimately turned out to be its most disastrous defeat.
The triumph of the Bolshevik order coincided with the international counterrevolutionary movement that began with the crushing of the Spartakists by German Social Democracy. The commonality of the jointly victorious Bolshevism and reformism went deeper than their apparent antagonism, for the Bolshevik order also turned out to be merely a new variation on the old theme, a new guise of the old order. The results of the Russian counterrevolution were, internally, the establishment and development of a new mode of exploitation, bureaucratic state capitalism, and externally, the spread of a Communist International whose branches served the sole purpose of defending and reproducing their Russian model. Capitalism, in its bureaucratic and bourgeois variants, won a new lease on life, over the dead bodies of the sailors of Kronstadt, the peasants of the Ukraine, and the workers of Berlin, Kiel, Turin, Shanghai, and finally Barcelona.
The Third International, ostensibly created by the Bolsheviks to counteract the degenerate social-democratic reformism of the Second International and to unite the vanguard of the proletariat in revolutionary communist parties, was too closely linked to the interests of its founders to ever bring about a genuine socialist revolution anywhere. In reality the Third International was essentially a continuation of the Second. The Russian model was rapidly imposed on the Western workers organizations and their evolutions were thenceforth one and the same. The totalitarian dictatorship of the bureaucracy, the new ruling class, over the Russian proletariat found its echo in the subjection of the great mass of workers in other countries to a stratum of political and labor-union bureaucrats whose interests had become clearly contradictory to those of their rank-and-file constituents. While the Stalinist monster haunted working-class consciousness, capitalism was becoming bureaucratized and overdeveloped, resolving its internal crises and proudly proclaiming this new victory to be permanent. In spite of apparent variations and oppositions, a single social form dominates the world. The principles of the old world continue to govern our modern world; the tradition of dead generations still weighs on the minds of the living.
Opposition to this world offered from within it, on its own terrain, by supposedly revolutionary organizations is only an apparent opposition. Such pseudo-opposition, propagating the worst mystifications and invoking more or less rigid ideologies, ultimately helps consolidate the dominant order. The labor unions and political parties forged by the working class as tools for its own emancipation have become mere safety valves, regulating mechanisms of the system, the private property of leaders seeking their own particular emancipation by using them as stepping stones to roles within the ruling class of a society they never dream of calling into question. The party program or union statute may contain vestiges of revolutionary phraseology, but their practice is everywhere reformist. (Their reformism, moreover, has become virtually meaningless since capitalism itself has become officially reformist.) Wherever the parties have been able to seize power in countries more backward than 1917 Russia they have only reproduced the Stalinist model of totalitarian counterrevolution.(14) Elsewhere, they have become the static and necessary complement(15) to the self-regulation of bureaucratized capitalism, the token opposition indispensable for maintaining its police-humanism. Vis-à-vis the worker masses, they remain the unfailing and unconditional defenders of the bureaucratic counterrevolution and the obedient agents of its foreign policy. Constantly working to perpetuate the universal dictatorship of the economy and the state, they are the bearers of the biggest lie in a world of lies. As the situationists put it, “A universally dominant social system, tending toward totalitarian self-regulation, is only apparently being combatted by false forms of opposition — illusory forms that remain trapped on the system’s own terrain and thus only serve to reinforce it. Bureaucratic pseudosocialism is only the most grandiose of these disguises of the old world of hierarchy and alienated labor.”
As for student unionism, it is nothing but a parody of a farce, a pointless and ridiculous imitation of a long degenerated labor unionism.
The theoretical and practical denunciation of Stalinism in all its forms must be the basic banality of all future revolutionary organizations. It is clear that in France, for example, where economic backwardness has delayed awareness of the crisis, the revolutionary movement can be reborn only over the dead body of Stalinism. Stalinism must be destroyed.T10 That must be the constantly repeated watchword of the last revolution of prehistory.
This revolution must once and for all break with its own prehistory and derive all its poetry from the future. Little groups of militants claiming to represent the authentic Bolshevik heritage are voices from beyond the grave; in no way do they herald the future. These relics from the great shipwreck of the revolution betrayed invariably end up defending the USSR; this is their scandalous betrayal of revolution. They can scarcely maintain their illusions outside the famous underdeveloped countries, where they serve to reinforce theoretical underdevelopment.(16) From Partisans (organ of reconciled Stalino-Trotskyist currents) to all the tendencies and semi-tendencies squabbling over the dead body of Trotsky within and outside the Fourth International, the same revolutionary ideology reigns, with the same theoretical and practical inability to grasp the problems of the modern world. Forty years of counterrevolution separate them from the Revolution. Since this is not 1920, they can only be wrong (and they were already wrong in 1920).
The dissolution of the ultraleftist Socialisme ou Barbarie group after its division into two fractions Cardanist-modernist and traditional Marxist (Pouvoir Ouvrier) is proof, if any were needed, that there can be no revolution outside the modern, nor any modern thought outside the reinvention of the revolutionary critique (Internationale Situationniste #9). Any separation between these two aspects inevitably falls back either into the museum of revolutionary prehistory or into the modernism of the system, i.e. into the dominant counterrevolution: Voix Ouvrière or Arguments.
As for the various anarchist groups, they possess nothing beyond a pathetic faith in the ideological label Anarchy in which they have pigeonholed themselves. The pitiful Le Monde Libertaire, obviously edited by students, attains the most incredible degree of confusion and stupidity. Since they tolerate each other, they would tolerate anything.
The dominant social system, which flatters itself on its constant modernization, must now be confronted with a worthy opponent: the equally modernized negation that it is itself producing.(17) Let the dead bury the dead. The practical demystifications of the historical movement are exorcizing the phantoms that haunted revolutionary consciousness; the revolution of everyday life is being confronted with the immensity of its tasks. Revolution and the life it announces must both be reinvented. If the revolutionary project remains fundamentally the same the abolition of class society this is because the conditions giving rise to that project have nowhere been radically transformed. But this project must be taken up again with a new radicality and coherence, learning from the failure of previous revolutionaries, so that its partial realization will not merely bring about a new division of society.
Since the struggle between the system and the new proletariat can only be in terms of the totality, the future revolutionary movement must abolish anything within itself that tends to reproduce the alienation produced by the commodity system i.e. the system dominated by commodified labor. It must be a living critique of that system, a negation embodying all the elements necessary for its supersession. As Lukács correctly showed, revolutionary organization is this necessary mediation between theory and practice, between man and history, between the mass of workers and the proletariat constituted as a class. (Lukácss mistake was to believe that the Bolshevik Party fulfilled this role.)T11 If they are to be realized in practice, theoretical tendencies and differences must immediately be translated into organizational questions. Everything ultimately depends on how the new revolutionary movement resolves the organization question; on whether its organizational forms are consistent with its essential project: the international realization of the absolute power of workers councils as prefigured in the proletarian revolutions of this century. Such an organization must make a radical critique of all the foundations of the society it combats: commodity production; ideology in all its guises; the state; and the separations imposed by the state.
The rock on which the old revolutionary movement foundered was the separation of theory and practice. Only the supreme moments of proletarian struggles overcame this split and discovered their own truth. No organization has yet bridged this gap. Ideology, no matter how revolutionary it may be, always serves the rulers; it is the alarm signal revealing the presence of the enemy fifth column. This is why the critique of ideology must in the final analysis be the central problem of revolutionary organization. Lies are a product of the alienated world; they cannot appear within an organization claiming to bear the social truth without that organization thereby becoming one more lie in a world of lies.
All the positive aspects of the power of workers councils must already be embryonically present in any revolutionary organization aiming at their realization. Such an organization must wage a mortal struggle against the Leninist theory of organization. The 1905 revolution and the Russian workers spontaneous self-organization into soviets was already a critique in acts(18) of that baneful theory. But the Bolshevik movement persisted in believing that working-class spontaneity could not go beyond trade-union consciousness and was thus incapable of grasping the totality. This amounted to decapitating the proletariat so that the Party could put itself at the head of the revolution. Contesting the proletariats historical capacity to liberate itself, as Lenin did so ruthlessly, means contesting its capacity to totally run the future society. In such a perspective, the slogan All power to the soviets meant nothing more than the conquest of the soviets by the Party and the installation of the party state in place of the withering-away state of the armed proletariat.
All power to the soviets must once again be our slogan, but literally this time, without the Bolshevik ulterior motives. The proletariat can play the game of revolution only if the stakes are the whole world; otherwise it is nothing. The sole form of its power, generalized self-management, cannot be shared with any other power. Because it represents the actual dissolution of all powers, it can tolerate no limitation (geographical or otherwise); any compromises it accepts are immediately transformed into concessions, into surrender. Self-management must be both the means and the end of the present struggle. It is not only what is at stake in the struggle, but also its adequate form. It is itself the material it works on, and its own presupposition (The Class Struggles in Algeria).
A unitary critique of the world is the guarantee of the coherence and truth of a revolutionary organization. To tolerate the existence of an oppressive system in some particular region (because it presents itself as revolutionary, for example) amounts to recognizing the legitimacy of oppression. To tolerate alienation in any one domain of social life amounts to admitting an inevitability of all forms of reification. It is not enough to be for the power of workers councils in the abstract; it is necessary to demonstrate what it means concretely: the suppression of commodity production and therefore of the proletariat. Despite their superficial disparities, all existing societies are governed by the logic of the commodity; it is the basis of their totalitarian self-regulation. Commodity reification is the essential obstacle to total emancipation, to the free construction of life. In the world of commodity production, praxis is not pursued in accordance with autonomously determined aims, but in accordance with the directives of external forces. Economic laws take on the appearance of natural laws; but their power depends solely on the unawareness of those who participate in them.
The essence of commodity production is the loss of self in the chaotic and unconscious creation of a world totally beyond the control of its creators. In contrast, the radically revolutionary core of generalized self-management is everyones conscious control over the whole of life. The self-management of commodity alienation would only make everyone the programmers of their own survival squaring the capitalist circle. The task of the workers councils will thus be not the self-management of the existing world, but its unceasing qualitative transformation: the concrete supersession of the commodity (that enormous detour in the history of human self-production).
This supersession naturally implies the abolition of work and its replacement by a new type of free activity, thereby eliminating one of the fundamental splits of modern society: that between an increasingly reified labor and a passively consumed leisure. Presently decomposing groups like Socialisme ou Barbarie or Pouvoir Ouvrier,(19) although adhering to the modern watchword of Workers Power, continue to follow the path of the old workers movement in envisioning a reformism of labor through its humanization. But work itself must now be attacked. Far from being utopian, the abolition of work is the first condition for the effective supersession of commodity society, for the elimination within each persons life of the separation between free time and work time those complementary sectors of alienated life that is a continual expression of the commoditys internal contradiction between use-value and exchange-value. Only when this opposition is overcome will people be able to make their vital activity subject to their will and consciousness and see themselves in a world that they themselves have created. The democracy of workers councils is the solution to all the present separations. It makes impossible everything that exists outside individuals.
The conscious domination of history by the people who make it that is what the whole revolutionary project amounts to. Modern history, like all past history, is the product of social praxis, the (unconscious) result of human activities. In the era of totalitarian domination, capitalism has produced its own new religion: the spectacle. The spectacle is the terrestrial realization of ideology. Never has the world been so inverted. And like the critique of religion in Marxs day, the critique of the spectacle is today the essential precondition of any critique (Internationale Situationniste #9).
Humanity is historically confronted with the problem of revolution. The increasingly grandiose material and technological means are equalled only by the increasingly profound dissatisfaction of everyone. The bourgeoisie and its Eastern heir, the bureaucracy, are incapable of putting this overdevelopment (which will be the basis of the poetry of the future) to any good use precisely because they both must strive to maintain an old order. The most they can use it for is to reinforce their police control. They can do nothing but accumulate capital, and therefore proletarians a proletarian being someone who has no power over his life and who knows it. It is the new proletariats historical fortune to be the only consequent heir to the valueless riches of the bourgeois world riches that it must transform and supersede in such a way as to foster the development of fully realized human beings pursuing the total appropriation of nature and of their own nature. This realization of human nature can only mean the unlimited multiplication and full satisfaction of the real desires which the spectacle represses into the darkest corners of the revolutionary unconscious, and which it can realize only fantastically in the dreamlike delirium of its advertising. The true fulfillment of genuine desires which means the abolition of all the pseudoneeds and pseudodesires that the system manufactures daily in order to perpetuate its own power cannot take place without the suppression and positive supersession of the commodity spectacle.
Modern history can be liberated, and its innumerable achievements can be freely put to use, only by the forces that it represses: the workers without power over the conditions, the meaning and the products of their own activities. In the nineteenth century the proletariat was already the heir of philosophy;T12 now it has become the heir of modern art and of the first conscious critique of everyday life. It cannot suppress itself without at the same time realizing art and philosophy. To transform the world and to change life are one and the same thing for the proletariat,T13 the inseparable passwords to its suppression as a class, the dissolution of the present reign of necessity, and the finally possible accession to the reign of freedom. The radical critique and free reconstruction of all the values and patterns of behavior imposed by alienated reality are its maximum program. Free creativity in the construction of all moments and events of life is the only poetry it can acknowledge, the poetry made by all, the beginning of the revolutionary festival. Proletarian revolutions will be festivals or nothing, for festivity is the very keynote of the life they announce. Play is the ultimate principle of this festival, and the only rules it can recognize are to live without dead time and to enjoy without restraints.T14
[NOTES IN THE ORIGINAL EDITION]
1. Marc Kravetz, a slick orator well known among the UNEF politicos, |
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He nudged Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to abandon the one-party approach to passing a health care bill and start over, with committee hearings and a standard process, as Democrats have long urged.
“Why don’t we try the old way of legislating in the Senate, the way our rules and customs encourage us to act?” McCain said. “If this process ends in failure, which seem likely, then let’s return to regular order.”
And he didn’t stop at health care. McCain declared that even with full control of Congress and the White House, the GOP is “getting nothing done” beyond the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
He never mentioned President Donald Trump by name, but denounced "the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the internet" — a subtle reference to the bitterly partisan culture that Trump has only intensified since entering the political arena. McCain’s wife Cindy, reportedly poised to take a job in Trump's State Department, joined him in the Senate and greeted GOP leaders warmly outside the chamber.
Even before his in-person arrival, McCain's return heightened the suspense surrounding an already historic vote to start the Obamacare repeal debate. With Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting no, his presence proved necessary for McConnell and Trump to avoid disastrous defeat.
Both the president and majority leader expressed gratitude to McCain on Tuesday, even as he declared that he could not vote to repeal Obamacare without significant alterations to the GOP bill crafted in consultation with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a critic of the GOP's efforts thus far.
"We all know Sen. McCain is a fighter," McConnell said on the floor before the Arizonan came back to the Hill. "That's evidenced by his remarkable life of public service, just as it is evidenced by his quick return to the Senate this afternoon."
Trump hailed McCain in not one but two Tuesday tweets. The president called McCain an "American hero," apparently changing his mind two years after declaring on the campaign trail that "he's not a war hero" and "I like people who weren't captured." McCain spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, earning several medals for valor.
McCain said he plans to remain in the Senate to manage floor consideration of the annual defense authorization bill, part of his duties as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, before returning to Arizona for further treatment for his glioblastoma — the same type of tumor that killed his friend, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
"I have every intention of returning here and giving many of you cause to regret all the nice things you said about me," he said.Spread of light pollution is bad for the environment, animal life and humans, five-year study concludes
Why the nights are getting brighter – but not in a good way
The world’s nights are getting alarmingly brighter – bad news for all sorts of creatures, humans included – as light pollution encroaches on darkness almost everywhere.
Satellite observations made by researchers during five consecutive Octobers show Earth’s artificially lit outdoor area grew by 2% a year from 2012 to 2016. So did nighttime brightness.
Breathless in Delhi: a taste of environmental armageddon | Brigid Delaney's diary Read more
Light pollution was even worse than that, according to the German-led team, because the sensor used cannot detect some of the LED lighting that is becoming more widespread, specifically blue light.
The observations indicate stable levels of night light in the US, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. But light pollution is almost certainly on the rise in those countries given this elusive blue light, according to Christopher Kyba of the GFZ German research centre for geosciences and the lead author of the study published in Science Advances.
Also on the rise is the spread of light into the hinterlands and overall increased use. The findings shatter the long-held notion that more energy-efficient lighting would decrease usage on the global – or at least a national – scale.
“Honestly, I had thought and assumed and hoped that with LEDs we were turning the corner. There’s also a lot more awareness of light pollution,” Kyba told reporters by phone from Potsdam. “It is quite disappointing.”
The biological impact from surging artificial light is also significant, according to the researchers.
People’s sleep can be marred, which in turn can affect their health. The migration and reproduction of birds, fish, amphibians, insects and bats can be disrupted. Plants can have abnormally extended growing periods. And forget about seeing stars or the Milky Way if the trend continues.
About the only places with dramatic declines in night light were in areas of conflict such as Syria and Yemen, the researchers found. Australia also reported a noticeable drop, but that was because wildfires were raging early in the study. Researchers were unable to filter out the bright burning light.
Asia, Africa and South America, for the most part, saw a surge in artificial night lighting.
Too right it's Black Friday: our relentless consumption is trashing the planet | George Monbiot Read more
More and more places are installing outdoor lighting, given its low cost and the overall growth in communities’ wealth, the scientists noted. Urban sprawl is also moving towns farther out. The outskirts of major cities in developing nations were brightening quite rapidly, Kyba said.
Other especially bright hot spots included sprawling greenhouses in the Netherlands and areas of intensive agriculture.
One of the co-authors, Franz Holker of the Leibniz institute of freshwater ecology and inland fisheries in Berlin, said things were at the critical point.
“Many people are using light at night without really thinking about the cost,” Holker said. Not just the economic cost, “but also the cost that you have to pay from an ecological, environmental perspective”.
Kyba and his colleagues recommend avoiding glaring lamps whenever possible – choosing amber over so-called white LEDs – and using more efficient ways to illuminate places such as parking lots or city streets.
For example, dim, closely spaced lights tend to provide better visibility than bright lights that are more spread out.BitGo and Ledger Provide Integrated Multi-Sig Hardware Security for Bitcoin
Mike Belshe Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 24, 2017
Today we are excited to announce a partnership with Ledger to combine the benefits of BitGo’s multi-signature enterprise wallet with Ledger’s hardware-based key storage. The integration is complete and available for the Nano S and Nano Blue.
The BitGo wallet has the most advanced multi-sig capabilities and advanced policy management, protecting against theft and loss with features such as rate limits, address whitelists and blacklists, webhooks, multi-user approvals and more. Ledger is a leader in digital currency hardware solutions for key management and endpoint security. The integration with Ledger enables our customers to secure their signature keys in an offline hardware device, providing additional layers of protection against malware and other attack vectors.
While each company’s security solutions are comprehensive on their own, our philosophy at BitGo is to continuously increase security protocols whenever an opportunity arises. The integration with Ledger was a simple enhancement for the BitGo offering and will likely be an easy choice for many of our customers to further enhance the security of their assets. In addition to providing additional redundant layers of security and functionality, it should provide peace of mind to digital currency users who want to know that their providers are continually innovating and improving security protocols.
For the next ninety days, BitGo is offering a 15% discount to our customers who purchase a Ledger Nano S or Blue and utilize these new features. To take advantage of this offer, use the BITGO15 promo code.
These are step-by-step instructions to help customers activate the Ledger/BitGo integration.156
My only suggestions to make this recipe closer to Pfeffernusse made in Germany, are: Use more pepper, and use white instead of black. One and a half to twice the amount of pepper will give the...
I have been told by all my relatives that pfeffernusse is a Dutch Advent treat. The spices are from the Dutch Indies - a way to show off all those spices that the Dutch were dealing in and affl...
Essayons 0 1
My only suggestions to make this recipe closer to Pfeffernusse made in Germany, are: Use more pepper, and use white instead of black. One and a half to twice the amount of pepper will give the... Read more
jcis1013 0 1
My problem is not the flavor of this recipe, which was very good, but the way it was put together. I would definitely change the order of mixing a bit. The recipe has you add the anise extract t... Read more
Amy Matushak Plach 89 43
Love these cookies! My mom had the store bought version so my family compared the two cookies. This recipie won by far. They have a wonderful spice that gets even better after a few days. The... Read more
I82MANY 0 1
Loved the recipe! Reminded me of Grandmas,(she took her traditional german recipes to the grave with her). I added 1 teaspoon of allspice and changed the black pepper to white. The spice level t... Read more
renee rochow 11 1
this is pretty close to my mums traditional german recipe. One suggestion though instead of black pepper use all spice. I haven't made pfeffernusse for a while because i moved away from home... Read more
Janedough 5 2
Absolutely delicious! I added 1/2 cup butter instead of 1/4 cup margarine, followed all the rest exactly as written in recipe. Just like my Aunt's in Germany! If you like ginger snaps...you will... Read more
druidfaerie 132 17
Awesome recipe! Suggestions to omit pepper is not accurate. Pfeffer means 'pepper' in German and is an essential ingredient. I used I82Many's suggestion to use white pepper instead of white (bla... Read more
Suzanne 0 1
I have been told by all my relatives that pfeffernusse is a Dutch Advent treat. The spices are from the Dutch Indies - a way to show off all those spices that the Dutch were dealing in and affl... Read moreThis is the first time I signed up for a Reddit Arbitrary Day gift exchange, and boy was it awesome!
I had no clue what to expect. I basically told my Secret Santa that I liked anything Video Game related, and that I enjoyed Zelda, among other things.
As soon as I saw the box, I knew it was Zelda related. He drew various thing related to Zelda on the sides of the box hinting that it was Zelda related.
When I opened the box, I was greeted with a card with my Reddit name on it. As I read the card, my mouth dropped. I quickly removed the packing peanuts and newspaper from the box.
My Secret Santa came through and made a homemade Deku Mask from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask! I love the gift, thank you so much Secret Santa.A KNIFEMAN is on the run after a young man was slashed in the face with a "machete" in East London today.
Terrified witnesses reported seeing blood on the road in Leytonstone after the broad daylight horror attack.
Google 1 A man was slashed in the face in Leytonstone, East London, today
The victim, aged in his 20s, was rushed to hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition.
One witness told the Daily Star there was a “stabbing with a machete” and said there was blood on the road.
She said: “My son went to the shop and saw all the blood.
"Neighbours said a man was heard screaming past our homes 10 minutes before that.”
The road had to be closed while police were scrambled to the incident.
A spokesman for the Met said: "Police were called to High Road, Leytonstone at around 14:30hrs on Monday, 9 October, to reports of a man with a slash injury to his face.
"The man - aged in his early 20s - was taken by LAS to an east London hospital, where his condition is serious but stable.
"Detectives from Waltham Forest are investigating. There has been no arrest at this early stage."
MOST READ IN NEWS MOMO NO-NO Momo Challenge in 'Peppa Pig and Fortnite vids' as YouTube and Instagram slammed Exclusive DARK PAST Homeless man doused in water by rail staff KILLED man who splashed him with paint MOMO SHOCK Creepy'suicide character' Momo told lad, 8, to'stab himself in neck' Latest BLOOD ON THE STREETS Man, 20s, knifed to death in 4th horror stabbing in 7 hours in London SUICIDE WARNING What is Momo and how can parents protect their children? say no no to momo Expert advice on how to keep children safe from online suicide game Momo
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.Enlarge Image © Luca Tettoni/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis
Humanity and coffee go back a long way. We're very well acquainted. One might even call it a love affair, if one had particular affection for the caffeinated brew.
It's widely believed that the relationship began in Ethiopia, to which the arabica coffee plant is native. From there, it spread to the Arabian peninsula, exported from Ethiopia to Yemen, where it's generally accepted that coffee was first known and consumed in the 15th century.
According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of New Mexico, however, the people of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico were way ahead of the curve, drinking caffeinated drinks as early as 750 AD, over 1,200 years ago.
"I think the primary significance is that it shows that there was movement of two plants that have caffeine in North America -- that they were either exchanged or acquired and consumed widely in the Southwest," said lead author Patricia Crown, University of New Mexico Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, on the study's findings.
This conclusion was drawn after the team studied organic residue left on sherds of cups, bowls, jars and pitchers. The team closely examined 177 sherds found at archaeological sites throughout the Southwest of North America, carefully selected from different time periods to find out how consistent the use of caffeine was. Caffeine was found on 40 of the sherds.
The results revealed that two different types of caffeinated drinks were consumed, from two different types of plant, neither of which would be recognised as coffee. One was made from cacao, the basis for chocolate. The other was made from the leaves and twigs of a type of holly called yaupon holly.
Neither of these plants were native to the North American Southwest, though it's already known that there was trade between North America and Mesoamerica, where cacao grows. Yaupon holly is native to the Southeastern United States, where the Native Americans used it to make what is referred to in early historic accounts as "black drink."
Crown and her team hypothesise that the drinks weren't an everyday occurrence, unlike how we drink coffee today. Instead, they would have been drunk on special occasions, such as during rituals, or important meetings and for medicinal purpose. This would be consistent with importation patterns from Mesoamerica, where imported items such as living scarlet macaws, pyrite mirrors and copper bells were ritually significant, and were found at several sites that also had clay vessels with caffeine residue.
Yaupon holly is not necessarily made into a drink for the purposes of caffeination, either: historic documents and later research papers from the US Southeast describe men drinking large amounts of black drink, then throwing it all up in a sort of ritual cleansing.
The full paper, published in the journal PNAS, can be found online.A Prince George, B.C., cat is being described as a "miracle" after surviving multiple shots from a pellet gun at close range.
Now his owner wonders who could be so cruel to a pet and she's worried it could be someone in her neighbourhood.
"Biggie" — named after the rapper The Notorious B.I.G who was fatally shot in 1997 — went missing from his home in the College Heights area of Prince George on Nov. 3.
The vet had to leave some pellets in Biggie because they were too risky to remove. (Nicole Crandell)
His owner, Nicole Crandell, worried he had been caught by a fox, but two and a half weeks later she got a call from a local veterinarian telling her Biggie was alive and full of pellets from a gun.
"Excuse me, what? Pellets? What do you mean?" Crandell remembered saying. "And then they said, 'Yeah, he's been shot multiple times.' "
It's like a pellet gun was held up to his head and his body... they were doing this on purpose. - Cat owner Nicole Crandell
The vet told Crandell that Biggie was found more than 15 kilometres away from her home and taken to the SPCA before being transferred to have the pellets removed.
"He had pellets in his head, in his cheek, his neck, his jaw, his back," Crandell said.
"The vet said the way the pellets were in his head, it's like a pellet gun was held up to his head and his body... they were doing this on purpose."
The SPCA is investigating who shot Biggie multiple times with a pellet gun. (Nicole Crandell)
Crandell said she is "completely disgusted" somebody would do that to a cat and is worried it could have been someone in her neighbourhood.
The SPCA is investigating.
As for Biggie, he appears to be making a full recovery and is "super-stoked" to be back home.
"He's a little miracle cat," Crandell said.
For more stories from Prince George, follow CBC Daybreak North on Facebook.WASHINGTON (AP) -- Robert S. McNamara, the cerebral secretary of defense who was vilified for prosecuting America's most controversial war and then devoted himself to helping the world's poorest nations, died Monday. He was 93.
McNamara died at 5:30 a.m. at his home, his wife Diana told The Associated Press. She said he had been in failing health for some time.
For all his healing efforts, McNamara was fundamentally associated with the Vietnam War, "McNamara's war," the country's most disastrous foreign venture, the only American war to end in abject withdrawal rather than victory.
See video of McNamara below.
Known as a policymaker with a fixation for statistical analysis, McNamara was recruited to run the Pentagon by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 from the presidency of the Ford Motor Co. He stayed seven years, longer than anyone since the job's creation in 1947.
His association with Vietnam became intensely personal. Even his son, as a Stanford University student, protested against the war while his father was running it. At Harvard, McNamara once had to flee a student mob through underground utility tunnels. Critics mocked McNamara mercilessly; they made much of the fact that his middle name was "Strange."
After leaving the Pentagon on the verge of a nervous breakdown, McNamara became president of the World Bank and devoted evangelical energies to the belief that improving life in rural communities in developing countries was a more promising path to peace than the buildup of arms and armies.
A private person, McNamara for many years declined to write his memoirs, to lay out his view of the war and his side in his quarrels with his generals. In the early 1990s he began to open up. He told Time magazine in 1991 that he did not think the bombing of North Vietnam _ the greatest bombing campaign in history up to that time _ would work but he went along with it "because we had to try to prove it would not work, number one, and (because) other people thought it would work."
Finally, in 1993, after the Cold War ended, he undertook to write his memoirs because some of the lessons of Vietnam were applicable to the post-Cold War period "odd as though it may seem."
"In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" appeared in 1995. McNamara disclosed that by 1967 he had deep misgivings about Vietnam _ by then he had lost faith in America's capacity to prevail over a guerrilla insurgency that had driven the French from the same jungled countryside.
Despite those doubts, he had continued to express public confidence that the application of enough American firepower would cause the Communists to make peace. In that period, the number of U.S. casualties _ dead, missing and wounded _ went from 7,466 to over 100,000.
"We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of our country. But we were wrong. We were terribly wrong," McNamara, then 78, told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the book's release.
The bestselling mea culpa renewed the national debate about the war and prompted bitter criticism against its author. "Where was he when we needed him?" a Boston Globe editorial asked. A New York Times editorial referred to McNamara as offering the war's dead only a "prime-time apology and stale tears, three decades late."
McNamara wrote that he and others had not asked the five most basic questions: "Was it true that the fall of South Vietnam would trigger the fall of all Southeast Asia? Would that constitute a grave threat to the West's security? What kind of war _ conventional or guerrilla _ might develop? Could we win it with U.S. troops fighting alongside the South Vietnamese? Should we not know the answers to all these questions before deciding whether to commit troops?
He discussed similar themes in the 2003 documentary "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara." With the U.S. in the first year of the war in Iraq, it became a popular and timely art-house attraction and won the Oscar for best documentary feature.Four golden retrievers stand in the Istanbul shelter where they lived before they were brought to the United States. (Adopt a Golden Atlanta)
Over the years, since being set loose, the golden retrievers had gotten good at surviving on the streets of Istanbul.
More than a decade ago, the dogs — most of them purebreds — were prized by their owners. Long since abandoned, they roamed the streets begging for food and living under bridges; the lucky ones spent years in shelters throughout the Turkish city.
On Saturday, the dogs made it back to the other side. With the help of Adopt a Golden Atlanta, 36 abandoned golden retrievers landed in the United States. They were given new names, such as “Freedom,” “Patriot” “Justice” and “Glory,” and began a process that the rescue agency hopes will culminate in the new, permanent, homes for each of the animals.
[This is what it looks like when a dog eats 23 rounds of live ammo]
Adopt a Golden Atlanta, one of the largest golden retriever rescues on the East Coast spent thousands of dollars transporting the dogs in an effort to help ease the overcrowding in Istanbul’s shelters.
“About 10 years ago, the golden retriever was seen as a status symbol,” Lauren Genkinger, founder and president of Adopt a Golden Atlanta, told The Washington Post in an interview. “They were becoming very popular in Italy and Germany, so some of the pet stores in Turkey started importing the puppies. Then, about three years went by, and it’s no longer a status symbol because so many of people own them.”
(Adopt a Golden Atlanta)
Even when the dogs were parts of households in Turkey, they were typically kept outside. When owners no longer wanted them or couldn’t take care of them, they called the municipal animal control, which would spay and neuter the dogs, then release them to the streets — or worse, to forests.
In 2012, animal activists in Turkey fought against a proposal to move stray animals to “natural habitat parks” on the outskirts of the city. They argued that the practice would be akin to giving the animals a death sentence.
[A byproduct of legalized marijuana in Oregon: Unemployed police dogs]
Golden retrievers in particular, Genkinger said, did not fare well in the wild with more aggressive dogs.
“Golden retrievers don’t survive there,” Genkinger said. “They don’t fight back.”
Istanbul’s struggle with a large population of stray animals dates back more than 100 years. Some people estimate that the number of stray dogs on the city’s streets exceeds 50,000 — not including the dogs that live in the city’s 30-plus animal shelters.
While stray cats have special status on the streets of Istanbul, the Associated Press noted, stray dogs are seen as unclean:
Stray dogs are considered more of a nuisance and sanitation threat than cats, and Islamic tradition — while espousing tolerance for all creatures — labels them unclean. In 1910, Istanbul officials unloaded tens of thousands of stray dogs on an island in the Sea of Marmara, where they starved.
In recent years, however, purebred dogs have been drawn into the tug-of-war between East and West in Turkey.
[‘It’s like a crime scene for poop’: DNA used to link dog owners to their pets’ droppings]
Golden retriever “Georgia” arrives at an Atlanta airport. (Adopt a Golden Atlanta)
In 2012, writer Bernd Brunner noted in his essay “The Wild Dogs of Istanbul” that some combination of religion and traditional beliefs have caused Muslims to keep dogs at arm’s length, but that in parts of the city influenced by the West, people sought out purebreds as a status symbol:
In parts of Istanbul influenced by the West, all sorts of purebred dogs can be found, including traditional fighting breeds. In these cases, dogs are highly desirable status symbols, and many stores sell pet supplies. However, problems with religious neighbors disturbed by the presence of dogs can arise. “Many people want a dog, but don‘t know how to go about it,” says Bilge Okay of the dog protection society SHKD, which works toward better treatment of the animals.
When owners could no longer keep the dogs, the ones that weren’t euthanized ended up on the street.
Genkinger first heard about the situation in Istanbul in January and spent months trying to find out how to bring the dogs to America. She says that most U.S. adoption organizations have wait lists for golden retrievers. And these dogs won’t displace any dogs already in the United States that might need potential homes.
“I want these golden retrievers to be happy and have a better life,” Yasemin Baban, the lead shelter volunteer in Istanbul, said in a statement. “I want them to find love and affection, a home to live in, and a cushion to sleep on.”
A Golden Retriever from Turkey gets a bath in Atlanta. (Adopt a Golden Atlanta)
They are being groomed, fed, and given medical treatment in the Atlanta area until the rescue can find foster homes.
[Study aims to uncover why cancer plagues golden retrievers]
The dogs also need to learn English, so several Turkish-speaking volunteers are helping house-train them before they are put up for adoption.
“They have never been in a home, they have never had a toy,” Genkinger said. “They have had to beg for food in the streets of Istanbul. This is all a huge adjustment.”
The entire effort has also been extremely costly — well over $1,000 was spent to transport each dog to Atlanta. And hundreds more will be spend on medical care, training, food, housing and grooming.
The rescue has so far received 20 donations of $1,000 to cover some of the costs. And each dog will be offered for adoption at a $600 fee. Genkinger says they the rescue hopes to receive more donor-generated funding to cover the rest of the costs.
“Adoption rates in Turkey don’t exist because there are so many dogs on the streets,” Genkinger said. “I hope that there will be no more golden retrievers on the streets and that people will adopt them. If they see that they’re desirable here, maybe they’ll adopt.”
MORE READING:
With fake service dogs on the rise, Canada proposes doggie ‘driving license’
A missing Ohio police dog who survived one of the coldest winters in history has been found
Pup in Bryce Harper pet photo shoot is possibly lucky, definitely adorableGov. Jerry Brown, mocking Donald Trump for his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, suggested Monday that if the Republican frontrunner wins the election, California might have to take protective measures of its own.
“If Trump were ever elected, we’d have to build a wall around California to defend ourselves from the rest of this country,” Brown told labor organizers at a dinner in Sacramento. “By the way that is a joke. We don’t like walls, we like bridges.”
Brown, the Democratic governor of a liberal border state, has signed legislation granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and allowing undocumented immigrant college students to receive public financial aid. Like many Democrats, he has pushed Washington unsuccessfully for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.
Addressing members of the California Labor Federation and State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, Brown said California has benefited from immigration to the state, arguing that young workers are an economic boon.
Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee
“Some of these old white guys ought to recognize that the whole pension system would collapse if we didn’t have a bunch of young people coming into this country and into this state,” the 77-year-old governor said. “They’re not all coming from here. They’re coming from other places.”
Brown also re-opened a years-old feud with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who withdrew from the presidential race last year. Before leaving office, Perry, a self-proclaimed hunter of jobs, ran radio ads in California luring companies to move to his state.
“If I asked you who was that governor, there aren’t 50 people in this room that could even tell me his damn name,” Brown said. “And people who attack California, they do become anonymous and forgotten. Rightfully so.”In the early days of the last decade of the 20th Century, teens used to gather at shopping malls, sipping their Orange Julius, wearing their Converse All-Stars and denim jackets. They would congregate at the video arcade with pocketfuls of quarters, plunking silver into Street Fighter II, The Simpsons and X-Men arcade games.
However, also standing in the video arcade drawing a crowd was every arcade-goer's favorite WWE-themed rumbler, the 1991 American Technos classic, WWE WrestleFest!
(CLASSIC GAME PHOTOS | VIDEO)
For just 25 cents per game (or 50 cents at stingier establishments), the WWE Universe could compete inside the old-school red, white and blue ring ropes in two different modes: Competing individually in a Royal Rumble Match, or "Saturday Night's Main Event" mode, climbing the tag-team ranks to battle the then-WWE Tag Team Champions, WWE Hall of Famers Hawk and Animal, The Legion of Doom.
One to four players could play as top WWE Superstars of the day, including The Big Boss Man, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Ultimate Warrior, Earthquake, Demolition Ax and Smash, and WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan, "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, and Sgt. Slaughter.
With each Superstar having their own trademark arsenal of maneuvers, a collection of double-team moves to utilize in tag-team matches, and power-ups for just an extra quarter, WWE WrestleFest was a must-play for the serious WWE fan.
But now, in present day, with video arcades on the decline, its unlikely that another classic stand-up arcade grappler will hit the scene like WrestleFest.
But WWE.com holds out hope that some video game company will see the button-mashing appeal of vintage WWE Superstars battling it out, perhaps with a mix of today's best Superstars and Divas added to the roster, and BRING IT BACK for play on current video game consoles.
What do you think? Tell us on Twitter with the hashtag #BringItBackWWE!Alabama Football: 7 True Freshmen and 2 JUCO’s Likely To Play in 2017 by Ronald Evans
Alabama Softball kicked off the season on the campus of Coastal Carolina for the Kickin’ Chicken Classic. Alexis Osorio made history with a Perfect Game.
The season got started today for Alabama softball and got started it did. Alabama chalked up two victories over Towson and Coastal Carolina. The two games were a tale of two different stories, however, as one showed how good the Crimson Tide were on offense and the other on defense.
Game 1: Alabama vs. Towson
Things got going quickly for the Crimson Tide. Veteran pitcher Sydney Littlejohn retired the batters in order to start the game. Then, Alabama’s Bailey Hemphill, a freshman in her first at-bat, nails a three-run home run to put the Tide up 3-0.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Alabama infielder Peyton Grantham knocked another one out of the park to bring in three more. Tide got up 6-0.
The bottom of the 4th was the sealer for the Crimson Tide. Senior Chandler Dare knocked a RBI single to bring outfielder Merris Schroder to make it 7-0. Grantham got three more runners in, bringing her total RBI to 6 for the game. That was followed by a two-run home run from senior infielder and South Carolina native Marisa Runyon.
Mercy? Not yet. It didn’t stop there.
Junior infielder Sydney Booker nailed another home run to center field to put two more in; Tide up 14-0. The final scoring play of the bottom of the 4th was made by Demi Turner, who put the exclamation mark on the game with a three-run home run. Alabama closed it out in the next inning sealing the 17-0 victory in 5 innings.
Alabama’s 5 home runs were the most in a game since April 5th, 2015 against South Carolina. Bama’s 17 runs were the most scored in a season opener for the Tide.
Senior Sydney Littlejohn notched the win, with 3 runs in 4 innings of work. Sophomore Madi Moore closed out the game in the 5th. For Towson, Megan Dejter was handed the loss with 14 earned runs and 13 hits in 3.1 innings worth of work. Megan was also responsible for 2 errors.
Game 2: Alabama vs. Coastal Carolina
The main story of this game was junior pitcher Alexis Osorio. Osorio pitched a perfect game, only the fourth in program history. It was also only the second, seven-inning perfect game in the Tide’s history.
Osorio blazed through the first 4 innings with 12 straight strikeouts, breaking the school record with 19 total. This was Osorio’s 2nd no-hitter and the program’s 30th.
Alabama started fast on offense. Leadoff hitter Elissa Brown walked to 1st, stole 2nd, got to third and made it home off a sacrifice fly from Grantham.
After a blank 2nd inning, bats got a little hot in the 3rd. Grantham then scored Brown again off RBI single to left field. Hemphill nailed a three-run home run, her second of her very early career. That made it 5-0 Crimson Tide.
Runyon got a RBI in the 4th to take it to 6-0 and that would wrap it up as Alabama started the season 2-0. Osorio got the win to go 1-0, while Chanticleer Pitcher Ashley Guillette gets the loss.
The Tide get Towson again at 10:00 am on Saturday, followed by Youngstown State after that game. The Tide will finish the tournament with another matchup against Coastal Carolina on Sunday.MLS First Kick 2016 is just around the corner and the excitement is building in Vancouver for what could be a season of great possibilities for the Whitecaps.
Montreal Impact come a calling to BC Place for the ‘Caps home opener. They’ll be without Didier Drogba, so exactly how much of a challenge with they post to Vancouver? We look ahead to the game and cast an eye over Montreal’s line-up, their preseason form and what we can expect from the eastern Canadians in the new season. How will Vancouver counter them and what line-up and formation are we likely to see from Carl Robinson?
There will be a couple of Whitecaps MLS debuts on Sunday and one of them with be from influential Costa Rican playmaker Christian Bolaños. We sit down for an exclusive one on one chat with the veteran midfielder to discuss what’s brought him to MLS now, what role he sees himself playing in Vancouver, take a brief journey through his career, discuss the rise of Costa Rican soccer and find out what he still wants to achieve in the game.
And there’s still time to look ahead at the upcoming MLS season. Who will reign in each Conference? Will there be any dark horses? And who is going to take home the Cup this year and what are the chances of it sitting in the Whitecaps trophy cabinet as an early Christmas present?
There’s a lot of chat to be had, so have a listen!
You can listen to this, and all previous, episodes of the podcast on iTunes HERE.
Or download it for your later listening delight HERE.
We also have an iPhone app, so you can now add our podcast to your phone as an app. Visit the podcast’s mobile site HERE and then at the bottom of the screen just click the “Quick Launch” icon and the podcast will be added to your home screen and appear as an app.
And if that’s not enough, we’re on Stitcher Radio Network. Download the app and listen to the AFTN podcast on your device, along with over 20,000 other shows HERE.
Or after all that, you could just listen on the player below!For those with a good enough head on their shoulders to skip this week’s Comic-Con madness, below is the “Sleepy Hollow” Oculus Rift experience you’re missing out on. Fair warning: By watching below, that head isn’t going to stay on those shoulders for long.
In the short clip, Mark Goffman |
while the car was with the Queen before the vehicle was returned in 2004 to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, with which it is still registered.A former priest was convicted Thursday in the brutal murder of a Texas beauty queen who was raped, beaten, and suffocated more than 57 years ago.
A jury found John Bernard Feit, 85, guilty of murdering Irene Garza after more than six hours of deliberations in Hidalgo County on Thursday.
Gaza's family members burst into tears in the courtroom, relieved that justice had been served decades after the 25-year-old teacher and beauty queen was found dead in a canal.
In April 1960, Garza disappeared after she went to confession at the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, where Feit was a visiting priest.
4 PHOTOS The 1960 murder of Irene Garza See Gallery The 1960 murder of Irene Garza The body of Irene Garza, 25-year-old school teacher was found in an irrigation canal near the heart of McAllen early today. Discovery of the body ended the four-day search for the missing teacher. (Photo via Getty Images) 1960: The Reverend John B. Feit, 27, a Roman Catholic priest, right, was expected to surrender today to face a charge of assault with intent to rape a 20-year-old Pan American coed. Feit has been questioned about the rape-slaying last April of 25-year-old Irene Garza shown left. (Photo via Getty Images) Deputy Sheriffs and volunteer workers remove the burlap wrapped body of 25-year-old Irene Garza from an irrigation canal near the heart of McAllen Tex. Discovery of the body ended a four-day search for the attractive school teacher. A local businessman has offered a $1,000 reward for the abductor and killer of the girl. (Photo via Getty Images) This is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Edinburg, where a 27-year-old Catholic priest was charged, August 5th, with the attempted rape of a 20-year-old college coed as she knelt in prayer last March 23rd. Police identified the priest as John B. Feit, and disclosed that the clergyman had also been questioned about the rape-slaying three weeks later of 25-year-old beauty queen Irene Garza. (Photo via Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
Feit, who was 28 at the time, was taken in for questioning after Garza's body was found, but officials avoided prosecuting him for fear of harming the church's reputation, prosecutors told the court.
Most elected officials at the time in Hidalgo County were Catholic, and Sen. John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was running for president that year.
The case went cold until 2002, when authorities reopened the investigation and interviewed another priest who said he saw scratches on Feit's hands shortly after Garza's disappearance.
Another priest who worked at a Missouri monastery where Feit applied three years later said he confessed to murdering a young woman.
Defense attorney O. Rene Flores argued that prosecutors had insufficient evidence to convict Feit, who was living in Arizona at the time of his arrest last year.
Feit spent time at a treatment center in New Mexico for troubled priests and became a supervisor who helped clear other priests for assignments to parishes.
Among the men Feit helped keep in ministry was child molester James Porter, who assaulted more than 100 victims before he was ultimately defrocked and sent to prison.
Feit left the priesthood in 1972, married and went on to work at the Catholic charity St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix for a number of years, training and recruiting volunteers and helping oversee the charity's network of food pantries.
He had also been accused of attacking another young woman in a church just weeks before Garza's death. He eventually pleaded no contest and was fined $500.
Feit could be sentenced to up to 99 years or life imprisonment.
With News Wire Services.
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The campaign (see the ads here) was meant to educate consumers about how detrimental bad beer can be to the craft beer industry. But due to the language used (especially “craft beer roulette”), many interpreted the ads as a shot at other small or local brewers.
The brewery didn’t receive many such complaints in the taproom, but its sales director Ryan Self fielded more than a few on Facebook. These came from friends who would otherwise be willing to give the brewery a fair shake, but even they couldn’t get behind the new campaign.
“It’s seeing our fans say, ‘I love OMB and I love their branding, but I don’t get this,’” said Self. “That’s what got us going.”
I sat down with Self this past week, and we talked at length about the problems bad beer creates for others in the industry. If someone comes to craft beer for the first time and has a bad experience, for example, they might be less likely to try OMB or other craft breweries in the future. It’s why he and others at OMB have long sung the praises of their fellow brewers, because if a patron has a great experience with one brewery they’re far more likely to try beers from other local breweries.
But at the end of the day, the ads can’t be judged based on the brewery’s intent.
“When you make an ad campaign, it’s all about perception,” said Self. “If you make an ad campaign and someone says that campaign made me feel negative about your brand, then you have failed. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve focus grouped it and how much money you’ve spent developing it or how much thought you put into it. If people say ‘I’m less likely to drink an OMB,’ then it’s a failure.”
The first step in addressing the reactions to the campaign came last week, when the brewery posted this explanation on its website. They will soon remove the billboards and online ads, but plan to replace them with new ads that will also be aimed at educating people on the difference between good and bad beer.
“Our next campaign is not going to back away from the idea that craft is not synonymous with quality,” said Self. “Neither is local, frankly. Local can mean fresher which can mean quality, but that’s not always the case.”
The brewery hasn’t finalized details for the new ads yet, but expect them to be more inline with OMB’s typical aesthetic, which Self describes as “classic and traditional.”
“We are not every brewery to every person,” said Self. “We recognize that we don’t make every style of beer. There are some very popular styles that we don’t make. That’s okay. It’s sort of the anti-arrogance. So to hear us called arrogant to me was alarming. We failed majorly somewhere in that case, because that’s not who we are. That’s not who we want to be at all.”It’s been long rumored that Amazon plans to launch its Prime service in India as well. While there is still no official announcement about a launch date, a new report states that it could be introduced as early as next week. Amazon will celebrate its third year in India, since debuting back in June of 2013, and could launch the Prime service on the occasion.
This news comes courtesy of MakTechBlog, which found ‘Prime’ mentioned on Amazon India website’s source code. The company is likely to launch a dedicated webpage as well with the address — amazon.in/gp/prime — which is yet to go live.
The source code also mentions a small description of the Amazon Prime service, along with a small glimpse at what will be on offer. The source code reads, “Introducing Amazon Prime: FREE Guaranteed Two-Day Delivery. With Amazon Prime, you get fast delivery on lakhs of eligible items. No minimum order size. Start your 30-day free trial.”
What is however not mentioned is the subscription rate. Prime has been available in the US for quite some time now, and it costs $99 (approximately Rs 5,946) per year and a discounted $39 (approximately Rs 2,342) for students.
Prime is essentially the inspiration behind Flipkart’s First service, and subscribers are entitled to free two-day shipping with no minimum order size, unlimited streaming of movies and videos on Amazon Instant Video, and a service called Kindle Owners Lending Library, wherein Kindle owners can borrow one free e-book from Amazon’s library.
ALSO READ: 10 things Amazon does only in India
In addition to free and fast deliveries, Prime subscribers in India are also likely to get access to the Amazon Instant Video service. As the name suggests it is a movie and TV show streaming service, and Amazon is believed to be in talks with various content providers in the country as well. Reports suggested that some of these content providers included Yash Raj Films, Eros International and some music labels as well.Catholic school paper deletes student editorials on Catholic DVD, gay teens
Sean Simonson, Bernardo Vigil MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel
A student newspaper at a suburban Catholic school has sparked a debate over free speech by criticizing a Catholic DVD and defending gay teens. The DVD denouncing same-sex marriage was sent by Minnesota's Catholic bishops to parishioners prior to the Nov. 2 election.
The student newspaper of Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park deleted two student editorials over the weekend and shut off the online comments.
The Knight Errant student newspaper published a news story last Thursday about the bishops' "Preserving Marriage in Minnesota" DVD.
But it was the two editorials that accompanied it -- and the online comments they inspired -- that created the uproar. One staff editorial challenged the bishops' arguments against same-sex marriage and called the DVD "unsubstantiated."
Senior Bernardo Vigil helped write the piece.
"We did expect a little bit of a pushback from that, which there was. A lot of the comments were 'this shouldn't have been published, this is a Catholic school,'" Vigil said.
But the op-ed that touched off the cyberstorm was editor Sean Simonson's piece, "Life as a gay teenager."
Sean Simonson MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel
"There's so many suicides in the news. And I felt very frustrated that my voice couldn't be heard, and that there were all these things that I see as injustices all the time that I didn't feel like anyone else was recognizing," said Simonson.
The essay reads in part:
"You fear looking the wrong way in the locker room and offending someone," he continued. "Politicians are allowed to debate your right to marry the person you love, or your right to be protected from hate crimes under the law. Your faith preaches your exclusion -- or damnation. And no one does anything to stop it."
After Simonson's essay ran in the Knight Errant, 93 comments poured into its website. Many of them praised Simonson for what they said was his courage. A distinct minority didn't. Some quoted theology. Some attacked Simonson. Some were anonymous.
Benilde-St. Margaret's principal Sue Skinner called Simonson's parents a day after the piece ran, and also talked to Simonson. School administrators declined to be interviewed for this story, but Simonson said the principal wanted the newspaper to stop taking comments on the piece. Simonson disagreed.
"The piece was sort of to create this dialogue," said Simonson. "And if we just stopped accepting comments, we destroyed the meaning of the story and so it wasn't really worth doing."
Knight Errant staff, together with their faculty advisor, agreed instead to remove the two op-eds and the comments from the website, and post this explanation from the principal.
"While lively debate and discussion clearly has its place in a Catholic school, this particular discussion is not appropriate because the level of intensity has created an unsafe environment for students. As importantly, the articles and ensuing online postings have created confusion about Church teaching," the statement read in part.
Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis said "We were not involved in this process, but we are supportive of the decision by school authorities."
"I think it's always regrettable when a school administrator decides that the appropriate way to handle controversy is to suppress it," said Jane Kirtley, a professor of law and media ethics at the University of Minnesota.
Kirtley says Benilde-St. Margaret's is well within its legal rights to curtail student expression, but she says students need a safe place to debate these kinds of issues.
Vigil and Simonson say they got that chance Monday morning. Their religion classes discussed the issues raised in the editorials and clarified the Catholic Church's position on gays and lesbians.
Benilde's president Bob Tift said in a statement that the Catholic Church teaches that "men and women with homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity."
The editors say what they regret about taking down the articles is that it appears the commentators calling for their censorship have won.
In reality, says Vigil, the discussion has simply moved.
"As per usual, with things involving high school students, a lot of it's moved to Facebook," he said.PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION FIRSTThis drawing was made in response to the infamous Spongebob episode "One Coarse Meal." Mr. Krabs has done some bad actions in the show, like in "Jellyfish Hunter," but what he did in OCM was unforgivable. He psychologically tormented Plankton because of his fear of whales, to the point where Plankton attempts suicide. Luckily, Plankton didn't commit suicide, but Krabs didn't get the proper comeuppance he deserves.Here, Rudy the Alligator gives Krabs the punishment he deserves, something he didn't get at the end of OCM. I know a lot of people hate OCM. I first heard of that episode when I saw Mr. Enter's review on said episode.This drawing was inspired by's drawing in response to the other bad Spongebob episode "Pet Sitter Pat."We both don't like many of the new episodes of Spongebob. The old Spongebob was one of the best shows ever, but now, the show's at a point where it needs to end.Michael Motala is a political economist and student at Osgoode Hall Law School. Opinions expressed are his own.
Much ink is being spilled about Uber Technologies Inc.'s growing legal headaches. California's Labour Commissioner recently ruled that Uber drivers ought to be classified as employees, not contractual driver-partners. A similar class-action lawsuit, launched by a prominent Boston-based lawyer, could portend the destruction of Uber's current labour model. Company executives have been ordered to stand trial in Paris. And in Toronto, while parts of the downtown core were crippled by taxi-driver protests, city lawyers sought an injunction against the technology platform. How pointless. The court ruled that the Uber economy is here to stay, at least for now.
The legal fracas has only just begun. Toronto city council voted this week to move ahead to find a regulatory solution, but it can't come fast enough. The municipality and province should have revisited the city's extant regulatory framework much earlier to keep up with the pace of technological innovation.
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Uber's rapid growth, and the root of its legal woes, boils down to its success at facilitating labour arbitrage. The ride-sharing service has dissolved traditional barriers to entering the taxi market, serving unmet demand and driving down costs as it increases the labour supply.
Ubernomics should be a case study in Economics 101: When you fix a mismatch between demand and supply, you profit. Regulation is justified only when it corrects market failure.
Technologists from other industries hope Ubernomics is a generalizable business model. This month, the MaRS Discovery District launched LegalX, an industry cluster aimed at promoting local entrepreneurship, driving industry efficiency and pioneering new business models. One of its first startups is a service called LawScout. Like Uber, it offers a simple digital platform aimed at connecting small businesses with local lawyers on a fixed-rate basis. Beagle, another product launched at the event, performs rapid contract analysis using a sophisticated algorithm, while providing a platform for social media-inspired collaboration among decision-making teams.
Will Canada's legal profession be disrupted by emerging digital technologies? Let's look at the current picture.
On the supply side, there is a glut of freshly trained and deeply indebted law graduates. Yet the number of articling positions in big law and elsewhere continues to shrink. Ryerson's law practice program, with its shorter articling requirement, has attempted to bridge the gap. Yet participants lament a program that effectively requires them to pay to article and license, but provides no guarantee of employment and puts them in what is perceived as a second-tier system. Against this backdrop, law school tuition rates continue to rise. The average debt load after third year is $71,444, according to the Law Students' Society of Ontario. Some graduates never do find legal work.
On the demand side, the access-to-justice crisis is getting worse. Only the poorest, who fall below an income threshold of $20,225, qualify for legal aid services in Ontario. Middle-income litigants get squeezed out of the system due to artificially high fees. Remarkably, the 2008 review of legal aid in Ontario contains just one reference to tuition rates. University of Toronto law professor Michael Trebilcock notes "parenthetically" his concerns "over the impact of rising tuition" and "concomitant debt loads."
Selena Lucien, a fellow at MaRS's Studio [Y], founded the Ontario Small Claims Wizard hoping that her platform will become as popular as tax software. Her aim is to empower consumers to seek civil redress by lowering the cost of legal services and reducing the complexity of the justice system. Through a partnership with Legal Aid Ontario, she also hopes the startup will enhance access to justice for lower-income litigants and those who face linguistic and cultural barriers.
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We live in an absurd legal diseconomy. There is an ever-widening gap between supply and unmet demand. Following the Ontario government's tuition deregulation in 1998, University of Toronto law led the charge, raising tuition by 320 per cent under dean Ron Daniels. Other law schools followed suit and continue to do so. This year, U of T law is unashamed to charge incoming students more than $30,000 a year. Not to be left out, the Law Society of Upper Canada recently doubled its licensing fees. The legal academy is aggravating the access to justice crisis by imposing ever-higher rents on the most vulnerable entrants to the profession. A false and parasitic empiricism has evidently burrowed itself in the minds of our country's greatest legal thinkers.
Ubernomics is not a panacea for the legal sector. Rather than disrupt it, it will transform. Big firms are here to stay if they embrace innovation. Digital technologies promise more efficient work flows and higher productivity. The shortcomings of the consensus-driven decision-making structure, exemplified by the fall of Heenan Blaikie, suggests more strategic thinking, stronger leadership and a heavier investment in R&D is needed to make legal work more efficient and cost effective.
Businesses like fixed-cost projections. The billable-hour model introduces a lot of uncertainty into the equation. Software such as LawScout is unlikely to undermine the legal industry's biggest players, but it signals that an economic culture shift lies ahead. Perhaps, like Uber, it will help bridge the gap between supply and demand, employing recent graduates and serving small businesses. Even more exciting, products such as the Small Claims Wizard will empower consumers to engage the legal process when they have simple disputes, serving previously unmet demand.
Just look at the global professional services firms. Deloitte LLP's recent acquisition of ATD Legal Services Professional Corp. shows that the tide is turning toward low-cost electronic document review and discovery. Technologies such as Beagle will liberate lawyers from mindless contract analysis and enhance their productivity while increasing competition. Pangea3, a global legal-process outsourcing firm, has grown to serve 10 per cent of Fortune 1,000 firms with its global operations in India.
Unless Ontario atrophies the shameless rent-seeking of the province's law schools, graduates face the prospect of being priced out of a market they have worked so hard to enter, undermining Canada's global leadership in the knowledge economy. Law is central to our public and national interest, yet in its current institutional form, it merely serves to line the professoriate's pocket books.“Meet the Press” spent an hour last month comparing Republicans to Nazis. CNN has compared us to anti-Semites refusing Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The Washington Post has likened Ted Cruz’s 4 and 7 year-old daughters to monkeys. Apparently, that was just the warm up for a season of mainstream media demagoguery and hate speech because the New Hampshire Union Leader is now comparing Donald Trump to a murderer.
In an editorial published Sunday, publisher Joseph McQuaid writes, Trump “reminds us of the grownup bully ‘Biff’ in the ‘Back to the Future’ movie series.”
Everyone knows that the “grownup bully Biff” is a cold-blooded murderer who abuses women. When we meet the grownup Biff in “Back to the Future II ” he has already murdered the father of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and physically and mentally abuses Marty’s mother. Moreover, the “grownup bully Biff” then attempts to murder Marty.
The impotent rage of the elite media always reveals who these people really are: bigots, bullies, crybabies, and screamers — hate-filled demagogues of the first order.
The same mainstream media that scold the GOP and Trump over “rhetoric” is infinitely worse in that regard, and every other.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNCThe New York Giants entered this year's draft with so many questions at the safety position that they used three picks on it. They traded their second-round and fourth-round picks to move up to draft Landon Collins at the top of the second, and they spent their fifth-round pick on Mykkele Thompson.
Both rookies got hurt in the Giants' preseason opener Friday night in Cincinnati. And as they resume training camp Sunday, the Giants once again find themselves scrambling to find starting safeties.
Collins, who seemed penciled in as a Week 1 starter almost by default, sprained the MCL in his left knee Friday night, coach Tom Coughlin said Saturday. Coughlin said he didn't know how long Collins would be out, but he also said he doesn't expect him to practice this week and that missed practice time for a rookie at this stage is extremely bad.
Mykkele Thompson is taken off the field after suffering a season-ending Achilles injury. AP Photo/Frank Victores
"He needed last night," Coughlin said of Collins, who got hurt on the first defensive series of the game. "He needed it, and he didn't get much last night. He needs to be out there."
But he won't be anytime soon, and poor Thompson won't be until next offseason. His Achilles injury, Coughlin said, will keep him out for the entire season. Thompson was a long shot to start, but he'd looked good enough in camp that the Giants thought he could at least play a role.
Losing Thompson leaves the Giants thin at a spot where they had nothing but question marks. Nat Berhe continues to struggle with a calf injury, leaving Jeromy Miles, Cooper Taylor, Bennett Jackson and Justin Currie as the current options at safety.
"Those are the guys we have, and we'll get them ready to play," Coughlin said. "We've got to play some games with those guys back there and see how they do."
Cornerback Trumaine McBride suffered a hamstring injury in the game as well. He's been functioning as the nickel corner, but Coughlin said the team can play Jackson at safety on running downs and move him to nickel on passing downs (presumably bringing in Taylor at safety on those plays until Collins returns).
The Giants aren't deep at corner right now, either. Prince Amukamara (groin) and Chykie Brown (knee) missed the game with injuries, and McBride and Hosley (neck/concussion) left during the game. Coughlin said it was possible the team could add a cornerback in the coming days."The tablet that can replace your laptop." That's what they say in those Microsoft Surface ads. But the Microsoft Surface Pro doesn't come with a keyboard -- if you want to replace your laptop, you'll need to pay $130 extra for that in the US.
The HP Elite x2 is different. Starting at the same $899 as a Surface Pro 4 (£708 in the UK or AU$1661 in Australia), HP's 12-inch tablet includes the keyboard cover that Microsoft's slate lacks. And a fingerprint sensor. And a non-proprietary USB-C charger that can power other devices as well.
And -- get this -- a design where users can actually open up the case and replace the components, including the battery, storage module, Wi-Fi chip and the colorful display. As far as we're aware, it's the first ultrathin, fanless tablet to offer such easy access.
So last month, I tried to replace my laptop with an Elite x2. Here's what happened next.
James Martin/CNET
The commute
At just under two pounds and 13.45mm thick -- with the keyboard attached -- the Elite x2 is among the most portable computers I've ever carried. I love how the fabric-covered keyboard and shiny silver kickstand snap into place, how easily it slips into my messenger bag and that it barely seems to add any weight. Sometimes I walk out the door and wonder if I forgot to pack it.
On the train, things aren't quite as easy. I use the Elite x2 on my lap, adjusting that shiny silver kickstand again and again to find the best angle, its corners digging into my thighs. The Elite can't quite lean back far enough to align with my face unless I risk it tumbling backwards. A jolt as the train comes to a stop -- the tablet pops right off its magnetic hinges. Both pieces clatter to the floor.
Enlarge Image GIF by Sean Hollister/CNET
After the spill, the Elite x2 is perfectly fine -- no damage to the strong aluminum rim or shock-resistant Gorilla Glass 4-covered screen, which HP claims it tests to military durability standards. But every time it happens over the next few weeks, I can't help but think I'd be better off with a traditional clamshell PC.
The so-called "lapabilty" problem isn't unique to the Elite x2, by the way. It's simple geometry: a kickstand and detachable keyboard take up way more room than a standard laptop bottom.
Depending on your commute and the shape of your lap, it might not be an issue at all.
The desktop
While the Elite x2 only has three visible ports -- a full-size USB 3.0 port for thumbdrives and peripherals, a USB-C port for charging and a 3.5mm headset jack for audio -- you can buy one of three different docking stations (starting at US$150) to turn it into a fully-fledged multitasker.After months of anticipation and despite a mouth-watering line-up of teams and drivers, not to mention the biggest grid in 15 years, the Bahrain Grand Prix was a damp squib. And that’s putting it politely.
But the F1 community – be it the fans, the teams or the rule makers – should not be too hasty to jump to conclusions after just one race.
And blaming the refuelling ban for yesterday’s uninspiring race would overlook more serious problems with competition in F1 that need to be fixed.
Long-time readers of this site will know I never had much time for F1’s refuelling era and was glad to see it dropped. Artificial jumbling of the running order holds no excitement for me.
I enjoy proper wheel-to-wheel racing. Genuine passes for position on the track and robust defensive driving. Neither of which we saw much of yesterday – or in quite a few races last year for that matter.
Blaming the refuelling ban for the lack of overtaking yesterday is a simplistic, knee-jerk reaction to a problem which has been around much longer and whose roots are more complicated.
Cars
Over the winter the designers were left free to push the development of their cars’ aerodynamics without new restrictions. And, as has always been the case when they’re allowed to do that, the cars now produce more downforce and so are more sensitive to running in the air of a leading car.
That much was clear in the opening stages of yesterday’s race when Lewis Hamilton was unable to get within half a second of Nico Rosberg despite having a car that was up to a second faster per lap in clean air and the fastest in a straight line.
The improved aerodynamic performance of this year’s cars has been accompanied by a reduction in mechanical grip due to the narrower front tyres. The balance of the cars’ performance has shifted away from mechanical grip – which is not impaired by running behind another car – to aerodynamic downforce – which is impaired by running behind another car.
But it’s not just aerodynamics which has made it harder for one F1 car to follow another closely.
Running in the hot air of another car causes cooling problems, as we saw when Fernando Alonso caught Sebastian Vettel in the later stages of yesterday’s race. Alonso had to pull out from behind Vettel on the straights in order to keep cooler air flowing into his radiators.
This brings us to a third problem – the need to conserve car and engine life. Felipe Massa was being urged not to run closely behind other cars to avoid overheating his engine, which will have to do at least one, possible two more Grand Prix distances after this one.
In short, since the last race of 2009 it’s become harder for F1 cars to follow each other. And with none of the cars able to use KERS for a handy power boost, hardly anyone was able to get in range to make a pass.
The circuit
From the moment we first laid eyes on the revised Bahrain circuit, used for the first time by F1 this year, people were saying it would be no good for overtaking.
From the satellite photo alone you could tell it was too tight, too slow and too narrow. The race proved the organisers’ promise the section would “provide new overtaking opportunities” was well wide of the mark.
It wasn’t just in the F1 race that cars found it hard to pass on the new section. The GP2 Asia drivers couldn’t do much with it either but could still pass on the rest of the circuit. Incidentally, these are cars with tightly restricted spec aero, spec tyres, and no refuelling, and have consistently produced the best single-seater racing I’ve seen over the past six years. Sadly last weekend was their last scheduled outing.
The sheer length of the track played a part as well. The longer the lap a car has to do the less likely it is to encounter other cars. At around two minutes per lap every car on the grid could circulate five seconds apart. It’s no coincidence that Interlagos, which consistently produces some of the best races we see, is also one of the shortest tracks.
At the very least the circuit organisers should switch back to the normal layout for next year’s race. It’s no classic, but it’s far better than the configuration they used this year. And if they really want to make things interesting and increase opportunities for overtaking, they want to use their shorter ‘outer’ track.
Expectations
The first race was always going to struggle to live up to the pre-season expectations. We all wanted to see Schumacher battling with Alonso and the fight for supremacy at McLaren. What little racing there was seemed to be between the Virgins and Lotuses at the back of the field.
And in one respect we were unlucky. The Vettel/Alonso/Massa battle for the lead was getting close when the Red Bull driver’s exhaust packed in, spoiling the fun.
But we shouldn’t judge the entire season based on one race. The first Grand Prix of 2002 was a thriller but the rest of the year was largely forgettable. Was yesterday’s race really any worse than Istanbul or Singapore were last year with refuelling? I don’t think so.
The real problem
The fundamental problem is still that cars can’t follow each other closely. This is what the FIA needs to fix. Bringing in more mandatory pit stops and reintroducing refuelling would be like putting a sticking plaster on a broken leg.
Instead of over-reacting in a panicky fashion with ill thought-out changes the rule makers need to look at the big picture and understand how many of the technical changes in recent years have conspired to make it hard for cars to follow each other: engine use restrictions, rev limits, double diffusers and more.
Even after the Overtaking Working Group’s changes last year, F1 cars still can’t follow each other closely enough often enough. Encouragingly the FIA has already taken a step towards fixing it by banning double diffusers for 2011.
But they need to go further and consider not just cutting back downforce, but also looking at this problem of cars overheating when they run close behind a leading car.
That’s the real heart of F1’s overtaking problem. And solving it is much more challenging than just forcing more pit stops or bringing back refuelling.
Overtaking and the refuelling banRightfully so, the movie about Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane and his innovate way to pick ballplayers is going to debut in the East Bay.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, "Moneyball" will premiere at Oakland's Paramount Theater on Sept. 19. That is four days before the movie is supposed to open nationally.
Billy Beane says he will be at the premiere, though Sony Pictures will not confirm if Brad Pitt, who plays Beane in the movie, will be there.
"Moneyball" also stars Jonah Hill as Beane's Assistant General Manager and Phillip Seymore Hoffman as then A's Manager Art Howe.
"Moneyball" Trailer
Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill star in this based on a true story baseball tale (Published Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013)
The movie follows Beane's use of a certain form of statistics -- made prevalent by seamhead and statistician Bill James -- to draft players. He began implementing the system in 2002. Since then the A's have made the playoffs twice, in 2003 and 2006.
They have never won a World Series using Beane's adopted system.Blog Archive June (2) May (1) April (1) March (2) February (3) January (1) November (2) October (1) September (2) August (4) July (3) June (2) May (4) April (4) March (1) February (5) January (1) December (2) November (2) October (4) September (3) August (7) July (6) June (3) May (3) April (1) March (6) February (5) January (1) December (6) November (3) October (3) September (3) August (5) July (7) June (7) May (3) April (9) March (7) February (5) January (4) December (7) November (8) October (7) September (8) August (6) July (6) June (5) May (3) April (7) March (8) February (10) January (5) December (7) November (7) October (8) September (8) August (6) July (10) June (11) May (9) April (11) March (12) February (11) January (9) December (10) November (9) October (10) September (5) August (13) July (11) June (14) May (11) April (9) March (1) December (1) November (2) October (5) September (3) August (1)Salicylic acid, a Beta Hydroxy Acids (BHA), is a magical ingredient. It is derived from willow tree bark and like Alpha Hydroxy acids (i.e. lactic acid and glycolic acid), it is frequently used as a chemical exfoliant. However, while AHAs are water-soluble and work on the outer layer of your skin, BHAs are oil-soluble, allowing them to get into your pores. For this reason, they are frequently recommended for oily-skinned folks and commonly touted for their ability to shrink pores.
As a dry-skinned girl, I have a tortured relationship with BHAs. I want to experience salicylic acid’s magical, anti-inflammatory, pore-cleaning effects, but a lot of products I have tried in the past have proved to be too harsh. Specifically, I gave certain salicylic-acid-containing pads a try a few years ago only to have my face turn beet red and, when I frantically attempt to rinse the product off my face, I couldn’t. It was the worst feeling in the world and all I could do was sit around, hoping my face didn’t burn off, until the burning subsided.
Turns out, salicylic acid is pretty heavily regulated in Korea (there’s a.5% formulation limit) and as such, many Korean skincare products, including Korean formulations of Paula’s Choice products, use betaine salicylate instead. Even if you don’t know anything about chemistry, you may have noticed betaine salicylate sounds suspiciously similar to salicylic acid, and you would be right! Betaine salicylate is a chemical compound of salicylic acid and betaine. It promises to do what salicylic acid can do, but in a milder, gentler way, making it an awesome alternative not only for dry skinned folk but also people just getting started with chemical exfoliation. It is also the star ingredient in Beta Salic 2.0!
BETAINE SALICYLATE
There’s a lot written about salicylic acid. In a nutshell, it works by causing
the cells of the epidermis to shed more readily, opening clogged pores and neutralizing bacteria within, preventing pores from clogging up again by constricting pore diameter, and allowing room for new cell growth. source
There is significantly less written about betaine salicylate, and most of the readily available information come from cosmetic companies that sell products that contain it. Here is what I scoped out:
Chica y Chico |
You can delete a foolish tweet, and easily make a Facebook post disappear. Assuming it doesn’t get distributed as a podcast, your call to a sports radio show is lost in the ether moments after the words come out of your mouth.
But a letter to the editor is forever. As football fans on both sides of the Bay express their 100 percent certainty who should and shouldn’t be their football team’s coach, I thought I’d look through the San Francisco Chronicle archives to see what the masses were saying about Bill Walsh the year before he took the team to its first Super Bowl.
Walsh’s record with the 49ers bottomed out at 8-24 by the end of 1980, and the team endured a mid-season eight-game losing streak. Below is a representative sampling of the fan reaction, all published in the Chronicle some time either before or during the 1980 season.
Please also read the disclaimer at the end, where I sort of defend these letter writers …
In the year and a half before this letter was written, Mr. Poor Judge of Football Talent Bill Walsh and the 49ers had drafted Keena Turner in the second round, Joe Montana in the third and Dwight Clark in the 10th.
Wilbur Jackson true fact was NOT a better NFL player than John Riggins. Which is probably why Walsh and the 49ers got rid of him the year the coach arrived. But I do enjoy the letter-writer’s passion. And at least he didn’t compare Walsh to the Ayatollah Khomeini, right?
The letter writer did hold back a little, stopping short of comparing the greatest coach in Bay Area history to Adolph Hitler. Although if memory serves, in 1980 the Ayatollah was held in similar regard. I remember at least one friend’s cool older brother wearing an “Ayatollah is an Assaholla” T-shirt.
Moving on …
Sure, you’ve just suggested trading the future greatest quarterback of all time, to draft a quarterback who ended up with a career 86-102 TD-to-interception ratio. But I’m going to give worst-amateur-GM-ever Jeff Ross of San Francisco a pass here. The letter was actually written at the beginning of 1980, when Montana had thrown all of 23 NFL passes – and everyone on sports talk radio was probably saying the same thing.
(The 49ers drafted Earl Cooper with that pick.)
Mark this date down: Dec. 8, 1980, when the San Francisco Chronicle published the last two defenses of Steve DeBerg in 49ers fan history.
That said, I think we’ve accidentally unearthed a better name for Bill Walsh’s legacy offense. It would be fun to hear Al Michaels say “overused tricky passing attack” instead of “West Coast offense” when he describes the latest on-field homage to the Hall of Fame coach.
We begin and end with Wayne Bordy, who is so bold in his Walsh dislike that he imagines a future where the coach goes 4-12 for 11 straight years, and the media and fans enable him to do so.
By the real Dec. 20, 1990, Walsh had won three Super Bowls. He left the team on his own terms. I’d like to think that some time in the mid-2000s, body weak from leukemia treatments, Walsh was carried Egyptian God-style by four of his offensive linemen, and knocked on this man’s door. HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW, WAYNE BORDY?
DISCLAIMER: The intended purpose of this exercise not to humiliate the letter writers. We’ve all been wrong about our sports teams before, and blustery fan overreactions are arguably one of the more fun parts of following sports teams. Among my own past gaffes:
1. Enthusiastic support of the 1990s Mitch Richmond-for-Billy Owens trade (“when you can get the next Magic Johnson, you have to make the move, no matter how much it hurts”).
2. Endorsement of the 49ers Gio Carmazzi pick in the third round of the 2000 NFL draft.
3. Most recently, I was openly skeptical of the Klay Thompson draft pick, telling anyone who would listen that he looked like a one-dimensional player and we might as well have just kept Anthony Morrow.
But I believe there’s still a lesson here. Collectively these letters make a good case for fans to take a deep breath when hirings and firings are happening. Save the pitchforks and torches for the second season of a coach or GM’s losing tenure – third if the team was an enormous mess to begin with.
While fans are entitled to their opinions, genius often has an incubation period. And sometimes when the future looks bleaker than it has in years, good times are just around the corner …
Second-to-last thought. If you like thinking about this era of football, but thought this piece was too negative, you might enjoy my tribute to Paul Hofer.
Final thought: Please contact me at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com if you are one of the authors of these letters, and would like to further explain your position, take it back or (I’m hoping for this last one) double down on the original opinion. The 49ers would have won eight Super Bowls with Marc Wilson!
PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Follow him on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.Unknown gunmen who shot at supporters of the deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have killed at least two people, witnesses and health officials confirmed.
The attack early on Wednesday is the latest of several violent incidents over the past 48 hours, and adds to a death toll of more than 100 people since Morsi was removed by the military on July 3.
In a separate development on the same day, a bomb exploded at a police station in a province north of Cairo, killing one conscript, and wouning more than 15 people health officials said.
Unknown assailants threw the bomb from a passing car in Mansoura, the capital of Dakhalia province, security sources told Reuters.
The attack on the pro-Morsi crowd happened as a large group of marchers made their way through the Heliopolis area in the north of Cairo, said Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from the capital.
Many were also injured.
"They say that they came under attack by unknown gunmen who shot at them from an elevated point," our correspondent said. "They're reporting injuries among them. This again highlights the growing nature of intolerance towards those rallies of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of the deposed president."
Several men, some covered in blood, were treated on hospital trollies as others shouted and wept.
Footage of the aftermath showed one unconscious and bloodied protester being given CPR before doctors used a defibrillation machine to try and revive him.
The attack came a day after the interior ministry said that at least 12 people had been killed in Cairo clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi.
That violence broke out before dawn on Tuesday near a Muslim Brotherhood protest at Cairo University, where Morsi supporters have been camped out since his removal from power.
There were also street battles on Monday in which birdshot, gunfire and fire bombs were used.
Reconciliation talks
Later on Wednesday, "national reconciliation" sessions called for by the interim leader Adly Mansour are due to begin.
The Muslim Brotherhood has said it will boycott the talks, while a senior member of Al-Nour, Egypt's most powerful Salafi party, has told Al Jazeera that it will also not be attending.
"The Muslim Brotherhood rejected an invite to Wednesday's national reconciliation meeting. For them, the legitimate president of Egypt is Mohamed Morsi," said Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba in Cairo.
Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, who is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, tweeted a warning against the talks.
"Military coup government failed to stop bloodshed and detains tens of peaceful protestors every day and besieges media and closes its channel. Which reconciliation are you calling for?" he tweeted.
Earlier this week, Mansour renewed appeals for reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.
"We want to turn a new page in the country’s book with no hatred, no malice, no division," he said in a pre-recorded speech that also highlighted the importance of the army in Egypt's history.Conservative author Mark Steyn says the application of Occam’s razor to emails federal investigators found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop computer dictate that he was trying to inoculate himself against prosecution.
Law enforcement officials confirmed over the weekend that FBI Director James Comey secured a search warrant allowing agents to sift through thousands of documents linked to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s secret email server. Mr. Steyn said in a new op-ed titled “Occam’s Weiner” that reasonable people will conclude emails belonging to estranged wife and Clinton adviser Huma Abedin were necessary for a man who would send text messages to a teenage girl in North Carolina.
“Huma and Weiner are so close to the Clintons that they were married by Bill. To the casual observer, Mr Weiner was merely the Mini-Me to Bill Clinton’s distinguishing characteristics,” the best-selling author said Monday. “Alas, he lacked the Clintons’ luck, and never enjoyed the same level of protection. It’s not unreasonable to conclude that, somewhere in the latter stages of this bumpy half-decade descent, Anthony Weiner decided it might be prudent to have an insurance policy.”
Mr. Steyn, who is preparing to launch “The Mark Steyn Show” on CRTV, added that Mr. Weiner’s “insatiable sexual proclivities” over the years killed his political dreams and may soon cost him his freedom.
“He has very little standing between him and the abyss — other than what he knows about his wife and her patrons,” Mr. Steyn said. “And that’s the least worst interpretation. The other is that, given the world knew Huma Abedin’s husband has a taste for girls a third of his age, someone sooner or later was going to apply a little pressure to him. Maybe even those Russians the Democrats have been bleating on about for weeks.”
Mrs. Clinton’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, shared the same analysis in late August when it was announced that Mrs. Abedin would divorce her husband.
“I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” Mr. Trump wrote Aug. 29. “Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.”
Mr. Trump also published a prescient tweet Aug. 3 when he wrote, “It came out that Huma Abedin knows all about Hillary’s private illegal emails. Huma’s PR husband, Anthony Weiner, will tell the world.”
Democrats are furious with Mr. Comey for informing lawmakers Friday of the agency’s renewed investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s handling of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence between 2009 and 2013. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has demanded details as to what agents are reading since voters head to the polls Nov. 8.
“There’s a lot of noise and distraction, but it really comes down to the kind of future we want and who can get us there,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience Sunday at a gay nightclub in Florida, Reuters reported. “We don’t want a president who would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn marriage equality.”
It came out that Huma Abedin knows all about Hillary’s private illegal emails. Huma’s PR husband, Anthony Weiner, will tell the world. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2015
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The Bell Memorial (also known as the Bell Monument or Telephone Monument) is a memorial designed by Walter Seymour Allward to commemorate the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
In 1906, the citizens of the Brantford and Brant County areas formed the Bell Telephone Memorial Association, which commissioned the memorial. By 1908, the association's designs committee asked sculptors on two continents to submit proposals for the memorial. The submission by Canadian sculptor Walter Seymour Allward of Toronto won the competition. The memorial was originally scheduled for completion by 1912 but Allward, aided by his studio assistant Emanuel Hahn did not finish it until five years later. The Governor General of Canada, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, unveiled the memorial on 24 October 1917.
Allward designed the monument to symbolize the telephone's ability to overcome great distances. A series of steps lead to the main section where the floating allegorical figure of Inspiration appears over a reclining male figure representing Man, transmitting sound through space, discovering his power to transmit sound through space, and also pointing to three floating figures, the messengers of Knowledge, Joy, and Sorrow positioned at the other end of the tableau. Additionally, there are two female figures mounted on granite pedestals representing Humanity positioned to the left and right of the memorial, one sending and the other receiving a message.
The Bell Memorial has been described as the finest example of Allward's early work. The memorial itself has been used as a central fixture for many civic events and remains an important part of Brantford's history. It was provided a heritage designation under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2005 and listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2009.[1]
History [ edit ]
Alexander Graham Bell conceived the technical aspects of the telephone and invented it in July 1874, while residing with his parents at their farm, Melville House, now a National Historic Site of Canada.[3][Note 1] One of the first successful voice transmissions of any notable distance was made on 4 August 1876, between the telegraph office in Brantford, Ontario and Bell's father's homestead over makeshift wires. He later refined the telephone's design at Brantford after producing his first working prototype in Boston. Canada's first telephone factory, created by James Cowherd, was located in Brantford, and operated from about 1879 to 1881 leading to the informal designation as The Telephone City.
Memorial association established [ edit ]
Discussion of a monument to commemorate both Bell and his invention was first raised in Brantford in 1904 although the Bell Telephone Memorial Association was not formally established until 1906. After gaining Bell's approval, the association and its proposed memorial were publicly endorsed on 9 March 1906 at a banquet in Brantford Kirby House (later to become the Hotel Kirby), which Bell attended as a guest of honour.[7] That same year the association was formally organized and incorporated by an Act of the Legislature of Ontario with the stated aim of commemorating the invention of the telephone in Brantford and to name Bell as its inventor.[8] What was highly unusual in this instance was the building of an important monument to a living person, an event usually conducted only for imperial leaders.[9] The duality of the monument with its dedication to both the inventor and to his invention, with its emphasis on the latter, likely persuaded Alexander Graham Bell, normally modest, to accept the invitation to its public unveiling.[10]
The association was organized with the support of George, Prince of Wales (later King George V), Viceroy of India and former Governor-General of Canada Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, and the latter's successor Governor-General Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, plus an approximate dozen other prominent leaders in Canada and the United States, who endorsed the project with their backing.[8] Donald Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal became its first honorary president and upon his death, he was succeeded by the Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, a former Governor-General of Canada.[11] William Foster Cockshutt, the local federal Member of Parliament who had originally proposed the memorial in 1904, became the association's president, and was assisted by another MP, Lloyd Harris, who served as vice-president.[12][Note 2] The design selection committee was led by Byron Edmund Walker, a prominent Canadian banker, philanthropist and patron of the arts.[13][14]
The Association's public appeal quickly raised CA$35,000 within its first months, rising to $44,000 by September 1909, eventually collecting over $65,000 through donations from various citizens worldwide.[15][16] An additional federal contribution of $10,000 was supported in Canada's parliament by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier.[9][17][Note 3] In a city with a population of only 30,000, the fundraising needed for the monument was a major accomplishment.[10]
Selection committee choice [ edit ]
early concept drawing of the memorial and the Alexander Graham Bell Gardens, c.1909. Anof the memorial and the Alexander Graham Bell Gardens, c.1909.
Invitations were sent out to 22 sculptors in Europe, the United States and Canada in 1908, inviting them to submit models for the proposed monument.[19] By May 1909 either nine or ten models had been submitted.[Note 4] A designs committee was appointed by the association and selected the three best designs they favored from the models submitted. The committee asked a trio of outside judges, Sir Byron Edmund Walker of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto, New York State Senator George Allen Davis of Buffalo and Sir George Christie Gibbons of London, Ontario to make a final decision, all of whom were considered patrons of the arts.[8][11] After consideration a unanimous choice was made to award the commission to Walter Seymour Allward.[Note 5] The millionaire banker and philanthropist Sir Byron Walker was likely persuasive in swaying the unanimous decision to the sculptor. Walker had earlier contacted a prominent Brantford banker, praising Allward's previous works, and advised him that "because of the national character of the work I am particularly interested in the best possible outcome artistically".[22]
Lengthy delays and completion [ edit ]
The commission award for the memorial had been made in 1908 and a contract to Allward authorized in 1909, based on an initial cost estimate of $25,000 with the provision that the work would be completed by 1912.[16][15] Also in 1909 the association purchased Alexander Melville Bell's former homestead and farm, Melvile House, and transferred its ownership to the City of Brantford for conversion into a museum.[7][23]
Allward was assisted by his studio assistant, Emanuel Otto Hahn, another highly notable sculptor who worked on the monument with him until 1912 when Hahn left for the Ontario College of Art. The project proceeded slowly in part due to Allward's concurrent work on several other commissions at the same time, including the South African War Memorial, a major monument erected in Toronto. In April 1915 Allward reported to the committee that the two heroic figures to be mounted on pedestals had been successfully cast and that foundation work for the site had been tendered. But in regards to the central bronze casting, which was to become the largest ever created in North America up to that point,[24] he could not estimate when it would be complete, writing in a letter "I am giving all my time to it; I cannot do more. It is an important panel and cannot be too well done".[25] For various reasons the memorial was not completed until 1917, with World War I, material shortages, an embargo on exports of French moulding sand and transportation limitations creating lengthy delays.[16]
Unveiling of the Memorial [ edit ]
The unveiling of the Bell Memorial in October 1917, with Bell and dignitaries.
The Brantford monument was finally unveiled in a driving rain on 24 October 1917 by then Governor General of Canada Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire before an audience in the thousands.[13] The Governor General of Canada arrived in the city by train, along with the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario Sir John Hendrie, the Hon. Senator Robertson of the Privy Council, the Hon. W.D. McPherson of the Ontario Government and other notables. They were greeted by a children's chorus, honour guards, the band of the 125th (Brantford) Battalion and the chimes of Grace Anglican Church located only a few dozen metres from the memorial. Also in attendance in full war regalia was Chief A.R. Hill of the Six Nations Tribes of the Grand River, where Bell, not long after his arrival in Canada, had been made an honorary tribal chief.[Note 6]
As a public holiday had been declared for the unveiling, the city's normal activities were shut down for the entire day.[28] After the Governor-General completed his address at the monument and unveiled its shrouds, he withdrew to the city's Old Opera House due to the driving rain, along with large numbers of the crowd. The ceremonies were continued indoors in the city's opera theatre, with Bell addressing the audience again twice more at both the opera house and during a formal reception meal held at the Kerby House. Others spoke with Bell, including his former associate from the Aerial Experiment Association, J.A.D. McCurdy, Gilbert Grosvenour, president of the National Geographic Society, and other dignitaries.[13][28]
Alexander Graham Bell (in both of his addresses that day) reminded the attendees that "Brantford is right in claiming the invention of the telephone here... [which was] conceived in Brantford in 1874 and born in Boston in 1875", and later addressing the Duke, said "...on behalf of the Association...in presenting to His Excellency [with] a silver telephone... I hope that in using it he will remember that the telephone originated in Brantford and that the first transmission to a distance was made between Brantford and Paris."[8][13][Note 7][31] In appreciation to the people of Brantford, Bell's wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, made a contribution of $500 to the city's support fund for its soldiers then fighting in Europe.[32]
Memorial [ edit ]
At the time of its unveiling, the memorial was one of the most impressive monuments of the day in Canada, designed to depict the vast distances on the Earth being "annihilated" by the telephone. The allegorical style of the monument's figures depicts several aspects of the telephone in its worldwide use. Its most striking feature is its broad, main bronze cast panel, approximately seven and a half metres wide and two and a half metres high, which portray "....the elusive dream of the inventor's youth—Inspiration whispering to Man, his power to transmit sound through space.[Note 8] Three ephemeral ghostly figures, two of which are cast in mid-relief and one in high (alto-rilievo) relief, depict Knowledge, Joy and Sorrow, transmitted to man by the telephone. Two heroic figures flanking the broad flight of steps leading up to the monument symbolize humanity sending and receiving a message."[33]
The Memorial is located within the Bell Memorial Gardens of Bell Memorial Park at 41 West Street in the City of Brantford.[34] The monument itself is located on a gore of land forming a near-triangularly shaped public park. The triangular plot of land in front of the monument was transformed into a park, with its embankments being sodded. The panel in front of the gore which contains the monument is a smaller gore which has been artistically laid out as a park, the entire area being named as the Bell Memorial Gardens.[8]
The model of Man, transmitting sound through space [ edit ]
Allegorical 'Inspiration' and 'Man', communicating, with the vastness of the Earth depicted by the curvatures on its cast bronze panel., with the vastness of the Earth depicted by the curvatures on its cast bronze panel.
The model for 'Man, discovering his power to transmit sound through space', was Cyril William George Kinsella a wounded war veteran and a former resident of Brantford.[13][14] Kinsella served as Allward's nude model representing Man after being severely injured in the European conflict.[35] Born in the UK he had become one of approximately 100,000 disadvantaged British children and orphans, a "Home Child", sent to Canada and other Commonwealth countries to find better lives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After arriving in Ontario in 1908 he resided in a series of Fegan Homes (named after James William Condell Fegan of Britain), including one in Toronto where he likely later met Allward. Kinsella eventually settled in Brantford County to perform farmwork. Underaged, but a healthy 178 centimetres (5 ft 10 in) in height in 1914, he enlisted in Brantford's 125th Battalion for service overseas where he fought in Belgium and France with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I.[14]
Kinsella was wounded and shell-shocked at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium and, after being invalided and discharged back to Canada in 1916, met Allward in Toronto while convalescing and then worked as his model, saying later "The posing was exacting and took about two months."[36] Kinsella subsequently became bored with civilian life and reenlisted with the Canadian Army, returning to Europe. He was serving with the 1st Canadian Division, Fourth Battalion near the northern French village of St. Marie Chappell at the time of the memorial's unveiling in Brantford. He later returned to Canada at the end of the war, but did not view himself on the memorial until 27 years later, in May 1946.[14][36]
Other monument features [ edit ]
At the memorial's crest is a series of steps leading to the main portion of the monument, a wide mass of white Stanstead granite, faced by the largest single bronze casting created up to that time, which taxed the capacity of its foundry. The sculptor sought to bring out, as the dominant note, the discovery by man of his power to transmit sound through space. Above the reclining figure of man is Inspiration,[Note 9] urging him on to greater endeavors, while, at the other end of the panel are the messengers of Knowledge, Joy and Sorrow, communicating to man by telephone. On both sides of the main portion of the monument are two "heroic" female figures representing humanity in bronze on granite mounts, one depicted in the act of sending, the other of receiving a message over the telephone. The two female figures were positioned some distance apart in order to denote the telephone's power to traverse great distances. Uniting the entire work together is the line of the earth's curvature on the bronze casting, depicting the extent of the telephone's worldwide use.[37] Allward's original proposed design for the monument also included the flags of the greatest nations of the world,[35] a modern element that was likely omitted as it would detract from the monument's neoclassical design.
The rear side of the monument contains a small stone foundation with bullfrog gargoyles; while cut in the stone, on pilasters, are representations of the British Crown and the Maple Leaf. On the rear, also, was placed a bronze plaque giving the names of the patrons and the executive committee of the Association. In the present day the plaque is now found on the side of the rightmost granite mount for one of the heroic figures. The foundation, steps, pedestals and walls are composed of durable Stanstead granite.[8] On the main portion, to the right and left, two circular panels are inscribed: "Hoc Opus Machinae Patri Dedicatum Est" (this monument has been dedicated to the author of the invention) and "Mundus Telephonici Usu Recreatus Est." (the world has been recreated using the telephone).[13][38] Beneath the central bronze casting is a large carved inscription: "To commemorate the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford 1874."[39] Upon its public unveiling the Bell Memorial created a stir of controversy with its abstract allegorical interpretations.[19] Upon first viewing the bronze tableau, one observer in the crowds remarked on the two main figures on its left side, Man the Inventor and Inspiration. "It looks to me..." he spoke to his friend, "...like an angel trying to pull along a pig-headed Englishman."[40] The monument also launched its designer-sculptor to fame. It was designed and crafted under Walter Seymour Allward (1875–1955), likely Canada's best monumental sculptor of the era.[41][Note 10] Besides the Bell Memorial he created numerous other important monumental works, his greatest being the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Pas-de-Calais, France, commemorating Canada's sacrifices and human losses in the First World War, a project he worked on 16 years until its completion in 1936.[41] The Bell Memorial is located within the Bell Memorial Gardens, a small park in downtown Brantford, in an area originally slated to be the city's new municipal centre, but which was subsequently built further away.[42] Other names considered for the park but which were not accepted included Bell Circle, Graham Bell Park and Prince George Park.[15]
Reception [ edit ]
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque added in 2010 honouring Allward's work.
Allward's memorial has been described as "a tour de force".[18] One resident described the imagery of the oversized figures on its bronze panel, saying that it "...depicts a mythical passing of the spark of communication from the hands of the gods to the hands of humans".[43] The memorial has served as an important gathering point, landmark and commemoration site for Brantford, used to rally people for fund-raising events, marches and civic events. At the Armistice of World War I, it became a spontaneous gathering point for celebration. It was also used to help raise funds for Brantford's First World War Cenotaph, another of Walter Allward's works.[19]
The memorial received historical designation for its cultural heritage value, by the City of Brantford on 31 October 2005, under the Ontario Heritage Act.[37] It was also designated and listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places on 12 January 2009.[44] In 2010 both Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada celebrated Allward's work by affixing a plaque to the monument honouring the sculptor himself. It noted Allward's designation as a person of national historic significance due to his "...original sense of spatial composition, his mastery of the classical form and his brilliant craftsmanship."[45]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Image copyright Thinkstock
Bonfire Night was "marred" by a number of attacks on firefighters across Scotland, the fire service has said.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) crews had missiles and fireworks thrown at them as they attended incidents.
One firefighter was hit by a stone in Bingham, Edinburgh, as his crew helped tackle a rubbish fire.
In Greenock, firefighters were forced to withdraw after they were attacked with missiles. The fire service said "thankfully" no-one had been injured.
Crews were sent to 970 incidents between 16:00 and midnight on Saturday on what the fire service said was its busiest night of the year.
SFRS assistant chief officer Lewis Ramsay said: "Attacks on emergency responders are completely unacceptable and I am sure the public would be outraged by incidents where their firefighters have been targeted while working to protect people and property.
"Those responsible should know that the authorities take these criminal actions extremely seriously and we will work closely with police to ensure they are identified and held to account.
"We will continue our efforts to bring about a reduction in these dangerous actions by a small number of individuals."
The Fire Brigades Union has strongly condemned the attacks.
The leader of the FBU in Scotland, Chris McGlone, said: "These appalling attacks must stop and we fully support the police's efforts to find those responsible and to ensure these criminal acts are punished.
"Firefighters do not deserve to be treated in this manner and we believe that it is only a matter of time before a firefighter is very seriously injured at one of these incidents."
Crews were attacked by a group of youths in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, at about 19:30, where a stone damaged an appliance in New England Road.
A similar attack was carried out in Fore Street Glasgow at about 19:50, as firefighters were responding to reports of a bonfire.
Groups also threw fireworks at fire crews in the Balgrayhill area of Glasgow and in Durban Avenue in Clydebank.
There were further attacks in Stirling, Stenhousemuir in Falkirk and the Sighthill area of Edinburgh.
Emergency response
The SFRS said crews also attended dozens of other incidents, including a large hedge fire in Muir of Ord, Highland, bonfires in Dundee and a number of wheelie bin fires in Aberdeen
Assistant chief officer Ramsay added: "Our crews responded to 970 incidents on Bonfire Night and over 300 bonfires.
"Bonfire Night is typically the service's busiest night of the year, but in addition to numerous bonfires firefighters continue to respond to the full range of emergencies we face on a daily basis.
"Our frontline crews and operations control personnel are extremely dedicated and I would like to pay tribute to their professionalism, skill and hard work which enabled them to help protect communities across the country."* Grillo’s movement elects mayor in Parma in stunning victory
* Former comic campaigns for Italy to default and quit euro
* Says Parma is a stepping stone to 2013 national vote
* Movement snubs TV and organises through Internet
By Gavin Jones
ROME, May 21 (Reuters) - Italy’s political parties had hoped Beppe Grillo would fade away, but the comic who rails against their corruption and ineptitude and says Italy should default on its debt and quit the euro is going from strength to strength.
In local elections on Monday, Grillo’s Five-Star Movement shook Italian politics by winning control of the northern city of Parma and several smaller towns, capitalising on voter discontent with economic stagnation and austerity.
Increasingly popular at a time when support for mainstream parties is slipping, the protest movement - Grillo insists it is not a “party” - campaigns to clean up politics and business, promote clean energy and dismantle monopolies and privileges.
It has a mastery of the Internet and social media that is light years in advance of any of the traditional parties.
Polls say the movement has become Italy’s third largest political force and its growing impact echoes the success of outsiders elsewhere in Europe, as the economic crisis has eaten away at the credibility of old-style party systems.
In prosperous Parma, famous for its ham and cheese, the movement’s candidate Federico Pizzarotti exceeded all expectations by coming from behind in a run-off ballot to take around 60 percent of the vote against his centre-left rival.
In typically aggressive style Grillo, 63, said Parma was the “Stalingrad” of the parties, a reference to a decisive defeat for Hitler in World War Two, and warned that their definitive “Berlin” would come at next year’s national vote.
Political scientist James Walston of the American University of Rome, called the result “a real slammer” and said the traditional parties would have to try to “rebrand and re-present themselves” if they wanted to halt Grillo’s ascent.
With his mane of unruly white hair and beard, Grillo lays into left- and right-leaning parties alike, as well as the technocrat government of Mario Monti. He has dubbed the understated Monti “Rigor Montis”, and says he represents the interests of banks rather than citizens.
He made his name as a stand-up comedian in the northern city of Genoa, but is now far better known for his vitriolic attacks against the ruling classes, usually delivered in a frenzied, hoarse voice before thousands of followers in Italy’s piazzas.
MANSLAUGHTER
Grillo himself does not run for office, having been convicted for manslaughter after three passengers died when the jeep he was driving skidded off the road in 1981.
He never appears on political talk shows and also bans his movement’s candidates from doing so, to avoid them being associated with the “zombies” representing traditional parties.
The average age of the four mayors elected by the Five-Star Movement on Monday was 31, in contrast to the gerontocratic world of Italian politics.
According to Grillo, Pizzarotti’s victory in Parma was achieved with a campaign budget of just 6,000 euros.
Having tried in vain to dismiss him as an “anti-political” demagogue, mainstream politicians have recently begun to acknowledge him as a legitimate rival and even to claim affinity with his movement’s goals.
Mariastella Gelmini, education minister under Silvio Berlusconi’s former government, said Grillo’s appeal to ordinary voters was reminiscent of media tycoon Berlusconi when he entered politics in 1994.
At its first political test in 2010 the Five-Star Movement, which organises itself through the Internet and social networks, won just 1.8 percent of the vote, rising to 3.4 percent at Milan’s mayoral election the following year.
It is now credited with around 12 percent at the national level, making it a major force in Italy’s highly fragmented political landscape ahead of national elections due next spring.
Grillo says Monti is driving Italy into poverty simply to try to pay back its 1.9-trillion-euro ($2.52-trillion) debt, the world’s fourth-largest, which is mostly held by banks.
“If we had the lira, in one night we could write two lines on a piece of paper and devalue by 30 percent, and then we could all start over. As things are now, we can’t make it,” Grillo told Reuters in a recent interview.
While Grillo’s powerful invective and rhetorical skills make him an ideal front man, many analysts point out that his movement’s followers, often young professionals, tend to be far more down to earth and pragmatic.
“Beppe Grillo is our megaphone, the citizens of parliament elected me and certainly not Beppe Grillo,” said Pizzarotti.One of the major acquisitions for the library was the “books of Aristotle,” concerning which there are two conflicting accounts. According to Athenaeus, Philadelphus purchased that collection for a large sum of money, whereas Strabo reported that Aristotle’s books passed on in succession through different hands, until they were later confiscated in 86 bce by Sulla, |
up on the Umatilla Reservation in the eastern part of what the U.S. government calls Oregon, are indeed proud of their home–and themselves for “making it out.”
“It’s almost sickening how much talent is [on the reservation],” Shoni, the older sister, told Louisville’s Courier-Journal in 2011. “I am very proud of who I am and where I came from, but I wanted to be one of the ones that made it out. My job is to play basketball, and I love doing it.” Tonight, the sisters and their University of Louisville teammates will compete with the University of Connecticut for the national title. Here, we offer a 6-point glimpse into the role basketball plays in many Native communities.
1. “Rezball” is a big thing.
Students at the Quileute Tribal School in La Push, Wash., hoop it up just yards away from the Pacific Ocean in August 2011. (Tony Overman/The Olympian/MCT via Getty Images)
Basketball is such a huge deal on many Native American reservations that it has its own name: rezball. The slang term describes either the game itself or an uptempo style of play. To nurture young rezballers, the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) holds annual tournaments throughout the Southwest. “People come out in droves – the old, the young,” Dave Archambault, former head coach of the Lakota Regulators club team in South Dakota, told ESPN in 2009. “When there’s a little rivalry, everybody just loves it.”
2. Like the history of reservations, the beginnings of basketball in Native American communities isn’t pretty.
Navaho boys learn to play basketball on February 1, 1948. (Photo by Leonard Mccombe//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania produced one of the first major Native American basketball teams in the country. Founded in 1879, about two decades before the invention of the sport, Carlisle, like subsequent federal boarding schools, had a blantantly racist mission: to “civilize” Native Americans by extracting their sons and daughters from their households and keeping the children on a campus where they were punished for speaking their native languages or using their names. Carlisle is best known for its football team coached by Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner, but it was a basketball powerhouse as well. The school closed in 1918.
3. Native American basketball is the stuff of fine literature.
Left: Student on the Navajo Reservation in Monument Valley, Utah, plays basketball in 1995. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images) Right: Cover of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (Little Brown & Co.)
Award-winning Native American novelist and poet Sherman Alexie writes beautifully about basketball. Among his most celebrated work is the young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which follows a basketball-loving Native boy’s first year at a rich, white private high school as he deals with his family’s struggles on the reservation. The author had this to say about his love of the game: “My father was a basketball player, so I loved basketball because he did,” Alexie told PBS. “It was a direct transference. But, more than that, basketball, in the United States at least, plays the same function that soccer does everywhere else in the world. It’s the sport of poverty. It’s the sport born of poverty. It’s the cheapest sport.”
4. Nike designed a basketball shoe specifically for Native American players. Yeah, you read that correctly.
Tahnee Robinson, the second American Indian to reach the highest professional league level for female basketball players, wears Nike N7s. She is proudly enrolled with the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana and is Eastern Shoshone, Pawnee and Sioux as well. (Nike)
A few years ago Nike released the Nike N7, also dubbed “Air Native,” which featured white leather with pinstripe detailing alongside blue, orange, and black accents. The shoe is just one part of Nike’s larger campaign to market its products to Native American communities directly. It lists St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford as a campaign ambassador along with Oregon State University basketball coach Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother. So, why the campaign? According to Nike’s website, “N7 is our committment to bring the sport and all of its benefits to Native American and Aboriginal communities in the USA and Canada.”
5. Ryneldi Becenti is a trailblazer.
Ryneldi Becenti was a star point guard at Arizona State in the 1990s. She eventually played professionally in Europe and in the WNBA, and in 1996 she became the first and only woman inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame. Becenti, who grew up watching both of her parents play in basketball tournaments, now works as a teacher and a coach in Ganado, Ariz. When The New York Times recently caught up with her, she detailed how the Schimmels are making history. “It’s a very rare position they’re in to excel at this level,” Becenti said. “I don’t think I’ve heard of any Native American women getting to the Final Four, especially being the biggest part of the team.” (Photo: Arizona State)
6. There’s a riveting documentary about rezball out in the world.
Shoni Schimmel is Louisville’s leading scorer, but back when she was 16 she was the subject of a riveting documentary called “Off the Rez.” The film follows Schimmel during her junior season in high school as she tries to become the first person from Umatilla to earn an athletic scholarship to college.Pro-Europeans will this weekend launch a final push to ensure as many opponents of a hard Brexit as possible become MPs in next week’s general election.
Open Britain, with 550,000 supporters the country’s biggest pro-European campaign group, will appeal to voters to back candidates keeping an “open mind” on Brexit in case public opinion changes. It is targeting thousands of voters through social media and grassroots campaigning in key seats.
The successor to the Remain camp in last year’s referendum, which now urges a soft Brexit, wants the UK to retain close links to the EU and argues against leaving with “no deal”, as Theresa May is prepared to do to avoid a “bad deal.”
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Open Britain is targeting three groups – Leave and Remain voters who accept the referendum result but are concerned about the effect on jobs; Remainers who still oppose Brexit; and young people concerned about Brexit’s impact on their freedoms such as working, travelling and studying in Europe.
It declined to disclose its budget but it will run to thousands of pounds. Targeted ads in pro-Remain and marginally Leave areas, and other ads aimed at 18-26 year-olds, will reach one million people. National posts on social media channels have already been seen by 7.7 million people, a figure expected to rise to 10 million by next Thursday. Some 11 million people will have seen a graphic from the group by then.
The constituencies most targeted on social media are Esher and Walton; Altrincham and Sale West; Wokingham; York Outer; Chingford and Woodford Green; Enfield Southgate; Chipping Barnet; Lewes; Bristol North West; Hendon and Wycombe – all held by the Conservatives.
A “don’t write the Government a blank cheque on Brexit” graphic targets Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, London and Oxford. A “this is a Brexit election” message is running in Durham, Leeds, Nottingham, Plymouth and Sheffield, while a video aimed at young adults targets Bristol, Canterbury, Leeds, Nottingham and Reading.
The group’s “key seats” strategy urges its supporters to campaign for candidates who keep an open mind on Brexit in seats near where the supporters live.
However, the campaign ran into controversy when its Conservative supporters withdrew their backing for Open Britain in protest at what they saw as an anti-Tory move. They included the former ministers Nicky Morgan, Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve.
Tory sources believe the campaign will have limited impact, and accuse the group of refusing to accept the referendum verdict. They point to the Liberal Democrats’ failure to improve their opinion poll ratings – currently averaging 8 per cent, their same share of the vote at the 2015 election – despite targeting the 48 per cent who voted Remain in last year’s referendum. A YouGov survey found that only 22 per cent now oppose Brexit, while a total of 68 per cent of Leavers and former Remainers now want the Government to “get on with it”.
Tory hopes of winning the votes of Leave supporters have also been boosted by Ukip’s decision to contest only 378 seats – down from 624 at the 2015 election.
Joe Carberry, co-executive director of Open Britain, who will leave the group this month for a new role in the private sector, said: “Through social media and local campaigning we’ve been urging pro-European activists across the country to make their voices heard. The Government perpetuates the lie that Brexit is cost-free, but already this is starting to unravel. Brexit gains will be shown to be fictional and the costs substantial, not least because of decisions this government has taken, which is why many will want to support candidates who will hold them to account.”
He added: “The Tories’ catastrophic campaign has undermined confidence in their ability to conduct Brexit negotiations, so denying them a blank cheque is essential. The main pro-European groups, such as Open Britain, will have a vital role in this at this election and beyond.”
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Subscribe now.From the imperial concrete bunker known as Boston City Hall, Mayor Martin J. Walsh is doing what incumbents always do: working overtime to limit his opponent’s exposure to voters and his own exposure to scrutiny.
With that dual mission in mind, the mayor has decreed that he will participate in only two televised debates with City Councilor Tito Jackson. What makes political sense for Walsh, however, is a disservice to Boston voters, not to mention democracy.
Jackson asked Walsh to participate in four debates. In response to that very reasonable request, Walsh campaign manager John T. Laadt sent a letter dripping with the disdain that goes along with a big lead in the polls. “We understand your frustration with the state of the race so far, but Mayor Walsh has spoken to thousands of Bostonians about his plan for the next four years and will speak to thousands more before the election is over,” wrote Laadt.
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Speaking to Bostonians via canned events is not the same as being held accountable on a debate stage. Walsh can celebrate the start of “Manufacturing Month” at the Dorchester Brewing Company. But that’s not the same as fielding questions about income inequality in a city increasingly defined by it. Backing a plan to commission a monument to Martin Luther King Jr. is a welcome mayoral gesture of inclusion. But it doesn’t explain the achievement gap between black and white students in Boston public schools. As mayor, Walsh can make an important play for Amazon to build a second headquarters in Boston. But it doesn’t erase the need to address the hard economic reality for those citizens and businesses left out of the boom.
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Meanwhile, who knows if Walsh will even follow through on his commitment to two televised debates? Citing scheduling difficulties, he backed out of a promise to participate in a debate before the preliminary election. A face-to-face debate that was scheduled to take place on Oct. 10 on WBZ News Radio with host Dan Rea was canceled after the union representing WBZ-TV technicians, photographers, and master control operators went public with its contract dispute and asked the candidates to boycott the event. Both agreed. After all, no Democrat running for office can afford to offend labor in Walsh’s Boston.
The turnout on September’s preliminary election day was an absymal 14 percent. Celebrating his 63 percent share of the 56,000 people who cast votes, Walsh said, “I look forward to six great weeks of positive conversations in every single neighborhood.” If he truly wants to maximize those conversations, he should agree to more than two televised debates.Glenn Beck fans who are used to tuning into his radio show on SiriusXM’s Patriot Channel 125 are in for a rude awakening: his show is no longer being carried on the channel. Beck’s former 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. slot on Patriot will now belong to talker David Webb.
Sirius has not dropped Beck altogether, instead relegating his show to channel 132, which until recently carried traffic reports for the Boston, DC, and Philadelphia metro areas. Joining Beck on the channel is everyone’s favorite money guru, Dave Ramsey.
No offense to Ramsey, but this move seems like a demotion of sorts for Beck. Patriot is known to be the home of some of the conservative movement’s biggest powerhouses, including Sean Hannity and Mark Levin; other offerings include Andrew Wilkow’s show and NRA News’ Cam & Company.
What does this mean for Beck? Well, probably not a whole heck of a lot considering he owns his own media company. And it may simply be retribution for a long-simmering dispute between Beck and Sirius, which started last year when author Brad Thor appeared on Beck’s show and used some language that was construed as a threat toward then-candidate Donald Trump.
But it could also mean that SiriusXM is looking for an excuse to phase out the show permanently.Summer may be on its way out, but that doesn’t mean bold colors and bright stories have to go with it. Just look at the rich smattering of graphic novels headed your way this fall, with offerings from Neil Gaiman, Brian Selznick, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Adrian Tomine, and Derf Backderf.
Ann Tenna, Marisa Acocella Marchetto
Marchetto—who memorably chronicled her bout with breast cancer in her last book—is back with a stunning, funny graphic novel about a top gossip columnist who questions her career after an encounter with her double from a parallel universe. (Sept. 1)
Honor Girl, Maggie Thrash
The Rookie writer has created an unflinching coming-of-age memoir about finding unexpected love at an all-girls camp. (Sept. 8)
The Marvels, Brian Selznick
In Selznick’s first book since Wonderstruck, two story lines about an English family—one completely in pictures, one in words—converge. (Sept.15)
The Sleeper and the Spindle, Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell
Gaiman’s gorgeous words and Riddell’s illustrations combine to dazzling effect in this bitterly funny, reimagined fairy tale. (Sept. 22)
Killing and Dying, Adrian Tomine
Tomine’s graphic story collection is an emotional meditation on mortality, family, and the creative life. (Oct. 6)
City of Clowns, Daniel Alarcón
Artist Sheila Alvarado illuminates Alarcón’s poignant story about a tabloid journalist in Lima, Peru, who records the lives of the street clowns roaming the city. (Nov. 3)
Trashed, Derf Backderf
From the creator of My Friend Dahmer comes a fascinating and hilarious paean to trash collectors that will change the way you see garbage day. (Nov. 3)
For the rest of our Fall Books Preview, pick up this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, or subscribe online at ew.com/allaccess.
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• Beach reads: 15 heart-stopping thrillers to dive into this summerThe Prince Albert piercing style is named after Prince Albert of England, the husband of Queen Victoria. It is believed that the monarch had this type of piercing.
In the early 1800s, tight trousers were a popular style for men. To prevent an unsightly bulge, men would often have a ring inserted in their penis that could be attached to a hook inside their pants. This ring, called a dressing ring, would allow the men to keep their genitals tucked neatly to one side. It is believed that Queen Victoria's husband had such a piercing.
Prior to Prince Albert's era, genital piercings were not uncommon in India. Spiritual men, called fakirs, would insert rings and hooks in their genitals. They attached weights to these rings or hooks to lengthen their penis to unnatural lengths. The fakirs would charge a fee to spectators interested in gazing upon their unusually large appendages.A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you a selection of lesser known music players for locally stored media that had some special powers and functions. However, playback and streaming aren't the only functions a music aficionado looks for, especially when your favorite app sometimes lacks a certain functionality. So how do you fill this void, or how do you improve on your basic listening experience? Here are 10 utilities that can be used in conjunction with your preferred music apps to complement them.
Viper4Android (Root only)
This entire article stemmed from the comments mentioning Viper4Android that we received on the original music player selection post. This magical tool apparently does wonders for the playback quality on your phone. I say apparently because it requires a rooted device and geeky maneuvers to install — my rooting and modding days are far behind me, I don't have the time for that anymore.
Not having personally tested Viper4Android (and not being an audiophile to begin with), I can only rely on the thousands of positive comments the app has received on XDA Developers to recommend it. The app claims to make your music seem lossless, enhance its quality through headphones (and also speakers recently), improve fidelity, bass, and clarity, set up different options for the left and right channels, and more.
Viper4Android isn't for the faint of heart. You'll have to dig in its XDA thread for the setup instructions, the explanation of its various settings, and the download links. But its cult-like user following shows that it could be worth it. Oh, and there's a Material mod too in case you are allergic to Holo.
iSyncr : iTunes Sync (Pro)
Before you start listening to your songs, you need to access it on your device. There's your Google Play Music library, various streaming apps, manual copying of your music files, and automatic synchronization from your computer. For the latter, and in case you use iTunes like I do, my recommendation always goes to iSyncr.
It's the type of set-it-and-forget-it app that does its magic in the background without you ever worrying about it again. It works on Windows and Mac, transfers music over WiFi or USB (including MTP), and comes with a smorgasbord of options to tailor it to your needs, including playlist selection, default storage locations, and synchronization scheduling.
I especially appreciate its play and skip count logging, and embedded lyrics and ratings synchronization. Most of them are important factors in my iTunes smart playlists so keeping them updated is crucial. Used in conjunction with Rocket Player, this is almost as seamless of an Android-iTunes experience as you would get were you to own an iOS device.
Alternative: MediaMonkey
Headset Menu
Now that you have your music on your device, you want to start listening to it. Many players have a built-in option that launches them automatically when you connect your wired or Bluetooth headphones, but if your app of choice doesn't or the options there aren't granular enough for you, there's Headset Menu. Okay, there's Tasker too, but that's only if you know how to navigate that daunting app.
It can launch a default music player when it detects your headphones or provide you with a notification to pick one among a preselected list. It also adjusts the volume to your liking. And if you don't want the notification to be triggered when you're connected to Bluetooth speakers, you can blacklist them. Headset Menu also comes with a widget, icon pack support, and some settings over the looks and feel of the notification. And while the Play Store's screenshots still show a Holo design, the app is already updated with Material Design elements.
Alternative: Headphone Connect, Headset Droid (with headset button customization)
SoundSeeder Music Player
The idea of using multiple devices on the same WiFi network as speakers for your music was popularized by Samsung, but SoundSeeder brings it to all Android devices. Say you want to share the latest and hottest Selena Gomez (I ain't judgin') song with your friends, you can either play it on your phone's speaker and hope — in case it doesn't have BoomSound — that everyone will hear it clearly, or you can use SoundSeeder.
Install the app on both devices (more can be used if you purchase the $4.49 Premium IAP), make sure they are on the same network, start playback on one device and switch the second one to Speaker Mode in the app. Music flows like fairy dust between both and you get a stereo sound experience. Trust me, the first time you demo the app to people, their first reaction is, "But, but, I don't have that song on my phone. How?!" Yeah, I know tricks.
The app comes with a few settings, online radio access, and could possibly be used as a standalone player, but it isn't really spectacular in that aspect. It's better left for those music sharing instances.
WAIL Beta — last.fm scrobbler
Maybe last.fm's glorious days are behind it. Maybe there's no need for its scrobbling and stats in this age of modern streaming services and their powerful recommendation engines. But I have used it for years and I will continue to do so. It knows my music history better than iTunes and Play Music combined and has always suggested many cool artists and bands to me. If you're like me and you prefer to scrobble your songs to last.fm, you might find the option in your player of choice. But what if it isn't, as is the case with Google Play Music?
That's where WAIL beta comes into play. It's an open source, elegant last.fm scrobbler that monitors music playback from a variety of apps (with the option to ignore some if you need to), lets you set up the time or percentage at which it sends the song to last.fm, and supports the service's Now Listening and Loved Track features. All of that with minimal permission requests and with the developer being named Artem. Not our Artem, but... still.
The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch
Don't Pause!
There's nothing worse than being interrupted in the middle of a cool song or jam by dozens of notifications from people who want to discuss the color of that damned dress. It could be green and red for all you care, why do they want to ruin your mood? Well, luckily, if you have Don't Pause! your phone can do a magical behind-the-scenes switch of your settings when you're listening to music. It removes the notification sound and sets it to vibrate (or silent) so your music doesn't pause no matter how many emails or messages your receive. Stop playback and the notification sound comes back to normal.
You could definitely set a similar rule in any automation app such as Tasker, but Don't Pause! makes it easier, especially if you consider the Pro features that let you auto-start the service upon connecting wired, Bluetooth, or USB headphones.
Wear Music Controller
If you have an Android Wear watch, chances are that you enjoy controlling the music playback there instead of fumbling for your phone. After all, it's really cool to be able to leave your device on a desk or dock, connected to a set of speakers, and move freely while still maintaining control over your music. Wear integrates quite well with most players, but if you want more, there's Wear Music Controller.
It lets you launch specific music apps and playlists — which is even more awesome — directly from the watch and use voice commands and bigger control icons, both of which come in handy when you're driving, running, or otherwise unable to select with precision an element on your watch's screen.
You can also pick between multiple layouts on the watch, and best of all, the notification can hide itself after a certain amount of time with no music. Wear Music Controller has a free trial for 4 days so you can make sure the app has all that you need before you commit to the full $1.99 license.
Alternative: Music Boss For Wear
NextSong - Music Notifications
NextSong's claim to fame comes from its use of Lollipop's floating notifications. Why would you have to drop down your notification shade to see the current playing track when your phone already has a built-in system to layer the information on top of your screen?
NextSong harnesses that power to let you know what track has just started playing, which is handy when you have shuffle mode on or you're streaming a recommendations-generated playlist. In the free version, NextSong has a limited set of options: notification duration, themes, whether to show a list of compatible music players when a headset is plugged (à la Headset Menu above), and the notification can only be pinned or hidden.
The Pro version unlocks music controls in the notification, letting you quickly dismiss a song or repeat the previous one, and the possibility of excluding notifications when you're in certain apps. That's cool for avoiding interruptions while playing games for example.
Slightly similar apps: Music Control, Jack's Music Widget
BrainWave Music Control (beta)
Back in 2008 or 2009, I remember using an app on my Nokia Nseries (running Symbian) to control music playback with nothing but gestures detected by the front camera. 6 to 7 years later, it's still as mystical to wave in front of your phone and have the music unbelievably respond to you, Minority Report-style.
Brainwave is the kind of app that allows it on Android, and it's as simple as possible: a set of instructions followed by a menu to pick the music player (among many supported ones) to control. That's it. The magic happens when the service runs in the background and you're working, driving, your hands are dirty, or you can't exactly reach or fumble with your phone. One wave and the music obeys. But make sure your whole hand is at a 30cm (12") distance in front of the camera. I never had problems triggering the FF or RW controls, but pausing and playing is a bit finicky until you find the right way — and distance — to do it.
Sleep Timer (Turn music off)
So you've been playing your music for a couple of hours and you're ready to fall asleep now. Most players have a built-in sleep timer, but if your choice player doesn't or if you want more power over how the music stops, then this app is for you.
First of all, Sleep Timer understands that you will use it before you head to sleep, so it has a very dark theme with only the timer in bright shifting yellow, green, and blue colors. It lets you set a countdown and start it with as few taps as possible. A notification runs then, with buttons to stop the timer or extend it. When the countdown hits zero, the music slowly fades and then stops, closing the app and returning to the homescreen.
My favorite feature of Sleep Timer is the shake to extend, which quickly adds more time, so if you know that you're still a way off from falling asleep, you can easily add another 10 minutes of playback. The app is free with ads, but you can remove them and get a nice widget to boot after you donate to the developer.
As with all roundups of this nature, we always say that this is but a small selection of apps among the sea of different options and alternatives in the Play Store. So what are your favorite music utilities?In the early 1990s, two mates were driving from Taranna on the Tasman Peninsula to Hobart. They were roughly halfway, when one of them yelled urgently to the driver, 'Stop, stop! Tasmanian tiger!' They turned the car around and went back to investigate, but there was no sign. A few kilometres further along the road they pulled into a service station. The driver, anxious not to ask a leading question, inquired of the guy behind the counter whether anyone had spotted Tasmanian Devils recently in the area. 'I don't know about that,' the man replied, 'but someone saw a Tasmanian Tiger a couple of days ago!'
The chap who related this story to me was the driver that night. These days he works in conservation and is measured when imparting knowledge in his field. He's had more birthdays than he'd probably care to count, and did not strike me as a man prone to exaggeration. He quietly and calmly told me he thinks there are still thylacines alive in Tasmania. He still hasn't seen one, but he believes.
It's not difficult to find stories such as his; ever since 1936, in fact, when the alleged last remaining tiger died in Hobart zoo, and right up to the present. Col Bailey's Lure of the Thylacine: True Stories and Legendary Tales of the Tasmanian Tiger collects together many variations on the theme across the island.
On a visit to Tasmania in 2012, I bought another book, Thylacine: the Tragic Tale of the Tasmanian Tiger, by David Owen. If you don't know much about Tassie's tiger, this is a good start. I was instantly captivated by the subject matter. Or maybe I should say re-captivated. My first Australian friend when I moved to Brisbane in 2010 was a Melbourne lass, but she had worked for the Tasmanian government for two or three years and travelled the island in that capacity. As well as initiating me about Drop Bears, she described vast areas of wilderness in Tasmania's west that are inaccessible, empty and largely unexplored. I found it hard to believe at the time, but last week I flew over the region and saw for myself. She believed there could be small remnant populations of thylacines in isolated pockets of unwelcoming country.
There are tiger-sighting 'hotspots' all over Tasmania, in fact: in the northwest, the northeast, the Tasman Peninsula, the Great Western Tiers, the Central Highland lakes district, as well as the southwestern wilderness. (Further afield, stories come from remote parts of the Adelaide Hills, the Nullarbor, southwest WA, southeast New South Wales, and across Victoria, where some believe the thylacine was smuggled in as the animal's extinction loomed in Tasmania.)
Relatively few bushwalkers – 200 a year according to the Parks & Wildlife Service – travel the 70-kilometre Port Davey Track from Scotts Peak Dam at the southern end of Lake Pedder, to Melaleuca*, south of Bathurst Harbour, but the region is not without tiger sightings. Col Bailey reports that in 1958, walkers coming up from Bathurst Harbour claimed to have seen tiger tracks at several locations in the Mt Heyes (Arthur Range) and Mt Bowes/Weld River** sections.Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece by one of our writers, Dan Tyson.
The Nexus platform is a reference platform. It is what Google sees as what a phone should be, it is usually the phone that gets the Android software update first and is used by an ever increasing range of people. When the Nexus One was released it was a phone for the Devs and Modders, but it was soon discovered that the hardware was far more advanced than what other manufacturers were delivering. With the release of the Nexus S the brand became even more mainstream as it was nearly indistinguishable from the Galaxy S, until today, where we have the Galaxy Nexus.
The Nexus brand is now recognised. Like it or not the Nexus is now a mainstream phone. It’s definitely still a platform that is infinitely configurable — the bootloader just asks to be opened and ROMs flashed to it. However, with the Nexus now being recognised and all the carriers selling it, we now have to take into account the novice user who basically wants to get a phone that is made by Google and is what Google imagines a phone to be. This includes getting updates, which brings us to the Yakju vs Yakjudv debate.
Google has released effectively 2 versions of the Nexus: Yakju, which receives its updates directly from Google and Yakjudv, which is updated via the manufacturer (Samsung) and then carrier (for ‘testing’). The Yakjudv is no different to what Vodafone Australia did with the Nexus One and Nexus S. Updates for these phones seem to take an age to come out compared to their American cousins.
It is relatively easy to unlock your bootloader, boot into recovery and flash a ROM, but should you have to? My opinion is NO. Google should maintain some semblance of purity in their Nexus phones, all their phones should receive updates as they are released from Google. No-one should have to flash the phone. What the Nexus brand should be is a tiered structure of release where Google controls it all and we see what Google thinks a phone should be.
The Nexus should also be open. Being a reference platform the Nexus should be as open as possible; the bootloader should be as locked as a screen door with the fly screen ripped to shreds. But Google does need to maintain a consumer focus and seeing as all the major manufacturers insist on skinning the hell out of their phones, we require Google to keep the phones pure. This means controlling the updates.
Support your devs
Google, your OS was essentially ready to release on October 19 when you announced it in Hong Kong at All Things D; you had Nexus phones in the hands of your employees and they worked pretty well apparently. What you should be doing is picking the top 100 developers from the market and supplying a Nexus Phone to them with the source code — make them sign the hell out of Non-Disclosure Agreements but get the software/hardware to them so they can start making their apps compatible with your new OS so that on release we don’t get issues loading our favourite apps.
Give us a release date
The announcement of the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich was better than previous announcements; Mattias looked sharp in his white suit; and we all got excited for the new features. What we then had to do was wait a month with NO information in regards to when we could actually see the phone. ‘November’ we were told without any specifics — it was actually November in 1 market: Europe. Technology today is global, we all want it and we want it now.
The advantage Google has is that you have a top-tier handset manufacturer making your hardware, these manufacturers are responsible for warranty, they have warranty systems in place in every country they sell in already. USE THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS, it costs very little have them release the phones in every country that they are already in, even if it’s just a small amount, considering the large number of people who ordered in from the UK on release, that money would be better off in Google and your manufacturer’s pocket.
One version to rule them all
Seriously, Verizon can go get stuffed [edited], being an Australian I will never use them as a carrier and if I was in the US I would boycott them after the shenanigans they pulled with the Galaxy Nexus release. Android is at the point where it is an actual feature in itself, people are starting to recognise Android, they want it on their phone, specifically their Nexus phone. Leverage this, tell carriers where to go — re-open your google.com/phone store if need be, but this time — as I said before — utilise the manufacturers existing supply chain and release globally, you will sell a metric shit-ton of phones, I guarantee it.
Just had to get that off my chest. I realise that I have probably over looked many, many different things but I feel that with Android leading the mobile industry in handsets sold at the moment, Google needs to start recognising their own success and leverage it. I look forward to reading your comments.OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb 25, 2015) – A bill that would turn off state support and resources to the NSA cleared its first hurdle today with a unanimous committee vote.
Oklahoma Rep. Lewis Moore (R-Arcadia) introduced the “Oklahoma Privacy Protection Act” in January. HB1738 would ban “material support or resources” from the state to warrantless federal spy programs. It would not only support efforts to turn off NSA’s water in Utah, but would have immediate practical effects on the implementation of some federal surveillance programs if passed.
HB1738 cleared the Oklahoma House State and Federal Relations Committee by a 6-0 vote.
“If you have a government entity – city county or state – you should have an expectation that they are protecting your rights – your privacy,” Moore said during a short hearing before the vote.
HB1738 goes a step beyond the 2015 model language drafted by OffNow. It not only bars state cooperation with agencies like the NSA, it also address corporations that provide material support to the spy agency. Any corporation supporting NSA spying would be ineligible to bid for any state contract, forcing it to choose between violating your rights and securing lucrative business opportunities with the state.
The legislation also includes penalties. Any state agency or subdivision violating the law would become ineligible for state grant funds, and individuals convicted of violating the law would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Additionally individuals who violate the law “shall be deemed to have resigned any commission from the State of Oklahoma which he or she may possess…and he or she shall be forever thereafter ineligible to any office of trust, honor or emolument under the laws of this state.” (Read more about the legislationHERE.)
Rep. Moore indicated that there was concern voiced by the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce that it would negatively impact businesses. Business interests in Arizona effectively killed a similar bill there last year. Moore pointed out that the legislation would only impact corporations assisting in the illegal collection of warrantless data.
“If they are doing something the needs a warrant and not getting it, yeah, I guess there would be a problem. But there would be a problem anyway, and we should be concerned,” he said.
Last year, a similar bill passed out of an Oklahoma House committee, but Republican leadership blocked the bill from going to the full House |
Will Inboden, as well as Daniel Drezner, and Marc Lynch. Rather than jump on top of that extremely qualified pile, I thought I’d take a look at some other countries’ official national-security strategies to see how they compare. With an assist from the U.S. National Defense Library website, I took a quick look at the doctrinal statements from Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Japan, and Russia.
Nearly all of these documents include some variation of the phrases “since the end of the Cold War,” “increasingly interconnected world,” and “international landscape has been transformed.” So all of us agree the world is changing, but how to deal with it remains a matter of some contention.
Of course, a country’s “National Security Strategy” tells you very little about its national-security strategy. Defense policy is generally very reactive — a terrorist attack or the sinking of a ship can change strategic priorities in a matter of minutes. But these documents do tell us something about how countries seek to present themselves to both domestic and international audiences, and they’re certainly worth paying attention to.
CHINA
Document: China’s National Defense
Released: January 2009
Money quote: “China will never seek hegemony or engage in military expansion now or in the future, no matter how developed it becomes.”
Takeaway: We want to be friends, but please stop annoying us. China’s National Defense white paper heavily emphasizes Beijing’s desire for a “peaceful rise” and touts the success of international negotiations with countries like Iran and North Korea. But it’s also not afraid to point fingers — calling out the U.S. for selling arms to Taiwan, for example, and attacking separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang. Overall, the paper seems to treat a number of ongoing standoffs as settled matters, arguing, for instance, that “the attempts of the separatist forces for “Taiwan independence” … have been thwarted.”
RUSSIA
Document: The Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation
Released: February 5, 2010
Money quote: “Many regional conflicts remain unresolved. There is a continuing tendency towards a strong-arm resolution of these conflicts, including in regions bordering on the Russian Federation. The existing international security architecture (system), including its international-legal mechanisms, does not ensure equal security for all states.”
Takeaway: Keep your damn NATO to yourself. This document updated a previous edition from 2000, issued right at the start of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. The new version is clearly influenced by the 2008 war with Georgia and much of it can be read as a warning to Western countries to stay out of Russia’s near abroad. For instance, in the list of “main external military dangers,” the authors list NATO expansion first. Terrorism is tenth. The report also states that the Russian military is obliged to “ensure the protection of its citizens located beyond the borders of the Russian Federation” — an expanded category since Russia began handing out passports in places like Ukraine’s Crimea region.
BRAZIL
Document: National Strategy of Defense
Released: December 18, 2008
Money quote: “The national strategy of defense is inseparable from the national strategy of
development. The latter drives the former. The former provides shielding to the latter.
Each one reinforces the other’s reasons.”
Takeaway: Brazil: a new kind of growing superpower. The Brazilian document, like China’s, tries to sell the idea of an emerging power that’s not looking for any fights. But unlike the Chinese, the Brazilians avoid pointing fingers or rehashing grudges. The strategy emphasizes military readiness, border security, protecting the Amazon region, and preparing troops for peacekeeping missions, but gives away very little in terms of international ambitions. As with Russia and India, the Brazilian document avoids mentioning other countires in the region by name, referring vaguely to promoting “South American integration.” Unique among the documents I looked at, it makes no reference to the international fight against terrorism. All in all, it reads more like the strategy statement of an international development NGO than a military doctrine.
INDIA
Document: The Indian Army Doctrine
Released: October 2004
Money quote: “[India] is engaged in an externally abetted proxy war for the last several years in Jammu and Kashmir and has been combating terrorism perpetuated by militant and terrorist groups sponsored by a foreign State.”
Takeaway: We must remain vigilant against the many threats from a certain country to the northwest. India’s army doctrine never mentions Pakistan by name, but the focus is pretty clear from its emphasis on combating foreign-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir and the risk of loose nukes in the region. The doctrine is heavily influenced by ideas about cyberwarfare and the Revolution in Military Affairs that were very much in fasion in 2004, when it was written. The Indian Army is currently working on creating a new doctrine that will emphasize preparing for a possible “two-front war” against China and Pakistan, which are becoming close allies. Another unusual thing about India’s document are the quotes from religious texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Koran sprinkled throughout.
JAPAN
Document: Defense of Japan (Annual White Paper)
Released: July 2009
Money quote: “The roles of military forces are diversifying beyond deterrence and armed conflicts to include a broad spectrum of activities from conflict prevention to reconstruction assistance. Moreover, unified responses that incorporate military as well as diplomatic, police, judicial, information and economic measures are becoming necessary.”
Takeaway: We’ve thought of everything. Given that Japan is constitutionally barred from going to war, you might think the country’s national-defense strategy would be pretty simple, but the thing is massive, sprawled out over more than 40 pdf files on the Defense Ministry’s website and including detailed summaries of other countries’ national-security strategies. Tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait get a lot of attention, of course. The document also highlights the importance of Japanese participation in Iraq and Afghanistan for the “maintenance of the peace” and “enhancing Japan’s credibility.” Overall, given Japan’s relatively light military footprint around the world, the document is remarkably comprehensive.
THE EUROPEAN UNION
Document: A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy
Released: December 12, 2003
Money quote: “The violence of the two world wars that marked the first half of the twentieth century has given way to a period of peace, stability and prosperity unprecedented in European history. The creation of the European Union has been central to this development. European countries are now committed to dealing peacefully with disputes and to cooperating through common institutions.”
Takeaway: Keep it short and vague. Clocking in at under 1,300 words, the European Security Strategy is really more of a statement of principles — countering threats like terrorism, failed states, and organized crime by strengthening multilateral institutions. In all, it’s a document aimed at emphasizing areas of agreement without getting bogged down in the details. Of course, those looking to get bogged down in the details can always check out the far more dense Common Foreign and Security Policy in the European Constitution.Posters on the PSPChina BBS are claiming that Sony is planning on releasing a hardware update to the currently available PSP, model number 2000, one that includes a built-in microphone, updated buttons, a few cosmetic changes and possibly even cell phone support.
As can be seen in the picture above, the Home button on the original and current PSP models is now occupied by a PS button, similar to the one on the PlayStation 3 controller. One could assume that Sony would have made the Home to PS change in an attempt to prevent confusion with its Home service. The purported microphone is to the right of the volume buttons.
More pics after the jump.
Yes, that's a thinner metallic ring on the UMD door. Why that would possibly change, we have little idea. Below is what is said to be the back half of the PSP 3000's plastic casing.
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Keep in mind these photos are not confirmed to be the real deal and that they should be considered rumor for now. We'll be following up with Sony to learn more about its PSP plans and get comment on the authenticity of the above photos.
Thanks to creamsuger and ZX for forwarding the pics.I’m a great multi-tasker. Even as I’m writing this post, I can still find room to feel awkward about a remark I made yesterday at a party that had everyone looking at me strange. Well, the good news is I’m not alone – Java 8 is also pretty good at multi-tasking. Let’s see how.
One of the key new features introduced in Java 8 is parallel array operations. This includes things like the ability to sort, filter and group items using Lambda expressions that automatically leverage multi-core architectures. The promise here is to get an immediate performance boost with minimal effort from our end as Java developers. Pretty cool.
So the question becomes – how fast is this thing, and when should I use it? Well, the quick answer is sadly – it depends. Wanna know on what? read on.
The new APIs
The new Java 8 parallel operation APIs are pretty slick. Let’s look at some of the ones we’ll be testing.
1. To sort an array using multiple cores all you have to do is –
2. To group a collection into different groups based on a specific criteria (e.g. prime and non-prime numbers) –
3. To filter out values all you have do is –
Compare this with writing multi-threaded implementations yourself. Quite the productivity boost! The thing I personally liked about this new architecture is the new concept of Spliterators used for splitting a target collection into chunks which could then be processed in parallel and stitched back. Just like their older brothers iterators that are used to go over a collection of items, this is a flexible architecture that enables you to write custom behaviour for going over and splitting collections that you can directly plug into.
So how does it perform?
To test this out I examined how parallel operations work under two scenarios – low and high contention. The reason is that running a multi-core algorithm by itself will usually yield pretty nice results. The kicker comes in when it begins running in a real-world server environment. That’s where a large number of pooled threads are constantly vying for precious CPU cycles to process messages or user requests. And that’s where things start slowing down. For this I set up the following test. I randomized arrays of 100K integers with a value range between zero to a million. I then ran sort, group, and filter operations on them using both a traditional sequential approach and the new Java 8 parallelism APIs. The results were not surprising.
Quicksort is now 4.7X times faster.
is now times faster. Grouping is now 5X times faster.
is now times faster. Filtering is now 5.5X times faster.
A happy ending? Unfortunately not.
* The results are consistent with an additional test that ran 100 times * The test machine was a MBP i7 Quad Core.
So what happens under load?
So far things have been quite peachy, the reason being that there’s little contention between threads for CPU cycles. That’s an ideal situation, but unfortunately, one that doesn’t happen a lot in real life. To simulate a scenario which is more on par with what you’d normally see in a real-world environment I set up a second test. This test runs the same set of algorithms, but this time executes them on ten concurrent threads to simulate processing ten concurrent requests performed by a server when it’s under pressure (sing it Kermit!). Each of those requests will then be handled either sequentially using a traditional approach, or the new Java 8 APIs.
The results
Sorting in now only 20% faster – a 23X decline.
in now only 20% faster – a. Filtering is now only 20% faster – a 25X decline.
is now only 20% faster – a. Grouping is now 15% slower.
Higher scale and contention levels will most likely bring these numbers further down. The reason is that adding threads in what already is a multi-threaded environment doesn’t help you. We’re only as good as how many CPUs we have – not threads.
Conclusions
While these are very strong and easy-to-use APIs, they’re not a silver bullet. We still need to apply judgment as to when to employ them. If you know in advance that you’ll be doing multiple processing operations in parallel, it might be a good idea to think about using a queuing architecture to match the number of concurrent operations to the actual number of processors available to you. The hard part here is that run-time performance will rely on the actual hardware architecture and levels of stress. Your code will most likely only see those during load-testing or in production, making this a classic case of “easy to code, hard to debug”.
Questions, comments? I would love to hear them in the comments section.
The Dark Side Of Lambda Expressions in Java 8 – read moreThe UK government has put on hold aid payments to Palestine over claims that the funds are ending up in the wrong hands.
Britain’s International Development Secretary Priti Patel brought to a halt a £25 million aid payment to the Palestinian Authority until an investigation about the distribution of the fund was completed, The Sun reported over the weekend.
“We are not stopping for the Palestinian Authority overall, just delaying it to a date when we know our money won’t be going to people who do nothing in return for it,” a source within the ministry told the paper.
The money is reportedly one-third of London’s total payments to the Palestinian Authority, which operates under President Mahmoud Abbas.
A number of British lawmakers had in the past called for action after reports claimed that the British aid was being used to carry out attacks in the Israeli occupied territories.
Labour MP Joan Ryan said in July that the aid was being indirectly used to pay “convicted Palestinian terrorists.”
The move follows London’s freezing of government grants to the World Vision charity, after its Gaza director was accused by Israel of misusing foreign donor money.
A Palestinian man inspects the rubble of a makeshift dwelling after an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 22, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
The unsubstantiated claims came at a time when the British government itself is under fire for striking major arms deals with governments that have been blacklisted by its own Home Office over violations of human rights.
Saudi Arabia, Israel and Bahrain were some of the biggest purchasers of British weapons mentioned on the government list.
According to The Independent, the UK has provided the Israeli regime with ammunition, drone components and targeting equipment, assisting the Tel Aviv regime in its attacks against Palestinian women and children in Gaza Strip.
The territory has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.Product Description
Our favourite study group is back at Greendale Community College when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases COMMUNITY: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON on DVD. The fifth season reunites popular creator Dan Harmon with his funny and quick-witted ensemble cast. Led by Joel McHale (TV’s “The Soup”), Community also stars Gillian Jacobs (TV’s “The Good Wife”), Danny Pudi (TV’s “Greek”), Yvette Nicole Brown (TV’s “Rules of Engagement”), Alison Brie (TV’s “Mad Men”), Donald Glover (TV’s “Girls”), Ken Jeong (The Hangover Part III) and Academy Award winner Jim Rash (Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay; The Descendants, 2011). In the fifth season, Greendale College is in a stage of transition with the addition of new teachers and new students. Paired with the original gang, the result is more off-kilter hijinks for every Community fan to enjoy.
Guest stars in the fifth season include Jonathan Banks (TV’s “Breaking Bad”), John Oliver (TV’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”), Mitch Hurwitz (TV’s “Arrested Development”), Vince Gilligan (TV’s “Breaking Bad”), Brie Larson (21 Jump Street), David Cross (TV’s “Arrested Development”), Walton Goggins (TV’s “Justified”), Rob Corddry (In A World…), Nathan Fillion (TV’s “Castle”) and many more.
COMMUNITY: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON contains all 13 episodes on a two-disc DVD set.
Special Features Include:
Commentary on every episode
Outtakes
All-New Featurettes
“Re-Animating the ‘80s”
“Advanced Television Production: 5 Days, 2 Scripts, No Sleep”
Featuring cast and crew commentary on every episode, outtakes, and two all-new, behind-the-scenes featurettes. “Re-Animating the ‘80s” gives an inside look at the team behind the animation of “G.I. Jeff” and the process of developing the look, script and characters. “Advanced Television Production: 5 Days, 2 Scripts, No Sleep” is a 42 minute in-depth and intimate look into the writers’ room with creator Dan Harmon. The featurette documents Harmon as he writes two episodes in a very short amount of time, while managing his other duties as Showrunner, from attending rehearsals and reshoots to meeting with the crew on upcoming production issues.Getty Images Foursquare has compiled a list of the 20 rudest cities in the world based on the percentage of curse words used in check-in recommendations. Foursquare only looked at English speaking countries and cities with over 1,000 tips.
Of the top 20, a whopping 18 are in the US. Rising to the number one position is Manchester, UK. Californians definitely vent on Foursquare: seven California cities made the top 20.
Believe it or not, there Manhattan did not make the list, although Staten Island, the only New York borrough to be on the list came in at 17--beating Boston by two slots. And the apparently potty-mouthed seniors down in Boca Raton helped to rank it 12th.
The top 20 rudest cities are:
1. Manchester, U.K. 2. El Paso, Texas 3. Pittsburgh, Pa. 4. Bloomington, Ind. 5. Riverside, Ca. 6. Tempe, Ariz. 7. Scottsdale, Ariz. 8. Portland, Oregon 9. Venice, Ca. 10. Orange, Ca. 11. San Jose, Ca. 12. Boca Raton, Fla. 13. Culver City, Ca. 14. Fullerton, Ca. 15. Los Angeles, Ca. 16. Melbourne, Australia 17. Staten Island, N.Y. 18. Miami, Fla. 19. Boston, Ma. 20. Jacksonville, Fla.
Source: USA Today.
NOW WATCH: Scientists Discovered What Makes Someone A Good Dancer
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Please enable Javascript to watch this videoA deck at an oceanfront inn collapsed this morning after 25 people tried to take a selfie in front of a rainbow in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
According to ABC News, 13 people were taken to the hospital with “non-life-threatening’’ injuries after the deck gave out.
Apparently, a beautiful rainbow appeared on Pawleys Island after a summer storm, and the group of tourists were inspired to step outside for a selfie.
Things took a turn for the worse, however, when the deck they were standing on “buckled like a trap door.’’
Witness Rich Regan told ABC News that “it was pretty horrific,’’ and that there was a lot of “wood and splinters and nails and blood and people screaming.’’
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Ten ambulances, six fire trucks, and a helicopter were sent to the scene.
Investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the collapse.Such unwarranted alarmism has influenced colossally costly and economically destructive anti-fossil energy policies in the United States, Western Europe, Australia and other regions of world. The question now remains how long it will take before broad segments of these populations realize that they have been duped by unaffordable and unreliable climate benefit-premised “green energy” promotions.
High Costs of Political Science
Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a socialist and one of the fathers of Germany’s environmental movement, is now one of many adamant IPCC report critics. Vahrenholt, who had headed the renewable energy division of RWE, that country’s second largest utility company, has co-authored a blockbuster book titled “The Neglected Sun Precludes Catastrophe” which challenges IPCC’s competence in general, and their gross (more than double) exaggeration of CO 2 warming influence in particular. Now available in an English translation version, the book is currently the number one best seller in the Amazon climate category.
Dr. Vahrenholt’s lack of trust in the IPCC’s objectivity and veracity first took root when he became an expert reviewer for their 2011 report on renewable energy and discovered numerous errors. When he pointed out the inaccuracies to IPCC, their officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned by this, he asked himself “Is this the way they approached climate assessment reports?” Then, after digging into the IPCC’s climate report, he was horrified to discover that his suspicions were true.
When I queried Vahrenholt regarding what he thinks about the IPCC’s latest report finding their scientists to be 95% certain that humans caused most of the recent non-warming, he offered some advice: “If Mother Nature’s conclusions differ from IPCC’s tweaked calculations, then always believe your mother.” I’m 100% in agreement with him.
Fritz Vahrenholt recognizes great danger Germany faces if it continues down its present climate alarmism-premised renewable energy path. This is already costing consumers twenty billion euros every year (250 euros per household), which will increase to 300 euros next year. He points out: “On windy days we have so much power that wind parks are asked to shut down, yet they get paid for the power they don’t even deliver. And when the wind really blows, we ‘sell’ surplus power to neighboring countries at negative prices. And when the wind stops blowing and when there is no sun, we have to get our power from foreign countries. In the end we pay with the loss of high-paying industrial jobs because the high price of power is making us uncompetitive. ”
Dr. Vahrenholt concludes, “The agitators in climate science here in Germany have done us no favors. Renewable energies do have a big future, but not like this. It’s been a run-away train and it’s too expensive. We are putting Germany’s industry in jeopardy.”
German energy conditions will likely worsen following the re-election of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union which plans to continuously wean the country off of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Her popular victory is seen as a rebuff of those who have argued that she has pushed too hard for expensive “clean energy”.
As Fritz Vahrenholt told me, this shift from fossils to renewables produces a double subsidy whammy. He explains, “As the renewables replace the fossils, more and more gas and coal-fired stations are running out of profitability because their production times have to be cut. So the utilities are planning to close ten thousand Megawatts of fossil fuel plant capacity which are needed in the night and winter, when the sun is not shining, or when the wind is not blowing. Accordingly, the plan is to provide a capacity subsidy for the gas and coal plants. They would be paid for not producing when they are standing by.” The lesson in all of this, he said, is “if you destroy the market by a subsidy, you then need another subsidy to keep the systems from breaking apart.”
German households now pay the second highest power costs in Europe, as much as 30% more than other Europeans. Only the Danes pay more, and both countries pay roughly 300% more for residential electricity than we Americans do. Slightly more than 12% of Germany’s electricity now comes from wind (7.8%) and solar (4.5%). Biomass provides 7%, and hydro 4%. Since the government plans to increase that renewables proportion to 35% by 2020, and to 80% by 2050, most of that must come from wind and solar because biomass and hydro won’t grow.
Yet despite huge investments, German wind has produced only about one-fifth of its installed capacity. Ironically, since shutting down some of their older nuclear plants in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, they now have to import nuclear power from France and the Czech Republic.
To help compensate for this shortfall, they placed their hopes on offshore wind which is less intermittent than onshore installations, but even more expensive due to much higher construction, maintenance and power transmission costs. While half a dozen wind farms are still being built in the North Sea, there are no follow-up contracts. As Ronney Meyer, managing director of Windenergie Agentur (EWE) based in the northern port city of Bremerhaven said, “The market has collapsed.” EWE developer Riffgat reportedly doesn’t plan to invest in any more offshore turbines.
Denmark, which allegedly produces between 20- 30 percent of its electricity from wind and solar (estimates vary), hopes to produce half from those sources by 2020. Why “allegedly? Because there’s a big difference between the amount of electricity produced, and the amount that makes a difference in meeting consumer demands when needed. To illustrate this, a 2009 study reported by CEPOS, a Danish think tank, found that while wind provided 19% of the country’s electricity generation, it only met an average 9.7% of the demand over a five year period, and a mere 5% during 2006.
Since Denmark can’t use all the electricity it produces at night, it exports about half of its extra supply to Norway and Sweden where hydroelectric power can be switched on and off to balance their grids. Still, even with those export sales, government wind subsidies cause Danish customers to pay the highest electricity rates in Europe.
In 2011, U.K. wind turbines produced energy at about 21% of installed capacity (not demand capacity) during good conditions. Under freezing winter conditions the output can be miniscule because very cold weather and high winds require turbines to be shut down to avoid damage. As in Germany, unreliability in meeting power demands has necessitated importation of nuclear power from France. Also similar to Germany, the government is closing some of its older coal-fired plants--any one of which can produce nearly twice more electricity than all of Britain’s 3,000 wind turbines combined.
If the European romance with increasing reliance upon renewables isn’t being strained enough by painful electricity costs, power blackouts are adding to buyer’s remorse. As millions of consumers turn lights and appliances on and off, power generators and grid operators must match supply to demand to ensure that current is moving across wires at proper frequency to avoid power failures, brownouts and other glitches.
This is much less of a problem when there are reliable backup sources such as hydropower, coal and nuclear plants to meet base load demands. Unfortunately, Most of Europe lacks the former, and is intentionally cutting back both of the latter. As the balance of supply shifts increasingly to intermittent wind and solar, so does the demand-response inequity problem.
The German energy industry group BDEW warns that the surge of renewables is increasingly clogging the power grid and eating into profits of large power stations.
The E.U.’s Network of Transmission System Operators President Daniel Dobbeni noted this issue in an April 17, 2012 letter to the European Union Commissioner Gunter Oettinger. He said that grid operators are “deeply concerned about differences in speed between the connection of very large capacities of renewable energy resources and the realization in due time of the grid investment needed to support the massive increase of power flows these new resources bring.”
Politicians are getting the message. Plans for a cap on electricity prices proposed by pro-business German Economics Minister Phillip Rosler and Environment Minister Peter Altmaier have made wind investors jittery. This could reduce existing guaranteed feed-in tariffs that wind operators require to prevent consumer costs from skyrocketing even more than they have already.
Speaking at a June 12 energy conference in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel had even called for reduced scaling back renewable energy subsidies to contain spiraling costs which have now reached around $27 billion per year. The chancellor noted that “If the renewables surcharge keeps rising like it did in recent years, we will have a problem in terms of energy supply.”
Signs of constructive change are far more apparent in Australia. In September, the right-of-center Liberal Party headed by incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott resoundingly defeated the Green Party-backed Labor Party following its six years in power. The election was broadly recognized to be a public referendum victory to dismantle and consolidate the myriad anti-carbon global warming-premised schemes spawned under the previous government. That bureaucratic apparatus currently consists of more than 30 programs under seven departments and eight agencies.
A carbon tax was widely blamed as a large contributing factor for record business failures and soaring costs, even for essentials. Chief Executive Mitch Hooke with the Minerals Council of Australia has said that it was costing the economy more than AUD$100 million per week. He also pointed out that a 30% tax imposed by the Labor party upon mining profits adds an additional unsustainable burden, particularly upon the coal sector, resulting in project cuts and job losses.
Lessons for America
As American Energy Alliance spokesman Benjamin Cole notes: “The results of the [Australian] election should be an instructive lesson for U.S. lawmakers who have yet to understand the economic consequences of a carbon tax”. He warns that “Given the results of Aussies’ election, U.S. policymakers who want to replicate the failed Australian experiment on the U.S. economy will do so at their own peril.”
Thanks to natural gas, coal and nuclear, America, unlike Europe, very fortunately has excess power generating capacity and generally adequate transmission and distribution systems. However, as our older nuclear plants are decommissioned and new Environmental Protection Administration regulations shutter coal-fired plants, states such as California that are increasing renewable requirements are likely to resemble Europe in more ways than even they wish to emulate.
According to 2012 EIA figures, slightly more than 42% of U.S. electrical power came from coal, 25 % from natural gas, 19 % from nuclear, about 3.4% from wind, and about 0.11% from solar. Since 2009 American taxpayers have shelled out $14 billion in cash payments to solar, wind and other renewable energy project developers. This includes $9.2 billion to 748 small and large wind projects, and $2.7 billion to more than 44,000 solar projects, which will add just 48 terawatt- hours of electricity.
Just as in Europe, without all that help, U.S. wind and solar wouldn’t have survived, and very likely won’t in the future. In December 2010 the Wall Street Journal reported American Wind Energy Association CEO Dennis Bode warning that without the extension of the Federal 1603 grant program investment credit, the wind industry would “flat line” or slope downward.
Those investments haven’t been trivial. Just since January 1, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy has awarded more than $1.2 billion in charity to 435 new renewable energy projects, including 381 solar awards. In addition, DOE is pressing ahead with plans to throw in $150 million more for renewable projects… money “left over” from a separate 48C tax credit stimulus program.
In June President Obama launched a sweeping new national campaign including tens of billions of dollars more in new subsidies for solar, wind and bio-energy projects. Yet according to results of a two-year-long a National Research Council study, those types of subsidies are virtually useless in quelling greenhouse gasses. They have done little or nothing so far, and are unlikely to do much more before 2035, the study’s research horizon.
If there is one central lesson to be gained from the European debacles, it is that wind, solar and other so-called “alternatives” aren’t alternatives at all in any credible sense. This doesn’t rule out special places and cases where they may eventually have legitimate, if limited niches in the national energy mix. But regardless how much money is spent to harness friendly breezes and sunbeams, the climate will continue to go on changing according to Mother Nature’s edicts, just as it always has over many millions of years before we showed up on the scene.Image copyright Other Image caption Anthony Grainger was shot in the chest in a car park by a police officer
The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, is to be prosecuted after an unarmed man was shot dead by an officer.
Anthony Grainger, 36, was shot in the chest after the car he was in was stopped in Culcheth, Cheshire, in 2012.
The Crown Prosecution Service believes there is "sufficient evidence" to prove the force broke health and safety laws.
But a solicitor for Mr Grainger's family said they were disappointed the police marksman was not being charged.
'Serious deficiencies'
Prosecutors have decided the marksman who killed Mr Grainger on 3 March 2012 should not face charges for murder, manslaughter or misconduct in public office because a jury would be likely to accept he believed his actions were necessary.
Analysis For a successful prosecution to be brought against the police officer who fired the fatal shot, the jury would have to be convinced he didn't honestly believe Anthony Grainger posed a threat and didn't act reasonably in the circumstances. In any criminal case, that's a high bar to cross; in this case, the CPS decided there was no prospect of crossing it. Prosecutors came to a similar conclusion when ruling out charges against the police marksmen who shot Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head, having mistaken him for a suicide bomber. Like the Grainger case, police were prosecuted under health and safety laws for failings which put the suspect at risk. The Met was fined £175,000 plus costs after the jury heard about a string of errors that ultimately led to the 27-year-old Brazilian's death.
The GMP operation in which Mr Grainger was shot involved armed officers stopping an Audi in a car park. The vehicle was stolen and had false registration plates.
A bullet fired by an officer passed through the windscreen and hit Mr Grainger, who was from Bolton.
It later emerged the unarmed father of two had been wrongly suspected of stealing a memory stick containing the names of police informants.
A CPS spokesman said: "It is alleged that there were serious deficiencies in the preparation for this operation that unnecessarily exposed individuals to risk."
Jonathan Bridge, of Farleys Solicitors, who is representing Mr Grainger's family, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that his clients were "bitterly disappointed" with the decision.
He said: "They have had to wait two years for this decision to be reached, they were very hopeful that charges would be brought against the officer that shot Anthony.
"There has never been a murder charge brought against a serving officer, but it was felt in this case that the charge would be justified."
Unlimited fine
Sir Peter is accused of failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act as he is "corporation sole" for the force, the CPS said.
This is a legal status and means that he does not share criminal liability or will personally have to appear in court.
Image copyright PA Image caption Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, does not share criminal liability and will not have to appear in court
A GMP spokesman said it was "important that these legal processes are allowed to take their course unimpeded in order to seek a resolution for both the family of Mr Grainger and the force".
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is currently investigating the death but will not publish its findings until the legal proceedings have ended.
An initial hearing will be held at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 10 February, the IPCC said.
If convicted, the force could face an unlimited fine.
The BBC's home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said British police forces had been successfully prosecuted for health and safety breaches in the past.
The Metropolitan Police force was found guilty of endangering the public when officers mistakenly shot Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station in south London in July 2005.
In 2003, the same force was taken to court after two police officers fell through roofs while chasing suspects. One officer, PC Kulwant Sidhu, died.
The prosecution case alleged that Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens and his predecessor, Lord Condon failed in their duty to protect officers.
Both were acquitted of health and safety breaches.Officials say more than 300 Canadians have reached out to the Canadian government for help as Hurricane Irma turns its force on Florida after cutting a path of destruction through the Caribbean.
"We have people who are stuck in a country or an island who just can't get out," said one Global Affairs Canada official. "There are no flights getting in or out. They're frustrated. They're trying to see if there are other ways of getting out.
During a briefing Saturday for reporters, officials said they were not aware of any deaths among Canadians.
"What we're advising is, first and foremost, follow the advice and instructions from local authorities," the official said. "Stay put until it's safe to move out and also stay in contact if you can."
Sunday evening, Global Affairs said 348 Canadians were asking for assistance.
2 hurricanes making evacuations difficult
A lone bottle of water sits on empty supermarket shelves in Kissimmee, Fla., as last-minute shoppers make final preparations ahead of Hurricane Irma's expected landfall. (Gregg Newton/Reuters)
Complicating matters is the presence of Hurricane Jose in the area.
"Just as soon as you think you can get people out and planes are ready to land, we can't because the next hurricane barrelling down," said an official.
Global Affairs Canada is aware of more than 9,000 Canadians that are in the current path of the storms. That number doesn't include Canadians who haven't voluntarily registered with the ministry.
The officials said they are considering all options when it comes to getting Canadians out of the affected area.
The federal government took the first step Sunday night towards deploying the military disaster response team. The vanguard of the highly-trained unit, which provides humanitarian assistance, will depart for Antigua on Monday, according to an official in Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan's office.
That assessment team, which also includes officials from Global Affairs Canada, will recommend what capabilities, if any, Canada should deploy to the region.
This is the emergency watch response cente room where GAC is monitoring the hurricanes <a href="https://t.co/CXR9d23AqW">pic.twitter.com/CXR9d23AqW</a> —@cattunneycbc
We are deploying the 🇨🇦 Disaster Assessment Team to evaluate how our gov |
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September 30thFormer Vice President Joe Biden Joseph (Joe) Robinette BidenBannon: 'Zero' doubt Trump will run for reelection Bernie is back with a bang — but can he hold on to his supporters? Klobuchar backs legalizing marijuana MORE signaled Monday he's not done with politics and is “not closing the door” on a White House bid in 2020.
In interviews as part of the launch this week of his new book “Promise Me, Dad,” Biden flirted with the idea of a third White House run.
“I honest-to-God haven’t made up my mind about that,” Biden, who turns 75 later this month, said to NBC’s Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer in an interview to discuss his new tome. “I’m not closing the door. I’ve been around too long.”
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In another interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, Biden acknowledged: “I’m —thank God right now — in awful good health,” he said. “But I don’t know what things are going to be two years from now.”
Biden’s refusal to rule out a run means observers and commentators will include him among the Democrats who could challenge President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE.
The chatter was part of the cable news broadcasts on Monday, while the headline of one opinion column in the Chicago Tribune read: “Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump in 2020, It could happen.”
Biden also showed up in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch this weekend that mocked Democrats for the fact that their leaders all seem to be elder statesmen of the party.
“It’s Biden Time!” Jason Sudeikis, playing the former vice president, proclaimed in the skit.
The sketch, which ridiculed Democrats including Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (N.Y.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel FeinsteinHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Ocasio-Cortez adviser says Sunrise confrontation with 'old-timer' Feinstein'sad' Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid MORE (Calif.), hit a nerve with some in the party looking for fresh faces in 2020.
“If you look at the results of the last election, it's difficult to find a justification for Vice President Biden to get in the race, but who knows,” said Democratic strategist Jim Manley. “As far as I can tell, voters are looking for fresh faces, and I don't think the vice president qualifies.”
Another Democratic strategist added, “Uncle Joe! Love him, we all do, but probably not the best idea.”
Earlier this year, The Hill reported that mega-donors for the 2008 and 2012 Obama and Biden campaigns were not committing to the former vice president, even as he contemplates whether to run.
“He’s got more than 40 years in Washington,” one donor said at the time. “He’s the opposite of what the party says it wants right now. He’s going to have a tough time if he runs.”
Biden allies say the former vice president is exactly what the party needs.
They say he would bridge the divide between progressives and centrists in the party and offer a direction at a time when the party lacks it.
“He can unify [Democrats] around a message of standing up for something, the kind of stuff that he does better than anybody,” said Scott Mulhauser, who served as a senior aide to the former vice president during the 2012 presidential election. “He enunciates a vision and a contrast better than just about anyone in American politics. … You could see how a moment like this could call.”
A Zogby poll released last week shows Trump trailing Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersPush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Sanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' MORE (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (D-Mass.), and former first lady Michelle Obama Michelle LeVaughn Robinson ObamaFive political moments to watch for at the Oscars Former patients accuse ex-Fox News medical pundit of sexual exploitation Obama attends UNC-Duke basketball game MORE in head-to-head matchups.
Mulhauser predicted Biden would be near or at the top of most lists of Democrats.
“If what matters right now is being smart, progressive and a fighter, that’s him,” he said.
Another former aide said Biden would provide a remedy for a Democratic Party trying to find its way.
“We’re trying to find our identity and Joe Biden may be the true North Star,” the former aide said. “I think there is an appetite for a run more than ever because we’ve lost our way with the middle class, and he has a consistent message.”
Biden seems to think he would be the one to beat Trump if he ran in 2020.
In an interview on NBC on Monday, Megyn Kelly pointed out that “the blue collar Rust Belters you need to win already love Donald Trump."
Biden shot back: “They love me more.”View full size View full size
TRENTON — Two men were indicted today for attempting to steal more than $75,000 from someone by falsely promising to provide returns of several times that amount, the state Attorney General's Office said.
Nyondah Blay, also know as John Blay, 38, of Trenton, and Carl Jenkins, 36, of Philadelphia, allegedly told an unidentified victim that they possessed hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars that were dyed black in order to be smuggled out of Liberia.
Blay and Jenkins asked the victim to supply several thousand dollars to buy certain expensive chemicals that were needed to extract the dye from the money and return it to its normal form, the office said in a news release.
In return, authorities said, the men promised to return the money and more to the victim. But the scheme was broken up Feb. 1 in Cherry Hill, when a sting operation caught the men accepting several thousand dollars from the victim, the office said.
In similar "black money scams," the perpetrators accept the up-front money and then disappear, leaving the victims with stacks of worthless paper.
Blay and Jenkins were charged with conspiracy and theft by deception, charges that carry a maximum 10 years in state prison. The sting operation was conducted jointly by the state Division of Criminal Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Published on Oct 2, 2012
Miguel's official music video for 'Do You...'. Click to listen to Miguel on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/MiguelSpot?IQid=Mi...
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Lyrics:
But do you like drugs, do you like drugs, yeah?
Well, me too, me too, me too, babe, me too, me too
Do you like love, do you like love, yeah?
Well, me too, me too
It's what we gonna do
What about matinee movies and pointless secrets
Midnight summers, swim private beaches
Rock, paper, scissors, wait best out of 3
Mama said the greatest things in life are free
What about lust, what about trust
What about fun? She said, you know that I do
Oh you do baby, hope you do now
You do, do, do, doItaly’s Premier Benito Mussolini (center) stood with an arm over the shoulders of his two sons, Bruno (left) and Vittorio, during the Fascists’ Festival in Rome in March 1935.
WATCHING DONALD TRUMP on TV whipping up his base of supporters at a rally in Harrisburg, Pa., I had a sudden feeling I had seen this all before. I remembered a speech I had seen on YouTube. It was a speech Mussolini had given in Milan in 1932. I watched it again, and it was all there. The chin thrust, the pouts, the hand gestures, the adoring base cheering every word. He spoke of the might of his army “second to none,” the “injustices committed against us,” and how he had “stormed the old political class.” There was even a complaint about the press that had drawn “arbitrary conclusions” to what he was saying. Mussolini’s Blackshirts, his squads of roughnecks, were used to assaulting reporters they didn’t like.
It got me thinking that nations, like people, can be changed very quickly according to how they are led. Today, Angela Merkel is thought of as the thoughtful, reasonable voice of the liberal order that has ruled in the West since World War II. But within my memory, her country lived under two monstrous dictatorships, Hitler’s and East Germany’s. What makes Germany today different from the Germany of my childhood is leadership.
Japan today is our closest ally in the Far East. A more civilized and polite society you cannot find. Yet older Americans can remember when the Japanese played a very different role. The difference in the way the Japanese treated their prisoners of war in World War I and World War II demonstrates how quickly a country can change. In World War I, Japan was on the side of the Allies, and treated the German and Austrian POWs it captured in Germany’s Far East possessions with extreme respect and to the letter of the Geneva Convention.
Then, in the 1930s, Japan turned toward militarism and nationalism. In one generation, when World War II came, Japanese society had changed. When WWII broke out, the Japanese began treating their prisoners of war with extreme cruelty against every convention. The difference was leadership.
Today the Italians are an easygoing and generous people. But when Fascism took hold in the early 1920s, Italy became belligerent and bullying. Its concentration camps for the native population in Libya and its use of poison gas became genocidal. And it was quick to join the Nazis in dreams of conquest. Mussolini was telling Italians they had to begin winning again.
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In his 2004 book, “The Anatomy of Fascism,” Robert O. Paxton wrote that fascism did not die with the end of World War II, that its seeds were planted “within all democratic countries, not excluding the United States.” According to Paxton, fascism was a “form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood.... “Fascism was an affair of the gut more than of the brain.”
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Or as R.J.B. Bosworth wrote in his 2005 book “Mussolini’s Italy,” “Border fascism,” an obsession with borders and keeping the population pure, was always a “key strain in the fascist melody,” as was “allowing the nation to stand tall again.” All you needed was a charismatic leader, Mussolini, whom Paxton compared to the modern “media-era celebrity.”
Thirteen years ago Paxton wrote that all that is required for a rebirth of fascism is “polarization, deadlock, mass mobilization against internal and external enemies, and complicity by existing elites.... It is of course conceivable that a fascist party could be elected to power in free, competitive elections.”
But that could never happen here in America, the oldest democracy in the world, could it?
H.D.S. Greenway is a former editorial page editor of the Globe and author of “Foreign Correspondent: A Memoir.”http://blog.darcs.net/2013/02/darcs-hacking-sprint-8-report.html
The sprint will be hosted in Paris, France on Feburary 15th, 16th and 17th (Friday to Sunday). We have access to a meeting room from 10h00 to 18h00 each day.
The sprint is kindly hosted by IRILL, in the 13th arrondissement or Paris, near the metro stop Place d’Italie.
See http://www.irill.org/about/access for more information.
4 of us will stay in the hostel Absolute Paris. If you join us for the sprint, you may want to stay in the same place. It costs approx. 30€/night/person.
Guillaume Hoffmann (gh) (arriving train station gare de l’est Fri at 9:46, leaving Sun at 20:13)
Owen Stephens (owst)
Ganesh Sittampalam (Heffalump)
Florent Becker (gal_bolle)
Radoslav Dorcik (dixie)
TBC
Darcs bridge
2.10? http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-devel/2013-January/014726.html
Priorities: http://darcs.net/Development/Priorities
Last sprint & summer of code review: http://darcs.net/Sprints/2012-03
Infrastructure/etc discussions: revive darcs-benchmarks for 2.10 release
Testing, testing, testing: patch index packs bare repositories rebase
Google Summer of Code 2013
What do with the trello board?
Technical discussions:
correction for http://bugs.darcs.net/issue1579 (dixie)
(dixie) Discussion: Where is the manual? Guillaume removed it (with the website) from the repository (july 2012) darcs.net/manual is the last generated version from the reviewed repository darcs can generate a commands reference with darcs help manpage (Groff output) and darcs help markdown (markdown, can be given to pandoc to convert in many formats) the motivation of moving away from literate haskell and latex is to have everything in markdown what we should ensure: 1) darcs.net/manual has something 2) this something corresponds to the current stable branch of darcs (as of now 2.8), because sometimes commands and flags change
Discussion: _darcs/inventories and _darcs/patches are not garbage collected
accept patch that closes http://bugs.darcs.net/issue904 (gh)
sent a patch to solve http://bugs.darcs.net/issue2274 (gh)
fixing network test harness (gh)
Discussion: GSoC 2013 projects. We will apply as independent organization and ask for 2 slots. We have at least 3 posible projects.
complete darcs help markdown so that it also outputs environment variables help and patterns help (dixie, gh)This is part 2 of a two-part series. Read part 1 here.
This is not how two friends are supposed to meet after 50 years.
During my vacation in Europe last year, I found myself walking around the magnificent Wenceslas with renewed nostalgia. I was seeking closure, but it was not to be. My mind circled back to 1967-68, when I lived in a small town outside of Prague with 20 other men.
But, one name kept coming back to me: Subhan.
Abdul Subhan, my dear friend from Pakistan, and I had been in this very square, looking at the same statue of King Wenceslas, as we wandered aimlessly and whiled away our time.
In our motley crew, our friendship — the unusual duo of a Pakistani and an Indian — stood out. We had become inseparable. Soon, it became clear to the rest of the group that the seat next to me on the bus was always reserved for Abdul Subhan on our long rides.
The author (R) with the bespectacled Subhan (L).
Coming out of the lonely Zameck (villa) in those days was always a relief for both of us. We were similar in this — having come from backgrounds where we were constantly surrounded by friends and families, we found it reassuring to see people around us.
Walking in the Square after all these years, Subhan’s absence was not the only lack of closure. I realised Prague itself has changed.
Run-down shops from the communist area have been replaced by modern brands. The rickety old trams no longer run; instead two have been transformed into stationery restaurants.
It was after this trip that I wanted to try and contact Subhan.
I anticipated we might never meet again, given the relations between our countries. Still, I was hoping for at least a great e-mail conversation, Subhan being as intelligent and articulate as he is. But nature can be cruel.
The unforeseen reunion
Seven decades of life mean that one is always prepared for the unpleasant. But when it comes to long-lost friends and relatives, you still always hope for the best.
Letters had been exchanged immediately after we returned from Prague. I remember Subhan telling me about his upcoming marriage. In those days, it was tough to keep in touch, so our correspondence died down.
Read next: A Mumbaikar in Karachi: 'Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley'
When I decided to trace him down, I remembered my daughter had written for Dawncom. So, I began there. I wrote about our friendship, in anticipation, expecting a reply.
And a reply I did receive but it wasn't the one I was looking forward to.
Instead, Subhan’s nephew got in touch to inform me that Subhan is ill but thankfully, “not yet out”.
The “not yet” left me dazed. It was only the tip of the iceberg. I was not prepared for the denouement. His nephews, Nouman and Salman, explained that Subhan has been paralysed for the past eight years, and is completely bed-ridden.
I was stunned. I could not visualise Subhan lying on a bed for so many years.
Had my friend suffered so much?
The author with Abdul Subhan.
Salman told me he had read my piece on Dawn.com out to Subhan. “Woh bohat roye” [he cried a lot]. I was not surprised — we were that close. My friend could not speak, but 50 years later, he still remembered. What more can a helpless man do but cry?
But the worse was still to come. Salman sent me a picture and a short video. It was difficult to recognise my old friend, who had once been so full of life, always forthcoming and ready to help. Instead, I saw an unshaven disheveled Subhan on a bed, looking utterly lost.
My wife and I then spoke to Subhan’s wife in Karachi over the telephone. The gracious lady invited us to Karachi. I was hoping to plan a visit, and was even prepared to fight for the rejected visa, but now I am uncertain if I am brave enough to make that attempt.
Why didn’t I contact my friend earlier? To say that I was disappointed with myself would be trivialising it. I felt helpless. These things happen to others, not to your friends. I had traced my friend down, only to learn that we could not even have a simple reunion conversation.
All I could say was: Bohat takleef hui. Sometimes, I feel I should not have made this effort at all.
Now, old memories keep tumbling out. Our studies together; our journeys together — whenever we travelled, we always shared the hotel room. Our adventures from Czechoslovakia to East Germany to the Soviet Union; the stories we stayed up exchanging long into the quiet nights...Subhan and I...all of these memories, always together.
An invitation to Jalandhar
Its important for me to mention here that when my family left Lahore during partition, we settled in Jalandhar. Our house, which belonged to a certain Justice Haq, is a huge sprawling bungalow with its mardana and zanana, and a beautiful lawn signatory of historical abodes.
In the courtyard, my grandchildren run around huge mango and jamun trees that still struggle to give us fruit. There was also a well, a murgikhana and a kabristan, but all three of these were sold.
Somewhere in the early 1950s, my father remembered seeing a gentleman standing in front of our house. He revealed himself to be Justice Haq, and made his way inside what was once his home. When he was leaving, my father asked him to come visit again, but Justice Haq replied honestly: “Even though I want to, my sons don’t.”
As I did with Subhan, I don't want to wait too long to say this. If anyone from the Haq family is reading this, I would like to tell them they are welcome to visit their old house. We have kept the essential features as they are— except of course, the graveyard.
Read: Home away from home — My South Asian family in Paris
My last article on Subhan touched a lot of chords among Indians and Pakistanis alike, but I also learned that my story wasn’t the only one.
Many families have similar experiences to share, where outside the subcontinent, Indians and Pakistanis are the best of friends, but it is only here, in our own homes, that the atmosphere is vitiated.
In my previous article, a commentator Kamal Pasha expressed his wish for a pre-partition subcontinent. I would like to tell my dear Pasha, this is not going to be. The trajectory of both the countries has been so different that they cannot now coalesce.
But, what we can do is learn to live like good neighbours. So that in the future, it does not take 50 years for someone to contact a dear friend just across the border.John Shea from the ballpark...
I just asked Brian Sabean about the Giants moving forward, in particular Tim Lincecum’s future status with the organization.
“Timmy’s going to be a Giant,” said Sabean, reminding that his contract has one year remaining.
On whether he sees Lincecum improving in next year’s rotation. Sabean said, “I think so. He set the bar so high. We set the bar so high with him. He’s got to learn what it’s like to be knocked down. He hasn’t experienced anything like this. College, minor leagues, major leagues. It’ll be interesting how he turns this around. He knows what he has to do.”
Is it a situation similar to 2010 when Lincecum turned around his game from August to September?
“No, this is more of a function of willing to accept the delivery he’s going to use to be a successful pitcher. He’s going to have to pitch more to contact. No matter what his strikeout ratio is, he’s not going to miss as many at-bats.”
So it’s more about mechanics than bulking up?
“A lot of it is the delivery. The better the delivery, the better the arm action, the better the ability to make quality pitches with pitch to pitch control.”
Sabean said Lincecum will be a Giant next year on a day this item appeared in the Boston Globe: Lincecum “will be available in trade, and it will be interesting to see who bites on the two-time Cy Young winner. The Giants insist his problems this season were strictly mechanical, but opposing teams wonder why his usual 96-mile-per-hour fastball was around 92 most of the season, and why his first-inning problems (28 runs) were the worst in baseball. Lincecum, 28, is due $22 million in the final year of his contract. Would someone take the gamble?”
Lincecum has one year remaining on his two-year, $40.5 million contract.
Follow on Twitter @JohnSheaHeyIllumination and Universal's The Secret Life of Pets brought its worldwide total to $858 million last weekend. The film is now the 50th biggest global grosser of all time, which is impressive. But the significant milestone last weekend is that it is now the fifth-biggest hit in a very exclusive list. To wit, having passed the $857.6m global gross of Walt Disney's Inside Out, the Comcast Corp. release is now the fifth-biggest "not based on anything" smash hit of all time.
The wholly original animated adventure, about a handful of domestic pets and the adventures they get into while their owners are away, was a classic "Who wouldn't want to see this?" offering. Everyone either has a pet or knows someone who has a pet, and a kid-friendly film based on their theoretical hijinks appealed to basically every human being on the planet. Sure, the marketing campaign cheated by highlighting the movie's "animals get into trouble around the house" prologue, but there is no law that the marketing has to be honest, especially if the film works.
Also On FORBES:
So it wasn't that much of a surprise when the film snagged a $103 million debut weekend, the biggest for an original movie in box office history, and legged it to $365m domestic. As you know, this has been a good year for superhero films and animated talking animal adventures. The picture's blow-out success confirmed that Illumination is maybe a movie or two away from being the next Pixar. Audiences are going to start to take notice of the studio which makes those kid-friendly, anarchic animated movies they have flocked to over the last several years.
The only question now is how high Sing, an all-star comedic melodrama about anthropomorphic animals competing in a singing competition, can fly when it debuts in the thick of the Christmas season. That's another "Who won't want to see this?" concept that's so simple it's almost insane that nobody did it until now. If it can top $673 million worldwide, it will displace The Sixth Sense (sob) as the 15th-biggest original hit of all time.
Speaking of which, of those 15 movies, nine of which are live-action. While they may eventually change as Illumination, Walt Disney and Pixar make their way up the charts thanks to inflation and overseas expansion, for now, we've still got mostly live-action originals in the top 15.
In descending order, and obviously not accounting for inflation or 3D bumps, you've got... deep breath... Avatar ($2.7 billion), Zootopia ($1.02 billion), The Lion King ($968 million, including the 2011 3D reissue), Finding Nemo ($940m, including the 2012 3D reissue), The Secret Life of Pets ($858m and counting), Inside Out ($857.6m), Inception ($825.5m), Independence Day ($817m back in 1996), E.T. ($792m including at least two reissues in 1985 and 2002), Star Wars ($775m including at least two reissues in 1982 and 1997), 2012 ($769m), Up ($735m), Gravity ($723m), Interstellar ($675m) and The Sixth Sense ($672m).
That list brings us to the top 100 grossers of all time, as well as every original movie that has ever made $700 million worldwide or more. For obvious reasons, the further you go down the list the more outright original content (Hancock, The Incredibles, Ted, etc.) you get. I don't have anything terribly profound beyond all of that. At a glance, it makes you realize why Hollywood continues to bet on Chris Nolan, Roland Emmerich and (to a relative extent) M. Night Shyamalan.
It's kind of cool that we got two new members of the "not based on anything" club in the top five just this year, even if inflation and overseas expansion played a role. And as studios are more reluctant to bet big on big-budget/blockbuster-friendly live-action original content, we're probably going to see more of the list made up of animated offerings from the likes of Disney, Pixar and Illumination. But that's a conversation for another day. In the meantime, kudos to The Secret Life of Pets for becoming the fifth-biggest "not based on anything" hit.Daniel Danker of the British Broadcasting Corporation has just announced the company’s plans to release an Android version of their BBC iPlayer app this week. It comes a year after an initial iPad offering that BBC admitted wasn’t their best shot.
Here are some of the key features Danker highlighted in their blog post:
Watch live TV and listen to radio (not previously widely available on mobile devices)
Access the BBC’s full catalogue of catch-up programmes; seven-days’ TV and radio on demand as well as series stacking (as you get on the web)
A simple and intuitive design with high picture quality and personalised favourites (making the most of the touch-screen UI, and a popular feature on the website)
Unfortunately – due to the requirement of Adobe’s flash plugin – the application will only be available for Android devices with version 2.2 or higher and will need powerful processors and strong WiFi connections. He didn’t say whether or not the app would work without a WiFi connection, but it certainly sounds like one is recommended.
It’s a strange limitation considering so many other applications are able to provide quite-decent streaming media experiences over the slowest of 3G signals. BBC iPlayer for Android will be available in the Android market by the end of this week. [via Android Forums]It was Annie, a service dog who was noticed on Twitter after she was seen in the background of a picture of Nashville defenseman Roman Josi, that was all the talk on social media.
P.K. Subban scored a goal in his regular-season debut with the Nashville Predators on Friday but he may have been upstaged at Bridgestone Arena.
Annie, a yellow Labrador retriever, is a service dog for Predators fan Josh Ray who was at the game sitting in the front row. The photo was taken by Associated Press reporter Jim Diamond and social media was abuzz wondering about the dog seen in the background of the picture. Coincidentally, the dog is above an advertisement for Pedigree dog food.
Tweet from @diamondhockey: Service dog takes in Nashville Predators season opener - https://t.co/995LtWSBkQ
Annie graduated from Retrieving Freedom, which trains service dogs for wounded veterans and children with autism, a few weeks ago before being placed with Ray.
Tweet from @RFI_dogs: Annie will be graduating Sat Oct 1st! She is headed toward a bright future helping her veteran!! pic.twitter.com/UIo47KxZYc
According to Diamond, Ray said it was Annie's first hockey game but she remained perfectly calm during the tension-filled game, particularly in the third period.
The Predators defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2.Kambalny volcano news & activity updates:
Kambalny volcano (southern Kamchatka, Russia): first historic eruption
Saturday Mar 25, 2017 19:55 PM | BY: T
Eruption from Kambalny volcano (image: Александр Солодиков / youtube)
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As a surprise, a new explosive eruption started from the stratovolcano, making this its first (confirmed) historic eruption.Starting from 09:50 local time Friday morning (24 Mar 2017), |
. But the strategy assumes the nuclear deal will remain intact for now.
Story Continued Below
The deliberations ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline to certify Iran’s compliance with the deal, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy agenda, were described by a half-dozen sources inside and outside the administration who have participated in the internal debate.
As a candidate, Trump described the agreement as “catastrophic” and “the worst deal ever.” But the strategy represents a nuanced approach to one of the most important foreign policy decisions of his early presidency. The goal is to allow the president to demonstrate contempt for the agreement and broadcast a new level of toughness toward the Iranian regime — without triggering the international chaos several of his advisers warn would follow from a total withdrawal from the 2015 deal.
Administration officials cautioned that the strategy has not yet been finalized, and that it could change before the president makes an official announcement.
But Secretary of Defense James Mattis hinted at the approach early Tuesday when he told a congressional panel that he believes the deal is in America’s interest and that Trump should “consider staying in.” Appearing alongside him, Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the agreement has “delayed the development of a nuclear capability by Iran.”
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Though their rhetoric was far more positive about the deal itself than Trump's, it is consistent with a White House strategy of decertifying the agreement without pushing Congress to dissolve it through sanctions — and may preview an administration effort to signal to Congress and U.S. allies that Trump is not withdrawing from the deal.
Iran has warned that if the U.S. reimposes sanctions, Tehran might restart its nuclear program. Some experts and former Obama officials say that could begin a spiral toward possible military confrontation.
Congress requires the president to certify Iranian compliance with the deal every 90 days. International inspectors and Trump officials like Dunford say that Iran is meeting its technical obligations. But Trump must also declare whether the agreement remains “vital to the national security interests of the United States,” and he is unlikely to do so.
Under the law, Congress would then have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions lifted by the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in return for limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump is expected to act as early as next week, though White House officials said an exact date has not been set. After he does, administration officials are expected to press Republican lawmakers not to reimpose nuclear sanctions, which would effectively unravel the agreement in the eyes of the Iranian government and many U.S. allies.
In return, Trump officials, led by McMaster, plan to reassure congressional Republicans — virtually all of whom opposed the deal — with a pressure campaign against Iran.
That campaign is at the heart of McMaster’s policy review, due Oct. 31, which has been conducted quietly as the debate over the nuclear deal has played out in public. The new policy is expected to target Iranian-backed militias and terrorist groups, including Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and the financial web that facilitates them.
Of particular focus will be the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the administration will designate as a foreign terrorist organization, the first time the military wing of a regime will have earned the label.
The IRGC is the country’s most powerful security organization but also controls large portions of the Iranian economy. The U.S. designated the IRGC’s elite Quds Force as a terrorist group in 2007, and the IRGC itself has been sanctioned for nuclear proliferation and for human-rights abuses. But the entire IRGC has never been designated a terrorist group.
Critics of the deal are taking a wait-and-see approach to the new strategy. "Just going after the IRGC, while certainly having a lot of virtues, it’s not a complete strategy.... The IRGC has a very large presence in Syria. What are you going to do about that? You have to see how the pieces all fit together,” said Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration.
Trump has twice certified Iran's compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal, first in April and then in July. But he bridled in July when advisers presented him with a binary choice of certifying or decertifying.
During an Oval Office meeting with Tillerson, McMaster and former presidential advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, Trump unleashed a tirade in which he demanded more options and adamantly refused to recertify the deal. Tillerson and McMaster warned him that if he declined to do so, and Congress moved to reimpose sanctions, he would spend the rest of his term embroiled in a bitter debate over the merits of the agreement with allies and foes alike.
The president ultimately bowed to his advisers, but only after what one senior administration official described as a “knock-down, drag-out fight” that lasted several hours.
“If it was up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal shortly after the Oval Office meeting. “I think they’ll be noncompliant” by the next deadline, he said.
McMaster has worked for months to produce what White House officials consider a third option that avoids Trump’s previous frustration. Neither the White House nor the NSC responded to requests for comment.
“One of the options [presented to the president] is to decertify, continue to waive the statutory sanctions, slap on new non-nuclear sanctions, roll out a new strategy, and then make the case to the Hill that this is not the time to reinstate the nuclear sanctions and there will be a broader strategy to strengthen the deal,” said an Iran policy expert familiar with the administration’s thinking on the issue.
Mattis, McMaster and other administration officials privately complain that the Obama administration allowed the nuclear deal to distort its wider policy toward Tehran, and have told Trump it is possible to challenge Iran on other fronts without breaking the agreement.
Inside the administration, the debate pitted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who favored recertification, against others who subscribed to the views expressed by Mattis and McMaster. A smaller camp, including U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, pushed hard for decertification.
In the end, the recommendation from the president’s national security team, which last met about a month ago to discuss the issue, was unanimous. Though Tillerson continues to favor recertification, according to two administration officials, one said that he disagrees with the president on so many issues that he has learned to “pick and choose his battles.” When it became clear that the rest of the president’s advisers were coalescing around a third option, he opted to sign on.
The question is how congressional Republicans, particularly foreign policy hawks, will respond to the White House’s pleas. Administration officials have not yet begun making their case to GOP senators, many of whom campaigned against the Iran deal.
They include Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who, in remarks Tuesday evening to the Council on Foreign Relations, was to push Congress to “begin the work of strengthening it and counteracting Iranian aggression, with the threat of sanctions and military action if necessary,” according to advance excerpts of his remarks.Last season Taiwan Jones was a forgotten man at running back. Even with the injuries to both Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson, Taiwan Jones was left out in the depth chart in favor of UDFA rookie Jeremy Stewart.
The coaching staff had no faith in Jones' ball security or his ability to play in the team's zone blocking scheme. So, he was relegated to special teams duties exclusively. Although, not as a return man because of that whole ball security concern.
With his standout play as a gunner on special teams and his absence from the running game, something had to give. I remembered Jones saying that he and Raiders former camp player, Sterling Moore played opposite each other at cornerback for Deer Valley high, so the obvious question came up. Would he ever consider a position change? His response was a bit surprising.
"That's what I got my scholarship for in college was to play corner," said Jones. "I played my first year at corner and I didn't switch until we had four senior running backs graduating, that's when they asked me change over. Coming into the combine, I actually thought I was gonna get looked at more at corner than running back but the majority liked what I can do at running back. Due to my foot injury I was only limited to work at one position and running back was what I came out as obviously."
The idea was officially out there of Jones finding his way onto the field as a corner. Then a couple months ago, Reggie McKenzie confirmed the team would be trying Jones out at corner.
"I'm pushing for cornerback," McKenzie from the NFL combine. "I think it fits his skill set. I think we're going to see how he does there."
At the time we didn't really know if that was just a little tryout or if Jones was really going to come into camps working with the defensive backs. Today we got out answer - he is now a cornerback.
"During the off-season, DA called me and he asked me how would I feel about making the change to defense," said Jones. "At first I thought I would be upset because I couldn't show everybody what kind of running back I could be but really my mindset is ‘whatever I can do to help the team'. I'm a competitor and I like to compete so I'm just glad I'm on the team so I'm gonna work hard wherever he needs me."
It is just the first OTA session so not a lot can be gleaned from it. He is also still actively making the transition (back) to corner and that is a long process.
"It was pretty fun today," said Jones of his first OTA practice. "I was excited with the new position change. Lately I've been looking at the book work and watching film but it was good to go out there and have a lot of receivers running at you.
"I admit that when I first came out (as a corner), things was going pretty fast for me but toward the end I started to feel comfortable, I started seeing more plays and getting more reps.
"It's coming along. Today was the first day I was able to learn some things about myself. I started to get comfortable throughout the day but I definitely got a lot of work to do."
It is a rare transition for a player to attempt after having joined the NFL to go from one side of the ball to the other. It would seem if anyone can do it, it's Taiwan Jones. He has speed to burn which will make up for some coverage skills he may be lacking and his play on special teams add to his value.
It's still anyone's guess how this transition will work out. On one hand, this move is such a long shot, his odds of making the team are just as long. On the other hand, it speaks highly of Jones' athleticism and skill set that the team would take a chance on him. It will be very interesting to see how it turns out.
Follow @LeviDamienWith the announcement of a Baby-sitter’s Club prequel and revision of the first two volumes in the series due out in April, we couldn’t help but wonder: Where would our beloved teenage baby sitters be now? The answer: in their early 30s. Yep, it made us feel old, too. And so we decided to reconnect with our favorite Stoneybrook, CT residents, channeling our inner Ann M. Martin to come up with what we think are plausible current realities for the gang.
Kristy Thomas: High School Gym Teacher
Kristy was always such a tomboy and her talent for coaching the Krushers had to lead her somewhere sporty. We like to think that she’s evolved into a nicer version of Sue Sylvester — they’re both type-A know-it-alls. Also: she still really loves turtlenecks. And women.Easy To Use Patents Search & Patent Lawyer Directory
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At Patents you can conduct a Patent Search, File a Patent Application, find a Patent Attorney, or search available technology through our Patent Exchange. Patents are available using simple keyword or date criteria. If you are looking to hire a patent attorney, you've come to the right place. Protect your idea and hire a patent lawyer.NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 11: Opponents of hydraulic fracturing in New York state attend a news conference and rally against hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, on January 11, 2012 in New York City. The event, which was held on the steps of City Hall, called for an end to the controversial gas drilling method as environmental groups increasingly warn about contamination of the state’s aquifers that could poison its drinking water. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Sen. James Inhofe found the tape first – video dynamite. In 2010, EPA official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz explained his philosophy the way he’d explained it to his enforcement team. Inhofe published it and talked it up on the Senate floor. On Thursday, this section of the video led Fox News Live.
It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer those villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish somewhere and they’d find the first five guys they say and they’d crucify them. And then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.
“An EPA official appointed by President Obama,” said host Bret Baier, “said that his philosophy, talking to other EPA, folks was like the Romans conquering villages, saying that oil companies should be crucified.”
“It completely reflects the fact of what the EPA has been doing on energy,” added Charles Krauthammer.
Right before that show was taped, a reporter fired off this question to Jay Carney.
Jay, an EPA official has apologized now for what he said was a poor choice of words when he said in 2010 his philosophy and oil and gas enforcement was to “be like the Romans and find the first five guys and crucify them.”
It started a little tete-a-tete, continuing with Carney giving away the store. The comments, he said, were “inaccurate as a representation of, or characterization of the way that the EPA has operated under President Obama.” It ended when the reporter asked “if that is your policy, and if the president’s approach going back to the ‘08 campaign was about hope and change and setting a new tone – setting a new tone, and if somebody is saying we should crucify the industry, why is that person still working at the EPA?”
Yeah, why is he? One theory: He didn’t say this was his philosophy toward oil companies. He said it was his philosophy toward companies that broke the law. Here’s a fuller version of the quote, which was in the video Inhofe originally put up. (It’s been taken down because of a claim by David McFatridge.)
It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. And so you make examples out of people who are in this case not compliant with the law. Find people who are not compliant with the law, and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them, and there is a deterrent effect there. And, companies that are smart see that, they don’t want to play that game, and they decide at that point that it’s time to clean up.
If you’re an opponent of Obama’s EPA, you could argue that Armendariz is talking about enforcing regulations that are crushingly strict and should be repealed anyway. Christopher Helman, one of the journalists who decided that the first part of the quote was enough to run with, argued that Armendariz had crucified companies because his office had “targeted” Range Resources, a Texas drilling company, shortly after this video was made – it was “catnip for the environmental fracktivists who insist with religious zealotry that fracking is evil.” According to Helman, “a federal judge slapped the EPA, decreeing that the agency was required to actually do some scientific investigation of wells before penalizing the companies that drilled them.”
Did Armendariz go after the company without any previous investigation? Well, no. The EPA, acting on a complain by a family that claimed its well had been tainted, started analyzing the well and the soil in late 2010. The endangerment order came down on December 7, 2010, after those first results came in. One month ago the EPA rescinded the order, but there’s still an important distinction here – investigating a drilling company because an enviromental tests raises concerns is not exactly “crucifying” them for no reason.
Armendariz’s apologized. Now, in addition to a fracking investigation that hasn’t gone well, he’s got a quote that’ll be used to bludgeon environmentalists into the distant future. We should at least use the full quote.An Ontario Liberal pledge to provide a tax credit to businesses of up to $10,000 for hiring new immigrants to their first jobs is coming under fire by the province's Progressive Conservatives for favouring "foreign workers."
The Tories have been quick to criticize the tax credit pledge which was officially unveiled Monday along with the rest of the Liberal campaign platform just over a month before the Oct. 6 election.
With just a day to go until the official election campaign begins, Hudak slammed the new promise aimed at helping skilled immigrants as an "affirmative action" program.
"Basically Dalton McGuinty wants to pay companies $10,000 to hire foreign workers while we have half a million people in Ontario today who are looking for jobs," he said Tuesday at a campaign event at the home of a Scarborough family.
"He is going to pay companies $10,000 to hire anybody but you. I think that's wrong and it shows a premier who is just out of touch."
Fair shake, not a handout
But the Tories have also promised a tax credit for employers who sponsor language training for immigrants.
Hudak said the Tory program is entirely different from the Liberal proposal.
"[It's] not even close," said Hudak. "I mean, ours caps at I think $400 a person that's already employed that needs a little help with language training. I think that Ontario families just believe in a level playing field."
His grandparents, who immigrated from the former Czechoslovakia and didn't speak English, weren't looking for a special deal when they came to Canada, he said.
"They weren't looking for a special handout," Hudak said. "They wanted a fair chance to succeed. Those are Ontario values."
The Tory leader also brushed off concerns that his stance may alienate immigrant voters that his federal cousins have courted for years, saying they're the ones who want a "fair shake," not a handout.
The Tories have also released a YouTube ad titled "Ontarians Need Not Apply" criticizing the Liberal pledge.
But the credit doesn't apply to those who aren't Canadian citizens – it applies to new Canadians who live in Ontario and have been in the country for up to five years.
McGuinty decries 'politics of anger'
McGuinty, speaking at an event at a school in Markham on Tuesday, delivered a scathing rebuke of the PC stance on the issue.
"It think it's a sad day for Ontartio. You know, the Progressive Conservative Party is no longer with us," he said.
"It's been taken over by the Tea Party, and they're practicing a different kind of politics, which is the politics of anger, envy, resentment, and division."
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath didn't dig into the debate, saying her platform will focus on creating jobs for everyone.
"Jobs are important for the immigrant community, absolutely, they're important for all Ontarians," she said.
Debbie Douglas, the executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, welcomed the Liberal pledge.
"The fact is that we live in a very diverse province and that [for] government, there is a responsibility to ensure that opportunities exist for everyone," she said.
An audio recording of a Sunday Liberal strategist conference call leaked to The Canadian Press shows the policy had raised some eyebrows internally.
"It reminded me a little bit of the potential blow back that we could see by positioning it from the opposition as an affirmative action program," strategist Jameson Steeve could be heard saying.
It is expected to cost $12 million to implement the program.
Mobile-friendly liveblog: Full election coverageThe government's flagship education policy, free schools, is under fire again. Appropriately dystopian in name, STEM Academy Tech City in Islington, north London, was set, until late today, to have the ignominy of being the first of its kind to face industrial action. Last-minute negotiations over what staff were calling zero-hours contracts have, for now at least, halted the series of walkouts that were due to begin on Thursday.
Unbound as it is to national pay and conditions for teachers, the free school has exercised its freedom, stipulating that, along with allowing only six months of maternity leave, it "reserves the right to temporarily lay you off from work without normal contractual pay or to reduce your normal working hours and reduce your pay proportionately. The school will give you as much notice as it can reasonably give of its need to take such action."
Free schools in effect have carte blanche to clear staff from pay books before long school holidays, rehiring them once the new term begins – despite the fact that most teachers work during these breaks to catch up on vital marking and long-term planning necessitated by an overwhelming workload. The National Union of Teachers, which represents the strikers, sees this as indistinguishable from zero-hour contracts. Headteacher John O'Shea and his chair of governors Tony Sewell, an education advisor to Boris Johnson, deny the claims.
What is happening at the STEM Academy points to a path other free schools will inevitably tread. It doesn't take much of a leap in imagination to see that market forces, always concerned with cost-cutting and profit, will come to reign supreme. In 2011 the Adam Smith Institute argued that "unless ministers are prepared to facilitate the contribution of profit-making businesses", free schools will only have a "statistically minor" impact. Many of us can still remember how free schools were sold to the public – they were supposed to be about parents having the freedom to open schools for their children's benefit, free from profit-making concerns. Yet parents are founding only 7% of proposed free schools. The notion that they would confer more power to the citizen, a unique selling point of the Tory's small state agenda, is looking like a fallacy.
We were also told that free schools would be set up to plug the national shortfall in school places, particularly those in the primary sector where the need is greatest. By September the country will need 256,000 new school places for five- to 11-year-olds. The National Audit Office analysing the capacity of 45 free schools that opened in 2012, found that they provided only 10% of the new places required. Puzzling, too, is that just over half were in areas already identified as having a shortage of places. You might wonder why the other 40% or so opened where there was not as much need. In the case of STEM Academy Tech City, the sixth-form college is positioned a stone's throw from two well-established institutions rated outstanding by Ofsted. With only about 150 students currently enrolled at a college with provision for 400, bemusement is a natural reaction to its opening in the first place.
The government recognises that the £1.7bn being spent on the free school and academy agenda is unsustainable, yet it nevertheless aims to plough on regardless. Michael Gove, in leaked minutes from his department, has begun to parrot suggestions that a more "radical route is towards fundamentally shifting the basis of our relationship with academies through reclassifying academies to the private sector". Gove is apparently influenced by the model in Sweden, where joint-stock companies manage 64% of free schools. We can't be too surprised though, can we? Privatise is the Tory answer to pretty much everything. Is the point of government really only the facilitation of this seemingly endless enterprise?
As things stand, this most expensive of pet projects isn't even bringing in dividends. Free schools are equal in performance to those that are maintained; indeed, fewer are judged as outstanding. And yet their intake is unrepresentative of their local communities. Many free schools have a lower proportion of children on free school meals or those that have special educational needs. Maybe Franz Kafka is scripting this farce, because in free schools we seem to be conceding much that has been hard won by teachers, parents and students, and all for what? Is anyone else wondering what's in it for the little people?
• This article was updated at 6.30pm due to the strike being called off.(Photo : Steam Facebook Page)
There's no exact release date for the HTC Vive VR headset yet but when it does come out, it will go on sale via HTC's website. The information comes straight from the Taiwanese company's head of global marketing Jeff Gattis.
Gattis was speaking with Polygon about HTC and Valve's partnership that brought on the Vive VR headset. The smartphone maker took care of the hardware side of the equation while the "Half Life" developer worked on software.
As a result of the partnership, the first retail versions of the Vive will reportedly be sold through HTC.com and HTCVR.com. But it won't be exclusively available from HTC. Gattis revealed they have been meeting with "excited" retailers as well.
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"Everybody is excited about this: They see the potential for the market, the potential to sell the things around it. They see it as a great traffic driver to their stores."
Gattis added that "retail will be part of [their] strategy" but it won't come to fruition until Q1 2016. The HTC exec also reiterated that the company is committed to the targeted end of 2015 launch of the HTC Vive VR headset.
"I don't know if we're necessarily going to hit retail for holiday, but we're still very committed to that."
Virtual reality is just beginning to go mainstream but the market is already populated with plenty of choices for consumers. How would Vive stand out from its rivals? Gattis said Valve's Lighthouse position tracking tech gives it the edge.
"We think it's the best tracking system out there, and that combined with 90 frames [per second] and all of the sensors we have that are interacting with those lasers, that's really what's enabling the precision tracking."
But according to the HTC exec, "the ability to walk around the environment" is the Vive's real ace. Known as "Room Scale," Gattis said the technology "adds an element of presence that makes it feel so much more real."
"Even if you're not moving around, just knowing you can, it really takes you out of the real world and into this virtual space."
Before its targeted holiday 2015 launch date, the final version of the HTC Vive VR headset will supposedly be revealed in mid-October. For the meantime, it is currently on a limited worldwide tour.Content
Table of Contents
Apache Tomcat 8.x vulnerabilities
This page lists all security vulnerabilities fixed in released versions of Apache Tomcat 8.x. Each vulnerability is given a security impact rating by the Apache Tomcat security team — please note that this rating may vary from platform to platform. We also list the versions of Apache Tomcat the flaw is known to affect, and where a flaw has not been verified list the version with a question mark. Note: Vulnerabilities that are not Tomcat vulnerabilities but have either been incorrectly reported against Tomcat or where Tomcat provides a workaround are listed at the end of this page. Please note that binary patches are never provided. If you need to apply a source code patch, use the building instructions for the Apache Tomcat version that you are using. For Tomcat 8.0 those are building.html and BUILDING.txt. Both files can be found in the webapps/docs subdirectory of a binary distributive. You may also want to review the Security Considerations page in the documentation. If you need help on building or configuring Tomcat or other help on following the instructions to mitigate the known vulnerabilities listed here, please send your questions to the public Tomcat Users mailing list If you have encountered an unlisted security vulnerability or other unexpected behaviour that has security impact, or if the descriptions here are incomplete, please report them privately to the Tomcat Security Team. Thank you.
10 September 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.5.34
Moderate: Open Redirect CVE-2018-11784 When the default servlet returned a redirect to a directory (e.g. redirecting to /foo/ when the user requested /foo ) a specially crafted URL could be used to cause the redirect to be generated to any URI of the attackers choice. This was fixed in revision 1840056. This issue was reported to the Apache Tomcat Security Team by Sergey Bobrov on 28 August 2018 and made public on 3 October 2018. Affects: 8.5.0 to 8.5.33
6 July 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.0.53
Low: host name verification missing in WebSocket client CVE-2018-8034 The host name verification when using TLS with the WebSocket client was missing. It is now enabled by default. This was fixed in revision 1833759. This issue was reported publicly on 11 June 2018 and formally announced as a vulnerability on 22 July 2018. Affects: 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.52 Low: CORS filter has insecure defaults CVE-2018-8014 The defaults settings for the CORS filter are insecure and enable supportsCredentials for all origins. It is expected that users of the CORS filter will have configured it appropriately for their environment rather than using it in the default configuration. Therefore, it is expected that most users will not be impacted by this issue. This was fixed in revision 1831729. This issue was reported publicly on 1 May 2018 and formally announced as a vulnerability on 16 May 2018.
26 June 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.5.32
Important: Information Disclosure CVE-2018-8037 If an async request was completed by the application at the same time as the container triggered the async timeout, a race condition existed that could result in a user seeing a response intended for a different user. An additional issue was present in the NIO and NIO2 connectors that did not correctly track the closure of the connection when an async request was completed by the application and timed out by the container at the same time. This could also result in a user seeing a response intended for another user. This was fixed in revisions 1833826, 1833832, 1837531 and 1833907. This issue was reported to the Apache Tomcat Security Team by Dmitry Treskunov on 16 June 2018 and made public on 22 July 2018. Affects: 8.5.5 to 8.5.31 Low: host name verification missing in WebSocket client CVE-2018-8034 The host name verification when using TLS with the WebSocket client was missing. It is now enabled by default. This was fixed in revision 1833758. This issue was reported publicly on 11 June 2018 and formally announced as a vulnerability on 22 July 2018. Affects: 8.5.0 to 8.5.31 Low: CORS filter has insecure defaults CVE-2018-8014 The defaults settings for the CORS filter are insecure and enable supportsCredentials for all origins. It is expected that users of the CORS filter will have configured it appropriately for their environment rather than using it in the default configuration. Therefore, it is expected that most users will not be impacted by this issue. This was fixed in revision 1831728. This issue was reported publicly on 1 May 2018 and formally announced as a vulnerability on 16 May 2018.
08 May 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.0.52
Important: A bug in the UTF-8 decoder can lead to DoS CVE-2018-1336 An improper handing of overflow in the UTF-8 decoder with supplementary characters can lead to an infinite loop in the decoder causing a Denial of Service. This was fixed in revision 1830375. This issue was reported publicly on 6 April 2018 and formally announced as a vulnerability on 22 July 2018. Affects: 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.51
4 May 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.5.31
Important: A bug in the UTF-8 decoder can lead to DoS CVE-2018-1336 An improper handing of overflow in the UTF-8 decoder with supplementary characters can lead to an infinite loop in the decoder causing a Denial of Service. This was fixed in revision 1830374. This issue was reported publicly on 6 April 2018 and formally announced as a vulnerability on 22 July 2018. Affects: 8.5.0 to 8.5.30
13 February 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.0.50
Important: Security constraint annotations applied too late CVE-2018-1305 Security constraints defined by annotations of Servlets were only applied once a Servlet had been loaded. Because security constraints defined in this way apply to the URL pattern and any URLs below that point, it was possible - depending on the order Servlets were loaded - for some security constraints not to be applied. This could have exposed resources to users who were not authorised to access them. This was fixed in revisions 1823319 and 1824359. This issue was identified by the Apache Tomcat Security on 1 February 2018 and made public on 23 February 2018. Affects: 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.49 Important: Security constraints mapped to context root are ignored CVE-2018-1304 The URL pattern of "" (the empty string) which exactly maps to the context root was not correctly handled when used as part of a security constraint definition. This caused the constraint to be ignored. It was, therefore, possible for unauthorised users to gain access to web application resources that should have been protected. Only security constraints with a URL pattern of the empty string were affected. This was fixed in revision 1823308. This issue was reported publicly as 62067 on 31 January 2018 and the security implications identified by the Apache Tomcat Security Team the same day. It was made public on 23 February 2018. Affects: 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.49
11 February 2018 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.5.28
Important: Security constraint annotations applied too late CVE-2018-1305 Security constraints defined by annotations of Servlets were only applied once a Servlet had been loaded. Because security constraints defined in this way apply to the URL pattern and any URLs below that point, it was possible - depending on the order Servlets were loaded - for some security constraints not to be applied. This could have exposed resources to users who were not authorised to access them. This was fixed in revisions 1823314 and 1824358. This issue was identified by the Apache Tomcat Security on 1 February 2018 and made public on 23 February 2018. Affects: 8.5.0 to 8.5.27 Important: Security constraints mapped to context root are ignored CVE-2018-1304 The URL pattern of "" (the empty string) which exactly maps to the context root was not correctly handled when used as part of a security constraint definition. This caused the constraint to be ignored. It was, therefore, possible for unauthorised users to gain access to web application resources that should have been protected. Only security constraints with a URL pattern of the empty string were affected. This was fixed in revision 1823307. This issue was reported publicly as 62067 on 31 January 2018 and the security implications identified by the Apache Tomcat Security Team the same day. It was made public on 23 February 2018. Affects: 8.5.0 to 8.5.27
12 December 2017 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.0.48
Low: Incorrectly documented CGI search algorithm CVE-2017-15706 As part of the fix for bug 61201, the description of the search algorithm used by the CGI Servlet to identify which script to execute was updated. The update was not correct. As a result, some scripts may have failed to execute as expected and other scripts may have been executed unexpectedly. Note that the behaviour of the CGI servlet has remained unchanged in this regard. It is only the documentation of the behaviour that was wrong and has been corrected. This was fixed in revision 1814827. This issue was reported to the Apache Tomcat Security Team by Jan Michael Greiner on 17 September 2017 and made public on 31 January 2018. Affects: 8.0.45 to 8.0.47
30 November 2017 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.5.24
Low: Incorrectly documented CGI search algorithm CVE-2017-15706 As part of the fix for bug 61201, the description of the search algorithm used by the CGI Servlet to identify which script to execute was updated. The update was not correct. As a result, some scripts may have failed to execute as expected and other scripts may have been executed unexpectedly. Note that the behaviour of the CGI servlet has remained unchanged in this regard. It is only the documentation of the behaviour that was wrong and has been corrected. This was fixed in revision 1814826. This issue was reported to the Apache Tomcat Security Team by Jan Michael Greiner on 17 September 2017 and made public on 31 January 2018. Affects: 8.5.16 to 8.5.23
4 October 2017 Fixed in Apache Tomcat 8.0.47
Important: Remote Code Execution CVE-2017-12617 When running with HTTP PUTs enabled (e.g |
Broncos could use another running back, but it isn’t a desperate situation, so if Williams is going to be pricey in terms of compensation and a contract restructuring proves difficult, I’m not sure the Broncos would be a favorite to land him. I do think the team could be interested under the right circumstances, though.
In other AFC West news:
Injured San Diego players, receiver Eddie Royal, cornerback Shareece Wright and linebacker Jonas Mouton are all inactive Sunday in Cleveland.
An ESPN Stats & Information post shows that Peyton Manning is now excelling on the deep pass as he continues to recover from four neck surgeries.
The NFL is still investigating the Chargers' use of a sticky towel in Week 6 against Denver. The towel company, Gorilla Gold, has yet to hear from the league. The Chargers could face a fine or a loss of a draft pick if the league finds that the Chargers broke league rules.
There will be some special visitors in Denver on Sunday night.Most people think Shohei Otani will want to play as both a pitcher and a hitter in MLB. (Getty)
Earlier this year, a National League general manager tasked a few trusted employees with a secret mission: Find out everything you can about Shohei Otani. One of the employees came back a few days later with some sparse details but a useful nugget of information: If Otani really does bring his 102-mph fastball and powerful bat to Major League Baseball from Japan during the upcoming winter, he wants to play for a big-market team with a large Japanese population. A few days after that, another of the employees delivered what he thought was some solid dope: When Otani does reach the major leagues, he really would love to head to a small market, blend in and avoid any more distractions than the ones inherent in his arrival.
The GM laughed. He doesn’t know if it’s intentional subterfuge, tongue-in-cheek trolling or out-of-the-loop sources trying to pass themselves off as in-the-know insiders, but his experience with Otani matches that of four other GMs who spoke with Yahoo Sports about the 22-year-old and said variations of the same thing: They have absolutely no idea what’s going on with him.
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One scout is convinced the Texas Rangers are the favorites for Otani. Another GM believes the same – though he heard Otani might prefer the Los Angeles Dodgers. And then there are the San Diego Padres, who have a partnership with Otani’s Japanese team and hired a former strength coach of his in a prominent role. Don’t forget the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros and others lurking, waiting, wondering whether their recon might be the difference between landing Otani and losing him.
Story continues
That Otani is shrouded in mystery is only appropriate, seeing as his legend has grown to proportions in which even myths wouldn’t dare traffic. The fastball. The home runs. The legitimate possibility of a two-way player better than anyone since the person to whom Otani is most often compared – only Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player ever. All of it creates this mania through which teams try to sift and find the truth.
Each wants to answer the same three questions. First: Is Otani coming to MLB after the 2017 season? On this, there is significant skepticism, and it stems from a second question, which might be even more important than the first.
Is Shohei Otani really willing to give up $200 million?
To understand how that’s possible, flash back to the winter, when MLB was negotiating a new collective-bargaining agreement with the MLB Players Association. Teams wanted to rein in spending, particularly on Cuban players, on whom they had lavished more than $800 million guaranteed over the previous decade. Much of the union’s rank-and-file, it turned out, was similarly chapped over the money handed to Cubans, a curious position but one staked nonetheless.
The compromise overhauled the international system, not only placing a hard cap on teams’ abilities to spend but neutering the market for young, international talent. In the past, international spending limits vanished once a player reached 23 years old. The new basic agreement bumped that to 25 – and, in the process, left Otani facing one whopper of a choice: Does he come to MLB after the 2017 or ’18 seasons and subject himself to a maximum signing bonus of $10.1 million, or does he wait until his 25th birthday in 2019, try to win another championship or two with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and come stateside with unlimited earning potential?
The general consensus among the GMs pegged market value for a 23-year-old starting pitcher with an elite fastball and elite splitter, plus a curveball and a slider that flash great now and again, and, oh, by the way, a bat that OPS’d over 1.000 last season, at $200 million minimum. Provided he stays healthy – Otani has yet to pitch this year because of a lingering hamstring injury, and missed the World Baseball Classic because of ankle issues – he’d get the same after 2019, maybe even more, with the free-agent market about to get juiced by the historic Class of 2018.
Arbitrary caps happen to encumber him now, in potentially laughable ways. The Dodgers, Padres, Astros, Cubs and Giants are among 11 teams limited this year to spending a maximum of $300,000 on an international player as a penalty for breaking previous thresholds. So if Otani, one of the best players in the world, decides he wants to play for, say, the Dodgers, not only would his signing bonus cap at $300,000, he would enter into baseball’s salary system like a rookie, meaning he would make about $550,000 for each of his first three seasons, then be subjected to three more in the restrictive arbitration system, before he reached true free agency.
In a February interview with Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling, Otani said: “Personally, I don’t care about money.” He has made millions playing in Japan and plenty more on top of that via sponsorships. And over the winter, when Nippon Ham declared it would place Otani into the posting system and allow his transfer to MLB following the 2017 season, he voiced no objections to the salaries awaiting him.
Teams are wary still. One GM put it this way: “Does he want to come over here badly enough that he’s essentially going to pay $100 million a year for two years to play?” Theoretically, there are ways to circumvent this. One scout familiar with Otani predicted a “handshake deal” in which the team gives him a contract extension after the first season, though high-ranking sources at MLB said the league expects to be vigilant to ensure the sanctity of the system is not made a mockery by extralegal payments.
How they might adjudicate that is tricky. If, say, Otani were to sign a contract extension after his first season, and it weren’t close to in line with previously established market values for players with a year of service time, it would be obvious that some sort of deal had been struck. The Pandora’s box of MLB intervening in contracts, though, is one that it dare not open, not in the name of enforcing a rule as flaccid as the international restrictions may prove to be.
All of this is subject to backdoor dealings that have not started in earnest, bringing into question the likelihood of Otani’s move to MLB this winter. If Otani has hired an agent, none of the GMs surveyed know about it, and his silence from across the ocean only compounds the confusion. MLB, according to sources, has sought clarity from Nippon Professional Baseball on Otani’s status as teams prepare to start signing a new international free-agent class July 2. It still has not heard from NPB on the matter, and further complicating the issue is the ever-evolving posting system.
When Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yu Darvish came to MLB, teams could win the rights to a player in a blind bidding system, and nearly half of the $100 million-plus outlay for each went to the posting fee. The imbalance was obvious, and the new posting agreement for Masahiro Tanaka allowed him to negotiate with all teams that were willing to pay a $20 million fee. Tanaka himself got nearly eight times that from the Yankees.
Shohei Otani has yet to pitch this season because of a hamstring injury. (Getty Images)
Otani’s situation has the potential to look positively retrograde, and MLB understands the ugliness of the optics that would have him potentially getting a smaller signing bonus than an average fifth-round pick in the amateur draft while his former team reaps tens of millions. The last time Nippon Ham posted a player was Darvish, for whom Texas paid the Fighters a $51.7 million fee.
The Rangers again find themselves at the center of the speculation on Otani, not just because GM Jon Daniels went to Japan to personally scout him but because of their excellent relationships and reputation in the country that stems from Darvish’s success. There’s one other factor that comes into play, and it answers the outstanding third question from earlier: Does Otani really want to try to play both ways regularly?
The answer, almost everyone in MLB believes, is yes – and that is the sort of X-factor that may well disqualify suitors and empower others. The prospect of Otani playing in the outfield regularly and pitching every fifth day in a rotation is farfetched, as much because it’s a foreign concept in MLB as the bodily wear and tear it could cause. A likelier option is spending the four days he’s not pitching as a designated hitter, and multiple American League teams surveyed believe they have an inside track accordingly.
Counting out NL teams, of course, would be foolish this early in the process. Before Nippon Ham convinced him to sign out of high school, Otani was planning on become the first high school player to jump from Japan to an MLB team’s affiliate. That team? The Dodgers, whose integration of Hideo Nomo in the 1990s hastened the flow of Japanese players to the major leagues.
Today, Nomo works as an adviser for the Padres. Akinori Otsuka, another successful Japanese pitcher, is their Triple-A bullpen coach. And earlier this year, they hired a man named Seiichiro Nakagaki as their director of applied sports science. When he worked for the Fighters, Nakagaki was a significant influence on Otani, teaching him proper training techniques and helping him turn into the strapping 6-foot-4, 220-pound leviathan he is today. The Padres, aware they can’t compete with the financial might of their Los Angeles rivals, have pulled the baseball equivalent of college basketball teams hiring an AAU coach in hopes of landing his star recruit.
Maybe it works. As one official put it, if Otani does want to spend 2018 in MLB, “$5 million is not going to be outcome determinative. This is a long play. He’ll sign where he’s most comfortable. Easy as that.” The official chuckled and asked: “So, do you know what makes him most comfortable?”
Is it spending his nights at home instead of out partying? One GM’s report pegged Otani as something of a homebody. And does the fact that so few know much about him say something about his ability to connect with others? And are these injuries that keep cropping up indicative of deeper medical concerns? These questions aren’t rhetorical. They’re ones being asked to no avail.
So goes the mystery of Shohei Otani, whose hold on the baseball zeitgeist will abate no time soon. It’s almost perfect that an enigmatic air surrounds a too-good-to-be-true player, this character from another time trying to do something that seems impossible. The sooner the better for MLB, which hopes Otani really does value the game over money but understands the reality may be stacked against it.
“I don’t think he’ll come [this year],” one NL GM said. “Actually, I don’t even know why I’m saying that. I don’t know if he’ll come. Nobody does.”
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:The historic banking hall inside the former Baltimore Trust Co. skyscraper, now undergoing a controversial conversion to an Under Armour Performance Center, would be designated an “interior landmark” under a plan proposed by members of the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP).
Concerned about reports of what some preservationists consider inappropriate changes to the banking space, CHAP members have voted unanimously to devote part of their January pre-meeting briefing session to considering the idea of adding the banking hall at 10 Light Street to the city’s list of interior landmarks.
Possible Public Hearing
The discussion is a precursor to holding a public hearing on the subject, if members decide to do that.
The building would have to be posted to give the public legal notice of the proposal. A formal hearing and vote to recommend landmark listing would then be held after January, if the commissioners so choose.
If the former banking hall is added, it would be one of only a handful of spaces in Baltimore to be designated an interior landmark.
Other interior landmarks include the City Hall rotunda, Senator Theatre auditorium and main lobby, St. John’s Huntingdon Church in Old Waverly, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany-designed sanctuary of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on St. Paul Street.
“That’s pretty rare company to be in,” said Tom Liebel, chairman of CHAP following its Tuesday meeting.
Interior landmark designation protects historically significant spaces from inappropriate alterations by requiring design review for proposed changes.
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PREVIOUS BREW COVERAGE:
• Rare artwork, underfoot, could soon be out of sight (11/11/12)
• Leaving historic floor exposed is not an option, fitness center owner says (11/12/12)
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Once a space is added to the interior landmark list, according to CHAP guidelines, any proposed changes to the protected area must be approved by the preservation panel before construction can begin.
The idea of designating the banking hall as an interior landmark surfaced one month after building owner Cary Euwer of Metropolitan Partnership came to a CHAP meeting and outlined plans to turn the banking hall into a fitness center.
Euwer confirmed that the conversion plan calls for one of the banking hall’s most significant architectural features, a series of five marble mosaic floor panels by Maryland born muralist Hildreth Meiere, to be hidden from view by new floor coverings designed for exercising.
He said the marble floor would be covered by three layers of material – a fiber layer, a foam layer and then carpeting on top of it.
Euwer’s company is investing $75 million to convert 10 Light Street from offices to 400 apartments with the Under Armour Performance Center at street level.
Seeking Historic Tax Credits
The developer is seeking approximately $18 million in tax credits from the state and the federal government for preserving the Art Deco skyscraper in accordance with federal preservation standards.
In a Brew article, some local preservationists said they don’t believe it is appropriate for Euwer to receive tax credits when his biggest tenant is concealing one of the building’s most distinctive architectural features.
Euwer says the new floor covering will help protect the marble mosaics from damage while Under Armour occupies the building.
He said the floor coverings will not be attached to the marble by any sort of glue or mastic, making the process 100% reversible in case a future tenant wants to uncover the mosaics.
Liebel conceded that the interior landmark designation may not prevent Under Armour from covering the mosaic panels since construction is underway.
He said CHAP is counting on the Maryland Historical Trust and the National Park Service to prevent the developer from damaging the interior since he is seeking tax credits from them.
Liebel said interior landmark designation for 10 Light Street came up because certain commissioners feel strongly that the banking hall is a significant space and should have the protection that comes with landmark designation, including design review concerning any future changes.
The interior landmark designation would go beyond any one renovation plan and help safeguard the space in perpetuity.
“It’s not about the proposed renovation, per se,” Liebel said. “It’s: Does the space as it stands today have sufficient integrity and quality to be a Baltimore interior landmark? It’s not about the tenants. It’s about the significance of the space.”This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
Gou... I three... or is consolidating longer ruling Islamic regimes hands and are to defeat... President Obama story she joins us now to find out... with all focused on Libya are overlooking the situation that as an Enson fold over there in Iran... singling out into the... people that that that that needed to focus... on footy and he did but that guarantee that the pension and on that with that having a mean of the vote the... opposition coming back... to life that now... and then moving to a BP to get rid of any belief that the to and including... the fact that a conservative one... the ceiling among the people were... coming to the streets of roses among the dissonance... that and getting going into the streets... of Iranian cities is even more dangerous than it's ever been... and perhaps a see no reason for the consolidation is a signal to them... the deal the you know... very little tolerance for protest... late yesterday... that that that that they had a hat Italy with security at the bow out on the cheap that they don't have to be weak he... she it could set back the government but said that it became a before picture he... adds that more of a violent two with the population and that that not allowing them to... congregate in one place... I think that the Fed to keep out to have a position... where a... lot of the opposition that because it is that that that that was a bit on that and that not the government of the road to come by and that it is willing to back that you know what are the pillars of the Islamic Revolution... Jerry Sithe is the still injured and quickly calmed the situation here... what got me miss or Mrs racinos or buts attrition the ground and I do I do think the interesting question here is whether all this turmoil Middle East it... is making Iran stronger weaker the regime that is and... that weaker in the sense that it's inspiring the... the protesters to go back to the streets... stronger in the sense that they see American allies and of Shaiken and and and turmoil... in to see oil prices above one hundred dollars a barrel with refills coffers in Toronto with the so... interesting question about that what the effect of all this unrest is going to be on the regime... in Iran in the short run and in the long run...A grandfather was killed in cold blood during a shooting that left relatives and police stumped as to who would have done it. Gordon Tokumatsu reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 20, 2017. (Published Thursday, July 20, 2017)
The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking the public's help in identifying a gunman responsible for the shooting of a man and the injuries of a woman in the Arlington Heights area.
At approximately 12:45 a.m. on Thursday, Olympic Division officers responded to a call regarding a shooting in the 1600 block of Van Ness Ave. Upon arrival, the Los Angeles Fire Department found the victim's vehicle on the road and pronounced the driver dead at the scene.
The female passenger was seriously injured and transported to a local hospital, to which she has now been released according to LAPD Detective Sean Kinchla. Two children, both under the age of four, were found in the vehicle unharmed.
"The vehicle was parked when the gunman approahced and fired numerous shots, striking the two victims," LAPD Captain David Kowalski said.
Officials have described the gunman as a young male in his early twenties. He was seen wearing a white t-shirt and ran south on Van Ness Ave.
The motive for this shooting is unknown and there is no known surveillance of the shooting occurring.
"Today, we challenge the community to come forward with any information that might help us solve this murder," Kowalski said.
Anyone with information on this homicide is encouraged to contact the West Bureau Homicide investigators at (213)382-9470. Those who wish to remain anonymous should call 1(800)222-8477, or you can send an anonymous tip at www.lacrimestoppers.org.Two APD officers on leave have yet to be interviewed
Action 7 News has learned the James Boyd case hearing is delaying the investigation into the Albuquerque Police Department's latest fatal officer-involved shooting.Rafael Molina is dead after Albuquerque police said he pointed a gun at two officers last week. Cornel Heitzman and Carlos Hernandez are now on paid leave.APD said the officers have yet to be interviewed about the deadly shooting because the police union is busy. They said the union's lawyers are tied up with the Boyd case, so they are unavailable to sit in on the interviews.But the union says the more likely reason is that officers, in general, are reluctant to give these interviews."What value does the police officer have to give that statement? Officers are hesitant," said union Vice President Shawn Willoughby.Willoughby said officers typically give two statements after a shooting. The first is a voluntary statement, provided as a show of cooperation.A second statement is mandatory and is part of the department's internal affairs investigation.Willoughby said transcripts and audio recordings of the voluntary statement can be requested and distributed to the public. Oftentimes, he said, those could go public before the internal affairs investigation is ever complete.Mobile users: Tap for video
Action 7 News has learned the James Boyd case hearing is delaying the investigation into the Albuquerque Police Department's latest fatal officer-involved shooting.
Rafael Molina is dead after Albuquerque police said he pointed a gun at two officers last week. Cornel Heitzman and Carlos Hernandez are now on paid leave.
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APD said the officers have yet to be interviewed about the deadly shooting because the police union is busy. They said the union's lawyers are tied up with the Boyd case, so they are unavailable to sit in on the interviews.
But the union says the more likely reason is that officers, in general, are reluctant to give these interviews.
"What value does the police officer have to give that statement? Officers are hesitant," said union Vice President Shawn Willoughby.
Willoughby said officers typically give two statements after a shooting. The first is a voluntary statement, provided as a show of cooperation.
A second statement is mandatory and is part of the department's internal affairs investigation.
Willoughby said transcripts and audio recordings of the voluntary statement can be requested and distributed to the public. Oftentimes, he said, those could go public before the internal affairs investigation is ever complete.
Mobile users: Tap for video
AlertMeIt is with great pleasure that we are launching this new blog dedicated to Firefox Nightly, Nightly users and getting involved in Firefox and Mozilla contribution through Nightly.
Firefox Nightly is the earliest development stage of Firefox, rebuilt every night from the latest code produced by Mozilla. It is literally a glimpse of what the Future of Firefox will be.
Of course, this is not software meant to be used by the general public, its user base consists of developers, testers and power users that love to live on the bleeding edge of technology. They accept that some features may be unfinished, that the product has bugs or occasionally suffers from regressions that would not happen with a regular version of Firefox.
Today, tens of thousands of people use Nightly either as their main browser or as their secondary browser. That’s a lot but, ideally, we would be a lot more people using Nightly, reporting our bugs and crashes and generally speaking providing a healthy feedback loop to developers. The better the quality on Nightly, the greatest will be Firefox for the hundreds of millions of people that use Firefox to access and control their online life.
We intend this blog to be a stable point of information about what happens on Nightly, what features or core technologies landed, how Nightly users can help Mozilla fix bugs and regressions and more generally how a tech-savvy person can move from being a consumer of Firefox to a contributor of Firefox.
The initial team of writers for this blog is comprised of Marcia Knous and Pascal Chevrel from the Release Management team, and Jean-Yves Perrier from the MDN team. Three Mozilla old-timers and community builders. But this blog is also open to guest writers: Developers landing a feature and that may want to present it, Quality Assurance testers willing to explain how to report a bug or find a regression range, community members that want to relate their experience promoting Nightly in their region… You are all welcome here and can contact me (pascal AT mozilla DOT com) if you want to write content or help promote Nightly to the technical crowd.
Are you a power user and not a Firefox Nightly user yet? Then visit our download page and download it for your platform. This page only lists English (en-US) builds for desktop, we actually have the same builds available in many languages on our FTP site and yes, reporting typos or mistranslations in Nightly is also useful for our quality!
Bookmark this site, follow its RSS feed, follow us on Twitter because there is more to come soon!
Pascal Chevrel for the Nightly Boosters team
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EnregistrerRichard Sherman talk has been all the rage since he went all WWE on Michael Crabtree.
However, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wishes the Seattle Seahawks cornerback had thought twice before he unleashed an outburst on national television.
Schein: Defending Richard Sherman Adam Schein says the intelligent, emotional Richard
says the intelligent, emotional Richard Sherman is exactly the right player to be the face of Super Bowl XLVIII. READ
"It's an emotional game, and you see a young man who comes off the field and he's pumped up, and there's so much excitement in the stadium, but no, I'm not cheering for that because he's a great young man," Goodell said Thursday on "CBS This Morning," via ProFootballTalk. "He's extremely well-spoken, does great things off the field, obviously a great player on the field."
Sherman has received a lot of flak for his outburst and has unfairly been called a thug, among other names. Sherman has since apologized, but with just 10 days to go until Super Bowl XLVIII, Goodell wants him to "present himself in the best possible way."
"I want him to... make sure that he's reflecting on himself and his family in a positive way," Goodell said. "He took away a little bit from the team. That was what he said yesterday. I thought that was a very interesting comment and I think it's fair."
We handed out awards for the 2014 coaching class and talked all the latest headlines in the latest "Around The League Podcast."Chicago has remained one of the most segregated cities in America, as this map from a new report on the intersection of place, race and health in the Second City indicates. On it, each blue dot represents 500 whites (as captured in the America Community Survey between 2005-2009), while each purple dot the same number of blacks. Yellow represents the city’s Hispanics and green the Asian population (that green concentration right in the middle of the city is Chinatown).
The map, produced by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, is most noteworthy for the pattern it establishes that repeats itself throughout a number of other indicators about life in Chicago. Below is another map of the census tracts with persistent poverty over the last 40 years (with the darkest shades experiencing the most long-running poverty):
Here, the dark areas represent the highest access to chain supermarkets or large independent grocery stores with at least five cash registers. Nearly all of the neighborhoods with the lowest access are located on the city’s South Side, south of Interstate 55 in the city, in an area that is almost exclusively populated by minorities.
Zooming in on that southern half of the city, we see in dark brown the census tracts with both the lowest educational attainment and the lowest access to food.
Lastly, this is a map of life expectancy in Chicago, with the darkest areas covering residents not expected to live past 70.
Add up and compare all these maps, and a couple of alarming conclusions emerge from the new report, Place Matters for Health in Cook County. Researchers with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, in conjunction with the Center on Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University, have found that people living in Chicago neighborhoods with a median income higher than $53,000 a year have a life expectancy almost 14 years longer than Chicagoans who live in communities with a median income below $25,000.New Delhi, Aug. 23: What was initially dismissed as another instance of shooting from the lip by a minister who does not weigh his words, defence minister Manohar Parrikar's description of Pakistan as hell came back to embarrass the government a week later today as a Karnataka-based lawyer decided to treat the label as unquestionable truth that cannot be challenged without inviting sedition charges.
Free-speech advocates went on the offensive on social media after news broke of a sedition plea being filed against actor-turned-politician Ramya by a lawyer for differing with Parrikar's statement.
The gist of the counter-refrain was more or less this: when Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes to Pakistan, it's path-breaking diplomacy and a smart move. When others say Pakistan is not hell, it's sedition.
The jibes apart, there was underlying concern about how statements - such as that of Parrikar - from the top echelons of the government are not just queering the pitch for politicians but also eroding the space for free expression.
"Leave aside what happens to bilateral talks because of such statements, the shrinking space for the peace constituency in the Indo-Pak context will be the real casualty," said Happymon Jacob, associate professor of disarmament studies at JNU.
"If we cannot say that Pakistanis are not all bad without running the risk of being accused of treachery, then where is the freedom that we talk of? As in Pakistan, people in India will also think twice before speaking out. That will be the real casualty. Because of the permissive environment in the country, a statement like Parrikar's can be misused by design or sheer ignorance," Jacob said, expressing fear that the country will in all likelihood see more such statements from ministers as the BJP appears to spy an electoral dividend in them.
While the government's fellow travellers inside and outside the Sangh stables have been celebrating the minister's words - and seeing it as a reflection of the government's muscular policy towards Pakistan which would also boost the morale of soldiers - Lt. Gen. H.S. Panag rubbished this contention.
"Soldiers do their duty. For a soldier, Kashmir is just duty. When there is a war or in a situation like Kashmir where they have to deal with infiltrators, they carry out orders but they do not start developing hatred for the enemy state or its people," he told this newspaper.
Panag, who writes on security issues, is associated with the Aam Aadmi Party and is often trolled by the right-wingers, unmindful of his decorated past.
Jatin Desai, general secretary of the Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace & Democracy, described Parrikar's statement as "irresponsible".
The forum, in a statement linking the sedition charge against Ramya to Parikkar's declaration, condemned "such jingoistic acts, where praising positive things about any country, based on one's own experience, makes it an insult to the home nation".
"At times when the politicians and the media constantly bombard the citizens with messages of hatred against the two nations, it becomes much more crucial to stand with people promoting a message of peace," the statement added.
However, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, G. Parthasarathy, described Parrikar's statement as just a "different style of speaking". In any case, he said, Indians have had enough of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, underlining the fact that not much has come out of dialogue.
Right about the time Parikkar drew some laughs from the gathering in Haryana's Rewari district where he likened Pakistan to hell on August 16, a three-member delegation of young parliamentarians, including one from the BJP, was setting foot on that soil to attend the first SAARC Young Parliamentarians Conference.
Although Devji Mansingram Patel, the BJP MP from Jalore in Rajasthan, is not as forthright as Ramya in saying Pakistan is no hell, his experience - political compulsions notwithstanding - was " theek tha (OK)".
"Their hospitality was good. We did not get a chance to interact with the people but we met their young legislators and that was a learning experience. If the Pakistan government does what their younger generation thinks, many of the issues between the two countries will be sorted out," Patel said.
On whether the visit had dented his pre-departure image of Pakistan, Patel said the exposure was limited. "People-to-people contact will work only if the Pakistan government does not view Indians with suspicion. I wanted to meet some people there but was told that they could get into trouble, so I did not meet them."
Ramya, too, had returned from the same conference with a similar experience and she had drawn a distinction between the people of Pakistan and its government.Last night, Mike Huckabee gave a disastrous interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, where he defended Donald Trump’s racist attack on the judge overseeing one of the fraud cases involving his Trump University businesses by insisting that the presumptive GOP nominee’s statements were not racist because “there is not a thing in his life that he has ever shown” that could be seen as racist.
Huckabee suggested that Judge Gonzalo Curiel — whom Trump has repeatedly said could not give him a fair hearing because he’s “a Mexican” — has a “built-in liberal bias” and may have a “political agenda.”
When Kelly asked Huckabee what evidence he has that Curiel has an anti-Trump political bias, Huckabee admitted that he had absolutely nothing to substantiate the comment he just made: “Honestly, I’ve not spent a whole long of time digging through the details.”Tuesday, November 8, 2016 4:34 pm unwatch 0 10k
Chair of the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, November 8, 2016,
which today adopted 9 resolutions against Israel.
GENEVA, Nov. 8, 2016 – The U.N. General Assembly adopted 10 resolutions singling out Israel today, with only 4 expected to be adopted later this week for the entire rest of the world combined, with one each on Syria, Iran, North Korea and Crimea. See UN Watch’s full list and voting records below.
Sign UN Watch’s petition: click here to urge world leaders to stop the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias. Disable your browser’s Ad Blocker to see the petition.
The resolutions were adopted in their first reading today before the UNGA’s Second and Fourth Committees. All 193 UN member states participate in the committee stage, and then almost always vote the same way when formally adopting the texts at the GA plenary in December.
On the renewal of the mandate of a special committee to investigate “Israeli practices,” one of the 10 resolutions passed today, the vote was 86 in favor, 71 abstaining, and 7 opposed, with the U.S., Canada and Australia joining the Jewish state, backed by Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.
Those abstaining included EU members, as well as several from Africa and Latin America, including Argentina, Mexico and Costa Rica.
“The U.N.’s assault on Israel today with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization.
“Even as Syrian president Bashar Assad is preparing for the final massacre of his own people in Aleppo, the U.N. adopted a resolution — drafted and co-sponsored by Syria — which falsely condemns Israel for ‘repressive measures’ against Syrian citizens on the Golan Heights. It’s obscene,” said Neuer.
“While there will be a total of 20 resolutions against Israel this session, not a single U.N. General Assembly resolution is planned today for gross human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Venezuela, China, or Cuba.”
“At a time when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his state-controlled media incite to the continued stabbing and shooting of Israeli Jews, the UN’s response is to reflexively condemn Israel in ten separate resolutions, each of them one-sided, each of them utterly silent on Palestinian abuses.”
The resolution drafted annually by Syria condemns Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, and demands Israel hand the land and its people to Syria.
“It’s astonishing,” said Neuer. “At a time when the Syrian regime is killing its own people by the hundreds of thousands, how can the U.N. call for more people to be subject to Assad’s rule? The timing of today’s text is morally galling, and logically absurd.”
“Today’s resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the U.N. is oblivious to the dozens of Palestinians who in the past month have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces, and more than 3,000 victims killed since 2011.”
“Today’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the U.N.’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations remains the scapegoating of Israel,” said Neuer.
“The U.N.’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the U.N. Charter promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small,” Neuer added.
Sign the petition: click here to urge world leaders to stop the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias.
Disable your browser’s Ad Blocker to see the petition.
_________
1. “Assistance to Palestine refugees” – A/C.4/71/L.7
Vote: 159 votes in favor (including the EU, which also co-sponsored) to 1 against (Israel), with 8 abstentions (Cameroon, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Paraguay, United States).
Past votes on same resolution
70th Session Res. 70/83: 167-1-11 (No: Israel)
69th Session Res. 69/86: 163-1-10 (No: Israel)
62nd Session Resolution 62/102: 171-2-6
61st Session Resolution 61/112: 173-1-10
60th Session Resolution 60/100: |
first wave of Bandai Creation figures consists of Godzilla 54, Burning Godzilla, Gigan, and Rainbow Mothra. It's pretty clear Bandai Creation used samples of these figures from Bandai Japan, yet took it upon themselves to create new molds to showcase thier own brand of vinyl figures. The figures are packaged on a display box with the figures secured by tie wrap. The front of the display box pictures graphic artwork of Godzilla 2000 firing his ray. The back features the line up of the 6.5 inch figures. Here's a look at each figure along with its Japanese counterpart.
Godzilla 54
Bandai Creation fashioned thier Godzilla 54 in the same manner as Bandai Japan's version, as far as pose and facial expression. While the body shape, position of the tail, and the legs of the U.S. version are similar to the Japanese version, the scales on the U.S. version are not as deep and the arms are longer and skinnier. The spines on the U.S. version are different when compared to the Japanese version, but don't prove to be a distraction cause they are done well. The Bandai Creation Godzilla 54 also has a straight up posture, unlike the Japanese version that leans a bit forward.
Bandai Creation & Bandai Japan Godzilla 54
Burning Godzilla
It is an interesting choice for Bandai Creation to go with the Burning Godzilla figure rather than Bandai Japan's Heisei Godzilla. Another interesting aspect of Bandai Creation's Burning Godzilla is that there are no similarities when compared to its Japanese counterpart other than they can both be recognized as a Burning Godzilla.
Bandai Creation & Bandai Japan Burning Godzilla
All body parts of the Bandai Creation Burning Godzilla are different from its Japanese counterpart. The body/arms/legs of the Japanese version is a translucent orange vinyl, while the U.S. version is black vinyl. The tail position of the Bandai Creation figure is different. The body, spines, and arms are a different mold and the only thing comparable is the legs, but not by much.
The heads are completely different when compared. While the Japanese version is more of an accurate look, The U.S. version looks more fierce. The eyes of the U.S. version are more detailed and while the Japanese version has a more straight up posture, the U.S. version is leaning forward this time.
Gigan
The Bandai Creation Gigan is also a different sculpt when compared to the Japanese version, sporting its own unique look. The only similarity is the tail as far as position goes, but the tail on the U.S. version is larger and sports more scales. The spikes on the tail is larger on the U.S. version, as well as the spikes on the neck and head.
Bandai Creation & Bandai Japan Gigan
The body of the Bandai Creation Gigan is not as round as the Japanese version and the legs on the U.S. version are shorter and closer to the body. The arms are shorter as well. The back fins on the U.S. version are fuller and more spread out, yet not as detailed as the Japanese version.
The head of the Bandai Creation Gigan has a unique look. The eye visor of the U.S. version has a different shape and while both versions display thier mouths closed, the Japanese version shows teeth while the U.S. version's mouth appears completely shut. The head of the U.S version also can turn while there is no articulation for the head of the Japanese version. Bandai Japan's Gigan stands a bit taller than the U.S. version.
Rainbow Mothra
Collectors have mention that Bandai Creation's Rainbow Mothra is much improved over it's Japanese counterpart. Once again, the mold on the U.S. version is different and is slightly smaller than the Japanese version, yet the detail and painted highlights are much better on the Bandai Creation version.
Bandai Creation & Bandai Japan Rainbow Mothra
The painted highlights on the U.S. version are more colorful with both the top and bottom wings painted, unlike the Japanese version, which only has the top of the wings painted. While both versions have thier front arms extended, The U.S. versions arms are more spread out than the Japanese version. The patterns found on the top of the body are slightly different as well.
The head of the Bandai Creation Rainbow Mothra is smaller when compared to the Japanese version, yet is more detailed. The marks on the front of the head and the atteneas are more noticable and sports better painted highlights. It has been mentioned that Bandai Creation's Rainbow Mothra had fewer quantities placed in the box for shipping when compared to the other three figures, making the Rainbow Mothra the harder to find figure.
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Return to Main Page.A lot of ink has been spilled over how to get "real" unit tests working in Ruby on Rails projects. The first time I encountered it was when Gary Bernhardt and Corey Haines started the "fast specs" meme. Knowing both of them, it was partially about improving runtime speed for faster feedback, but it was also about gaining focus and simplicity by way of excluding the myriad global constants that come along with require "rails".
Because RSpec has always shipped with is own (quite nice!) CLI, setting up a test suite that didn't load rails was as simple as creating a one-off helper file and cordoning off a directory for rails-free tests (e.g. rspec spec/fast ). For Minitest users running their tests with a Rake task, a few more steps were needed, but it was still pretty straightforward.
But then, after the "movement" died down, Rails 4 arrived and a change to how it configured Rake inadvertently made it really hard to run rake without first requiring the universe. In a Rails 4 app, the generated Rakefile looks like this:
require File.expand_path( '../config/application', __FILE__) Rails.application.load_tasks
So, in the post-Rails 4 world, if you're thinking, "oh, I'll just write a custom Rake task that only loads plain-ol' Ruby objects in lib/ and save myself the time to require Rails", you may not realize that the very first thing your Rakefile does is load all of Rails (and probably most of your Gemfile, too).
I'd completely forgotten about this today when I wrote a little Rake task to run unit tests that didn't depend on any Rails-aware code in lib/tasks/unit_test.rake :
require "rake/testtask" Rake::TestTask.new( :unit_test ) do |t| t.warning = false t.libs << "test" t.libs << "app" t.libs << "lib" t.test_files = FileList[ 'test/**/*_unit_test.rb' ] end
I was feeling pretty clever, because any file ending in _unit_test.rb would belong to a logical test suite, even if intermingled with directories containing Rails-aware tests. And, because _unit_test.rb also ends in _test.rb, any unit tests would also be scooped up by our existing test task—meaning I wouldn't have to futz with CI configuration or, even better, inform other developers on the project about what I was doing. (That last bit is important: the number one reason I saw the "fast specs" meme fail in practice was that less zealous team members would forget to run the extra test suite, only to be surprised when "Chris's suite" would fail in CI.)
Isolated Rake task in hand, I wrote a dummy test and ran it with time rake unit_test :
. Finished in 0.001424s, 702.2472 runs/s, 702.2472 assertions/s. 1 runs, 1 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips real 0m2.120s
Ruby isn't the fastest interpreted language on the planet, but it's surely fast enough to load Rake and run a two-line method in less than two seconds. Seeing this wall-time was a dead giveaway that Rails was being loaded before my task was even defined.
Aaron Patterson and I have investigated removing the Rails-generated Rakefile's dependency on Rails in the past, but eliminating the application load from the Rake environment would be a nontrivial endeavor. And, at the end of the day, this isn't really Rails' problem. It's a Rails app, it's going to want to load Rails. News at 11.
So, where to turn if you want to run any tasks that are reliably divorced from Rails (and your other gems that lack a require => false directive in your Gemfile)? It turns out you can always just write an additional Rakefile.
Rakefile.norails
The rake cli takes a predictable --rakefile argument, so if you write a Rakefile.norails, you can run it like this:
rake --rakefile Rakefile.norails
If you don't find yourself writing many Rakefiles from scratch, you could get started by just cherry-picking the tasks you'd defined with the intention of not needing Rails, like so:
import "lib/tasks/unit_test.rake" task : default => :unit_test
This way, the :unit_test task will be available to both Rake configurations, sparing your colleagues any grief if they forget about your custom Rakefile and the two seconds it can save them. (If you're befuddled why two seconds should matter to you, check out this tiny portion of my How to Stop Hating Your Tests talk.)
New, isolated Rakefile in hand, let's try to run it with rake --rakefile Rakefile.norails :
. Finished in 0.001076s, 929.3680 runs/s, 929.3680 assertions/s. 1 runs, 1 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips real 0m0.794s
Excellent, we cut our load time by more than half!
To figure out how low the floor is, we could cut it further by eliminating Rake and running just a single test using the ruby CLI. When I ran time ruby -I lib:test test/lib/simple_unit_test.rb, it yielded a 0.423s run time.
What if someone loads Rails anyway?
It would be tempting to call our work finished at this point, but there's a lingering fear: what if one of these tests inadvertently requires some code that, in turn, results in Rails being loaded? It's not hard to imagine that happening, and if just a single test were to accidentally load Rails, it would eradicate the intended benefit of this separate Rakefile.
So, can we ensure Rails isn't loaded? We can! By using Ruby's at_exit hook, we can add a check that the Rails constant is still undefined after all of our tasks are finished executing. Here's what my final Rakefile.norails file looked like:
import "lib/tasks/unit_test.rake" task :default => :unit_test at_exit do if defined?(Rails) raise "Rails wound up getting loaded by a Rakefile.norails task! Failing!" end end
But that's still not enough! Because Rake::TestTask will spawn a separate test process, we also need to install this trip-wire somewhere in our test suite. I chose to throw it in my test/unit_test_helper.rb file:
require "minitest/autorun" class UnitTest < Minitest::Test end MiniTest.after_run do if ENV[ 'NO_RAILS' ] && defined?(Rails) raise "Rails wound up getting loaded by a unit test! Failing!" end end
Now, if either a test or a rake task were to load Rails, an error will be raised and the process will exit non-zero. Note the ENV['NO_RAILS'] condition, though. So that our unit tests won't inadvertantly break our integrated rake task (recall that rake test will scoop up these new unit tests), we'll need some kind of flag to ensure we only trigger this alarm in the event that the unit tests were launched via Rakefile.norails.
With that caveat, here's our final Rakefile.norails file:
ENV[ 'NO_RAILS' ] = "true" import "lib/tasks/unit_test.rake" task :default => :unit_test at_exit do if defined?(Rails) raise "Rails wound up getting loaded by a Rakefile.norails task! Failing!" end end
Rake off Rails
This approach to running tasks in isolation from Rails has a few benefits:
Only takes a few minutes to set up
Unit tests will also be run by the app's existing test task
If someone forgets --rakefile Rakefile.norails, they can still run the unit_test task
, they can still run the task If a "no rails" task or a test inadvertently loads Rails, we'll be alerted immediately
For a real-world example, this blog post resulted from this actual commit in Test Double's present app, which we use internally for tracking time & generating invoices.A fuel cell for space. Batteries that use air. A way to tap pine trees and extract biofuels like maple syrup from a maple tree. These are just some of the “out-there” energy innovations that researchers and entrepreneurs are hard at work building in labs across the U.S., and which were on display at the fifth annual energy innovation-focused ARPA-E Summit this week. As snow fell gently on the Gaylord Convention Center on the banks of the Potomac, just outside of Washington D.C., over 260 energy technology projects were showcased across diverse sectors from biofuels, to power grid analytics, to next-gen batteries.
Most of the scientists and innovators at the conference have a few things in common. The bulk are funded by the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, which gives small grants (a million dollars or so) to early-stage, high-risk “moonshots” that can advance energy technology. Some of the researchers work at university labs, some work at startups, others work in the R&D divisions of big companies. A lot of these scientists are examples of what Bill Gates once (lovingly) referred to as crazy energy entrepreneurs working on energy miracles.
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Underlying the bright ideas and goodwill, there’s a general acknowledgement that the ARPA-E program is, indeed, small. Its budget is only a couple hundred million dollars (currently at $275 million) and at times it has had to fight for survival. Many of the technologies that get funding in the program are so early stage, it’s hard to deliver success stories, and even harder to scale these research projects beyond the lab and into real companies.
This year, compared to previous years, there were notably fewer highlighted startups, much more university research and even fewer venture capital investors walking the floor. Most VCs have by now have learned that it’s just really difficult to make easy, fast money from backing these energy miracles.
Still, if there’s proof that energy innovation is alive and well — and didn’t die when Silicon Valley fled cleantech — you’ll find it at ARPA-E. The researchers are unpolished; many will fail. But their imaginations are deep and their ideas are earnest. And they’re all hard at work trying to hit milestones to move their technologies to the next phase. Here’s some of the weird, wacky, and downright cool technologies (I’m not telling you which is which) spied at the show this year:
Tapping pine trees for biofuels: Researchers at the University of Florida are using metabolic engineering to increase the number of energy-dense molecules in pine trees so that they could potentially be tapped like maple trees. The molecules are called wood terpenes, and the substance they can extract is called turpentine. The team, which raised close to $7 million from ARPA-E, wants to boost the amount of turpentine in the pines from 4 percent to 20 percent of its weight.
A 3D-printed electric car motor: And you thought 3D printing was just for toys and design models. A group of researchers at aerospace giant United Technologies Research Center is using 3D-printing techniques to make a high-efficiency electric car motor that uses fewer rare earth materials and less energy, doesn’t rely on a global supply chain and can be made more compact. The process uses a laser to deposit layers of copper and insulation, instead of winding wires in the traditional fashion.
Diamond semiconductors: When diamonds are doped up with boron or phosphorus, they’re great electricity conductors — they can withstand higher temperatures at a higher performance than silicon. But of course they’re very expensive. Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a new process to grow doped diamond crystals to be used as semiconductors for a much lower cost. Michigan State University is also working on making doped diamonds for high-powered semiconductors.
Thermal batteries for electric cars: Saving the battery power of an electric car to power the vehicle — instead of running the air conditioning or the in-car electronics — could significantly extend the range of an electric car. Researchers at MIT are working on a battery-type energy storage device that can absorb a lot of water using an engineered material of zeolites and graphene. The “absorptive battery” could provide heating or cooling for about an hour, without using the batteries that would be powering the car. The MIT researchers are testing out the technology with Ford and got a $2.7 million ARPA-E grant.
UTRC is also working on a so-called thermal battery — or hot and cold battery — for electric cars using a vapor compression system that absorbs a refrigerant on a metal salt. University of Texas, Austin has a project developing a hot-cold battery for EVs that uses “phase change materials” that release and store energy as they move from a gas to a liquid stage. When it’s completed, the UT Austin the researchers hope their thermal battery can extend an EV’s range by a third.
Dust devil energy: This might be the most out-there idea at the show. The researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are looking at ways to harness the energy in dust devils, a naturally occurring phenomenon that takes place when a wind vortice is created from solar heated air on the ground. The project looks to create man-made dust devils in a sort of wind turbine.
Air batteries: The ARPA-E program has a whole bunch of projects working on batteries that use air as a key component (for electric cars and grid storage). Some of the work is coming from substantial companies like Fluidic Energy, which I wrote about last year, or PolyPlus, which I covered a couple years ago. Other air battery projects, like a newly announced aluminum-air battery that Phinergy and aluminum giant Alcoa are working on, are still very early-stage research.
A “closed” fuel cell for space: NASA was showing off a fuel cell that is closed, and is “non-flow-through” so it requires no maintenance, uses reactants that can be stored at high pressures, and has no moving parts. NASA has already been practicing powering one of its lunar rovers with the non-flow-through fuel cell.
Turning tobacco into fake shark liver molecules: Squalene is a compound that is mostly obtained from shark liver and is used in cosmetics and vaccine technology. But killing millions of sharks to extract their livers is a huge problem. A project from Texas A&M University, called SynShark, is working on a way to genetically modify tobacco leaves to make squalene.Happy Thor’s Day, Mercury rules it.
Wow my dreams have been super Technicolor and lucid for the last few days. How have yours been?
We are under a strong earth and water focus all of this week.Very Feminine energies.
This is a very spiritual 5 day window of unconditional LOVE spirituality and creativity we are in.
VENUS in Aquarius is 30 degrees away from NEPTUNE in Pisces at 9+ degrees, a semi-sextile.
Venus is always about human love and Feminine values. Neptune is her “higher octave” the planet of spiritual, unconditional love, SOUL MATES, “Twin Souls” Agape as the Greeks called it, Bodhisattva Love, infinite love, Universal, cosmic, Oneness Bliss.
The human heart is connected to its Higher Octave Heart. This Higher Heart Chakra is the fount of compassion, empathy, joy, peace, serenity, patience. The Christed Consciousness, Kwan Yin energies and all Unconditional Mother love is centered from this place.
I did a wonderful workshop with Drunvalo Melchizedek in SEDONA in April 2014 called Awakening the Illuminated Heart and in it he presented very complex steps to find the sacred space of the heart. His wife Claudette taught how to get there in the feminine way which is straight intuition. This is a great opportunity to find your own sacred space of the heart.
This is a very beautiful energy and an opportunity for us to connect within our human hearts and with all life on this planet and extra terrestrials, angels, Higher Teachers and with our spiritual essence which is love, soul full love, the vast timeless Infinite love of God/ Goddesses. The Source that inspired Rumo’s 30,000+ poems.
There is even more amazing aspects developing all weekend, from Friday the 26 to the 28th
the SUN, conjuncts NEPTUNE exact @ 7:46 am PST/ 10:46 am EST/ 3:46 pm GMT. @ 9+ degrees.
SUN CONJUNCTS NEPTUNE a YEARLY EVENT
This will be an incredibly mystical, telepathic awakening, a spiritual epiphany. Extremely creative for all artists, musicians, painters, designers and actors and everyone who opens themselves up. Don Miguel Ruiz says that the Toltec Indio’s refer to everyone as artists.
This aspect can open the psychic, third eye, pineal gland. It awakens Lucid Dreaming abilities, opensthe four chambers of the heart to ALL THAT IS, ever was and ever will be.
This aspect can also be experiences as a couple of days of being in the TWILIGHT ZONE, being overwhelmed with fantasy, projections, feeling foggy, lost and disconnected. Many will be acting delusional, in addictive mode, gambling, throwing money away, in denial, and avoiding dealing with what is happening within themselves and in the world around you.
It could be super gloriously amazing and naturally psychedelic but also could be very confusing for many people who are totally shut down normally and in their ego’s. Imagine the 60’s Electric Cool-Aid coming through everyone’s faucets. Wait, who drinks tap water any more?
It is definitely a time to be altruistic and compassionate with your self and others. Yes, do some charitable work. If you are already sensitive and empathic and if you aren’t; your heart will expand so wide that you will feel every pain and hurt in the world, every child who is starving, every person being murdered or tortured, every senior dying, every animals’ suffering so much that you feel your heart will be breaking over and over again from the harsh cruelties of this human world. That alone may shock people into waking up and doing something about all the pain and suffering being inflicted and acting differently, living from the heart.
It may feel like a N.D.E. for many thousands or even millions of people. A spiritual shocker. So be very aware.
But also be careful as Neptune conjunct the Sun will have you seeing stars in everyone’s eyes too, seeing only the Light and not the shadow. Mars is in Scorpio so i believe you will still feel that heavy ruthless power coursing underneath it all.
It will be an amazing MAGICAL weekend for witchcraft, to create very HIGH WHITE MAGIC, to ask for creativity to flow through you, to connect with the Goddess and the Gods directly.
Make SOUL MATE LOVE potions – this is the REAL LOVE POTION #9.
Cast only positive spells and scry in some water. Remember to BLESS THE OCEANS and all the waters.
Chant and sing, do kirtan, call on GANESHA and DURGA and be very quiet.
Go to nature and worship there, or to church or temple if that is your way.
LUCID DREAM INCUBATION
Definitely meditate before going to sleep to create lucid dreaming. This is a powerful Spiritual Dream time. intend to meet your Soul mate if that is what you are desiring.
PLEASE PASS THIS ON SO THAT MORE PEOPLE MAY BECOME AWARE
I will be doing a lot of singing and chanting this weekend.
Monday is also THE DAY OUT OF TIME Feb 29th. It is the Anniversary that my Beloved and I first conjoined 20 years ago.
I am going back to Sedona in May most likely if you would like to book private healing sessions with me there please email me taragreenetarot@gmail.com
Get a reading with me http://www.taratarot.com
PLease donate, your support is greatly appreciated. http://taratarotweb.tripod.com/id78.htmlBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 17, 2013, 7:37 PM GMT By Miriam Kramer
All of the gold on Earth might have come from cosmic crashes between superdense dead stars, new research suggests.
The origin of the universe's gold is mysterious, since it's not formed within stars like lighter elements such as carbon and iron. But the mystery may now be solved, as a new study posits that the collision of two neutron stars — the tiny, incredibly dense cores of exploded stars — could catalyze the creation of the valuable metal.
"We estimate that the amount of gold produced and ejected during the merger of the two neutron stars may be as large as 10 moon masses — quite a lot of bling!" lead author Edo Berger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) said in a statement. "To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we are all star stuff, and our jewelry is colliding-star stuff." [Two Neutron Stars Collide (Video)]
Berger and his colleagues studied a short gamma-ray burst — a class of explosions that are among the most luminous known in the universe — spotted by NASA's Earth-orbiting Swift spacecraft in early June.
Called GRB 130603B, the gamma-ray burst was located about 3.9 billion light-years from Earth and lasted for less than two-tenths of a second. In the aftermath of the burst, scientists noticed that the explosion gave way to a gradually fading glow dominated by infrared light.
The research team thinks the burst's glow comes from "exotic radioactive elements," which can be spawned by the neutron-rich material thrown out into the universe by colliding neutron stars.
"We’ve been looking for a'smoking gun' to link a short gamma-ray burst with a neutron star collision," co-author Wen-fai Fong, a CfA graduate student, said in a statement. "The radioactive glow from GRB 130603B may be that smoking gun."
Gold is rare on Earth because it's rare in the universe. In all, the team expects that the gamma-ray burst ejected about one one-hundredth of a solar mass of material, with some of it being gold.
"By combining the estimated gold produced by a single short GRB with the number of such explosions that have occurred over the age of the universe, all the gold in the cosmos might have come from gamma-ray bursts," CfA officials wrote in a news release Wednesday.
The new study has been submitted to the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. Berger presented the results today during a news conference at the CfA in Cambridge, Mass.
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramerand Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.IG/Siberian Times Dr Anatoli Brouchkov claims he has found the secret to immortality
Chemist Anatoli Brouchkov says he has taken on superhuman abilities since giving himself a dose of the 3.5-million-year-old bacteria. The microscopic organisms, which were discovered in the Siberian permafrost, began their lives a million years before the first human beings evolved. Some scientists believe that their ability to regenerate cells could hold the key to a raft of miracle cures, even including one for death itself.
Dr Brouchkov, the head of the Geocryology Department at Moscow State University, first injected himself with the bacteria two years ago. He claims he has not had flu since, and that he has also been able to work harder and longer without getting tired.
Siberian Times The bacteria have survived for 3.5 million years
He said: "I started to work longer, I've never had a flu for the last two years. "After successful experiments on mice and fruit flies, I thought it would be interesting to try the inactivated bacterial culture. "If we can find how the bacteria stays alive we probably would be able to find a tool to extend our own lives." The bacteria, named Bacillus F, has remained alive in permafrost for millions of years. It was discovered by Dr Brouchkov in 2009. He claims trace amounts of it can be found in Siberia's tap water supplies, which he says could explain why people from the region live longer lives.
He said: "The permafrost is thawing, and I guess these bacteria get into the environment, into the water, so the local population, the Yakut people, in fact, for a long time are getting these cells with water, and even seem to live longer than some other nations. So there was no danger for me. "But we do not know yet exactly how it works. Perhaps there were some side-effects, but there should be some special medical equipment to spot them. "Of course, such experiments need to be conducted in clinic, with the special equipment and statistics. "Then we could say clearly about all the effects."
Siberian Times Dr Brouchkov says he has not had the flu since injecting himself with the germs
I started to work longer, I've never had a flu for the last two years Dr Anatoli Brouchkov
Scientists have already experimented on animals with the bacteria, with results showing it has miracle properties which can boost fertility. In one test female mice injected with Bacillus F were able to have babies after their reproductive processes had shut down. In another, the bacteria appeared to help plants heal themselves. Epidemiologist Dr Viktor Chernyavsky called the discovery of the bacteria a "scientific sensation", adding that it could probe to be the "elixir of life". He said: "The bacteria gives out biologically active substances throughout its life, which activates the immune status of experimental animals."
The bacteria was discovered in ancient permafrost at a site known as Mammoth Mountain in Siberia. It was also found in the brain of an woolly mammoth carcass preserved in the ice. Scientists claim that a third strain of ancient bacteria is capable of eliminating cellulose molecules. Dr Brouchkov said: "We want to understand the mechanisms of the protection of genome, the functioning of the genes. "The key question is what provides the vitality of this bacteria, but it is as complicated as which human genes are responsible for cancer and how to cure it. "This bacteria was isolated from the outer world in ice, so we are quite sure that this bacteria was kept in the permafrost for such a long time.
GETTY The bacteria have had astonishing effects on mice in lab tests1923 - Brothers faced each other for the first time in Stanley Cup history. Cy and Corb Denneny, and George and Frank Boucher lined up on opposite sides of the ice in game between Ottawa Senators and Montreal Maroons.1939 - New York Rangers beat the Americans 11-5. When Americans' goalie Earl Robertson hurt his leg, defenseman Roger Jenkins finished the game in the net. He gave up seven third period goals.1941 - Chicago Black Hawks coach Paul Thompson became the first NHL coach to pull his goalie for an extra skater. It did not help as Chicago lost to Toronto 3-0.1947 - Detroit's Billy Taylor set an NHL record (later tied by Wayne Gretzky) with seven assists in a 10-6 win over the Black Hawks at Chicago.1961 - Montreal's Bernie Geoffrion became the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season, in a 5-2 win over Toronto. His 50 goals tied a mark set in 1945 by Maurice Richard.1966 - Montreal and the Maple Leafs combined to set an NHL record by scoring 4 goals within a span of 1:05 during a 7-2 Canadiens win at Toronto1993 - Tampa Bay's Brian Bradley set an NHL record for most goals by an expansion team player, when he scored his 39th goal of the year in a 4-3 Lightning loss to the Hartford Whalers. Bradley broke the mark of 38 set by Gilbert Perreault in 1970-71.1995 - Quebec Nordiques honored Michel Goulet by retiring his jersey number 16.2002 - Detroit's Scotty Bowman became the "losingest" coach in NHL history, in the Red Wings' 2-1 loss to the Bruins. Bowman picked up NHL career loss #578 (one more than Al Arbour) - to go along with his 1,240 victories.Happy Birthday to Roger Crozier, Brian Mullen, Al MacAdam, Greg Johnson, Duane Sutter, Kim Johnsson, Tyler Arnason, Brian Willsie, Jamie Rivers, Jiri Tlusty, and Brandon Prust.RBI’s RuPay can knock out payments giants Visa, MasterCard
The press and the media have ignored RuPay, which can bring about a revolution in India. But the ordinary bank customer can help spread the good word
The press and the financial and business channels have strangely consigned a great achievement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the inside pages and the “also ran” mentions at the end of news bulletins. It is the official launch of India's RuPay payment gateway and card which, except China, no other country, not even the European Union (EU) and Japan, has been able to start successfully.
The press and the media have not fully understood the implications of starting RuPay. Most importantly, it spells the beginning of the end for yet another dependency by India. In this case, it is freedom from the combined services offered by Visa, MasterCard and American Express, as well as the highly secretive payment processing companies like First Data Corp, Total System Services and others.
This short article does not provide the space to fully explain the extremely intricate and often hyper-secretive details of the payment processing industry. Suffice it to say that this is the next logical step to what RBI and its wholly-owned subsidiary, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has already done to establish control of ATM switches in India.
RuPay has, obviously, not amused the competition and here is why.
The payment processing industry had its roots in an attempt, soon after the Second World War, by governments, especially the US through the Federal Reserve, to exercise a greater control over their own economies. Very quickly, this became a focused attempt to control the economies of other countries too.
Ensuring that everybody else’s payment processing industry did not survive was and is par for the course. Eurocard and JCB are just a few that fell by the wayside, were swallowed up, or were not able to really prosper.
The first signs of an attempt to bring India into the ambit of the US-backed payment processing industry came around 2000 AD, a couple of decades after the arrival of cards like Diner’s Club, Gold Pass and some others. Initially these were for very limited Indian rupee payment-only kind of transactions, to dovetail with the requirements of foreigners who required their plastic to work in India. In just a decade after that, the grip of the US-backed payment processing industry, could be seen all over India.
Very soon, large segments of the Indian population, the swelling middle class and more, simply could not do without their plastic fix. Luckily, RBI saw the signs, and was able to control the ATM business before it grew too big. Today, our ATM business is Indian controlled and is setting benchmarks globally for technology. (Counterfeit currency is a separate issue.)
Around 2000 AD, the small tech company that I founded got involved with the US payment processing industry; at that stage it was variously explained to me how global dominance was an integral part of any aspect of the payment processing industry in the US.
I recall interviewing a best breed urbane youngsters in India with brilliant software skills around that time, who had no clue about plastic money, let alone possess plastic from their banks. Today, they are domain experts, and even a school student uses plastic.
This is not just a question of the few million dollars in fees that the payment processing industry collects. It is all about controlling the economy, controlling the float, by-passing the taxation system, keeping track of fiscal information of all sorts, and in short, running the money in somebody else’s country.
It is Economics 101 for some, mystery for others, but dangerous all the same.
In addition, control over domestic and international transactions is where the real deep danger lies. All this, and more, was explained to us when we were working for the US payment processing industry.
Some of this was obviously shared with the domestic market. It has been a convoluted decade, moving from this level of lack of knowledge on the subject, to the pre-eminent position where India now has RuPay.
Every trick in the book, and more, was used to prevent India from developing RuPay—outright sabotage of efforts to go to RuPay (previously IndiaCard), co-opting those who would challenge RuPay (SBI Cards is just one example); even now attempting to portray the payment processing business as something that Indians cannot handle on their own.
Next door, the Chinese were moving ahead rapidly too. With China Union Pay (CUP), they extended their sphere of influence well past their domestic borders into the Pacific, the Central Asian countries, Africa and were on hand when the switch was pulled on Iran.
That CUP has a head-start of a few years on RuPay, and why, is something on which a book can be written—and which will make some of the multi-lakh scams look like so much loose change.
It behooves you as an Indian to find out from your bankers about RuPay—and see how you can be part of it. A rapid build-up of critical mass of users will be essential and very soon; in months probably.
An increasing number of ATMs from some banks—SBI, BoI, UBI, Axis Bank, BoB amongst them—already transact RuPay. Point of Sale machines are already in position, and the number is increasing.
Go to your bank today and find out about their involvement with RuPay you owe this to your country, and to the sovereign |
in the word "kasap," which translate as "butcher” or “robber." There are also various derivatives of the word “katsap.” By extension For instance, Russia is called Katsapia, Katsapetovka, Katsapuria, Katsaplandia or Katsapstan. The word "katsap" is quite frequently used in literature and folklore. One example: "God created the goat (tsap), whereas the devil created the katsap" (Ukrainian proverb).
2. In and Beyond Russia – “Moskal”
Russians, most often natives of Moscow had a vast influence throughout Russian territory and on the public affairs of neighbouring countries even prior to becoming the capital city after ca.1480. This influence gave rise to the nickname Moskal; a designation without negative connotation referring to Russian soldiers serving in military expeditions. Moskal or Mascal soldiers did not live in barracks or camps but as guests in the homes of local inhabitants. Whether a soldier was well-fed or went hungry depended on his ability to "negotiate" with the owners of his accommodations. Naturally, Russian soldiers were not indifferent to the local ladies but relationships lasted only as long as the Moskali themselves, remained guests of the village. When his orders came, summoning the soldier to other lands, romantic ties were soon forgotten. This behaviour popularized the use of the verb to “moskalit,” which means to “swindle” or “cheat”.
Soldiers Welcome! Long-term Stay Discount Rates and Package Deals! Anyways, the right way to spell is mOskali, actually
3. In Germany and the US – “Ivan”
Since the Great Patriotic War 1941-45, Russians in Germany and the United States were sometimes called Ivans. In response, Russians called the Germans Fritz and Caucasians Hatchiks or Hatchis. The word "hatch" translates as "cross" in Armenian, a very common Armenian name. Incidentally, Muslims (Azerbaijanis and Turks) were the first to call the Armenians Hatchiks.
Grilling frogs
4. In Korea – “Mauchzhe”
This nickname was given to Russians by Soviet Koreans. The description is based on the Chinese name for Russians "maoza" pronounced "moutsza" in Korean meaning “bearded man”.
5. In Finland – “Venyalyainen” and “Ryussya”
Venyalyainen is a neutral designation for Russians in Finland, whereas Ryussya is considered derogatory. Nowadays, Ryussya is often used colloquially in reference to Russian speakers originating from the former Soviet Union and occasionally the children of mixed marriages. Initially, the nickname referred to the local Orthodox population (predominantly ethnic Karelian). Swedish being widely spoken in Finland also helped spread its use as their expression for Russians has traditionally been the term Ryss
Venya Wear - The Best Reactive Plate Armour Rubles Can Buy!
6. In Estonia – “Tibla”
Tibla or Tybla is an ethnophaulism given to Russians by their Baltic neighbours the Estonians stemming from the phrase "you Bugger”, originating in reference to the occupying Red Army soldiers from 1918-1920, then 1940-1941 and 1944. A popular slur during the later Soviet era, it became firmly ensconced in their lexicon upon gaining independence in 1991 as a contemptuous, offensive nickname for the country’s Russian-speaking inhabitants; particularly those not versed in the native language. The Estonian Press Council has suggested that the expression “Tybla” primarily refers to a particular type of individual, namely a “Homo Sovieticus”.
Homo Sapiens Sapiruss
7. In Afghanistan - Shuravi
The Afghans were the first to use the nickname Shuravi in reference to Soviet soldiers, derived from the similar sounding Russian equivalent shouravi or šouravī i.e. Soviet. These days, it is considered a neutral, even respectful term alluding to any Russians in Arab countries.Kristian Jaksch has been delisted by the Blues
ONCE highly rated former Giant Kristian Jaksch has been delisted by Carlton.
Jaksch, 22, was told his fate at an exit meeting on Thursday afternoon.
He was taken at pick 12 in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft by the Giants and played just seven games for the AFL's newest franchise.
In a costly trade, Carlton gave up pick seven to secure Jaksch in the 2014 NAB AFL Draft, as part of a deal that also brought midfielder Mark Whiley to Ikon Park.
The Blues also got pick 19 in the deal, with which they selected midfielder Blaine Boekhorst.
Carlton is expected to delist several players this off-season, although some are being retained in the short-term as the club considers its trade strategy.
All of 2017's retirements and delistings
Boekhorst is one of those players whose future remains up in the air, along with forward Dylan Buckley.
Jaksch has played just seven senior games in Blues colours, for a total of 14 in his AFL career to date.
He joined the Carlton on a deal believed to be worth more than $1 million over three seasons.
Whiley was delisted at the end of last season.Manitoba's ombusdman has decided in favour of an NDP complaint against the Progressive Conservative government's initial refusal to release Premier Brian Pallister's personal cellphone and text-message records.
In January, the provincial NDP used freedom-of-information legislation to request records of Pallister's local, national and international mobile phone calls and text messages dating back to May 3, 2016.
The executive council — essentially, the Tory cabinet office — refused, claiming personal records are exempt from freedom-of-information legislation. The NDP then complained to the ombudsman, whose subsequent conversations with the executive council led to the release of mobile-phone records in July.
In a decision issued Thursday, the ombudsman supported the NDP's complaint, noting that records related to government business are subject to freedom-of-information legislation "regardless of where or how created" and are under government control for the purposes of the legislation "even when they are housed on a personal device."
The ombudsman noted the provincial freedom-of-information manual makes it clear that records to the premier or cabinet ministers "include all records made or received in the course of carrying out portfolio responsibilities."
The NDP initially sought Pallister's personal mobile-phone records in an effort to shed light on how the premier communicates while he visits a vacation property in Costa Rica.
The records obtained by the NDP in July revealed that during the six weeks Pallister spent in Costa Rica in 2016, he only spoke twice to a government employee. Both conversations occurred on Dec.19, during the height of negotiations between the provinces and Ottawa over a new health accord.
The ombudsman noted the executive council released the records as a result of its investigation, which is now concluded as a result.
Chisholm Pothier, Pallister's communications director, said he's pleased the ombudsman took note his government released the records before the final report into the complaint was issued.
"The original request was denied, but we revised that. This was before the ombudsman's report," Pothier said in an interview Thursday.
Pothier also noted that Pallister requested the formulation of a policy governing the use of personal mobile phones and email accounts.
'It wasn't his wife's usual phone'
NDP justice critic Andrew Swan said that policy is mere common sense asserted the only reason the Pallister government changed course on the release of the phone records is it became aware the ombudsman was going to rule against it.
"It's a clear rebuke from the ombudsman to the premier. The ombudsman has clearly found the premier was wrong to try and hide his communication and it's clear the government knew this was coming," Swan said in an interview Thursday.
Swan also asserted the mobile phone registered to Esther Pallister, the premier's wife, was used almost entirely for government business, in Manitoba and Costa Rica, based on the fact only eight out of 82 calls made on that phone were deemed by the ombudsman to fall outside the scope of freedom-of-information legislation.
"It wasn't his wife's usual phone for calling friends, doing her own business. It's pretty clear the cellphone was being used in an attempt to obscure the premier's activity and circumvent Manitoba's freedom-of-information laws," Swan said.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Europe of not doing enough to help refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq, suggesting it was responsible for people "drowning in the sea".
Turkey, which has taken in some 1.8 million Syrian refugees since the conflict started in 2011, has repeatedly said that it has been left to shoulder a disproportionate burden as Western states stand by.
Erdoğan has championed an "open-door" policy toward Syrian refugees.
"This is the type of country that we are," Erdoğan said and added "But when you look at the whole of Europe, what you find is that they have not been able to welcome a mere 200,000 refugees in their countries.
"What's more, when there are those who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get into Europe, the attitude they have or the groundwork they lay is such that these people end up drowning in the sea," he added.
The outspoken president has not been alone in criticising the West on refugees, with the UN's refugee chief urging countries to follow Turkey's lead and open up their borders.
Erdoğan said this week the formation of a safe zone inside war-torn Syria, free from ISIS, would help 1.7 million refugees return home.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Europe of not doing enough to help refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq, suggesting it was responsible for people "drowning in the sea".
Turkey, which has taken in some 1.8 million Syrian refugees since the conflict started in 2011, has repeatedly said that it has been left to shoulder a disproportionate burden as Western states stand by.
Erdoğan has championed an "open-door" policy toward Syrian refugees.
"This is the type of country that we are," Erdoğan said and added "But when you look at the whole of Europe, what you find is that they have not been able to welcome a mere 200,000 refugees in their countries.
"What's more, when there are those who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get into Europe, the attitude they have or the groundwork they lay is such that these people end up drowning in the sea," he added.
The outspoken president has not been alone in criticising the West on refugees, with the UN's refugee chief urging countries to follow Turkey's lead and open up their borders.
Erdoğan said this week the formation of a safe zone inside war-torn Syria, free from ISIS, would help 1.7 million refugees return home.
Erdoğan on Friday said that terrorists like ISIS have no place in Islam, as highlighted that Islam is a religion of peace.
President Erdoğan spoke in Indonesia at the National Security Academy and stated that terrorist organizations who commit crimes and arouse hatred under the guise of Islam disregard the fact that Islam is a religion of mercy that encourages peace.
"In our faith, unjustly killing one person is regarded as killing humanity as a whole" he said, while he noted that terrorists like ISIS exploit sectarianism and create hostilities and more violence through it.
He added that sectarianism, violence and terrorism seriously damage Islam.
"We have to demonstrate that we have the will to categorically refuse terrorism, without legitimizing it regardless of the source or identity of terrorism," Erdoğan said.
"Turkey will continue to fight terrorism even if we are left isolated," the Turkish President said, adding that some circles insist on fabricating propaganda claiming that Turkey supports this terrorist organization.
"Turkey has never provided such support," he added.
Erdoğan also noted that the violent images released by terrorist organization ISIS are being intentionally served to the world in order to damage the perception of Islam and Muslims. He stated that everyone should stand against this alongside Turkey.
Turkey shares an 800-kilometer (500-mile) border with Syria. Turkish officials have repeatedly said that they are cooperating with other countries to stop the flow of foreign fighters into its volatile neighboring countries.
Erdoğan also stated that there must be closer cooperation against xenophobia, discrimination and Islamophobia.
"Recently, discriminatory actions in Europe against Muslims worry us. Turkey, which has five million citizens living in Europe, is the country most affected by such negativity," he added.
The Turkish leader also highlighted that with the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the Mediterranean Sea "has become the most problematic area in the world, instead of being a sea of peace".
The Turkish president is currently paying an official visit to Indonesia, following his three-day visit to China.Posted on by alskamom
Happy 2nd day of Autumn!
Now that Fall has officially begun, it’s time to start whipping up some of my favorite Autumn recipes.
One of my very favorite Fall desserts, is pumpkin pie. The combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin and other spices, baked in a flaky crust and served with a dollop of whipped cream, is, in my opinion, the perfect dessert for this time of year.
However, sometimes I have a craving for pumpkin pie, but I don’t necessarily have the time, or patience, to make a whole pie. That’s where this quick and easy No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Mini Tart recipe comes in handy. I only need to combine four ingredients, spoon them into pre-baked shells, and in approximately 30 minutes, I have delicious, mini pumpkin tarts.
I use a 3.4 ounce package of cheesecake flavor pudding and pie filling mix, but you could also use vanilla, or whichever flavor you desire.
~Enjoy~
No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Mini Tarts
1 (3.4 ounce) package cheesecake flavor Jell-O Instant Pudding & Pie Filling mix
1/2 cup cold milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
30 baked mini tart shells (I used Athens Mini Fillo Shells)
Directions:
Combine pudding mix, milk, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl. Whisk until blended.
Spoon into mini tart shells, and chill until fully set.
Serve with whipped cream; if desired.
Makes 30 mini tarts.
Filed under: Baking, Recipes, Tarts | Tagged: Alaska, Autumn, blog, cheesecake, Fall, food, mini, miniature, no bake, photo, pumpkin, Recipe, tart, wordpress |A man charged for triple murder in Norway this year sent in personal contact ad with the title “Charged killer in Trondheim seeks”. How many replies do you think he got? In my head I would say 0, who would be interested in such guy?
But I was wrong, 84 women replied! 16 of them were married and 30 of them attached their nude photo.
I’ve noticed some groups of women who is attracted by violent men and get beaten up, leaves them and later gets together again, or they find another violent guy. What is with these women? Is it a mother instinct?
In an interview the guy says that he looks forward meeting some of them, but when he soon get released he will leave the country. While in prison he studies languages and teology.Nick-Marshall-throwing-Auburn-Van-Emst.jpg
Nick Marshall, the junior college transfer, has won Auburn's starting quarterback job after 18 training camp practices. (Todd Van Emst/Auburn Media Relations)
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Nick Marshall
, the junior-college transfer with the big arm and lightning-quick feet, has officially won Auburn's starting quarterback job, according to a release.
Nick Marshall makes a throw during an Auburn scrimmage on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. (Todd Van Emst/Auburn Media Relations)
Marshall beat out
freshman Jeremy Johnson and sophomore Jonathan Wallace
in a training camp battle that covered three scrimmages and a key situational practice on Saturday.
After Saturday morning's practice, Tigers head coach
Gus Malzahn
met with offensive coordinator
Rhett Lashlee
to make a final decision that came roughly three hours after Malzahn's press conference ended.
"Nick Marshall has emerged and earned the right to be our starting quarterback,” Malzahn said in a statement. "As I’ve said, we wanted to go with the guy that gives us the best opportunity to win football games and Nick is that guy."
Marshall, who landed at Auburn after being dismissed following his freshman season at Georgia and subsequently transferring to Garden City (Kan.) Community College, was the nation's most coveted junior college quarterbacks, drawing heavy interest from Kansas State and Baylor, among others.
Beyond his physical gifts, Marshall possesses good football smarts and an ability to pick up offenses quickly, and he grasped Malzahn's hurry-up, no-huddle offense well in the first 18 days of practice.
"He has caught on quickly in the short period of time he has been with us," Malzahn said. "He is a playmaker with a big upside, and once he becomes more comfortable with the offense, he has the chance to improve each week."
The shortest of the Tigers' three quarterbacks at 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, Marshall possesses incredible athleticism and an ability to create something out of nothing.
"How athletic he is and how fast he is and his ability to extend the play and make things happen with his legs, it's something you just have to watch," tight end C.J. Uzomah said. "He's a blazing guy. It's something kind of special."
Marshall produced big numbers at Garden City, racking up 3,142 passing yards, 1,095 rushing yards and 37 total touchdowns, but he threw 20 interceptions and struggled at times with ball security.
But those turnover issues at Garden City haven't been a problem in Auburn's hurry-up, no-huddle offense, an offense geared to limiting turnovers.
Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall (14) works out during practice Friday, Aug. 2, 2013, at the Auburn Football Complex in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)
"Nick is a guy who's very calm in the pocket, under control," Malzahn said in his Tiger Talk appearance Thursday night. "He's very quick, and he can run. He's got a very good arm, it's just a matter of him getting used to the reads and everything that goes with that."
Behind Marshall, Auburn's offense has been prolific in several scrimmages, combining a good running game with a big-play passing game.
An offense that badly needs to bounce back after a disastrous 2012 is starting to find some confidence.
"It's really starting to flow now," H-back Jay Prosch said. "It's starting to look like an offense. It's starting to come together and it's exciting."
Installing Marshall as the starting quarterback adds a big piece of the puzzle.According to the latest estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one third of kids and adolescents in the US are overweight or obese. And now, researchers looking at total lifetime medical costs have estimated that, per head, childhood obesity costs $19,000 more than lifetime costs for normal weight children.
The researchers, led by Eric Andrew Finkelstein, PhD, MHA, from the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, publish their results in the journal Pediatrics.
"Reducing childhood obesity is a public health priority that has substantial health and economic benefits," says Finkelstein. "These estimates provide the financial consequences of inaction and the potential medical savings from obesity prevention efforts that successfully reduce or delay obesity onset."
One of his co-authors, Dr. Rahul Malhotra, says that, in order to address the public health issue of obesity, reducing obesity among children is key as "most obese children and teenagers remain obese into adulthood."
Alarmingly, when the team multiplied the $19,000 price tag by the number of obese 10 year olds in the US, the researchers found lifetime costs for that age group alone reached roughly $14 billion.
But of course, it is not only about the price tag. Obesity is linked to a number of diseases, from cardiovascular disease to type 2 diabetes and some cancers, making it a major health problem for the population.
"Public health interventions should be prioritized on their ability to improve health at a reasonable cost," says Finkelstein. "In order to understand the cost implications of obesity prevention efforts, it is necessary to accurately quantify the burden of childhood obesity if left untreated."
'Motivation to prevent childhood obesity should be regardless of financials'
In order to estimate the lifetime medical costs associated with childhood obesity, the team assessed and updated the current evidence available.
Using this evidence, the researchers also estimated - along with the $19,000 price tag for obese children - that the lifetime cost for normal weight children who become obese in adulthood is $12,900 per person.
Fast facts about child obesity In 2012, more than one third of US children and adolescents were overweight or obese.
Obese kids are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Obesity is associated with increased risk for many types of cancer in the long term.
Though the lifetime costs are staggering, there may be a limitation to the study, in that the researchers only included direct medical costs for obesity in their analysis - including doctors' visits and medication.
They did not take into account indirect costs, such as absenteeism and lost productivity in working adults, so they say more research is needed for this.
"For the same reasons we don't let kids drink or smoke and force them to go to school, we should also do our best to keep them at a healthy weight," says Finkelstein.
"While the cost estimates are significant," he adds, "the motivation to prevent childhood obesity should be there regardless of the financial implications."
In 2009, fast food restaurants agreed - in the wake of childhood obesity - to include healthy foods in ads aimed at children, but a recent study suggests the healthy message is being lost in poor depictions of the foods.
Medical News Today also reported on research that showed children who are overweight or obese by kindergarten are four times more likely to be obese in eighth grade, suggesting obesity-prevention efforts should be aimed at younger children.Forget any awards show squabbles amongst the rich and famous, Ricky Gervais is in the midst of a public argument with some of the most hateful people on the planet.
Gervais, whose Golden Globes hosting job in January ruffled a few Hollywood feathers, is an outspoken atheist, which has drawn plenty of public attention before. Both as a gag and a way to raise awareness for animal rights organization PETA, he's been holding the "12 Days of Rickmas," jokingly inserting himself in for Jesus Christ while suggesting followers do something to save animals each day.
Whether it's this stunt or other speeches, Gervais has drawn the ire of Christian fundamentalists over Twitter. One in particular, user @GodsWordIsLaw, has engaged with Gervais. The Twitter user, named Keith, is stridently anti-homosexual, a creationist, hateful of other religions and crude. On Tuesday, for example, he tweeted, "Happy Hanukkah to the pharisees...bah humbug #GenocideNow."
Gervais has, as is his wont, responded back, with creating a long dialog of both mocking and appeals to more reasonable readers that began with his response to Keith's post praising the death of Christopher Hitchens.
While the pair have fought, Gervais has also littered his tweets with appeals to more reasonable people, writing things such as, "To all sane Christians. I know you're not all like these evil fundamentalists. I don't believe in your God but I believe in your kindness."
The photo below comes from New Humanist Magazine, which interviewed Gervais about religion, and his upcoming new show "Afterlife," in which he plays God, earlier this year.
"I used to believe in God. The Christian one, that is (There are a few thousand to choose from. But I was born in a country where the dominant religion was Christianity so I believed in that one. Isn't it weird how that always happens?)," he told the magazine. " Luckily I was also interested in science and nature. And reason and logic. And honesty and truth. And equality and fairness. By the age of eight I was an atheist."
Here's a sampling of their ongoing back and forth, which started last weekThese are not actual CFA test takers. Reuters More people than ever before will crowd gymnasiums and auditoriums around the world to write the grueling six-hour CFA exams on Saturday.
Their odds of passing are less than 50%.
The three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam are administered once a year in more than 100 countries around the world. (Level I is offered twice a year).
This Saturday, 172,682 people from 183 countries are registered to take the test. That's the highest number of registrants on record — and up from 159,889 last June — according to the CFA Institute, which administers the exam.
Kurt Schacht, a managing director at the CFA Institute, told Business Insider last year that interest in the exam has been growing pretty steadily throughout his decade of experience with the institute.
Much of that is fueled by growth in Asia, which on Saturday will account for 45% of test takers.
Schacht said that becoming a CFA charter holder is a huge leg up for anyone hoping to build a career in investment management.
As for other credentials, like MBA degrees, he said, "I honestly think there is no comparison in terms of the cost-benefit analysis." (The CFA costs $2,300 altogether, including registration fees and test fees.)
But the tests are tough. Last June, only 46% of people passed the tests — or 42% of Level I test takers, 46% of Level II test takers, and 53% of Level III test takers.
Level I tends to have the lowest pass rate, Schacht said, because that's the stage where the amateurs are weeded out from the serious players.
Successful candidates often put in up to 300 hours of study per exam.
"There's a great demand on the employer side for people that make it through this course of study, and I think that's all reflected in how difficult it is," he said.
Only about 1 in 5 people who start the CFA program make it through all three levels and successfully complete the other requirements to become charter holders, Schacht said.
Here are the historical pass rates dating back to 1963 from the CFA Institute:
Good luck!As we reported when Tesla officially unveiled the Powerwall 2 last week, the new battery pack is a game changer in home energy storage. The new price point for twice the energy capacity and the integrated inverter are hard to beat specifications for the competition, which had significantly increased since Tesla introduced first generation Powerwall over a year ago.
In order to get a better idea of how disruptive the new Powerwall 2 can be, we compared it with some of the other important residential home battery pack solutions.
The price points of most solutions have so far made them unavailable to most markets in the US. Like Tesla’s first generation Powerwall, other companies have concentrated their efforts on markets with higher electricity rates, like Australia and Germany.
But more recently, some of the biggest players in the field felt confident enough to enter the US market, like LG with the RESU and sonnenBatterie with the Eco Compact. Both companies already had some measure of success with their systems, especially sonnenBatterie in its home country of Germany, but it will be interesting to see how they will fair with Tesla’s new product.
They all offer stackable/modular solutions to increase the power output or energy capacity of their respective system, but when you compare the base version of each solution, it becomes clear that Tesla has a significant energy capacity and cost advantage:
When talking about the upcoming new Powerwall during a conference call with analysts in August, people thought that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was just hyping the new product when he said: “I think it’s going to be really exciting when people see it. That’s why I expect exponential growth from there. I think it’s really going to go ballistic,” but with the specs above, it looks like he might have been right.
It will be very difficult for anyone to justify buying anything else than the Powerwall when for the same price or less, you can get at least twice the energy capacity.
Ultimately, the overall value is found in the cost per kWh delivered, which is determined by how long the battery pack will last. That’s something that remains to be tested for each option, but considering Tesla offers a 10-year warranty with “unlimited cycles”, it looks like they are pretty confident on the Powerwall’s durability.
Regardless of your application, the higher energy capacity is welcomed. If you simply want to use it for backup power, you will be able to power your home for longer periods of time in extended power outages or use more electric appliances during those outages. Powerwall 2 can run the main appliances of an average 4 bedroom home for a full day, supplanting the need for a generator for many, even if they don’t have solar panels to refill the battery during the day.
If you are using it with a solar installation or to offset peak power demand, you will be able to store more cheap energy and use it later when the sun doesn’t shine or when electricity rates are higher in your region.
And what is particularly interesting is that it’s not like Tesla is just the first company unveiling the latest generation of their product and LG and sonnenBatterie will soon update their offering too. Actually, both LG Chem’s RESU and sonnenBatterie’s eco compact have either received an upgrade or been unveiled in the past few months.
It goes to show that Tesla could very well be building a significant lead here.
All 3 products are expected to enter the US market almost simultaneously in Q4 2017. Tesla’s Powerwall will also be available in Tesla’s other markets and LG and sonnenBatterie products are already available in several other countries.
Tesla is currently taking orders for the Powerwall on its website. The device is always at its most useful when combined with solar. We suggest to get quotes from more than one installer to make sure you get the best energy solution for your place since prices are highly dependent on your market (electricity cost, gov incentives, etc.) and your property. UnderstandSolar is a great free service to link you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates for free.Canada’s Liberal government, which has been promoting the legalization of marijuana all month, can’t seem to tell a penguin from a puffin, leading one wiseacre on Twitter to quip, “On what are you puffin?”
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was trying to capitalize on World Penguin Day Tuesday so she tweeted a message from the minister along with what she thought was an attached video of some lovable penguins enjoying their natural habitat.
But those weren’t penguins: they were puffins, a seabird that is a common sight along Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. You won’t find any puffins living at the South pole — but you will find penguins, which is what McKenna was trying to show.
The minister ignited a Twitter-storm with her mistake.
“You know puffins aren’t penguins, right?” queried one incredulous viewer.
“On what are you puffin?” demanded someone else.
Not only do puffins and penguins not live in the same parts of the world, they don’t really look like the same bird, with the exception of their color.
McKenna, or one of her staffers, must have been reading the social media response, because the error — which was first pointed out by the National Post — was corrected in about 30 minutes. Up went a second tweet, this time accompanied by a video of penguins, not puffins.
“Oops! Let’s try this again,” she wrote.Analysis The British government is publicly threatening to stop giving defence contracts to American aerospace firm Boeing – even though this is laughably unrealistic.
Both the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary have, over the last couple of days, warned Boeing that it is undermining its relationship with the UK, in financial newswire Reuters’ words.
A trade spat between Boeing and Canada-headquartered Bombardier, whose civil aviation division is building a new airliner that threatens Boeing’s pre-eminent market position, prompted the US company to complain to US trade regulators. They slapped 220 per cent tariffs on Bombardier’s Cseries jets, which are light airliners that directly compete with the latest models of the Boeing 737.
Boeing formally accused Bombardier of receiving unfair state aid from the Canadian government, and of selling the Cseries aircraft to an American airline at below cost price. The American Federal Trade Commission, funnily enough, agreed with the American manufacturer.
The UK comes into this spat because Bombardier employs 4,200 people in Northern Ireland, of which around a thousand directly work on building Cseries wings. Hence why Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, said: “This is not the behaviour we expect of Boeing and could indeed jeopardise our future relationship with Boeing.”
This is nonsense. Britain’s armed forces are heavily dependent upon Boeing products, and therefore ongoing Boeing support for them. These include:
the C-17 Globemaster heavy transport aircraft
the Chinook heavy helicopter
the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter (but see below)
the RC-135 Rivet Joint airborne signals intelligence aircraft
the E-3D Sentry airborne radar platform
the Harpoon anti-ship missile (under what used to be called McDonnell Douglas, until Boeing bought them out)
a signed purchase order for P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft
The Royal Air Force has no alternative to the C-17 in its fleet. The Army has no realistic alternative to the Apache attack helicopter, though its new Lynx Wildcat helicopters can mount anti-surface guided missiles. Naturally, the decades-old Sentry has no alternative in the RAF inventory. Similarly, the Rivet Joint aircraft have no long-haul RAF alternative. The Air Force also has modified Bombardier Global Express business jets performing ground surveillance duties under the service name Sentinel.
Alienating Boeing, therefore, would put the UK in a very difficult position. The Ministry of Defence did, in fact, do this very thing with Chinook helicopters several years ago, deciding that paying for Boeing’s own flight control software upgrades was too expensive. When the resulting homebrew upgrades failed to gain full certification from the MoD’s own military aviation regulators, however, something very interesting happened.
Boeing quietly agreed with the MoD that it would publicly carry the can for the ministry’s own cockup. Instead of admitting that it was too tight-arsed to pay for OEM software upgrades, the MoD told the world – seemingly with Boeing’s consent – that the dastardly American firm had outwitted the MoD’s contract negotiators. Of course, no such thing had happened.
Today, the UK’s ruling Conservative Party’s main political partner is the Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP not only provides the government’s majority in Parliament but has a number of seats in and around Belfast, where Bombardier’s Northern Ireland operations are headquartered. DUP MPs’ majorities there are relatively slim; two have majorities of just 2,000, in seats with more than 65,000 registered voters. In the context of an international trade spat, headlines shrieking about “thousands of jobs at risk” means local politicians are going to be demanding the government does something, indeed anything, to reassure their voters and protect their seats.
It is entirely probable that behind the scenes, Boeing and the government have agreed that the public shouting match won’t affect defence equipment support. Indeed, given how dependent the RAF is upon Boeing products, it’s hard to see how things could be going any other way.
The UK does have a little leverage: as the London bureau chief of Aviation Week magazine noted, only 38 of the UK’s 50 Apaches have been contracted: the final 12 are worth, very approximately, half a billion pounds or so. In addition, the MoD very recently (and very quietly) decided it wouldn’t bin the ageing Harpoon system next year after all, though that decision could easily be reversed. Boeing does offer upgrades to Harpoon, which doubtless have been offered to the UK.
Aside from that, though, all these high-level turds being flung at Boeing by Britain are unlikely to represent reality. With the UK defence budget as critically overstretched as it is, Boeing only has to threaten to raise prices in order to quieten British objections to its commercial behaviour. ®High-flying motocross daredevils have inadvertently paved the way for a blockbuster double-header in Canberra as the Raiders and Brumbies prepare to play their first home games less than 24 hours apart.
The NRL published its draw on Thursday for the 2018 season and Raiders fans were the big winners after the competition scheduled six of 12 home games for afternoon timeslots.
The Brumbies and Raiders will play their first home games less than 24 hours apart next year. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
The Raiders will start their season on the road against the Gold Coast Titans, but their first home match will coincide with the Brumbies starting their Super Rugby campaign at Canberra Stadium.
The Raiders had hoped to avoid a double-weekend clash to start the year, but motocross legend Travis Pastrana's Nitro Circus The Next Level tour has been booked at Canberra Stadium on March 10.PROTEST CALLED: Tuesday, November 9th at 11am in front of KPFA Radio, 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way in Berkeley (cross street University Avenue).
The Executive Director of Pacifica Radio today dismissed the entire staff of the KPFA Morning Show–Aimee Allison, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Laura Prives, and Esther Manilla–and ordered tomorrow’s program to be taken off the air, according to the KPFA News. John Hamilton’s abbreviated report is below. | SEE ALSO Brian Edwards-Tiekert’s report | David Bacon’s report | Esther Manilla interview on KPFA News | Aaron Glantz on Huffington Post
The move by Arlene Engelhardt casts into doubt the future of KPFA’s most popular locally produced program—as well as the station’s single biggest source of fund raising revenue.
Morning Show producer Esther Manilla is a shop steward with the KPFA staff union, CWA Local 9415. She says the staff of the KPFA Morning Show was told by KPFA’s interim general manager that their program tomorrow would |
like we had last night. We need motorists to be focused on their driving instead of other distractions they have."
Switalski was hit while standing near the rear of his vehicle on the right shoulder of the road. He and other first responders were preparing to leave the scene of the previous crash, which was reported at 9:30 p.m. near mile marker 81.
Though it hasn't been determined what exactly caused the driver to hit Switalski, a 2015 report completed after a chain-reaction crash near Galesburg says rear-end collisions are frequent between mile markers 79 and 80, and 40 to 50 percent of crashes in the area occurred in the dark.
According to Michigan Department of Transportation figures, an average of 44,800 vehicles travel daily between Exit 80 and Exit 81. Chief Mike O'Brien, president of the Michigan Association of Fire Chiefs, said drivers are known to aggressively pass each other to get around semi-trailer trucks on I-94.
"Even police and emergency responders to that stretch are extra vigilant because of the notoriety of the place," Matyas said.
Police to crack down on speeding, distracted driving on I-94 in eastern Kalamazoo County According to Michigan Traffic Facts from the Office of Highway Safety Planning, in 2013, police responded to 275 crashes on I-94 between mile markers 80 and 92.
But Nick Schirripa, MDOT Southwest Region spokesperson, said the area where Switalski was hit is no more dangerous than other stretches of I-94. Weather, lighting, traffic volumes and driver behavior are some of many factors that contribute to crashes in the area, he said.
The I-94 corridor was the subject of the 2015 safety audit and report by the state and the Federal Highway Administration prompted by a 193-vehicle pileup on I-94 east of Galesburg.
The report, which covered 143 miles of the highway from the Michigan-Indiana border to Jackson, recommended the installation of Intelligent Transportation Systems between mile marker 79 and the I-94 Business Loop. The system includes environmental sensors and electronic signs on the roadway intended to notify motorists of impending weather, road conditions or traffic backups.
The system is recommended be installed between mile markers 81 and 87, and 87 and 89 near Climax, according to the report.
Signs have not been installed between Sprinkle Road and the I-94 Business Loop, Schirripa said.
Widening I-94, moving cable barriers among recommendations in safety audit The recommendations were among many offered in a 94-page report authored by the Michigan Department of Transportation, Michigan State Police and the Federal Highway Administration.
MDOT plans to eventually widen the area where Switalski was hit.
Sections of I-94 are being widened in segments from U.S. 131 east. Funding hasn't been secured to widen the section where Switalski was killed, Schirripa said, but the bridge at Exit 80 over Sprinkle Road was recently reconstructed to allow three lanes to run underneath it.
The report states that the concrete median on the left shoulder between Exit 79 and Exit 81 is "very narrow," which increases the likelihood of collisions and makes it more difficult for emergency responders to clear crashes.
Crashes into the concrete median-barrier were most frequent between mile markers 80 and 81, near the curve before the I-94 Business Loop interchange.
When the state earlier this year increased the speed limit on 600 miles of rural highway from 70 mph to 75 mph, I-94 speeds were not adjusted.
I-94 audit will help with planning, safety enhancements, senator says State Sen. Margaret O'Brien, R-Portage, was among several state and county officials who were in attendance Monday as Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Transportation unveiled the results of a safety audit of I-94
In an email, MDOT spokesman James Lake said the chosen routes were identified based on safety and engineering reviews that examined roadway features such as lane width, shoulder width, curvature, sight distance, number of access points and number of passing opportunities, as well as how a roadway is performing from a safety and operational perspective.
It was determined that I-94's design and safety features were not suited to increase the speed limit. Highways that were selected generally have lower traffic volumes and are in more rural locations.U.S. Billionaire Donates Millions to Russian Causes : Aid: George Soros has already sponsored scientists. Now he's giving $250 million for teacher training and textbook writers.
Two days earlier, Soros announced a one-year extension of another ambitious project that in less than two years has doled out or promised $100 million to more than 2,000 Russian scientists to support their research.
On Wednesday, the American financier gathered some of Russia's most innovative educators in a hotel ballroom and distributed grants worth $250 million to retrain teachers and write new textbooks.
But billionaire George Soros is back in Moscow this week, expanding a personal crusade for what he calls an "open society" in post-Soviet Russia with millions of dollars in fresh commitments from his own fortune.
MOSCOW — He brands Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin's administration "more inept and impotent" than Germany's prewar Weimar Republic, and he professes to be "horrified" by the prospect of a takeover here by ultranationalist, anti-Western forces.
"Even if the most horrendous things happen here in the next few years, there will still be a Russia in the long run, and I think what one does now will bring its fruits in the years to come," Soros said in a brief interview before the ceremony with the teachers.
When he started his aid projects here in the perestroika days of the late 1980s, Soros recalled, "I threw myself into it with great enthusiasm for a few years. I felt it was a short-term thing. Now I think in biblical terms--you know, 40 years in the wilderness."
Soros, who made his fortune speculating on currency movements, is the latest in a parade of prominent Westerners to come and express alarm at the prospects of remaking Russia.
Former U.S. President Richard Nixon, who ended a fact-finding mission here Tuesday, said the huge U.S. effort to support Yeltsin's economic reforms was on "rocky ground" after Yeltsin "lost far more support than expected" in December's parliamentary elections.
That alarm was fueled when the ailing, 63-year-old Yeltsin left Moscow this week for a two-week seaside vacation, and most of Russia's conservative and nationalist parties announced Wednesday that they were forming a united movement for the 1996 presidential elections.
In remarks to reporters this week, Soros blamed the West for Russia's continuing economic decline and political retrenchment.
"Most of the foreign aid has been designed to satisfy the needs of the donors and not the needs of the recipients," he said. "The joke in my foundation is that foreign aid is the last remnant of the (Soviet) command economy."
His criticism was echoed this week in a report by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The report said the distribution of the $3 billion in official U.S. aid given to Russia since 1991 has been dictated too much by decision-makers in Washington rather than by those in Russia.
The Hungarian-born financier stressed that his foundation works with "trustworthy local partners," allowing them to design and manage the aid programs.
The foundation controls the purse strings, and the money goes directly to scientists and teachers, bypassing the Russian government.
"It's a formula that works," he said.
The International Science Foundation, the private Russian partner for Soros' program to aid scientists, will get another $12.5 million from Soros to keep operating through 1995, the financier announced.
He said the Russian government agreed to match that donation and help the foundation seek another $25 million from foreign sources.Gangs of rival protesters have clashed on the streets in Melbourne, as about 100 police officers fight to keep them apart.
The opposing groups were made up of anti-Islam and anti-racism activists, with events turning violent on Sunday afternoon.
The United Patriots Front, a run-off from the anti-Islam Reclaim Australia group that was involved in violent protests in Melbourne earlier this year, staged a demonstration outside Richmond Town Hall in Melbourne's inner southeast, according to the AAP.
Scroll down for video
Protesters attempt to fight through a strong police presence in Melbourne, as an anti-Islam event clashes with anti-racism activists
The group, which identifies itself as 'Aussie patriots', set out on a march about 1:30pm.
Another group, Campaign Against Racism and Facism, staged a counter-rally at the same time, which led to the ugly scenes and violent clashes.
Nationalist protesters are seen yelling at anti-racism activists during a rally in Melbourne on Sunday
Hundreds of people attempt to push through police, who are patrolling the area surrounding Richmond Town Hall where the rally is being held
Rival activists come face-to-face in ugly scenes in Melbourne between anti-Islam and anti-racism supporters
Police on foot and horseback attempted to keep the rival groups apart, and closed nearby roads in the area.
The anti-Islam group said it was reclaiming Australia from communism and protecting the country from Sharia Law, according to The Age.
No arrests were made during the protests, however police spoke to one man regarding the possession of a knife. He is expected to be charged with weapons offences, according to a Victoria Police spokeswoman.
Prostesters and police clash outside the town hall in Richmond during the opposing events
A United Patriots Front member talks to the crowd during the protest on Sunday afternoon
Police officers try to hold firm as the two groups of protesters surged towards each other
The crowd of counter-protesters chanted 'f*** off fascists' and 'you'll always lose in Melbourne' as they opposed the march.
The rally coincides with an Islamic Council of Victoria community forum.
A Victoria Police spokesman said officers were in place to maintain community safety.
'Victoria Police respects the right of the community to express their views peacefully and lawfully, but will not tolerate those who break the law'a statement said.
The United Patriots Front, a run-off from the anti-Islam Reclaim Australia group that was involved in violent protests in Melbourne earlier this year, planned the demonstration
The anti-Islam rally is similar to those that took place in a number of cities across Australia earlier this yearUpstate New York students debate exterminating Jews
The New York education commissioner defended a local teacher's assignment asking students to argue in favor of exterminating Jews. It sounds incomprehensible, but MaryEllen Elia, speaking in Syracuse, N.Y. (Onondaga County) this past Thursday morning, did just that. It seems especially hideous, contemporarily, since that city's Jewish Community Center has been under lockdown three times this year: twice for bomb threats and most recently for a vaguely described "threat of violence." The education commissioner was addressing an assignment given by a teacher in neighboring Oswego County this past February. The teacher, Michael DeNobile, gave the assignment as part of the Oswego County CiTi/BOCES New Vision program. According to local reporter Julie McMahon, the students were asked to "put themselves in a Nazi leaders' shoes and argue for or against the 'Final Solution' to exterminate Jewish people."
It seems that only two students were disturbed by this request. Jordan April and Archer Shurtliff (neither are Jewish) are both seniors at Oswego County high schools participating in the New Vision program. The program allows students to take college-level classes on the SUNY Oswego campus. April and Shurtliff brought their concerns directly to DeNobile, higher administrators, and even the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The two girls' goal was "to make sure no other student would be asked to argue in favor of killing Jews again." They also asked for the New Vision program to retract the assignment completely. They were unsuccessful. In exchange for their complaints, however, the entire class was given the opportunity to choose their own alternative project. Only three students took advantage of that, including April and Shurtliff. Education commissioner Elia held strong to her support of the assignment, citing critical thinking as the supposed learning tool, saying, "I think it's certainly a question where you want students to think on both sides and analyze... which position a person is taking." Student Archer Shurtliff, in a separate interview, stated conversely that "it's settled opinion[.]... [Y]ou can't say that Jews deserve to die. It should be a settled thing." Dogged local reporter McMahon posted the actual homework assignment on Syracuse's online news website. Eerily, it was stamped "Top Secret" in red at the top. McMahon writes: The assignment itself notes that the point is "not for you to be sympathetic to the Nazi point of view[.]... Ultimately, this is an exercise on expanding your point of view by going outside your comfort zone and training your brain to logistically [sic] find the evidence necessary to prove a point, even if it is existentially and philosophically against what you believe," the assignment says. (Ironically, Oswego County is home to "Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum," which commemorates America's only refugee camp for victims of WWII. In 1944, nearly 1,000 refugees were housed in the army barracks there as "guests" of President Roosevelt. According to previous newspaper reports, approximately 900 of them were Jewish. Strangely, the words "Jew" and "Jewish" are apparently mentioned only once on the museum's website.) ADL education director Beth Martinez said the whole thing is "deeply troubling," adding that students should never be given an assignment "that even hints at their [sic] being 'two sides' to the 'Final Solution' / Holocaust." Martinez said she was notified by Roseann Bayne, the assistant superintendent for the CiTi program, that the assignment was still being offered along with an alternative. Martinez cited Common Core as a catalyst for pushing students to argue from a perspective from which they do not agree. This sounds benign at first glance – until you see an example like this, where a student is asked to justify mass murder as part of a learning experience. One can only hope such a thing would be outside most people's "comfort zone" and remain there. The fight is definitely not over for two 17-year-old girls who had the guts to take on a monumental task: teaching some seriously misguided adults that "critical thinking" does not mean abandoning all human decency at the schoolhouse door. Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com.I am not sure about developement goals,
As well as I have question to One Android developers and need some kind of support:
minimize ability to brick device.
Hello, hihihiI am, member of, probably some of you already know me by older projects related with famous(Leo).Nowdays HTC Leo become too old, while hardware abilties are growing very fast nowdays(huh, already phones with 64 bit CPUs and 4 Gb RAM? Wtf my old PC from 2008 has 4 Gb ram too)So I decided to switch hobby phone, finally I got(thank all contributors),so I am with you nowI am doing it for fun, but probably it will be something like:1)Oldschool WM61/65 port2)Windows RT and/or Windows Phone 83)Own bootloaderOfcourse I no idea about port quality - things like ultrapixel camera can be impossible to bring up.But it's hobby, not attempt to do a work instead of a big company.I am already started to work onfor HTC One.Then I am planning to bring UEFI up.Will keep community in sync about development status.Releases are going to be more often.About different models support: there are many different HTC One revisions around, I will try to support as much as possible of them.It seems S-OFF is mandatory requirement.I am going to divide the biggest "userdata" partition to grab a space for another OS.userdata it seems is EXT4 formatted.I don't want to modify primary GPT (at eMMC sector 0) toMy current idea is a hack inside Linux GPT parser to replace userdata partition bounds.In such scheme Linux kernel must be modifed to use/ another OS.But I don't know how Android will like unformatted userdata partition. Anyone knows?Or maybe someone can suggest better scheme?Quote Hello again, Liam!
Sure, we'll include the Linux version in GOG for sure. Maybe there will be a slight delay, as they usually perform Q&A prior to any release on their store, but eventually it'll get there.
Best regards
Some people in our comments recently were hoping that when Cossacks 3 [ Steam Official Site ] is released for Linux, that it would see the Linux version on GOG. The good news is that it will.If you didn't see our last bit of info on it, the developer stated that the Linux version is getting the finishing touches, to launch soon!I sent a simple question to my contact at GSC Game World about GOG + Linux and got this reply:I'm glad it is as it means more of you will be able to enjoy this RTS!I'm really excited to see it on Linux, can you tell?When in the course of human events…
Citizens from thirty out of fifty states in America have filed for secession from the Union. President Barack Obama‘s petition website ranks Texas alone as having over 80,000 signatures. Petitions receiving more than 25,000 signatures qualify for an official response from the White House. The President is honor bound, but not legally required to make a statement to citizens who are demanding that they be allowed to break away and form separate sovereign republics.
When Benjamin Franklin first began diplomatic negotiations with the British before the War of Independence, he was undoubtedly on the side of the Loyalists. However, as a long train of abuses made it abundantly clear that there would be taxation without representation, self-written search warrants by soldiers and the endangerment of American trade via British Imperialism (If Britain were to declare war, all her colonies were at war as well), Franklin decided it was time to separate and declare independence from King George III. He was one of the last of the founders to do so.
America was built on secession. After her successful break from Britain, The Union was established to “secure these rights among men.” The Constitution as it was written was a great compromise at a convention built on guile and intrigue amongst America’s founding fathers. The competing factions at that hall in Philadelphia ultimately sowed the seeds for the partisan divide in politics we have today. Federalists wanted a strong central government. Anti-Federalists wanted none of it. The Federalists won and the Anti-Federalists backstopped our liberties the best they could with a Bill of Rights. These United States were born. We successfully seceded.
There was secession again in 1860. When the many States of the South formed a compact, a Confederacy, to maintain certain economic liberties as well as the practice of chattel slavery. These Americans risked their lives for principles that were right and for some that were undoubtedly wrong. Ultimately because of their loss our nation became stronger in some ways and weaker in others. For the price of freeing the slaves, we slammed shut the door that would allow states to peacefully withdraw from a union they peacefully joined.
We do still honor the confederacy in this country. We do not honor those men because of slavery however. We honor them because of their willingness to sacrifice their lives for the spirit of Independence. President Barack Obama acknowledged this when he deliberately laid a wreath at the Confederate memorial at Arlington despite pleas from his supporters to cease. He rightfully understood that the events of that struggle were more than just one issue and that the 750,000 men who died did not do so in vain. There were real ideas at stake in this war and both sides had principles that were correct. Most of these principles would remain when the wartime Income Tax was declared unconstitutional and the US was placed on a gold standard for a short period.
Now, fresh on the heels of the presidents reelection comes the wave of citizens petitioning for their states to be independent. Doubtless many Americans are reeling from the expectations of tax increases on small business owners, the implementation costs of Obamacare and the long term effects of a $16 trillion dollar debt. Many of them are feeling desperate and without options to escape the crushing burden of taxation, debt and regulations inflicted on them by an uncaring federal government.
But, is it time to secede again?
No.
But it is time to talk about what it means.
The topic of secession is not uncommon in DC socialite circles. It will often go to the American Civil War and whether or not States should be added or allowed to secede. As a test of the audience, I like to ask a simple question and gauge peoples responses. My question I ask is, “If the State of California decided to secede over federal drug raids or because they wanted gay marriage, would you advocate that we roll tank into Sacramento?” If they say no then I respond, “Then you’re a confederate.” And think about this: If Puerto Rico, which recently voted in favor of statehood, were to join the Union, and then four years later decide to leave; would you advocate we invade and kill the citizens of that island? Some people do suggest we respond with violence. Supporters of the President and his agenda have launched their own petitions asking that those who signed a secession petition be stripped of their citizenship. But why if you believe in Union do you suggest those who wish to leave be stripped of their rights? Are we to ship them off to Gitmo next?
Some secessionists point to the Declaration of Independence as their document that gives them claim to secession. The words are:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
This seems to give us the idea that we do have a right to alter or abolish our forms of government and I would agree in theory. However, one glaring problem with the Declaration is that it is not the law of the land. As a legal document, the Declaration only holds weight insofar as it created a temporary union to defeat Great Britain. It is not used today as a legal document or precedent other than a symbolic one. Citizens of the United States are descendants of the tradition of secession, but the formation of the Constitution created a system of positive law, rather than Natural Law that the framers instilled into the Declaration. America is not operating under the Articles of Confederation and thus the Declaration of Independence is not applicable in this case. If citizens were to write a new one however, that might be a different story.
But despite all of this, should we retain the right to alter our government or even abolish it? Undoubtedly yes. Thomas Paine once wrote “The parliament or the people of 1688, or of any other period, has no more right to dispose of the people of the present day, or to bind or to control them in any shape whatever, than the parliament or the people of the present day have to dispose of, bind or control those who are to live a hundred or a thousand years hence. Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated. When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organized, or how administered.”
It is sensible to understand that men who died long ago cannot bind future generations permanently to a any set of laws or document. Lysander Spooner, abolitionist and entrepreneur illustrated it in this way: If a father builds a house for a family, can he compel them to live in it? If he plants a fruit tree for his children to eat one day, can he compel them to eat from it? Of course not. So then it must be understood that the citizens of the United States can not be compelled to toil forever under a constitution that is so obviously defunct in our modern era. Spooner went on to explain in his treatise “No Treason” that:
“The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years ago. [This essay was written in 1869.] And it can be supposed to have been a contract then only between persons who had already come to years of discretion, so as to be competent to make reasonable and obligatory contracts. Furthermore, we know, historically, that only a small portion even of the people then existing were consulted on the subject, or asked, or permitted to express either their consent or dissent in any formal manner. Those persons, if any, who did give their consent formally, are all dead now.”
But if we are not to be governed under the constitution forever, what should be our guide going forward? Paine and Spooner are correct in that we can not forever be bound by one system of laws written by people long gone. We must be able to adapt to change. The question is; Are we stronger individually if we act as a Union, or would be stronger independently as sovereign republics?
The author of this piece believes that now is not the time for secession despite the many usurpations of our rights we are currently suffering. Having traveled from sea to shining sea of this great nation in the past few years has convinced me of the individual benefits that we receive as Americans to be able to travel freely from state to state. Growing up on a farm in Missouri, living in New York City for eight years and now in Washington D.C. for four, I have witnessed more beauty in one nation than could ever exist in any heaven dreamed of. To secede might mean to lose access to the wilds of New Hampshire should they shut us out. How tragic would be the loss of Texas, or California if they refused to recognize your citizenship from a neigboring state? Would we really want to see them shut down and turn their southern border into a militarized zone? Is that a vision of a peaceful future that we wish to leave for our children? We need less walls not more. Now it a time for unity and for us to resist tyranny, not retreat. The libertarian movement has a saying we like to repeat from the Latin: “Tu Ne Cede Malis sed contra audentior ito“. It means “Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.” The citizens of America have a duty not to shrink away from evil. We must proceed boldly against it.
Our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty. And though we have lost our way many times, we have also gained many rights and privileges as well including the abolition of chattel slavery and womens suffrage. From California, to New York City and everything in between, we the citizens of the United States are blessed to live in a free nation. If we have oppressive government then we should not shrink away from it in resignation. Don’t give up the fight for individual liberty and cede ground to the forced unionists who talk of liberty but demand ever increasing taxation. A quick look at the electoral map from the 2012 election shows that only a tiny portion of this country is blue, the red far outpaces them in terms of overall territory. You would cede ground to these tiny holdouts of progressivism?
You want to take your ball and go home and just give up on the rest of the nation? What about the liberties of those people in your neighboring states? Do they not deserve to be free of socialized medicine and confiscatory taxation? Will you not stand with your brothers in arms who are fighting the state through grassroots organization and peaceful democratic action? Is the fight for America truly over?
No friends. It’s not time to secede. It’s time to stand our ground and fight for this nation from the forces of corporatism, socialism and tyranny. It’s time to hold onto what we have and fight to make it more free for our posterity. As we are grateful to our ancestors, so will our descendants be if we give them a strong, unified nation built on the ideas of liberty and peace. It can only happen if we fight for it and work together across state lines. Even now, versions of the founders “Committees of Correspondence” exist on the Internet. The first American Patriots established the committees to develop communication networks devoted to keeping Patriots informed. At the time their only method was to send letters. FreedomWorks has established its own modern version through FreedomConnector, which allows local activists to connect and work together. Citizens in neighboring states can even come in and find their neighbors and help them in their campaigns and ballot initiatives.
Also, why leap immediately to secession when there is a much easier option and one less prone to bloodshed? A growing Nullification movement is budding in the United States today. The founders gave us a powerful tool to combat federal tyranny in the Tenth Amendment. The Amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This is a clear authority given to the States and individuals to claim rights that are not written in the Bill of Rights. The founders knew that it would be impossible to fully codify all the privileges and immunities granted by citizenship so they left us this powerful tool to fight back with. Already states Arizona, Idaho, Virginia and Utah have passed legislation that declares certain provisions of Obamacare null and void. The Governor of Idaho Butch Otter, even passed legislation that required his state to sue the federal government if they are forced to buy health insurance. Look to the growth of the tenth amendment movement as a sign Americans are working to restore what was lost and that there is hope for the future.
Also individual citizens must begin to use more aggressively their right of jury nullification. Jury nullification is when a jury acquits a defendant who is technically guilty of a law, but who does not deserve punishment. It occurs when a verdict opposed to the judge’s instructions is handed down by citizen activists sitting on a jury. It has been used before and has experienced renewed energy in places like New Hampshire, where a jury recently acquitted a man for growing marijuana for medical uses. A single informed citizen sitting on a jury can have a more powerful effect than an entire house of legislators.
Tools such as jury nullification, the Tenth Amendment and our committees of correspondence are our modern weapons to fight tyranny without needless bloodshed, or the loss of our country as a whole. The time now is to fight and work together and to use these tools. It is not time to leave. We must stand and fight. We must proceed boldly against evil.
However, if things change for the worse and we are denied the right of redress of grievances…
I reserve the right to secede.— File Photo
PESHAWAR: A Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister has confirmed the Dawn.com report that women would not be allowed to vote in parts of the province under the tacit approval of PPP, ANP, JUI-F, PML-N and JI.
“Yes I can confirm this agreement has taken place in Lower Dir, have reports of similar agreement from some other areas, but I am sure about Dir agreement and I had already communicated it to the Election Commission as well,” Information Minister KP Musarrat Qadeem told Dawn.com.
To a query that the candidates are denying it, she said, “They would never accept but it has happened and they had also called me personally to deny it, but the truth is the thing did happen and action must be taken against it.”
The minister said the KP government is vigilant and would be focused on the job of ensuring free environment to women voters to vote.
The Aurat Foundation has announced that it will challenge the result of the elections in the areas where the women voters are barred from polling.
“We demand if such agreements have taken place the election commission must take action, and ensure the women voters are not stopped from casting their votes,” adding “the EC has failed to stop this illegal act and we shall be challenging the move in the court of law.”
After similar agreements in Lower Dir, political parties had followed suit in other parts of the province by agreeing to bar women from voting in the May 11 polls.
Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), a frontrunner in the general election, and the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) entered into an informal agreement in Buner district, agreeing to bar women from casting their votes in the provincial assembly’s PK-78 constituency.
Chairman of the Insaf Committee Sorey Union Council in Buner district, Sardar Muhammad, told Dawn.com that the PML-N’s Abdul Hameed and JI’s Afzal Hussain have mutually agreed to bar women from voting at the Topi Polling Station in Sorey Union Council of PK-78 Buner.
The PML-N’s Sar Zamin Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Habibur Rehman and Awami National Party’s Qaiser Wali are gong to have tough fight in the upcoming polls.
Reacting to the ban on women voting in parts of KP, the Aurat Foundation’s KP head, Shabina Ayaz, said it was a serious violation of the code of conduct, and that the Election Commission must immediately take action against the candidates.
Ayaz said written agreements had been signed by party candidates and their workers, especially in parts of the province, however, this time they were relying on verbal accords. She said the agreements would deprive a sizeable population of their votes.
Earlier Friday, the PPP, ANP and JI had entered into a similar agreement in Lower Dir’s provincial assembly seat PK-94.
The JI’s Muzaffar Said, PPP’s Alamzeb Khan and ANP’s Ayub Khan are the major political parties contesting for the seat.
Sources also confirmed that due to the Election Commission’s restrictions, the candidates had made the deal through their ‘local operators’ instead of coming forward themselves.
“The decision was taken at village Bandagai in the Talash area of Lower Dir district. But there is no written document in this regard and we also do not know that there are such arrangements in other areas as well,” said one source.
Political parties have previously barred women from voting in the same area and in adjoining union councils. However, due to the ECP’s strict rules this time, candidates have asked their frontmen to carry out the agreements.
In another similar incident, a jirga in Swat district’s Amankot village, attended by elders and political candidate/workers, decided that the village women would not cast their votes in the upcoming elections.
Tribal sources told Dawn.com that the decision was taken because of a fight that took place between two party workers 12-15 years back and women had not cast votes ever since.
“The Awakening” is protesting at the Swat Press Club against the incident and said in a statement: "We strongly condemn the decision taken by various jirgas attended by candidates, workers of various political parties in PK-80 constituency of Swat, which decided not to allow women to cast their vote in Election 2013, which is their basic right.”What Not Buying Oil With Dollars Means
The big news yesterday on the financial front was the Independent’s claim that Gulf Arabs and France, Japan, Russia and Japan were planning to move from buying oil in dollars to buying it in a basket of currencies, including gold and a new universal currency shared by the Gulf nations.
Buying oil in dollars is one of the foundations of the dollar’s role as the world’s primary reserve currency. Because the the dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency Americans have been able to borrow money for significantly less than other countries are able to. This has both made America more prosperous, and through the perverse incentives of cheap money, helped lead to the high indebtedness of American citizens and the financial crisis.
In addition, buying oil in dollars is one of the things which allowed strong dollar policies to drive the price of oil down. Making dollars extremely scarce in the 80’s and nineties was one key factor leading to a price per barrel under $20. Oil prices started their rise upwards after Greenspan’s Federal Reserve let loose the money spigot in the Asian crisis and the Long Term Capital fiasco. Greenspan essentially never took his foot off the pedal from that point onwards, and oil prices soared, until last year at one point they were over $150/barrel.
So one consequence of going off the dollar is that a major benefit of the strong dollar play is taken off the table, and the US loses its ability to control the price of oil. Since at this time, contrary to what the Feds are saying, a strong dollar play isn’t in the cards (the US needs to borrow way too much money) that’s not a big deal in the short run—in the long run it is.
But buying oil in dollars isn’t the only thing that underpins the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and to understand what buying oil in something other than dollars would mean we need to understand what else makes, or perhaps more accurately, made, the dollar so important.
Technological Revolutions: Remember the internet boom of the nineties? Remember the way that money flooded in from the rest of the world to buy up internet stocks? Sure, most of them turned out to be worthless, but some didn’t. When the US was the nation most likely to create the next technological revolution you needed dollars so that when it occurred you could buy in on the ground floor. Whether microcomputers in the 80’s or the internet in the 90’s, odds were that America was going to create the next big tech. So foreigners needed to be in the dollar.
At this point the US is the undisputed leader in almost nothing except military tech. As expected, US dominance of the arms sales market continues to increase, but the US can’t live on weapon sales alone. In most other fields, including telecom, the internet, large chunks of biotech, renewable energy, ground transportation and so on the US now lags other modern economies.
The structure of the US economy, with a few large oligopolistic firms dominating the market in key fields needn’t necessarily mean no technological advances, after all Japan and Korea certainly have high concentrations of large firms, but US firms such as the telecom giants essentially don’t engage in research, don’t believe in upgrading infrastructure more than they have to and are rent seeking corporations—they provide an inferior product to a captive audience (as with insurance companies) knowing that Americans have |
5.1 percent in extended trading Thursday after closing the regular session at a record $918.38. The stock has jumped 23 percent this year.
The world’s largest online retailer is dominating e-commerce in the U.S. with its $99-a-year Amazon Prime subscription, which includes delivery discounts, music and video streaming and photo storage that keep shoppers engaged with the website.
Seattle-based Amazon had 80 million Prime subscribers in the U.S. as of March 31, an increase of 36 percent from a year earlier, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Prime memberships help lock in loyalty, which is critical as competitors such as Wal-Mart Stores enhance their e-commerce offerings to slow Amazon’s momentum.
Amazon Web Services, its cloud-computing division, subsidizes the company’s spending for various initiatives such as expanding into India and Australia, speeding up delivery times to as little as an hour on select products, adding new skills and devices for its voice-activated Alexa platform, producing original movies and shows and testing new services in the grocery sector.
First-quarter sales increased 23 percent to $35.7?billion. Net income was $724 million, or $1.48 a share, the company said in a statement. Analysts estimated profit of $1.08 a share on revenue of $35.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Amazon Web Services revenue gained 43 percent to $3.66 billion. That’s slower than the 47 percent year-over-year growth in the previous quarter.
A combination of better profit margins in the cloud-computing unit and a smaller increase in shipping costs helped Amazon beat earnings projections, said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co.
Amazon Web Services had a profit margin of 24.3 percent in the first quarter, compared with 23.5 percent a year earlier. Shipping expenses, a major cost for Amazon, increased by 30 percent, the slowest pace in at least six quarters, Olson said.
Still, company spending remains an investor concern. Operating expenses rose 24?percent to $34.7 billion in the quarter.
“They earned $724 million on $35.7 billion in sales, or a whopping 2 percent,” said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Sales grew by $6.6 billion and net income grew by $200 million. They’re playing mind games with us.”
Amazon on Thursday forecast operating income in the current quarter of $425?million to $1.08 billion on net sales of $35.3 billion to $37.8 billion. That compares with operating income of $1.29 billion on sales of $30.4 billion in the same period a year ago. Analysts projected sales of $36.9?billion in the current quarter.
Bezos $5B shy of richest person
A surge in after-hours trading for Amazon.com added $3.3 billion to the fortune of Jeff Bezos, putting him less than $5 billion away from becoming the world’s richest person.
Bezos saw his fortune surpass $80 billion for the first time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 53-year old has added $65.2 billion to his net worth since the index debuted in March 2012 and ended Thursday’s regular session with a net worth of $79 billion.
His net worth will surpass $80 billion on the index for the first time if the after-hour gains hold Friday.
Amazon shares climbed nearly $50, reaching as high as $965 in after-hours trading, after the company projected sales that may beat estimates in the current quarter, furthering an unbroken 20-year streak of double-digit revenue growth.
The rise for Bezos beat the after-hours gains seen by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The pair added $1.4 billion when shares of Google parent Alphabet rose as high as $938.18 on news that the smartphone ad business helped Alphabet post revenue of $20.12 billion and net income of $7.73 a share.
Page is now worth $44.7?billion and Brin $43.7?billion, the 11th- and 12th-richest people in the world Thursday.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been No. 1 on the Bloomberg index since May 17, 2013.
His fortune slipped $200?million to $87.1 billion in after-hours trading Thursday as Microsoft presented mixed results and slowing tablet sales growth.A man climbs into the cab of a tractor trailer, hauling himself into the massive driver’s seat and shutting the door behind him as if settling into a captain’s chair. The steering wheel is massive, evoking the wheel of a mighty sailing ship even at it protruds from a dashboard covered in electronic controls and sleek digital displays. The driver engages the engine and, with a few button presses, the truck rumbles to life. Watching the scenery pass by out the driver’s side window, the man presses another button on the dashboard and, amazingly, his seat swivels clockwise, away from the window. The seat clicks into place, now facing a full 90 degrees away from the windshield, and the driver closes his eyes. The truck is still barreling along the highway.
(This story by Jeremy Holmes, program director of RIDE Solutions in Central and Southwest Virginia, was original published by Mobility Lab.)
As this video played behind her, Dr. Myra Blanco of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute stood at the podium in front of approximately 1,000 attendees of the recent Commonwealth of Virginia’s Governor’s Transportation Conference. People increasingly want to be supervisors of their vehicles,” she said to the crowd, “not operators.”
Blanco’s presentation was a glimpse into the future of automated vehicles:
• Tracing the development of the technology with basic automation like cruise control
• Through the advancements currently being made by Google and other companies, in which driverless vehicles have been successfully road tested in traffic environments as hostile as Washington D.C., and
• Glimpsing a future of fully automated vehicles that could drive themselves with or without a human in the car – a future of robot taxi services and highways without gridlock and accidents caused by human error.
Her review of the technology and its trends was remarkable, painting a picture of self-driving vehicles becoming dominant in only a generation or two. And while the benefits are many, from reduced congestion to increased mobility and improved safety, her comments on why we are heading in this direction – and what it says about our transportation choices now – were less science fiction and more basic time management.
The evolving attitude towards driving dovetails with, and sheds further light on, trends we have already seen in the commuter transportation industry:
• The historically low rates of driver licensing among teens and car ownership among those in their early 20s
• The return to urban-style living, and
• The rapid growth of the sharing economy.
While some of these trends may be driven more by economics than lifestyle choices, the investments being made in, and excitement surrounding, automated-vehicle technology emphasize that quality of time as a key factor in quality of life is a growing concern among people.
The cost of congestion and long commutes – up to 3.6 billion hours behind the wheel, 5.7 billion gallons of fuel burned and nearly $70 billion in lost productivity – has long been assumed as the necessary investment needed to live in an affordable suburb, or to access the kinds of jobs that tend to cluster in major metro areas. When our only distractions during those long drives were radio stations, books on tape, or – if we were lucky – a carpool partner, it was easier to accept this cost as unavoidable. After all, what were the alternatives?
Now that technology blurs the line between home and office, where social connection, professional productivity, and even entertainment can be carried out on a smartphone or tablet wherever wireless exists, there suddenly are alternatives. Indeed, drivers are already engaged in those alternatives, as another Virginia Tech study shows that folks behind the wheel spend 10 percent of their time doing something else – behavior that results in an up to 700 percent increased chance of crashing.
What this means for the commuter-transportation industry is that, while full automation technology may be a generation away, the need is already here, and many communities already have the tools available to meet it.
We may not have Google Cars, but what is transit if not transportation that is supervised rather than operated? For major metro areas plagued by long commutes, messaging that concentrates on merely reducing travel time, rather than improving the quality of that travel time altogether, may not be enough.
The implication for smaller metros is even greater. In the Roanoke region, where Virginia’s State of the Commute survey shows that most drivers are pretty satisfied with their 20 minute-a-day commute, the coming generation of workers may look at even that 20 minutes as wasted time if they have to spend it behind the wheel rather than at the keyboard or on their phone. In similarly sized areas, where transit is not as robust and often can’t compete with driving alone on travel time, the emphasis on quality of time may mean that a longer trip, if it’s more productive, is more appealing than a shorter trip. Indeed, the Smart Way commuter bus that connects downtown Roanoke to nearby Virginia Tech in Blacksburg has been an enormously successful service, even though its trip time is almost double that of a drive-alone trip. The bus’s on-board wifi and I-81’s reputation as an accident-prone, delay-plagued stretch of freeway no doubt contribute to this success.
Marketing the benefits of quality of time is nothing new to the transportation demand management industry. We’ve been talking productivity, deferred trips to the gym as a benefit of bike commuting, and similar concepts for a while now. However, the coming world of automated cars puts new pressure on the industry. A world of self-driving, sci-fi vehicles is still a vision of freeways and parking lots jammed full with cars, with all the same environmental and social concerns that we face today.
At the end of Blanco’s presentation, someone at a neighboring table said, “People view driving as getting in the way of their texting, and not the other way around.” TDM agencies have always known that most people view driving as a necessary evil, but simply couldn’t imagine a world without it. That world is here, and along with congestion mitigation and improving mobility, it brings with it new challenges of distracted driving and decreased safety.
Our industry has a unique opportunity to use our expertise in behavior change and marketing to address these challenges now, rather than waiting for science fiction to come and save us.
Photo of Google automated car by Karla Lopez.LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — A strike by 47,000 Southern California grocery workers may have been averted Thursday as their unions reached a tentative contract with three supermarket chains.
Employees were scheduled to vote Monday on whether to approve the deal with Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons. That was the deadline set for reaching an agreement when workers voted in June to authorize a strike.
“We are happy to say that five months after our previous contract expired, the corporate owners of Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons have agreed to a proposed contract,” Rick Icaza, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770, said in a statement.
The contracts will cover employees at about 350 stores in Southern California.
Details weren’t released but both sides said they were happy with the proposal, which was reached after a week of round-the-clock negotiations.
The previous contract expired in March.
A four-month grocery store strike and lockout in 2003-2004 cost supermarkets an estimated $1.5 billion and a share of the local market. Strikers also lost wages.
Union officials said in the recent negotiations, the supermarkets first offered pay raises of 10 cents per hour over three years but wouldn’t fund health care coverage beyond current levels, which would have required employees to pay more or sacrifice coverage. The markets also wanted to reduce future pension contributions and raise the retirement age from 60 to 65.
Both sides compromised in the tentative contract, Icaza said.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)A lot of ink has been spilled over state Representative Duane Quam’s proposed bill HF499 requiring “urban bicycle lane permits” in order to ride in a bike lane. The full text of the bill can be found here. Lots of people in the cycling community wrote, called or met with him. Many wrote columns, blog posts or letters to the editor, both locally and nationally. Like others after I read the proposed bill I emailed him and the House Transportation Committee. To my surprise, he replied. Here for your amusement is our exchange and a little commentary:
Dear Transportation Committee Members and Representative Quam,
The proposed House Bill HF 499, requiring bicycle licenses and safety classes is poorly conceived and it is totally biased against urban areas in this state. Its minimum age limit of 15 undermines programs like “Safe Routes to Schools”, undermines fitness and obesity-reduction goals and penalizes low-income young people who may not have access to other transportation modes. The $5 fee will be grossly insufficient to cover the costs of administering classes and providing permits to what could be nearly a million state residents.
If you believe that everyone riding a bicycle should take a safety course, then it should be EVERYONE, not just people in “urban districts”. If you’re concerned about bicycle safety, then you should look at actual safety data that shows how, where and why cyclists are being hit by cars, and what ages of cyclists are most vulnerable. If you do this, you will find that speed (of cars) and driver distraction are the chief causes of car crashes with both bicycles and pedestrians, as is visibility. Allowing cities more leeway to reduce posted speed limits (something that is not allowed in the state Highway Manual) and requiring bicycles sold and operated in the state to be equipped with flashing tail-lights would do more to save lives than this piece of poorly conceived legislation.
The legislation’s requirement that anyone using a bike lane be 15 years of age or older is also insane. 15-year-olds are juniors in high school! National safety data shows that kids much younger than this can safely use bicycle lanes and infrastructure and the state currently has “safe routes to schools” programs to teach kids as young as 5th grade about bicycle safety. What’s more, based on federal standards, bike lanes and bike boulevards have been built or are being planned around many of our schools, something we’ve been doing for decades. As written, this legislation would even make riding with your child to school in an urban area into a crime.
The legislation assumes that kids under 15 have other transportation options when, in the Twin Cities, (according to national census data) 20% of all households don’t own a car. So the legislation penalizes mostly low-income kids. It also requires that all people 15 or older get drivers licenses. Because most people ride bicycles at one time or another and the Twin Cities have an extensive bike-share system, this legislation, as written is basically a “voter ID” law and kids, starting at 15 would be required to shell out not just $5 for the permit but $65 for a drivers license.
Finally, as many as a million people would need to take classes and be certified in order to legally ride a bicycle. The Transportation Committee would be insane to think it can administrate a comprehensive course of this nature and provide permits for just $5 per person when it can’t even adequately fund the state’s education system or pre-K for less than thousands of dollars per student.
This legislation is a power-grab by out-state Republican legislators who just want to have a stick with which to bludgeon and penalize cities and predominantly DFL voters. It’s basically a tax and an unfunded mandate from a party who claims to be against both these things. I urge you to oppose it and withdraw this poorly conceived and poorly worded bill.
Sincerely,
Andrew Singer
Duane then replied–
Andy,
This started because I saw a big increase in bike lanes, asked around and found that we do not require knowledge of the rules of the road for bike riders. I’m concerned that we will have a tragedy, followed by a rushed through fix. In order to start the discussion, I had the revisor take what is required for motorcycles and adapt it for bikes used on bike lanes. Base need is to know the rules of the road and be old enough to be attentive and safe. Used a nominal fee for covering costs.
Starting with treating the rider as a vehicle operator using city streets and modifying from there, seemed logical. I’m very open to ideas and input to progress towards a consensus solution. (Such as exempting children accompanied by adults/parents; waved fee for low income; accepting training/testing connected with schools; one plate a rider can use on any of their bikes; the idea is to have the discussion.)
I hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else.
Have a great evening.
Duane.
Reading his response, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his sincerity, I was struck by his line “I’m concerned that we will have a tragedy”, as if thousands of cyclists and pedestrians being hit by cars in Minnesota (many of them children) aren’t already a “tragedy.” I was also struck by his ignorance. Is this how how he approaches an issue or a problem about which he knows nothing? He didn’t even talk to his transportation department or experts in bike safety! …So I replied back to him.
Duane,
I have a hard time believing what you say because you are not really addressing any of the issues I raised in my letter.
To begin with, you are not approaching the problem even remotely scientifically. Doing this would require that you identify the primary causes and victims of crashes and attempt to address them. But you’re not using data. You have no bike count data, no demographic data, no crash data, nothing. Even your fundamental assumption is flawed because your goal is not bicycle safety or reducing deaths or injuries. Your goal is simply passing a rule for the rule’s sake and arbitrarily applying motorcycle assumptions to bicycles when the two modes are completely different in terms of speeds, accidents, usage, ages, health and safety. You want to put as many as a million people through a lot of expense and effort and you have no empirical data that, after doing this, you will make any meaningful dent in bicycle and car crashes.
Walkers don’t know the rules of the road and are being hit by cars in record numbers during the past year. Should we automatically assume (with no data) that the walkers themselves are at fault and require that all walkers attend traffic classes about crossing streets and take an exam when they’re 15 years of age that allows them to walk without an adult?!? Of course not, that would be absurd. But this is, in essence what you are proposing. Humans have a fundamental right to walk. But you and the legislature (and MnDOT) don’t honor that right when you assume that streets should be exclusively for automobiles and design them and your legislation as such …and when you falsely assume that the majority causes of pedestrian or bicycle crashes are the walkers or cyclists themselves.
Riding in a bicycle lane is slightly more dangerous than crossing a street but if a 5th grader is smart enough to walk to school on their own, they should be entitled to bike to school on their own. I started biking to school in 5th grade, long before we had all the excellent bicycle lanes and infrastructure that we have today. Bicycling should be treated as a basic, equal mode of transportation everywhere but especially in cities, and it should be made accessible to young people who, based on data, don’t get enough exercise and are consequently suffering from increasing rates of obesity, childhood diabetes and other resulting health problems.
Finally, I’m a huge supporter of bicycle education and “Safe Routes to Schools”. I’ve taken the League of American Cyclists “Bicycling 101, Riding in Traffic” course and helped teach others how to ride, but this is, at minimum, a full day’s course and you can’t do this on a statewide scale “for a nominal fee”. That’s completely unrealistic. What little bicycle education takes place in this state is done mostly with volunteers and small state and federal grants (which your party has often opposed). I’m all for having the discussion but, if you want mass bike education, you’re going to have to find a lot more funding than $5 per person and it can’t be tied to drivers licenses or being age 15 or older.
If you want to figure out ways to reduce car crashes with bicycles and pedestrians, I’ll support you, but you need to approach the problem scientifically, with data and use that data to get the most positive effect for the least amount of money. If you do this, you’ll find there are hundreds if not thousands of people trying to do exactly the same thing in this state, in other states, and at the national level. There are entire organizations from the League of American Cyclists and the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota all the way up to the U.S. Department of Transportation that have amassed huge amounts of data on the problems of bicycle and pedestrian safety. Even MnDOT has some smart people in their bike/pedestrian division who have lots of data and safety information. They rarely are allowed meaningful input on street and highway projects in the Twin Cities because MnDOT is overwhelmingly and myopically focused on cars …but they are a resource if you want real world information about best practices on bicycle and pedestrian safety, costs, etc.
If you’re serious, I suggest you scrap this legislation and start over, with different goals and assumptions, and bring in people who actually have expertise and data on the subject. I am happy to connect you with some of those people.
Sincerely,
Andrew Singer
In retrospect, thinking about the legislation and Rep. Quam’s response and reading more about him, I think he just wanted the publicity that we’ve all given him. He’s a big fan of Donald Trump, who is a master at proposing the outrageous to get some press and publicity. I’m a big supporter of statewide bicycle education but this bill is insane and Quam and his supporters clearly aren’t serious. They seem to just want to harass urban cyclists and urban voters to score points with their base.
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Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.Trump Has A Chance To Pull U.S. Out Of Climate Accord
Enlarge this image toggle caption Michel Euler/AP Michel Euler/AP
During his campaign, Donald Trump called climate change a hoax. And he vowed to abandon the Paris climate agreement signed last year by President Obama and almost 200 countries.
It probably wouldn't be hard for Trump to dump the climate deal.
In Paris, the world's nations pledged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. But the pledges are voluntary. And Jason Bordoff, a former energy adviser to the White House and now with Columbia University, says that gives Trump an opening. "If a country wants to just walk away from its obligations," Bordoff says, "there's little recourse for the rest of the world other than diplomatic pressure, I think."
Environmental groups argue that the rest of the world could soldier on without the U.S. But Bordoff notes that the Paris deal starts with modest reductions in emissions — well below the amounts scientists say are needed to avoid the worst effects of a warming climate. It was simply too difficult to get buy-in on tougher cutbacks from many developing countries in need of cheap energy.
So the idea was to come back in two years and toughen them up. But Trump may not join that effort. "So I think it has quite a damaging effect if the U.S. were to try to walk away from its commitments, in discouraging other countries in being as ambitious as they might otherwise be."
Another potential threat to the accord is a $100 billion-a-year fund promised to developing countries if they joined the Paris deal. If the U.S. backs out of that, it might look to developing countries like a bait and switch.
Or, instead of walking away from the Paris deal, Trump could simply drop Obama's domestic climate strategy. The centerpiece is the Clean Power Plan, a federal rule that would require U.S. power companies to reduce emissions. Megan Berge, an energy expert with the Baker Botts law firm, says the Trump administration might simply gut it: "Effectively eliminate the rule altogether," she says, "or potentially transform the rule into a very different animal.... They have options to go that road."
But even if Trump walks away from the Paris deal, market forces are already reducing emissions. "Thanks to smart investments and technological innovations," such as cheaper wind and solar energy and cheap natural gas, "we've already started on a clean energy transition," says Elliot Diringer, who is with the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. That's a transition that began well before the Paris agreement. In fact, Diringer says, since 2005, without benefit of joining any international agreement, the U.S. has lowered its greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 21 percent.The dilemma My ex-husband and I have always encouraged our children to pursue their talents and dreams. We supported their learning throughout school and university; we have never pressured them towards any particular career and have always encouraged extracurricular activities.
Following in their father’s footsteps, they have now acquired two buy-to-let properties. The rental yield has been disappointing, with most of the money consumed by upkeep on the property, or petrol money back and forth to the Midlands, where their investments are located. They speak about building multi-million pound property portfolios and devote time to social enterprises in Cambodia and the developing world. Any scepticism on my part is inevitably met with anger and accusations that I am jeopardising the venture by affecting their “mindset”.
It is now over two years since either of my children undertook salaried work. Neither keeps a regular schedule, and I worry they are losing the skills to market themselves. I need a way to broach the subject, which won’t drive a wedge between us or cause my lovely children to lose heart.
Mariella replies I’m flummoxed! Your letter made me chuckle, and for that I apologise. Although you’re not in Harry Enfield’s catchment of the west London elite, there are definitely similarities to his skewering sketches on the trials and tribulations of over-privileged teenagers.
“Seriously, Tris, Mum said if I don’t start tidying my room, she won’t pay for my Glastonbury tickets this year!” I love the marriage of your kids’ real estate ambitions with long distance, hands-off social projects in the developing world, while, I presume, living off the fruits of their parents’ hard labour. It reminds me of the tussles I witnessed in my early youth when angry, pimply teenagers would justify living off the ideologically unsound salaries of their capitalist pig parents, and bang on about equality, while battling for the Communist revolution to spread across the globe before their mums rustled up tea.
Back then, in the dark days before your parents let you drink their Chablis and smoke their grass, there was every reason to get the hell out as soon as possible. The soft cushioning of a comfy home was no competition for the hedonistic adventures on offer once you’d found a squat or bedsit to call your own.
Abandoning the roof over your head is always an option in efforts to remove lingering offspring
Your children certainly sound like a product of their times – sitting back and chilling while the troubadour of their generation, Ed Sheeran, examines his navel in pop pastiches. As the Bible said: “There is nothing new under the sun,” and predictably that seems to be increasingly the case. They seem perfectly unremarkable, and that’s the problem. They’re doing their bit by lending their skills to the less fortunate, but only so long as it causes no discomfort to their material needs and avoids any real risk for them.
What they would describe as a career plan the more experienced might dismiss as a wish list. As long as they are living under your roof and you are paying their bills, there is little or no impetus for them to change. I’ve no doubt that being a divorcee makes it harder to create a united parenting front, which is exactly what’s called for here.
Abandoning the roof over your head is always an option in efforts to remove lingering offspring, but will they simply slump on to your ex’s sofa instead? I used to covet the luxury of making my children’s road through life smoother than my own, but looking around I wonder if a safety net is actually a hurdle to success, and even the enemy of ambition. Why don’t kids move away any more?
Developing better relationships with our offspring was a noble post-Freudian pastime, but surely not to the extent that they never feel compelled to make their own lives. I laughed initially, but there’s nothing funny about your dilemma. The widening chasm between kids of different social strata is becoming an unbridgeable divide.
Instead of budging up ever closer to each other until we achieve the halcyon dream of a classless society, we seem to be shifting further apart. The gap between schooling and diet and health gets ever wider as those on the breadline struggle, and those above it Instagram beautifully crafted portraits of their indolence, and campaign for causes in 140-character opinions.
I’m painting it black because it really feels like we need a revolution; where’s the music of protest, the art of dissent, the new religion? The real world, with all its injustice, inequality and absence of opportunity, is still flourishing, but just out of range of our smartphones. Questioning your children’s lifestyle choices and disrupting their “mindsets” would seem to be doing them a favour. If you can get your ex on board, that’s definitely the boat I’d float.
If you have a dilemma, send a brief email to mariella.frostrup@observer.co.uk. Follow her on Twitter @mariellaf1Related: “Special Announcement From Brian” Follows ‘Family Guy’ Pooch Passing
Family Guy fans are up in arms this morning over the shocking death of the show’s talking dog Brian, hit by a car in last night’s episode. There is already a petition calling for the dog’s resurrection. While Brian was definitely positively dead and buried by the Griffins in the episode, some fans are suspicious. After all, Stewie is in possession of a (temporarily not working) time machine he and Brian had frequently used. If they were able to prevent a cataclysmic event like 9/11 in the controversial 2011 episode, altering the circumstances that led to Brian’s death should be a piece of cake once the machine is working again. Complicating the matters is the introduction of Brian’s “replacement”, new Griffin family dog Vinny voiced by Tony Sirico. The Sopranos alum was tapped for a slew of episodes — six so far, with a possibility to do more or even become a regular, which would make Vinny a permanent fixture on the show. Still, Brian has been one of Family Guy‘s most popular characters, and along with Stewie, is probably the show’s top merchandise property. It doesn’t make a lot of business sense to kill off one of your top cash cows. Asked about Brian’s long-term prospects on the show, 20th TV would not elaborate, instead opting for “no comment”. Truth be told, it would be a financial boon for 20th TV to reap the benefits of the inevitable spike in sales of Brian-themed toys and other collectibles in the wake of his death and then have the character come back. Here again is Family Guy‘s Brian tribute video:iOS 6 search results on left, Chomp app shown on right
Also adding to the iOS 6 App Store updates, Apple has enabled the Genius recommendation section this evening, providing users with apps that may be in their interest to download. Furthermore, the purchased section has also joined the party, displaying all the apps a user has downloaded to their account, making it easy to retrieve favorite apps. Last but certainly not least, the iTunes Store has been updated with the ability to once again search for podcasts.
Apple has quietly made some changes to iOS 6's App Store app formatting tonight and introduced a new search results format that seem clearly inspired by Chomp Chomp was a three-year old search and app discovery startup that was acquired by Apple earlier this year. The reason for the acquisition was reportedly to improve the App Store search and app discovery. It appears the first of those efforts are being deployed in iOS 6.On the iPhone, the new search results show a single tile result that can be swiped to move to each new result. Chomp's iOS app used a similar tile system in their search results.In a thread in our forums, some users are already unhappy with the shift as it is slower to browse through many results.Meanwhile, 9to5Mac notes several other changes in App Store functionality such as Genius support, Purchased section and Podcast search:The iPad version of iOS 6 also shows the new tile-based results, but is able to show four results at a time. ( screenshot ).The World Squash Federation (WSF) is the international federation for squash, an indoor racquet sport which was formerly called "squash rackets." The WSF is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the International Federation (IF) for squash, and is also a member of the SportAccord and the Association of the IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF).
It is based in Hastings in England. As of 2016 it has 149 member federations. It is bidding for squash to be added to the Olympic program for the 2024 Summer Olympics having failed with a bid for Tokyo 2020.
The first squash court was built in England in 1865; there are now around 50,000 courts in more than 185 nations worldwide. To harness this growth and to promote and co-ordinate the sport, the International Squash Rackets Federation (ISRF) was formed in 1967, its name being changed in 1992 to the World Squash Federation (WSF).[1]
Presidents [ edit ]
Below is the list of presidents since 1967 :
[2]
Membership [ edit ]
The WSF has 149 Members, all of whom are National Associations of squash, recognised by their National Olympic Committee (NOC) or Ministry of Sport as the sole and undisputed governing body for the sport in the country. Members are required to join one of the five Regional Federations which are an integral part of the WSF structure. Members receive a number of votes to be used at General Meetings depending on the number of squash courts in their country.
Management [ edit ]
Previous WSF Logo
The WSF is managed by an Executive Board (the Board), responsible for day-to-day control of the Federation and an Executive Committee (ExCo) which assists the Board in the strategy and policy making process. Members of the Board are elected at General Meetings and consist of a President and three Vice-Presidents, who each serve four year terms of office. One additional Vice-President may be co-opted on an annual basis if required.
ExCo comprises all members of the Board plus one Regional Vice-President appointed by each of the five Regional Federations. The Chairman of the Athletes Commission and a representative of PSA are members of ExCo.
The Board is supported by a number of Committees, Commissions and Panels whose members are volunteers with specialist knowledge coming from the Regional Federations and Player Association. The WSF employs professional staff who are responsible for implementing the decisions of these bodies whose main activities are described below.
Actions [ edit ]
World calendar of events [ edit ]
The WSF works closely with the Player Association – the Professional Squash Association (PSA) – to control and co-ordinate the world calendar for squash. Championships are held in all major squash playing nations and are integrated with the World Championships and Major Games calendar to ensure that there are no clashes of dates.
World Championships and major games [ edit ]
The Championships Committee is responsible for running and promoting World Championships for men, women, juniors and masters at individual and team levels in both singles and doubles via National Federations. World Championships are run by WSF Members, who tender for the events at least four years in advance. Team Championships are held every two years; and Open/Individual Championships are held annually. The Committee is also responsible for ensuring that squash is represented in all major regional multi-sport games – squash is now included in the Pan-American Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Games Pacific Games and All Africa Games.
Olympic Games [ edit ]
The WSF has established an Olympic Games Committee which is responsible for conducting a high-profile campaign for squash to be accepted as a full medal sport in the Olympic Games. (Bid)
Athletes Commission [ edit ]
The Athletes Commission comprises representatives from PSA. The Chairman, an athlete, reports to ExCo and represents the interests of the current players in areas such as Championship Regulations and implementation of the new WADA Code.
Coaching & Development [ edit ]
The WSF encourages the development of squash, not only in countries where it is a new sport but also where it is already well-established. Advice on all development matters is given to Members and is implemented through the group of WSF specialists in the Coaching & Development Committee and via "best practice" on the WSF website. Committee Members identify needs for development projects in their regions and recommend activity plans to the WSF for resources and funding. The Committee organises a Coaching Conference on an annual basis and runs coaching courses in new and developing squash nations to help develop local coaches. The Committee also organises a Management Conference for senior executives in National Associations so they can network, share resources and establish best practice on the WSF website.
Referees and rules [ edit ]
The Referees Committee has responsibility for implementing and running a Referees’ Programme which trains, accredits and assesses the top grade WSF Referees. A Referees Conference is organised on a biennial basis. The Rules Commission continually monitors the rules of the sport and makes recommendations for change. It also provides a very popular on-line Rules answers service to the public at large on interpretation of the rules.
Court and equipment specifications [ edit ]
The Technical Committee sets standards for all technical aspects of squash including court construction, rackets, balls, eye protection and clothing. It inspects and accredits court components which meet the specifications and works with its partner companies to promote good practice in court construction worldwide.
The Anti-Doping Commission ensures that squash is fully compliant with the new WADA Code. The Commission is responsible for establishing a Registered Testing Pool and an Athletes Whereabouts System for out-of-competition testing. It has established a panel of physicians which reviews Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) and calls on specialist Doping Hearing and Review Panels when required.
Medical [ edit ]
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, Democratic Congressmen Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona crafted a letter imploring President Trump to remove Haapala from this position. "He certainly does not understand or appreciate NOAA's mission and therefore is unfit to serve in any capacity that oversees operations or personnel decisions at the agency," they wrote.
"The work NOAA does is too important to public safety and the economy to allow ideologues like him to meddle with the agency and its scientists," said Rep. Grijalva in a public statement.
The lobbyist group fills its coffers with deep-pocketed donations from some predictable sources like the Koch brothers—famous conservative donors. A leak of documents in 2012 also revealed that the think tank tried to pay a science communication consultant to the Department of Energy to push a curriculum in K-12 schools that depicts climate change as controversial.
In 2012, the think tank ran a billboard campaign in the Chicago area equating believers of widely held climate science with terrorists and murderers like the Unabomber, Charles Manson and Osama bin Laden. When criticized over the signs, it doubled down, saying: "The most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen."
After initial reports of the January 24th letter and Haapala's connection to the Department of Commerce came out, an anonymous official from the Department contacted the McClatchy news network and said that Haapala was no longer on the team. The official wasn't able to say when exactly he departed. "From inauguration on forward, he has not had a role," the official said.
A few days later, though, Haapala made it sound like he was still active in the transition process when he defended himself from Democrats' calls for his removal in his weekly newsletter. "Daring to confront conventional thinking has its own responsibilities and penalties," he wrote.
Last Tuesday, the White House, which had previously been silent on the issue, told McClatchy Haapala no longer had a role in the transition. As of when is still unknown.
"Our understanding is that he is no longer involved with the transition but that he was at the time we sent our letter," Rep. Grijalva, told Motherboard via email. "Hopefully we helped apply the pressure needed to get him out of there."
Perhaps as a sign of the times, Grijalva isn't holding out much for a peaceful NOAA future. "I am hopeful that Haapala's presence – and departure – was the end of the attacks on NOAA, but I am not optimistic," he said, adding "If the folks who are widely reported to be Trump's science advisors (including climate deniers William Happer and David Gerlenter) end up inside the government, that will be bad news for NOAA scientists."
NOAA employees and affiliates remain on alert about the future of climate change research under a Trump administration. The organization has a $5.8 billion annual budget, with $190 million of that going to climate research, but has long struggled with lack of funds. Many researchers are worried these could shrink even further. The Department of Defense, by comparison, has an annual budget of over $580 billion.
"The problem is that we're starting out from a deficit in terms of funding," the researcher told Motherboard. "People are used to doing more with less, but that only works up to a certain point. People are concerned."
The researcher pointed out that whoever is in charge cannot erase the data collected in the past, thanks in large part to NOAA's tendency to proactively publish its data online where the public can view and download it. "Those data are out there in the world in a way that can't be rescinded," the researcher said. "The danger is continuing that data collection into the future is at risk depending on who's in charge."I knew why they came to me [to direct the film]. They know i can make big-budget movies. But at the same time, I had to find the appropriate journey for this movie.
So yeah, there is a lot of action, but it can’t be action for action’s sake. In a very short amount of time I had to maek sure that they understoon that I know that that’s where commerce and art collide.
It’s my job to make sure that the action is appropriate, it’s organic, it’s something that can be embraced by people who like ‘Star Trek.’
‘Star Trek’ is, I think, the only franchise that’s been able to cross over from TV with a limited budget to mega-franchise; that’s part of the DNA of ‘Star Trek.’ So for Simon and Doug [Jung] and I, our challenge was to bring that.
We know this is a big-budget movie, but at the same time let’s not forget that we can have two characters in a room talking, and if we do our job right it’s equally compelling. That’s something we definitely took to heart.Washington (CNN) It took a horrific tragedy to remind the nation that its longest war, though often forgotten, is by no means gone.
Outrage over the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, by an American gunship Saturday focused increasingly rare media scrutiny on a conflict in which U.S. combat officially ended last year -- but where fighting still rages.
"We were running a hospital treating patients, including wounded combatants from both sides -- this was not a 'Taliban base,' " said Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières, upon release of the group's internal review of the attack.
"We were running a hospital treating patients, including wounded combatants from both sides -- this was not a 'Taliban base,' " said Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières, upon release of the group's internal review of the attack.
The attacks came as fighting intensified between Afghan government forces -- supported by U.S. air power and military advisers -- and the Taliban, which invaded Kunduz in late September.
The attacks came as fighting intensified between Afghan government forces -- supported by U.S. air power and military advisers -- and the Taliban, which invaded Kunduz in late September.
Doctors Without Borders is asking for an indepedent investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. President Barack Obama has apologized to the charity group for the attack.
Doctors Without Borders is asking for an indepedent investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. President Barack Obama has apologized to the charity group for the attack.
Doctors Without Borders said it had emailed the GPS coordinates of its main hospital and administration office building at the Kunduz center before the airstrike. The U.S. commander said airstrikes were called after Afghan troops advised they were "taking fire from enemy positions."
Doctors Without Borders said it had emailed the GPS coordinates of its main hospital and administration office building at the Kunduz center before the airstrike. The U.S. commander said airstrikes were called after Afghan troops advised they were "taking fire from enemy positions."
Flames are visible inside a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, after a U.S. airstrike on Saturday, October 3. At least 30 people died in the attack, the charity said in its internal review of the strike released Thursday, November 5. The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has said the hospital was hit accidentally.
Flames are visible inside a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, after a U.S. airstrike on Saturday, October 3. At least 30 people died in the attack, the charity said in its internal review of the strike released Thursday, November 5. The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has said the hospital was hit accidentally.
The immediate question is who bears responsibility for a strike in which 22 civilians, including doctors and patients, were killed in what the Nobel prize-winning NGO branded a war crime. But the disaster also raises a list of troublesome tactical questions for Washington.
It will renew serious doubts about the limits of cooperation between the U.S. and the Afghan units that apparently called in the strike, as well as the basic quality of that American-trained force. Pentagon strategists are also puzzling over how the resurgent Taliban was able to capture Kunduz in the first place.
Those questions could not come at a worse time for President Barack Obama, who is facing a much wider strategic dilemma over a war that as a candidate he termed "the right battlefield" for America but that has haunted his entire presidency.
Heading into his final year in office, Obama is weighing whether to go ahead with his plan to bring home almost all U.S. troops in Afghanistan next year to honor a political promise to end the wars he inherited. He may instead opt to leave behind a reduced, but still considerable, U.S. force to boost the country's vulnerable military forces amid fears that they could eventually collapse under Taliban pressure.
A debate on U.S. tactics
Even before all details of the attack are established and Obama delivers his recommendation on troop numbers, the tragedy is provoking debate on the dangers inherent in the arms-length U.S. tactics in Afghanistan where American forces are supporting Afghan units who lack their own air support but not leading the fight themselves.
"The Afghan proxies on the ground have always been unreliable. Our forces are so thin in Afghanistan, we don't have enough people there to fight a war," former CIA officer and CNN intelligence analyst Robert Baer said. "We simply can't carry out air attacks based on Afghan reporting."
In a broader sense, the plight of Kunduz, and the fact that it fell to the Taliban at all, casts an unflattering light on Afghan forces built with billions of dollars from the U.S. and its allies in a bid to provide a rational for foreign troops to go home.
"The fact that the Taliban were able to gain control of Kunduz was a strategic surprise," said Nora Bensahel, an expert on U.S. defense policy at American University. "It does call into question some of the capabilities of the Afghan security forces."
Photos: Taliban takes over Afghan city Photos: Taliban takes over Afghan city Afghan special forces prepare to launch an operation to retake the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan, from Taliban insurgents on Tuesday, September 29. The Taliban took control of most of the city the day before in its biggest victory since 2001. Hide Caption 1 of 5 Photos: Taliban takes over Afghan city A Taliban fighter sits on a motorcycle holding a Taliban flag in Kunduz on September 29. Hide Caption 2 of 5 Photos: Taliban takes over Afghan city Taliban fighters hug each other on September 29. Hide Caption 3 of 5 Photos: Taliban takes over Afghan city A Taliban fighter stands guard on a vehicle in Kunduz on September 29. Hide Caption 4 of 5 Photos: Taliban takes over Afghan city Taliban prisoners walk down a street after they were released by Taliban fighters from the main jail in Kunduz on Monday, September 28. Hide Caption 5 of 5
Kunduz is not the only area in which the Taliban has lashed out at Afghan forces during this summer's fighting season, which has seen thousands of Afghan National Army troops die, a rate U.S. military officials warn may be unsustainable.
JUST WATCHED MSF: U.S. "remains responsible" for strike on hospital Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH MSF: U.S. "remains responsible" for strike on hospital 04:17
The Army has clashed with the militia across northeastern Afghanistan and struggled to contain a string of attacks in Kabul itself, including a car bombing of an Afghan member of parliament Monday. Large areas of the country outside the major cities remain beyond the control of government security forces. In some areas, the Taliban holds the land -- in others warlords operate fiefdoms where there is no dominant security player.
It is against this worrying backdrop that Obama must consider whether to go ahead with his already stated plan to leave only around 1,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan -- mostly to protect the U.S. Embassy -- when he leaves office in 2017, down from around 34,000 American soldiers in the country when he became president in 2009.
Since then, he has tried multiple strategies, all with limited success: He has surged troops into the war, established withdrawal timelines, pulled thousands of U.S. troops home and struggled through years of antagonism with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Through all that, his vow to get American troops home from Afghanistan -- to match his withdrawal from Iraq -- has remained crucial to the President's political legacy.
Obama has tried to end a war that killed more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers. At the same time, he has wanted to create the conditions for a responsible departure that would leave the Afghan government capable of defending itself and prevent Afghanistan lapsing into the kind of terrorist haven that a Taliban government provided to Al-Qaeda while it plotted the September 11 attacks. It has been a difficult balance to strike.
Slowing the pace of withdrawal
The recent upsurge in violence in Afghanistan and the difficulties the administration has had extricating the United States from a war that started 14 years ago has left some in Washington unsure over the end game in the conflict.
The war has yet to filter much into the 2016 election campaign, but in one statement Tuesday, Republican front-runner Donald Trump stoked controversy by saying on Fox News that the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan was a "terrible mistake." He added, however, that U.S. troops needed to stay to avoid a collapse of the government.
Trump's comments put him at odds with mainstream opinion. Whlie there have been frequent criticisms of the manner in which the George W. Bush and Obama administrations have fought the Afghan war, there has long been a political consensus in Washington that it was the correct decision to target al Qaeda and its Taliban hosts in Afghanistan.
Obama has already slowed the pace of plans to cut the current 9,800-strong U.S. force in Afghanistan to 5,500 by the end of the year.
And The Washington Post reported on Monday that a decision on the post-2016 U.S. troop presence could come soon, with Obama was seriously considering keeping 5,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after he leaves office -- five times the size of the garrison he had originally planned to keep in the country.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, said Tuesday that assumptions had changed on the strategic needs for troop levels in Afghanistan based on an uptick in insurgent activity, an increased Al-Qaeda presence and signs ISIS might also be targeting the country.
"Based on conditions on the ground, I do believe we have to provide our senior leadership options different than the current plan we are going with," Campbell told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The current plan is embassy-based presence. As I take a look at conditions on the ground, when the President made that decision, it didn't account for the changes in the past two years," Campbell said.
But any modifications to the U.S. drawdown would also represent a political climbdown for Obama.
"President Obama was very clear when he set out that timeline that he would stick to that no matter what, and there was very little room to reconsider that," said Bensahel.
"He has every incentive to want the war to end in his administration on good terms," she said. "For him to be reconsidering the number of troops is clearly a political choice he does not want to have to make."
Any decision to retain U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2016 would offer an opening to Obama critics to claim the President was implicitly admitting he had been wrong to pull U.S. troops home from another war -- Iraq -- opening a vacuum for ISIS to exploit.
Scott Smith, a former senior aide to the U.N. special representative in Afghanistan, now with the U.S. Institute of Peace, said events in recent days make Obama's decision even more complicated.
"If there is decision now to stay, it will look like an act of desperation or of panic, and as a result of Kunduz," he said. "If it had been made much earlier, it would look like an act of solidarity with a government with which we have a partnership agreement."
One difference between Afghanistan and Iraq is that the power-sharing government of President Ashraf Ghani, which Washington invested plentiful diplomatic capital in forming, desperately wants U.S. troops to stay. That was not the case under the government of ex-Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad, who complicated U.S. efforts to leave a residual force.
That's one reason why the Afghan government's response to the hospital attack in Kunduz was fairly muted compared to Karzai's tirades against the many U.S. operations that caught civilians in the crossfire.
Smith said that in the end, it was possible that Obama would accept a plan to keep at least one base open in Afghanistan with up to 6,000 U.S. troops.
"The idea will be to keep them out of combat operations as much as possible -- but they will be able to hold the Afghan hands a little bit longer," he said.
But such a decision would also mean a second two-term U.S. president handing his successor a war that seems to have no end, but that Washington no longer has the desire or the resources to fight.Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds is in the midst of an international press tour for his upcoming superhero film and he has spent the last 24 hours in Moscow, Russia. He even did some sighteeing and posed next to the The Tsar Cannon, an enormous cannon displayed on the grounds of the Kremlin.
"Good morning Moscow. You're cold. But damn pretty," Reynolds wrote on social media. "Visiting The Kremlin today. They don't sell stuff like this at IKEA. As far as I know."
Below, check out photos and a video of his Moscow visit.
I bet 400 years ago, guys bought these for the same reasons they buy really fast cars today. #DeadpoolDoesMoscow pic.twitter.com/tnOJUrfRd5 — Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) January 24, 2016
Visiting The Kremlin today. They don't sell stuff like this at IKEA. As far as I know. #DeadpoolDoesMoscow A photo posted by Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds) on Jan 24, 2016 at 1:50am PST
Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.On October 07, 2016, Jelurida BV, a new startup software development company was announced by one of Nxt Foundation member, Damelon. Nxt core developers Jean-Luc and Riker joined it as well. As mentioned by damelon, “It’s a Holding with two separate BVs contained in it. There is a BV that holds the IP and a BV that is “active” and signs.” The roadmap for NXT 2.0 / Ardor platform is still as originally planned.
Jelurida BV, as holder of the intellectual property rights for the Nxt software and the Ardor platform, aims to create a sustainable and thriving business around the Nxt ecosystem by providing software licenses, maintenance, and services to a new breed of blockchain-based applications.
NXT has many useful technology or features. The upcoming NXT 2.0 / Ardor platform even will incorporate more features. NXT core developers and community just decided to distribute all of NXT2.0 ARDR tokens to existing NXT holders, unlike through the popular ICO to raise funds to further the development. The core developers heavily rely on community funds/donations even self funded. This is not the best way to build long term sustainable NXT ecosystem. Now we are glad they find a good way to monetize their skill and NXT blockchain technology. They could partner with other interested company and create customized private blockchain based on NXT or Ardor to cater specific needs, could provide further services like maintenance or upgrade.The company is one of few companies to tap into private blockchain niche.
The generated income from the company could be used for the promotion of the NXT / Ardor, fund the development of NXT / Ardor, which in turn attract more business for Jelurida BV.
Riker assured that they would continue the development of NXT or future Ardor blockchain, which could be presented to potential customers and bring more business back. There is no point to dump it at all. Beyond the matured blockchain technology, the dev team has two years of experiences. I believe the company will be thriving.When the whistle blew on June 17th, 2015, Spain’s hopes in the Women’s World Cup were crushed. They hadn’t even been able to make it past the group stage. But what looked like the end that day soon turned into something else. A whole new story unfolded: a tale that had been hidden behind the scenes for over 25 years, a story about a group of women who wanted more, but were held back by an organization that didn’t believe in them or what they did.
Imagine a national team that has been led by the same head coach for 27 years. A head coach that has been never held accountable for the performance of his team, that has never put together a proper development plan and doesn’t even travel abroad to scout the best players, who have had to emigrate to play the game they really excel at. Now add a big amount of totalitarianism, a patronizing attitude and a total disrespect for the players. Stir it all and spice it up with a federation that overlooks and underestimates the players’ formal complaints about the way the team is run. Finally, top it with the fear of never being called up again if, as a player, you ever decide to speak up about the situation. There you go, you got yourself the Spain women’s national team.
The story of Spain’s very modest contribution to women’s soccer is as much about the national team as it is about its league, established in 1988. Even though it has never folded, it has never fully been a professional league either, with only some players in a few teams securing contracts that would cover them in case of injury or pregnancy (although that didn’t mean they could make a living just by playing soccer). The growth over the years has not been steady either. It was slow for a while, reaching its best before the economic crisis hit Spain hard in 2012.
Then everything stopped. Most teams cut funding and terminated any contracts they had signed. Players in most squads went back to being amateur, with no salaries and working hard to balance their daily jobs and soccer training on a regular basis. Many of Spain’s best players, like Vero Boquete, Laura del Río and Vicky Losada, left to try their luck in other countries. Over the past few years, the situation within the league has started to pick up again, a change that has also been mirrored by the national team.
The 2015 World Cup was Spain’s debut at the most important competition in women’s soccer. The team had barely been tested against the top teams in a competitive environment before, having always refused to attend the Algarve Cup, overlooked the FIFA windows and having only made it into the European Championship twice (in 1997, when they made it all the way through to the semifinals, and in 2013, when they were eliminated by Norway during the quarter finals).
While the way the Federation viewed and valued the women’s squad had barely changed, the qualification was a massive improvement for the Spanish team. The expenses paid for national duties were slightly raised ahead of the tournament and the media started talking about the evolution of women’s soccer in the country. We were in a new era, they said. An era in which Spain would finally step up and join the top teams at an international level.
But it is at events like this that the structure and the basis of a nation’s women’s soccer is tested and the new era proved to be still far away. Regardless of how impressive their qualification had been, the team was clearly not prepared for the intense road ahead of them. Spain hadn’t lost a single a game during the qualification stages, but it had taken an amazing effort to qualify for the World Cup, completely unsupported by their federation and without a professional league in the country to foster local talent. Motivation had been the driving force for the national squad, but that didn’t mean this strategy would work out in Canada.
Even the slogan used to promote (even if just barely) the amazing feat accomplished by the Spanish squad was hopeful: Soñar en Grande (Dream Big). Dreaming is good; it is engaging, moving, it attracts the audience and tells a story. Everyone loves an underdog. Dreams are powerful motivators too. Players are driven by passion and a work ethic that’s fueled by their dreams. But it can’t just be about fantasizing. National soccer federations should not be allowed to evoke the idea of dreaming as a way to achieve goals. Great teams don’t just dream – they go and get what they know they’re worth.
The Spanish Federation never truly believed, probably never even cared. When dreams fail to turn into goals, chances are they’ll end up being crushed. Soccer federations around the world, regardless of whether they are working with men and women, should have a plan, a strategy, a clearly defined roadmap to identify potential challenges and set clear goals. When that final whistle blew in Canada, the bubble the Spanish players had been living in burst. The lack of preparation, friendly games, analysis and even acclimation ahead of the event proved to be stronger than their dreams, and reality hit them hard: their dedication and commitment alone would never be enough to beat the top teams. Without their federation’s support, the story of the underdog would continue to be an illusion, a narrative they’d hear over and over again to hide the fact that, until something changed, their hopes would be condemned.
If something good came out of the 2015 World Cup was that, for once, there was a small, yet meaningful interest from the media. A tiny hope that maybe someone, somewhere, was watching and wanted to know about what this group of women had accomplished just by going all the way to Canada. And it was that interest from the media that allowed them to, for once, speak up, to reveal what had been happening behind the scene for 27 years. The tale of a misogynist and depraved federation for which the women just didn’t count.
Ignacio Quereda, Spain’s head coach since 1988, stepped down barely 10 days after the World Cup fiasco, following the publication of a letter signed by all the Spanish players, in which they voiced their opinion regarding the way the team had been ran for the last three decades. Even though his replacement, Jorge Vilda, was still a man of the Federation, his impeccable work with the U-19 and his more modern approach to soccer was welcomed with opened arms by the team. Since he came on board a year ago, La Roja has not lost a single game, a statement to his efforts to unite the team and strengthen a relationship that was very close to being broken beyond repair.
During this past year, Spain successfully qualified for the European Championship as first in their group, having won all their games with 39 goals scored and only two against. But his achievements go beyond these results. The Spanish squad is better supported by the Federation, which has signed a sponsorship deal with Iberdrola, one of the top energy companies in the country, and is already working on securing friendlies and maybe even a spot at this year’s Algarve Cup. The last few qualifying matches were broadcast live in one of the country’s top TV channels and their final game against Finland attracted over 5000 people, an unprecedented crowd for women’s soccer in Spain.
And the interest and the evolution have not been limited to the national squad. La Liga, the organization that runs the men’s competition, took over the women’s league as well. They’ve put together an actionable plan to grow the game that includes a two-year sponsorship deal with Iberdrola (with a €2m investment), a solid marketing strategy to raise awareness and a TV deal to broadcast three matches per week. The media coverage of the league has also improved significantly, with bigger exposure in online media, print, TV and radio.
Although this new interest is promising, there are still big differences between teams. Those backed by a men’s soccer team, like FC Barcelona and Athletic Club (both playing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League this year), have the financial support to provide better conditions, sign top players and sometimes even offer a full professional environment. On the other side of the spectrum, smaller, independently-owned teams like Transportes Alcaine, Granadilla or Santa Teresa, have fewer resources and not-so-good conditions, relying mainly on younger, amateur players coming from their strong youth systems.
At minimum, though, this has meant better conditions for teams and players. Televised games are being played in natural grass rather than turf, the investment of clubs is again gradually raising and the league is starting to generate interest both in and out of Spain. A slow journey towards professionalization was triggered by the shift in mentality that followed the World Cup crisis, and the stakeholders are taking the first key steps to ensure that the players start to be viewed as professionals and not just amateurs. After many years of waiting around for the Federation to take women’s soccer seriously, La Liga has stepped in and taken the lead, working closely with the teams to support the game and the players.
Overall, soccer in Spain is changing. Even if the growth is not yet evident, the clear shift in mentality has made a massive difference. The combined efforts to power the game, both in the league and in the national team, are showing their first results, and the expectation is that, if La Roja leads the way, the league will follow suit. The soccer community in the country eagerly awaits Euro 2017, with the hope that a good performance by the national team will finally solidify the presence of the women’s game in the country and give the league the final push it needs to become a fully professional environment – one that will not only nurture the national players, but also attract talent from all over the world.Posted by PeterChan on February 4, 2012
The hype is strong with this one. Thankfully, I've been pacing myself nicely for the past 5 years so that I still have some energy to dodge all the negative comments and backlash Guild Wars 2 has come under in the last few months. However, that doesn't hold true to all gamers. For some reason, I am compelled to write about it. I am compelled to write in hopes that I could convince some people that the Guild Wars 2 beta is not worth hurting yourself over.
In the latest Guild Wars 2 news, ArenaNet has invited a number of press members to their closed beta. This is wonderful news! To consumers, it is also extremely vague which is all the more reason to just be patient. I am positive that everyone wants to be a part of the closed beta and help test while giving feedback (for SCIENCE, of course!). At the same time I have no doubt that there is not a single person outside of ArenaNet who, in the back of their mind, just cannot wait to get their hands on the game for the sake of being entertained and exploring the world ArenaNet has created. This includes members of the press and we have to appreciate that. Although this month's beta phase is limited to mostly press members, this is the sign of ArenaNet opening up to the public after only testing internally for quite a long time.
Some players have asked the question, "why invite the press when clearly I'm an expert at Guild Wars?" That is probably the biggest reason they don't need these players to test! ArenaNet is going where other developers haven't dared take their testing phases. They want to introduce the best MMORPG that is a product and evolution of multiple ideas from several games to make the most immersive title ever. They also want to introduce the game to people who have never played a game before and do their best to keep these people. It can be a tough balance between the old and new, but to give players what ArenaNet wants to deliver, they need unbiased feedback from more than just fans.
Members of the press sometimes have to play games they're not initially interested in while established fans can be biased with their opinions. That makes them a good crowd to introduce an evolved game to that requires learning new mechanics as well. Guild Wars 2 just happens to be the best thing since sliced bread. Ignoring that fact though, the press are often required to play games to an extent where they can legitimately write a detailed review and earn their pay. With that said, these people have more reason to uphold the NDA presented to them. A NDA (non-disclosure agreement) is serious business which both parties (ArenaNet and members of the press, each with their own position) have invested too much time to risk tarnishing their reputation. By no means will ArenaNet show off the entire game to the press simply for review. What the press really needs to see is how well ArenaNet is can carry an unreleased product. While people have passed Guild Wars 2 as vapourware or as an over-hyped title, press coverage will repair this small wound, contributing to the now exponentially growing interest.
Naturally, ArenaNet wants good press for their game. No one is trying to hide that fact. However, ArenaNet is doing their testing differently than conventional modern MMOs. We will get our turn, eventually, and so will all the other potential players who came across a "first impression" post on a media website. Surely we want to see our most anticipated game make history and break sales records! Reaching to the press also suggests that ArenaNet is confident enough with their product to show it to the mass media before it's released. The developers behind Guild Wars 2 have been doing this all along and I'm sure that February is going to be one huge press-push before launch later in the year. A less confident developer would not allow for as many press members to review their game before it goes on sale.
What is an invite to closed beta anyway? We often think of this term as a product that still has bugs to be worked out. This term is loosely defined by ArenaNet though. ArenaNet wouldn't invite press to review a bug infested game. When we do get to play, finding a bug later than sooner would probably be more self rewarding than catching the early obvious ones. If anxious gamers were expecting anything more than "self-rewarding" then they're fighting too hard for the wrong reason to get into the beta, in my opinion.
One could argue that the press is not going to test the game as much as other gamers, yet, as a consumer, it's not our second job either. I don't know anyone else who would quit their job just to work full-time on a fansite for a game. Who is that crazy? While I am indeed crazy, there were more pressing factors that lead me to where I stand now with Guild Wars 2 Live, and I did it to prove to myself that I can do something amazing! I don't need a beta invite as proof that I've been successful on this tangent of my life. Of course, in the back of my mind and deep down in my soul, I admit it would be nice. If being a successful, die-hard fan meant getting into a closed beta at the end, then being such a fan is a pretty risky business! I don't believe the turnover is that significant in the long run anyway.
I can tell others who won't be getting an invitation to test, the folks who have jumped the gun. To the left are people who have broadcasted misleading information in order to gain attention while on the right are people who believe everything posted by every major and minor news source. Get the facts right, fellow gamers! Read it from the ArenaNet blog and only out of mouths of ArenaNet staff! Take the information that has been given by the developers and we will realize that ArenaNet has never lied about Guild Wars 2 or its development. It doesn't matter if someone gets their hands on the game sooner than later, there will always be another person ahead of them. This begs the question, "Why all the hate?" We should spend that energy to properly inform others who might have missed a blog post or a tweet from ArenaNet. And maybe, just knowing that we're doing the right thing by respecting ArenaNet's time and effort can be enough.
Up to this point, ArenaNet has been very supportive of all the fansites who have poured their hearts into Guild Wars 2 alongside the developers. I did it not for Guild Wars 2 or ArenaNet, but for me to grow and learn. It all starts with a simple idea of having fun and then the idea grows into creating something new and unique. I have been doing that with GuildWars2Live and have learned a lot on the way. ArenaNet has rewarded me with their kindness and support by allowing me to continue my fansite and acknowledging me, but even more rewarding is my own work. It has kept me so busy that I could care less of when Guild Wars 2 is going to release. The release date can take its sweet time and be announced "when it's ready."
The whole point one should take away from this rant is, "be patient." There's many things we could be doing other than waiting for the game, or fighting to contribute to the game via a beta invite. Consider starting a blog, a fansite, or join new fansites and encourage others to share their excitement without hinder. There are potentially hundreds of thousands who are about to flock over to Guild Wars 2. We don't need a beta invite to show new folks what a great community Guild Wars has. We know that Guild Wars 2 is going to change gamers, so why not prepare ourselves?
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Written by @peter_chan
Much thanks to editors including @theLazyGeek, Bakamono and @MalchiorDeven.
Note: ArenaNet does not necessarily condone the things I've said here, though as fans we have this privilege to talk this way.The Harris County District Attorney's office on Tuesday dismissed all charges against anti-abortion activists who secretly videotaped Planned Parenthood officials in Houston.
David Robert Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were charged with tampering with a governmental record, for using a fake identification to gain access to the facility. In a surprise move before a hearing on the legitimacy of the indictment, prosecutors dismissed the charges.
Deleiden and his attorneys claimed victory for the anti-abortion movement, saying they were satisfied with the decision.
Daleiden, 27, and Sandra Merritt, 62, both of Davis, Calif., were indicted by a Harris County grand jury in January, accused of tampering with a government record for allegedly using fake driver licenses to conceal their identities while dealing with a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic.
Read more on the case:
Daleiden also was charged with a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. The pair released video footage showing them posing as representatives of a company called |
or have claustrophobia," warns a tour flier, "this tour may not be for you."
At many places, visitors will see evidence of severe rust resulting from the nearly two decades that lower compartments were flooded to improve the vessel's stability in its San Jacinto Battleground berth.
Visitors may have trouble shaking a feeling that they have blundered into a time warp. The Texas generates an almost palpable sense that the sailors will be returning soon, that the engines, capable of generating 28,000 horsepower, are seconds from resuming their thrum.
Among the most fearsome of the Navy's fighting vessels, the Texas first saw service during World War I. During World War II, it shelled Axis positions during the North African campaign and the Normandy landings. In the Pacific, it participated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It was the first battleship to launch an airplane; the first to mount anti-aircraft guns. The first battleship to become a permanent museum and to receive a National Historic Landmark designation, the Texas has been at its San Jacinto berth since 1948.
50 days in ammo room
In McCann's tour, visitors pass former coal-storage rooms converted into sleeping quarters and an area near the engines in which sailors hung their clothes to dry.
Among stops are the forward ammo handling room where scores of seamen were charged with loading shells and 104-pound bags of powder into elevators that carried them to gun crews.
During the 50-plus-day Battle of Okinawa, ammo crews never left their stations.
In the main radio room, about a dozen tube-powered sets line shelves set into the walls. Swivel chairs designed for functionality, not comfort, are bolted to the floor.
It was here that Navy operators communicated with their Allied counterparts and monitored enemy transmissions. Still in the officers' cubicle is a safe that contained a book to decipher codes.
McCann points to a black, battered Underwood typewriter of 1930s vintage. "We had a former sailor tell us he was sitting right at this typewriter when word arrived of victory in Europe," he says.
Although the hard hat tours greatly will expand the portion of the ship visitors will see, most of the vessel - 573 feet from bow to stern - will remain off limits.
Even McCann, more familiar with the Texas than most, admits much of the warship is a mystery.
"There are about 700 compartments on this battleship," McCann says. "I couldn't tell you what three-fourths of them are all about."
allan.turner@chron.comAdventure Sports Photography often doesn’t get a lot of attention in the photography world. While street, portrait, and wedding photography seem to reign supreme, this small genre is usually only appreciated in the respective sports it covers.
Which is really quite sad since it showcases some of the most amazing photographers working today. Not only are they able to compose and capture stunning shots, but they often do so in the worst conditions imaginable.
If you’ve never given adventure sports photography a chance, I highly recommend you check out the list I’ve put together below; it features some of the most talented individuals currently working in the field and is a great gateway into the genre.
And if you’re already a fan and don’t see your favorite photographer on the list, worry not. This list easily could have been twice as long but unfortunately I couldn’t get a hold of a few people since apparently this job requires you to go to remote locations for long periods of time or something… Who knew?
Blotto
I want to start with one of my personal favorites, Dean Blotto Gray, or just Blotto. His photos have been featured in countless magazines, he’s worked on amazing projects such as Brainfarm’s The Art of Flight, and he’s the principal photographer for Burton Snowboards, and all with good reason.
His work is quite simply, some of the best out there. He brings a street photographer’s eye out into the wilderness and in the process creates powerful and emotive photos that are stunning.
Scott Serfas
The old saying goes — jack of all trades, master of none. Which is why it’s so frustrating that Scott Serfas seems to be able to jump between sports effortlessly and capture some of the best photos year after year in each sport.
Somehow, while working as a senior photographer for TRANSworld Snowboarding he’s also able to travel around shooting surfers, skateboarders, and pretty much anybody else that will get in front of his camera. What makes it even worse is that it all turns out so damn good. From the grit of skateboarding the streets to carving through the highest altitudes in the world, Scott has it all covered.
Stu Gibson
Most of us have that craving, that unexplainable attraction, that flares up as we stare out over the sea. There’s some unknowable calling that just speaks to us deep down when we stand back and watch the waves break.
What makes Stu Gibson‘s work so powerful is that it goes beyond the rider performing an impressive stunt or trick and effectively captures that natural allure that the ocean, and in turn surfing, has. When you look over Stu’s work, you understand why surfers are so incredibly passionate about their sport, it’s clear as the water in every photo he takes.
Gabe L’Heureux
The unique talent of Gabe L’Heureux‘s is his ability to show the daily grind behind the sport he’s shooting. You can see it in the stark lone surfer walking back from the ocean through the rainy fog, or the determined focus in the snowboarder tuning his board, or any number of Gabe’s photos — these sports clearly take work.
While others are only capable of capturing the fun side of the sport Gabe is able to show us the hustle of what it takes to walk into extreme elements and try and make man’s mark on them. Don’t worry though, he’s equally capable of showing the incredible fun that this hard work leads to as well.
Vincent Perraud
Vincent Perraud first came to adventure sports photography after an injury that left him unable to ride led him to pick up a camera as a fun way to still hang out with his friends while they were riding. Perhaps those innocent origins are why he’s able to so effortlessly convey the fun and energy behind BMX biking.
Scrolling through the gallery on his site you can feel the warm summer sun, hear the gravel crunching under the thick rubber tires, and sense that tumbling sensation in your stomach as your body realizes it’s perpendicular with the ground while you’re riding up a wall. These sentimental feelings of bliss and enjoyment from our youth are perfectly captured by Vincent, and it’s what makes his photos truly exceptional.
Lorenz Holder
Lorenz Holder‘s work is filled with riders tearing through what look like alien vistas, shot on some far off planet. The stark colors and foreign looking environments give the photos an almost haunting atmosphere that intoxicates your eye. But Lorenz is nothing if not versatile and, as such, he’s able to bounce from moody, isolated shots to bright, colorful photos that show just how enjoyable ripping through the snow can be.
His photos encapsulate the ‘have fun by any means necessary’ attitude so prevalent in snowboarding culture while also showcasing the artistic beauty of a rider enjoying his natural environment. Combined, these elements give Lorenz Holder’s photography a powerful one-two punch most photographers would kill for.
Jody MacDonald
To me, one of the most appealing factors in Jody MacDonald‘s work, especially her ‘Paragliding in Mozambique’ gallery, is how the photos could just as easily be abstract paintings.
The elegant shapes pull your eye’s attention, and it’s easy to get lost in the folds and bends of the sand dunes or the shimmering patterns of the lagoons with the small para-glider hovering over, surveying the land like a shepherd does his flock. Her ability to look at a sport with such a unique and beautiful perspective is what makes Jody’s work stand out.
Frode Sandbech
Be it the rich blue hue of the heavens straddling the orange-tinted mountains, or the pure white snow against eerily dark winter skies, one thing is clear in Frode Sandbech‘s photography: contrast is king. And boy is he a master of it.
In addition to his sharp contrast, his photos have a real knack for showing the journey one must endure when attempting back country snowboarding. People don’t just magically appear on the top of mountains (okay, maybe heliskiers do) they trek through bone breaking rocks and several feet of snow, sometimes for miles, to take one ride down the face of the mountain they just climbed.
That takes a lot of passion and determination. Luckily, Frode is often there with his camera to capture it all.
Tyler Stableford
Tyler Stableford‘s work in adventure sport photography holds one key feature that makes it stand out above all others: his ability to capture that crystal clear moment every photographer is looking for. His photos communicate everything about the sport he’s shooting by locking on to a precise instant in time that tells the entire story of what came before.
Michael Clark
Michael Clark has many talents but perhaps the most powerful weapon in his arsenal is his ability to accurately capture the grand scale on display in front of him. You can feel the enormous scale in every sport, stunt, and activity he shoots.
Looking at his photos, you can feel how long the fall will be if the climber slips, or if the rider misses his jump. This skill is equal parts impressive and important, as it allows us to share in the rush of the adrenaline-inducing sports he shoots. Except, you know, without risking our lives.
Image credits: All photographs used with permission.NewsBusters asked Saturday if the media will report a New York man becoming brain dead as a result of an unprovoked attacked by a man saying "I hate white people."
So far with the exception of local New York coverage, the answer is a resounding "No."
Analyses of Google News, LexisNexis, and closed-caption transcripts found absolutely no national reporting of Jeffrey Babbitt, the 62-year-old retired train conductor now in a coma at Bellevue Hospital.
Not one word on ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, or NBC.
Potentially even more curious, the largest newspaper in New York, the New York Times, appears to have not reported this attack despite it occurring in its own backyard.
If Babbitt were black, and his assailant shouted "I hate black people" before inflicting what appears will be a death blow, would America's media be so disinterested?
Or would this be headline news much like what we saw with Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman?
Sadly, we all know the answer as our media have once again shown that they are only interested in white on black hate crimes.
The other variety just don't fit the agenda.
*****Update: It turns out the New York Times did report this matter at its website Friday and in print Saturday. Unfortunately, the name of the assailant was wrong and the article didn't include Babbitt's. That's why it appeared this event had gone unreported.
Readers are advised the errant report was a total of 152 words buried on page 21.
I guess that's the importance the Times gives to black on white hate crimes.Anne Frank may have been captured by chance, new study suggests
Anne Frank may have been captured by chance, new study suggests
Anne Frank may not have been betrayed to Nazi occupiers, but captured by chance instead, a new study has suggested.
The study by the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam says that despite decades of research, there is no conclusive evidence the young Jewish diarist and her family were betrayed to the Netherlands' German occupiers during the Second World War.
Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House museum, said the new research "illustrates that other scenarios should also be considered".
One theory is that the 4 August 1944 raid that led to Anne's arrest could have been part of an investigation into illegal labour or falsified ration coupons at the canal-side house where she and other Jews hid for more than two years.
Image: The house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis
Anne kept a diary whilst in hiding and this was published after the war, turning her into a globally recognised symbol of Holocaust victims.
She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp aged 15, shortly before it was liberated by Allied forces.
The new research highlights two men who worked in the building on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht canal and dealt in illegal ration cards.
They were arrested earlier in 1944 and subsequently released, Dutch records show. The arrests were also mentioned in Anne's diary.
Image: A memorial to Anne Frank and sister Margot at the former Bergen-Belsen camp
Such arrests were reported to an investigation division based in The Hague and the report says: "During their day-to-day activities, investigators from this department often came across Jews in hiding by chance."
Another possibility is that the raid was part of an investigation into people being allowed to work to prevent them being called up as forced labour and sent to Germany.
"A company where people were working illegally and two sales representatives were arrested for dealing in ration coupons obviously ran the risk of attracting the attention of the authorities," the report said.
It says "the possibility of betrayal has of course not been entirely ruled out by this, nor has any relationship between the ration coupon fraud and the arrest been proven" and says more research is needed.
"Clearly, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said," the report adds.Legendary pro wrestler, Jake the Snake, in town for wild night of spoken word at Second City
By Post City Staff
Hall of Fame wrestler Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts
Professional wrestler Jake “the Snake” Roberts’ life took a terrible turn as his career spiralled out of control as a result of substance abuse. His dramatic unspooling and subsequent comeback was put to film in the moving documentary The Resurrection of Jake the Snake. Now, he wants to help others. He brings his hilarious and frank spoken word show to Second City on Sept. 11.
What can we expect from this show in Toronto next month?
Oh man, expect everything including the kitchen sink, man. A wild ride of road stories from hell and back. Andre [the Giant], Terry Funk, Rick Rude, Undertaker, voice impersonations. The list goes on and on and on. The good, the bad and the ugly. Stuff you’ve never heard before, I guarantee that.
It must have been so tough just going through your addiction, let alone having a camera in your face for the documentary.
That was tough, you know. It was very invasive. We were on-camera 24/7. The only place there wasn’t a camera was the bathroom, and I sometimes wondered about that too. It was what was needed.
What is it about that sport that messes with a guy so much?
Wrestling is the only sport, or business-slash-whatever, where the athlete has no control over what he is doing. You’ve got writers [who determine storylines for the wrestlers] that work for [WWE CEO] Vince McMahon, and sometimes they get to just feeling like not writing for a person anymore. The person could still be talented, healthy and producing, and it doesn’t matter. They get bored and cast him aside. You spend your whole life getting there, and for no other reason you get cast aside. You go home and what the hell are you going to do? You’ve spent your whole life getting ready for that moment and you’re not in control of it. You end up in depression and start medicating.
Are the people in charge are doing enough for you guys?
Well, I’d thank Vince McMahon for throwing the rope out there to me. I went through three rehabs, and he foot the bill on every one of them. If they were going to do something different, it should be more on the lines of retirement or some kind of compensation for the time spent. They make a lot of money, but very little goes back to the talent.
Maybe they should get a union?
That would be nice. I doubt it’d ever happen.
Who decided to give you a snake, or was that your idea?
No, McMahon supplied those. I don’t like snakes. I never have liked snakes. I’m terrified of the damn things. Sorry to burst your bubble.
So what have you learned about life from all of this? What’s the secret?
For me, it’s just undying hope and feeding that innermost person that’s so important, to take care of yourself inside. You’ve got to be able to feel good about you, and I think that’s what I learned more than anything. I hated myself for so many years, and that’s a very bad thing to do. You have to learn to love yourself.
Tell me one of your favourite memories from your glory days?
Just any time I was in the ring, man. Performing live is just an incredible feeling, controlling people’s emotions, take them on that ride. It’s an incredible feeling. I didn’t have problems in the ring.They wore the same outfits. But wait, where was their guild tag?
Something's not quite right here...
Certain areas, certain quest chains, certain dynamic events have turned into parades, led by an automated gold farmer.
Are you seeing this, ArenaNet?
It's affecting my experience, and I can only imagine what it's doing to the player-driven economy.
Botters are basically the same as racists and Nazis, right?
What kind of game allows a guild called Koon Slayers and the guild tag [KKK] to play unchecked?
That's disappointing -- and surprising, considering ArenaNet actually got some flak early on for being hyper-aggressive about passing out temporary bans for inappropriate names. I hope the banhammer comes back before evil-doers poison this fantasy realm. What do you think, GW2 players? Has ArenaNet fallen asleep at the switch?
Because I love Guild Wars 2, this is a column I don't want to write. But because I love Guild Wars 2, this is also a column I have to write. And it's long overdue. Because when Guild Wars 2 dies for me, it won't be because of dwindling activity, or a sometimes shaky ingame economy, or the resurgence of World of Warcraft. It won't be because of Borderlands 2, or because of the new content for Rift, or the awesome Diablo 3 patch. It won't be because my friends are busy playing the latest holiday releases. It won't even be because something happened that caused my framerate to drop precipitously while simultaneously taking longer to render characters in my line of sight. Guild Wars 2 and I have weathered these things.No, it will be because of all the Rangers running around with their bears. More precisely, it will be because developer ArenaNet isn't doing anything about it.If you play Guild Wars 2, you've probably seen identically clothed Rangers and their bear brigade. The first time I saw this, I thought it was some sort of guild thing. Lord of the Rings Online had hobbit-only guilds, for instance. I thought it was like that. The Rangers all had the same pets. They were the same race. They wore the same outfits. But wait, where was their guild tag? And why were they named things like Kfhfghgb, Jgfhftgf, and Lhvcnbvb? Who names their characters Kfhfghgb, Jgfhftgf, and Lhvcnbvb?These obviously aren't real Rangers. These are fake accounts. (Well, as fake as any account that requires a $60 retail purchase.) These are bot accounts, probably running with some sort of multibox setup, or a hack that tells them to follow a lead Ranger, or they might all be automated. They run a path around a circuit calculated to pass through regular monsters respawns, or maybe they're just parked in front of a recurring event. Their identical outfits aren't outfits at all, but a lack of outfits to minimize repair costs. They're farming gold to be sold online for real-world money. They're probably Chinese.It's unlikely any of the Rangers will fall, but if they do, actual players will often revive them. Sometimes because they don't know any better, or sometimes because, hey, you get experience points when you revive someone -- even a fake someone. In some cases, players will revive dead bots because they're riding the bots' coattails, following their path, participating in whatever circuit or event is being farmed. Certain areas, certain quest chains, certain dynamic events have turned into parades, led by whichever automated gold farmer has set up shop.These groups were kind of funny at first, in a "Oh, look how obvious the bots are," kind of way. It stopped being funny a week later. Yet another week later it was annoying. Now, two months after launch, it's an ugly blemish. It's like graffiti, or trash left lying in the streets.That it remains is a sign of ArenaNet's negligence. I don't use that word lightly. I don't presume to know what goes on behind the scenes of an MMO, or how hard it is to keep bots out of a game. But I do know when the developers need to do more to police their game. The situation in Guild Wars 2 has gone long past this point. It's affecting my experience, and I can only imagine what it's doing to the player-driven economy. It's a parade of bears and under-armored Rangers in honor of ArenaNet's indifference.I might normally be willing to give ArenaNet's team the benefit of the doubt that they're doing their best to address this issue. Unfortunately, I don't have much confidence in their customer support. Early on, I ran across a character named Goebels. I reported him. Maybe ArenaNet is okay with that. It's their call, and I'll probably never run into him again, but I'd like them to at least know about it. That character is still on the server.You might think Goebels is allowed because the actual Nazi spelled his name with two B's. You'd be wrong, because there's also a character named Goebbels on my server. You can type names into the guild-invite window to see whether it's a valid character name. It's how I know Kfhfghgb, Jgfhftgf, and Lhvcnbvb still have their accounts, which they've gotten to level 40 as I write this the day after reporting them.This lackadaisical approach to offensive names isn't an isolated issue. A few weeks after launch, some folks in my guild noticed a guild called Koon Slayers, with the guild tag KKK. We reported them. A month later, a thread about the same guild appeared on Reddit. The poster claimed he had reported them several times as long ago as August to no avail. An ArenaNet representative apologized for not taking action. They had missed the poster's reports, the representative said. What kind of game allows a guild called Koon Slayers and the guild tag [KKK] to play unchecked fordespite numerous players reporting it? Guild Wars 2, that's what kind of game.So what hope is there for ArenaNet taking action against blatant bots when it can't even be bothered to take action against blatant racism? We, the players, are doing our part as best as we can, ArenaNet. We're trying to help. There is no reason that characters like Kfhfghgb, Jgfhftgf, and Lhvcnbvb should ever see 40th level. Yet I've seen -- and reported -- plenty more that are higher level. This is inexcusable, and we shouldn't have to put up with it. It's time to be swift and decisive. You've made a grand, grand game and you're not protecting it. You're not protecting those of us who love it. Get your act together, ArenaNet.This 1979 Talking Heads tour, promoting the release of their Fear Of Music album, would be the last to feature the stripped down quartet lineup and the first to gain them significantly more exposure in America. They had established themselves in Europe, but outside of college radio or the New England and California regions, America was just catching on to what an intriguing and captivating live band they were. This performance at Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music was one of the wildest and most memorable performances on this breakthrough tour.
With the original B52’s opening this show, there was plenty of momentum before The Heads even hit the stage. This, combined with playing before an intelligent and relatively home turf audience, ignited an inspired performance.
The band’s sound was clearly evolving, containing more complex rhythmic structures and song arrangements. The new songs had increasingly funny, yet even more thought-provoking lyrics. The overt awkwardness that frontman David Byrne often displayed onstage was just beginning to be perceived as the uninhibited expression that it really was, with many now dancing to it. His unusual vocal affectations were engaging and the music was clearly beginning to resonate more deeply, particularly in a live context. The set opens with “Artists Only” from 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food, then “Stay Hungry” in a somewhat ominous style, with Jerry Harrison’s keyboards adding even creepier textures than the album version. “Cities,” a track from Fear Of Music follows. It’s a galloping romp through Byrne’s stream of consciousness thoughts about city life.
Other highlights of the set include a thoroughly engaging rendition of the non-album single side ”(My Love Goes To A) Building On Fire,” and an outstanding “Psycho Killer,” featuring Byrne firmly in the land of no self-consciousness and the entire group ripping into a wild jam with blazing guitars; think of the heavy psychedelic fuzz guitar jam in the middle of The Chambers Brothers “Time Has Come Today” and you wouldn’t be far off. The concert closes with an ecstatic audience demanding more, and an encore of the band’s unique take on Al Green’s “Take Me To The River.” Originally a gospel number, Talking Heads completely redefine the song and in the process make it their own.
Shortly after this tour, Talking Heads would begin overtly expanding their musical parameters. Their studio recordings would soon reach an unparalleled intensity (and density) on their next album. They would make truly inspired choices at augmenting the stage band, without diluting any of their originality. With the help of MTV and its heavy rotation of the music video for “Once In a Lifetime” the following year, the band’s music would reach a much broader audience.
This concert was recorded by Starfleet and broadcast live on its network of FM stations. Those recordings have been buried in an archive until recently purchased by Paste’s parent company Wolfgang’s Vault. Listen to all our Talking Heads audio here or purchase it for download here.
Set List
1. Artists Only
2. Stay Hungry
3. Cities
4. Paper
5. Mind
6. Heaven
7. Electric Guitar
8. Air
9. Warning Sign
10. (My Love Goes To A) Building On Fire
11. Memories Can’t Wait
12. Psycho Killer
13. Life During Wartime
14. Take Me To The River
Credits
David Byrne – lead vocals, guitar
Jerry Harrison – guitar, keyboards, vocals
Chris Franz – drums, vocals
Tina Weymouth – bass, vocalsPopZette Rosie O’Donnell Bullies Barron Trump Again Using the Kathy Griffin fiasco to re-enter the fray, this comedian has learned nothing from her past insults
It was December of last year that comedian Rosie O’Donnell found herself apologizing to first lady Melania Trump for cyberbullying Mrs. Trump’s young son, Barron.
O’Donnell had shared a video to her vast social network; the video claimed the young boy had autism. Through additional social media posts, the comedian used this strange conspiracy theory as a platform to attack Donald Trump as a liar.
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Related: Rosie Finally Apologizes to Melania
In other words, she used an innocent child as a pawn to attack a man she has long sparred with and disliked. Furthermore, she dissected a child’s mental health in public, though she has no medical background whatsoever. It was appalling, and she rightly apologized for it.
“i apologize to @MELANIATRUMP — i was insensitive in my RT — i am sorry for the pain i caused — it was not my intent — i am truly sorry,” wrote O’Donnell on Twitter.
O’Donnell had previously written on her official website, “Donald does not have the power to change the facts — to rewrite history so speak true — stand tall.”
[lz_ndn video=31808234]
Clearly she has learned nothing since then. Now the comedian is still using her strange obsession with Barron Trump to criticize the president.
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“TMZ reports: Barron Trump was watching TV & saw @kathygriffin holding the severed head. He thought it was his dad. My heart is broken,” television host Liz Wheeler wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
She was responding to a viral picture from the now-infamous Kathy Griffin photo shoot. In the image, Griffin is shown holding the fake severed, bloody head of the president. LifeZette will not show it here.
O’Donnell must have felt that too much time had passed since she’d been an insufferable bully on Twitter — so she wrote in response: “Was he watching TMZ? do u think he saw anything about these 2 heroic men who died defending young girls? hatred promoted by his father?#USA.”
[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/869977387236302849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsamj-3930%2F2017%2F05%2F31%2Fshame-rosie-odonnell-attacks-barron-trump-for-being-frightened-that-his-father-may-have-been-killed%2F]
The image posted by O’Donnell shows two victims of a recent Portland, Oregon, train stabbing; much of the press has mutated the stabbing into a political story. A drunk, mentally disturbed and racist man on the train was yelling about America and free speech when he pulled a knife and began attacking people. The action was condemned by the president himself, though some have said the man was a Trump supporter. Others have said the deranged man was a Bernie Sanders supporter.
Regardless, it was a terrible action and had nothing to do with anything except the man’s mental health.
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Related: Kathy Griffin May Have Incited Violence Against the President
And to answer O’Donnell’s question — no. Barron Trump likely didn’t see those stories because he is an 11-year old child. And what does one story have to do with the other? O’Donnell thinks a couple of murders in Portland are politically motivated and are the responsibility of the president — and suddenly, Barron Trump’s emotional reaction to seeing a likeness of his father’s severed head on TV is meaningless?
O’Donnell is a bully, plain and simple. She’s an opportunist who doesn’t care whom she hurts when she makes her strange political points. Those points include everything from the catastrophe of accusing Barron Trump of being autistic to suggesting martial law to keep Donald Trump from taking office back in January.
Barron Trump is a child — but Rosie O’Donnell is the one who needs to grow up.ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will not compromise with Washington over the extradition of the Islamic cleric it accuses of orchestrating a failed coup, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday, warning of rising anti-Americanism if the United States fails to extradite.
U.S. based cleric Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 29, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Mostoller
Yildirim’s comments, at a briefing for local reporters, were the latest to take aim at Turkey’s top NATO ally and coincided with a report that an Istanbul prosecutor wrote to U.S. authorities asking f/4or the detention of cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkey says Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania since 1999, masterminded the failed July 15 putsch when a group of rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow the government. Gulen has denied the charge and condemned the coup.
“There is no compromise apart from this chief terrorist coming to Turkey and being prosecuted,” Yildirim was quoted as saying by state-run Anadolu Agency.
“The only way to prevent the rising (negative) sentiment against America is for the U.S. to hand over this man and make sure Turkey’s justice system holds him accountable.”
Turkey’s foreign minister said this week documents had been sent to the United States and that Turkey had received “positive signals” about Gulen’s possible extradition. Turkey has not said clearly whether it has filed a formal extradition request.
The White House said on Saturday that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden would visit Turkey on Aug. 24, the first trip by a high-ranking U.S. official since the abortive coup.
Yildirim said a U.S. technical team would visit Turkey on Aug. 22 to discuss legal issues relating to the possible extradition, according to Anadolu. He said Secretary of State John Kerry is due in October, according to broadcaster CNN Turk.
Yildirim said he believed there would be a “positive outcome” with Washington on the extradition, Anadolu said.
U.S. officials have said that the United States has a formal process for dealing with extradition requests and that Turkey must provide solid evidence of Gulen’s involvement.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor wrote to U.S. authorities asking for Gulen’s detention, CNN Turk said. Turkey’s Justice Ministry passed on the letter - which contained 10 charges against Gulen including attempting to overthrow the government - to the United States, it added.
Gulen said on Friday he would hand himself over to Turkish authorities only if an independent international investigative body first found him guilty.
“If a tenth of the accusations against me are established, I pledge to return to Turkey and serve the heaviest sentence,” he said in an opinion piece in French daily Le Monde.
More 240 people were killed in the putsch, and Turkish authorities say they have detained more than 35,000 people and placed more than 17,000 of them under formal arrest.
Yildirim said that more than 76,000 officials have been suspended and nearly 5,000 dismissed since the coup, including 3,000 soldiers as well as judges and civil servants.
SECURITY CRACKDOWN ALARMS NATO, EU
There is concern among Turkey’s NATO allies as well as the European Union, which it aspires to join, that Erdogan - in power the prime minister or president since 2002 - might be using the purge to eliminate dissent.
Such perceptions have angered senior Turkish officials, who say that Western critics appear to be more concern about the security response than the coup itself.
Still, the scope of the security sweep now appears to be worrying even some in the ruling, Islamist-rooted AK Party.
“Even if the shock absorber of a car breaks down, they say someone with (the Gulenists) has done this,” Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes told CNN Turk.
“(Such an approach) would make this a witchhunt....and would weaken the gravity of what happened on July 15,” said Turkes, a former member of the nationalist opposition who switched to AK.
Erdogan’s critics say he and the AKP he founded allowed Gulen’s followers to rise to important posts within the state apparatus and relied on them to help curb the power of the military, which had ousted four governments since 1960 for posing what it saw as an Islamist threat to the secular order.
The troubled relationship between Gulen’s movement and Erdogan and the AKP he founded burst into the open with a corruption scandal in late December 2013 that fingered members of Erdogan’s inner circle. Erdogan cast the allegations as an maneuver orchestrated by Gulen’s followers to undermine him.
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Diyarbakir, Selahattin Demirtas, head of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition, said Erdogan had allowed Gulen’s followers to tighten their hold within state bodies.
“Gulenists have been organizing within various state institutions... within the last 35-40 years but they had their golden years by all means (after) AKP took the helm (in 2002),” Demirtas said in an interview.
“Until the last three years, staff positions within the state were presented to them openly with the support and encouragement of the AKP. These positions were given to them; and this wasn’t done covertly. They didn’t get these positions by tricking the AK Party. This was an obvious alliance.”Earlier today, we did a post on neocons inciting war with Iran that featured quotes from Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, formerly a branch of the Israel lobby group AIPAC. Well Clawson had better put a sock in it, and quick, because now he’s given away the neocons’ game plan. From Laura Rozen’s piece on the negotiations:
Patrick Clawson, deputy director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in an interview with Yahoo News Tuesday… said he didn’t think prospects for a deal look promising.
“I think it’s heading towards confrontation,” Clawson said. “The whole point from the beginning is if we put pressure on the regime, the Iranians will crack at some point.”
So far, at least, there’s little sign the strategy is yielding the desired result. The Iranians to date have responded to the prospect of the tightened financial sanctions on the country’s oil sector with an announcement of the launching of operations at the fortified, underground Fordo nuclear enrichment facility–together with sporadic threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. So why isn’t that a sign that the U.S. strategy is failing?
“It’s a lot better to have a fight” that Iran provokes, Clawson replied, before adding: “Better to enter World War II after Pearl Harbor, and World War I after the sinking of the Lusitania.”For the first time in 60 years, a gigantic mega-predatory dinosaur has been discovered in the United States. Beyond that, it is one of the top three largest carnivores ever found in North America. The announcement comes from Lindsay Zanno from North Carolina State University and was published this morning in Nature Communications.
Dr. Lindsay Zanno dubbed the dinosaur Siats meekerorum as tribute to a Native American legendary creature, the Siats (pronounced as See-otts). According to this legend, the Siats was a terrible man-eating creature. While Siats the dinosaur obviously did not eat man due to a nearly 100 million |
reality on Wednesday after the U.S. Senate energy and natural resources panel voted 13-10 to open part of the reserve coveted by conservationists.
FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind an oil drilling rig in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on March 17, 2011. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Republicans, who control Congress and the White House, have long wanted to prise open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the north coast known as the 1002 area.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and the head of the Senate energy committee, says drilling in the refuge is needed to provide jobs and boost the country’s resource base.
Ahead of the Wednesday vote, she said Alaska would ensure drilling is done “the right way.”
Her Democratic counterpart, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said the bill did not get a hearing and “changes current law of the Arctic Refuge to turn it into an oil field.”
Former U.S. Interior Department officials, who worked under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said drilling in the refuge was risky, and the energy boom in the continental United States makes the economic argument to explore in the refuge ring hollow.
“We don’t need to develop the Arctic Refuge – one of the costliest, and riskiest places to develop energy resources – to promote American energy security,” said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under Republican former President George W. Bush.
He and five former officials made the comment in a letter sent on Tuesday to members of Murkowski’s panel, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The region, protected since 1960 and renamed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in 1980 by former President Jimmy Carter, is home to wildlife populations including caribou, polar bears and millions of birds that migrate to six of the seven continents.
Getting 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to approve drilling in ANWR has been elusive for decades. But Republicans have attached Murkowski’s measure to budget legislation.
Once it passes her panel, it will be part of the wider legislation that only needs 50 votes to pass. That bill faces hurdles as many provisions are being attached to it, such as tax reform.
Murkowski’s measure would create an oil and gas drilling program on ANWR’s coastal plain and require at least two lease sales within 10 years.
Republicans had asked Murkowski to come up with a bill that would provide $1 billion in revenue to help pay for tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office said the lease sales would provide $1.1 billion.
But Democrats complained the assessment was too optimistic. Recent lease sales in Alaska have earned far less because of limited interest in drilling in harsh, frigid conditions when there is plenty of oil elsewhere.Putting on weight can be bad for your health: it may also cause you difficulties when trying to enter the United Kingdom.
That was the unfortunate experience of a Mr Derrick Agyeman, for whom weight gain led to an enforced stay in the Netherlands, and litigation that is still making its ponderous way through the UK courts some years later.
Agyeman, 37, lost the latest legal round in the case earlier this month, though the matter seems likely to drag on.
Details of exactly what happened are still a little hazy, and the fact that this story surfaced in the Australian press led us initially to wonder whether we weren’t victim to a new urban myth in the making.
However, the Home Office has since confirmed that this incident really did happen – and the Foreign Office has also acknowledged it, whilst refusing to provide further comment.
In August 2006, Agyeman, a British citizen who had been issued with a British passport by the High Commission in Ghana, was returning to the United Kingdom after a weekend away with friends. He is understood to have been buying a house and finding work in the UK.
He was arrested and detained by the authorities in Amsterdam on the basis that he did not resemble the person in his passport photograph. He had put on some 31kg in weight and according to ninemsn, "his fuller lips and ears did not match his passport photograph", which had been taken some nine years previously.
Agyeman’s woes were compounded when the British Consulate cancelled his passport and refused to issue a new one until appropriate documents were provided. He then languished a further three months in Amsterdam before he was finally able to return home to the UK.
He is alleged to have said: "I cry when I think about what happened with me."
Since returning to the UK, Agyeman has sought redress, bringing a case against the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who is responsible for the working of overseas representatives of the UK government.
His claim for judicial review was heard in the Administrative Court earlier this month, and was based on a claim that the British Consulate in the Netherlands had acted unlawfully in cancelling his passport and refusing to issue a replacement straight away. They had further breached his rights under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (respect for private and family life).
The Court dismissed this application, but that may not be the end of the matter. A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told us: "This was a complex case stretching over years, involving several agencies.
"There is no question of deliberate withholding or trying to delay the case which was in nobody's interests. The matter may still be the subject of litigation and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment further." ®THE molecule looked like a giant jellyfish. Or maybe a spider. Halfway through my organic chemistry final, the monster lay there on the page, mocking me. My task: explain how the ungainly molecule folds into a tidy package. The problem: I had no clue. Maybe if I looked at it sideways? No, that didn’t help. This was getting ugly.
Contemplating a midlife career change from science writer to doctor, I spent eight months last year at Harvard Extension School slogging through two semesters of organic chemistry, or orgo, the course widely known for weeding out pre-meds. At 42, I was an anomaly, older than most of my classmates (and both professors), out of college for two decades and with two small children. When I wasn’t hopelessly confused, I spent my time wondering what the class was actually about. Because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just about organic chemistry. For me, the overriding question was not “Is this on the test?” but rather “What are they really testing?”
Orgo has been haunting pre-meds since 1910, when the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching released a landmark report calling for tougher admission standards to medical school and for medical training based on science. Hence emerged science prerequisites that have remained virtually unchanged: two semesters each of biology, physics and general and organic chemistry.
The report was meant to professionalize medicine but led to generations of doctors more grounded in science than in the humanities. This is not necessarily bad, but lately a sense has emerged that the pendulum has swung too far. Medical schools are tweaking admission protocols, looking beyond an A in orgo for future doctors who are less Spock and more Kirk.THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol is in a class of substances called cannabinoids and is the main psychoactive substance in cannabis. THC has been found to have several therapeutic applications such as treatment of mild to moderate pain, appetite loss, insomnia, depression and nausea.
Recent pre-clinical trials conducted by the FDA have suggested that THC-rich inhaled cannabis significantly reduces the onset of neuropathy (nerve pain/degeneration of nerves) in patients who suffer from that condition. THC was also found to have potential benefits for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in studies recently conducted by International Association for Cannabinoid Medicine. The CB1 receptors in the brain that are stimulated by THC appear to play an important role in the ability to eliminate adverse memories, often at the core of PTSD.
CBD or Cannabidiol is another type of cannabinoid found in cannabis. Unlike THC, CBD is non-psychoactive and does not contribute to a feeling of “being high”. In fact, many patients report an alerting effect from CBD and thus care should be taken with consumption of high amounts of CBD near bedtime until you are familiar with your reaction.
CBD has also been found to have several therapeutic benefits. CBD has been found to provide relief from chronic pain due to muscle spasticity, muscle
convulsions and inflammation. This type of pain is often experienced by patients who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia and Epilepsy. In addition to pain relief CBD has been shown to assist with general feelings of anxiety as well as cannabis-induced anxiety.
Recent research at Temple University has suggested that in CBD may also be a strong preventative for the onset of chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, a side-effect of some of chemotherapy drugs.
From a general therapeutic perspective THC and CBD have important effects on one another when ingested together. When present along with THC, CBD prolongs the effects of THC-therapy by inhibiting the breakdown process of THC in our liver. If the THC breakdown is inhibited, its effects persist longer. When appreciable amounts of CBD (>4% CBD by weight for flowers) are ingested along with THC, the CBD may reduce the psychoactivity many patients would normally experience from the THC present. Exciting studies that are currently being conducted at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco are demonstrating that specific amounts of THC and CBD injected into breast and brain tumors can eliminate those tumors completely, in 30 days.
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As more and
more federal funding for cannabis research becomes available we hope should see
even more exciting therapeutic applications of THC and CBD both individually
and together.'#UPLIFT is my own creation,' visual artist Ferdinand Cacnio says in response to observations that he copied the work of Dutch artist Elisabet Stienstra
Published 1:20 AM, June 25, 2017
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Admiration for the so-called "Female Oblation" at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus turned into disgust for some after a netizen pointed out its striking similarities to the work of a Dutch artist in 2001.
Hours after images of visual artist Ferdinand Cacnio's "Uplift" circulated on social media, a netizen posted a photo of the sculpture alongside Elisabet Stienstra's "The Virgins of Apeldoorn".
Cacnio's work was supposed to be a larger version of a sculpture he first produced in 2008 for a UP exhibit; Stienstra's sculpture was put on public display in 2001.
Past midnight on Sunday, June 25, Cacnio broke his silence on the controversy and maintained in a Facebook post that he did not plagiarize nor was he inspired by the Dutch artist's work as suggested by some.
"Before today, I had never seen nor heard of Ms Stienstra or her work. Hindi ko siya kilala (I don't know her). We've never been to the Netherlands," he said.
"I was not inspired by her, I did not model my work after hers. I am not guilty of plagiarizing or copying her work, 'Virgins of Apeldoorn.' #UPLIFT is my own creation," Cacnio added.
Netizens also noted other similar works abroad, including work by Andrew Devries and Quentin Bell.
Cacnio and his classmates at UP, where he studied psychology and civil engineering, raised funds for the sculpture, their donation to their alma mater.
The sculpture is already on display but had yet to be formally unveiled. – Rappler.com- Advertisement -
Tomorrow, Rep. Conyers will hold a hearing entitled, "Executive Power and its Constitutional Limitations." This article is a reprint from March 2008. It illustrates Conyers' impeachment rhetoric since '06 and details the failed attempts at accountability by the Democratic majority of the Bush/Cheney crimes. Let them know our country deserves better.
Lawless. Imperial. Rogue.
These labels have been attached to the Bush administration for the last three Take Back America (TBA) conferences. The annual conference hosted by the
, does a bang up job each year highlighting the dark deeds of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. And, what better man for the job than House Judiciary Chair John Conyers. Turns out, the better man for the job may be the pre-House Judiciary Chair John Conyers.
TBA 2006: Challenging Lawlessness In June 2006, Congressman Conyers was on fire at the TBA session "Challenging a Lawless President." Still in the House minority, the great congressman from Michigan was hot on the trail of a lawless President Bush and his unbridled sidekick, Vice President Cheney. - Advertisement - Six months earlier, the congressman issued a report declaring, "We have found that there is substantial evidence the president, the vice-president and other high ranking members of the Bush administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their administration."
Just before the conference, Representative Nancy Pelosi fearful of emboldening the Republicans during a critical election season, declared impeachment to be "
." But when Representative Conyers approached the podium, he brought the TBA participants to their feet as he announced his next course of action. In brief, he introduced a resolution (
) that would create a select committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush administration with regard to the Iraq war and report on possible impeachable offenses.
Inspired and hopeful, progressives hit the streets to help the Democrats take back the House and restore order in the government. By August, Mr. Conyers had released the final version of the "
." He described the report as "some 350 pages in length and is supported by more than 1,400 footnotes, compiles the accumulated evidence that the Bush administration has thumbed its nose at our nation’s laws, and the Constitution itself. Approximately 26 laws and regulations may have been violated by this administration’s conduct." Certainly enough to begin impeachment hearings when one considers President Nixon’s were prompted by a simple burglary.
Mr. Conyers went on to say that "The administration also appears to have used the war on terror as an excuse to eviscerate the basic protections afforded to us in the Constitution. There have been warrantless wiretaps of law-abiding Americans, in clear contravention of federal law, not to mention the creation of a huge unchecked database on the phone records of innocent Americans." - Advertisement - He lamented that "All the while, the Republican Congress sits idly by. Rather than performing its constitutional duty as a coequal branch. It has chosen to stymie any and all efforts at oversight. After six long years of deception, attacks and yes, outright lies, I am convinced the American people have had enough." Indeed the American people had had enough and three months later they handed the Democrats both the House and the Senate. TBA 2007: Curbing Imperialism Fast forward to June 2007, when the Take Back America crowd descended once again on the Washington Hilton. This time Congressman Conyers was to discuss
"
." Senior staff member to John Conyers, Burt Wides, delivered a prepared speech while the congressman tended to business on the Hill.
"Since the last election we have begun to shrink Bush’s imperial presidency," Wides read. In what manner the "imperial presidency" was shrinking remained unclear. "President Bush has subverted the checks and balances that are the cornerstone of our freedoms. In most instances, the Republican Congress just went along with those abuses. The founding fathers must be spinning in their graves, not merely at Bush’s blatant erosion of their system, but also and perhaps more at Congress’ supine failure to protect the Constitution. Now that Democrats control Congress, we have a very clear and heavy responsibility to take back the Constitution." It wasn’t enough that the American people elected a Democratic majority that promised to rein in Bush and Cheney and hold them accountable. They were now charged with a new task. These efforts, according to Conyers, would only succeed with support of citizen groups committed to the Constitution. These groups had already been popping up across the country for years. Many were part of a broad coalition that makes up the organization AfterDowningStreet.org.
- Advertisement -
AfterDowningStreet, led by activist
, sprang to life in May 2005 to pressure both Congress and the media to investigate whether President Bush had committed impeachable offenses. The coalition borrowed its name from the incriminating
that emerged in May and June of 2005.Laugh all you want, but the stupendously silly, alien-riddled Battleship blockbuster isn't close to sinking toy- and game-based films anytime soon. Blowtastic auteur Michael Bay's repeatedly juggled Ouija film is officially back on the board, and films based on Candy Land, Stretch Armstrong and other childhood diversions are following close behind. With that in mind (and Battleship opening Friday in the United States), we've assembled our own high-concept arsenal of toy- and game-based movies, in hopes of getting that lucrative Hollywood call. (Hey, it happened to this guy!) Scan our similarly ludicrous electives in the gallery above, then let us know in the comments section below if you've got some game-based popcorn of your own to dish out. Bonus points go to anyone who can find the original commercial for I Took a Lickin' From a Chicken. Above: Movie Idea: Twister Tagline: You can't resist the twist. Elevator pitch: Extreme weather events get interactive in this sequel to the 1996 disaster film of the same name. When a clumsy but hunky California scientist (played by Taylor Kitsch) finally gets close to consummating his cross-continental love interest with an icy-but-vulnerable D.C. politico (Scarlett Johansson), the audience steps in to disrupt their anticipated union. Engaging bleeding-edge 4-D technology, moviegoers place their hands and feet on holographic circles that scatter an array of death-bringing tornadoes -- and the film's frustrated lovers -- across America. Proprietary algorithms crunch the collective audience reaction into a stream of plot holes that painfully twist the thriller like the original game contorted bodies (and also computes whether Kitsch and Johansson grind at the climax). Games of Twister should fly off the shelves after the lights come up.
Movie Idea: Connect Four Tagline: Fear, diagonally. Elevator pitch: Milton Bradley's abstract strategy game transforms into an apocalyptic race against time in this sci-fi blockbuster, starring Ryan Gosling and Rihanna as technocratic dictators (and ex-lovers) locked in a perpetual war of mutually assured destruction and reconstruction on the planet Ouroboros. After erecting, then annihilating, exquisite tech-noir skyscrapers and impossibly high vertical farms using strategically placed death discs, it is left to a brilliant but raunchy elderly mathematician (Betty White) to unite the ex-lovers with a perfect-play strategy inspired by James D. Allen and Victor Allis, who solved the game on Earth in the late '80s. Catchphrases from the game's TV commercial -- "Here, diagonally" and "Pretty sneaky, sis" -- are incorporated into the film's final moments, when the formerly self-centered Gosling asks the formerly obstinate Rihanna how she would like to be kissed.
Movie Idea: Risk Tagline: This time, we'll (probably) win. Elevator pitch: Neoconservative politicians and disaster capitalists spread democracy with drones in the sky and on the ground in this global war blockbuster, directed by Michael Bay. After a suspiciously originating terrorist attack annihilates every mall in America (also, the Federal Reserve), an aging crew of Beltway lifers, led by a cleverly cast Ted Nugent, gather the nation's dishonorably downsized armed forces and take the fight to the evil empires of China, Afghanistan, Russia and everywhere else on the map that isn't the United States in the classic Risk commercial above. Their mission is met with hardy resistance from socialists, communists, vegetarians, atheists and cat lovers based in Iceland and Greece, throwing the fate of civilization into question. Think Space Cowboys and World War Z, and you're there. There not being, of course, the actual Risk-based blockbuster Sony has had in development since 2009, or the viral YouTube hit in which a frustrated Hitler loses his shit.
Movie Idea: Stratego Tagline: Capture the conflagration! Elevator pitch: What happens when cyberscary hackers and al-Qaida arsonists team up to literally burn down Western civilization? Kiefer Sutherland and Justin Bieber get mad with game theory, right? (Really, seriously.) Robert Downey Jr. stars as a holographically resuscitated Osama bin Laden leading terrorist hordes that mercilessly intensify the American South's worsening droughts with strategically arranged death mirrors, and then blame climate change for it. But will a love triangle with Natalie Portman, which could itself be disinformation, complicate Sutherland and Bieber's quest to quench the fires? It's uncertain, but what's certain is that we're almost sure this film could be better in some measure than Robot Chicken's Stratego spoof.
Movie Idea: Green Machine Tagline: It's better than Green Lantern and Green Hornet combined. Elevator pitch: Destabilizing climate change and obsolete car culture collide in the streets and on the screen in this explosive race thriller, very loosely based on a true story. After a bumbling inventor (Taylor Lautner) creates Earth's first zero-emission perpetual motion machine -- ingeniously housed inside a fully loaded upgrade of his favorite toy bike from his distressed youth -- he takes to the overcrowded, gridlocked streets to win the favor of his hometown's utterly adorable environmental activist (Zooey Deschanel). But can he survive slews of death races, competing with Hummer limousines and other gas hogs as they speed across the warming planet's distressed territories, in time to create a fleet of spinoff jetpacks, hovercars and antigravity sneakers necessary for civilization to survive? Welcome to the machine.
Movie Idea: Hungry Hungry Hippos Tagline: Eat it, evil! Elevator pitch: In a film brought to you from the minds behind the Madagascar franchise, Jada Pinkett reprises her role as Gloria the hippopotamus in this animated romp about mass extinction. When a sinister alien invasion deposits mysteriously addictive white balls across African rivers and mangrove swamps, it's left to Gloria to soldier forth to stop her fellow hippos from hungrily scarfing down the orbs and turning into hyperconsuming zombies. Can she reconcile with her old flame (Will Smith) in time to stop the cannibal contagion from spreading to the rest of Africa, and the world? Only with the help of an unorthodox matchmaker from the Pentagon (Tom Cruise), who abandons his initial mission to weaponize the extreme ends of the visual spectrum. (Note to Marketing: A candy tie-in with Hershey's Milk Duds makes sense, provided they can be dyed white for the occasion.)
Movie Idea: Nerf Tagline: The foam hits the fan. Elevator pitch: What happens when Lord of the Flies meets Home Alone and Bugsy Malone? Nerf happens, that's what. When a mysterious disturbance in the space-time continuum makes all Earth's parents disappear (along with their myriad tools of destruction), it is left to warring child tribes to sort out sovereignty and power with their much-less-lethal weaponry, which includes the mythic Nerf Crotch Bat. The subsequently massive Nerf turf wars turn dangerous when the last adult on Earth (Neil Patrick Harris), left suspiciously behind, turns up to terrorize the kids with Tasers. Can the baby-faced insurrection rally around Hasbro's slogan ("It's Nerf or nothin!") to survive a still boyishly handsome madman married to electrocution? And what to make of the silently orbiting mothership, piloted by Peter Dinklage and Samuel L. Jackson, mysteriously watching it all from above?
Movie Idea: Ball Buster Tagline: Grow a pair, [insert release date here]! Elevator pitch: Adorably smart geek goddess Felicia Day, in her most challenging role yet, stars in this gripping horror as an unlucky-in-love professional matchmaker who's transformed into a brutal avenger after catching her derivatives-trading love interest (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in bed with another woman. After ripping off his testicles with her bare hands, she's shocked to find copycat mutilations proliferating across the globe, carried out by perpetrators wearing Guy Fawkes-like masks with her face on them. Extremely, like tenuously, based on that story about that lady who reportedly did that thing to that guy's real-life balls, Ball Buster is a violent thriller for fans of both Fatal Attraction and V for Vendetta. (Note to Legal: Make sure to file an injunction forbidding UNKLE from any further use of Ball Buster's commercial for Psyence Fiction interlude, "Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management.")
Movie Idea: Pong Tagline: Reaction time is a factor! Elevator pitch: Atari's' timeless classic that created the videogame industry finally gets its blockbuster. But this time with more balls -- of death! When a smug, self-satisfied space-fleet admiral (that guy who plays Don Draper) is cuckolded by an unscrupulous interstellar pirate (Jane Lynch), bitter rivalries in the galaxy Pong explode into brutal warfare. Like the proposed film based on flexibility-testing game Twister, this blowout features bleeding-edge 4-D holographic technology, allowing the audience to participate in the carnage by firing and repelling glowing white balls of death at (supposedly) innocent metropoles throughout the galaxy. Pong ends when only the outer-body settlements are left standing, paving the way for Atari's sequel, Asteroids.by
Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) has no time for single payer.
But Senator Lindsey Graham says yes to single payer for sick people.
That’s what came out of a meeting with Senator Manchin with single payer activists earlier this month in Charleston, West Virginia.
Also present during the meeting, via Skype, was University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Gerald Friedman.
According to notes taken during the meeting by a participant, Manchin dismissed single payer in the the Senate, saying “my interest is in finding a workable pathway.”
“Republicans are not going to back off of a private sector market,” Manchin said. “Mitch McConnell is determined to vote to repeal. But he wants to get rid of taxes to pay for what we want to do. To do that they’ve got to cut services. They’re not trying to look for efficiencies or work with preventative care.”
“A few of us — Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and others — are looking for a better way. Lindsey Graham says — let’s put everyone with a pre-existing condition on Medicare.”
“That’s a big leap forward,” Manchin said. “But I told him — we have to change the tax structure. We can’t accumulate more debt.”
“There is not another Republican who supports what Lindsey has said,” Manchin said. “But people are listening. It gives us an opening we didn’t have before. I told Chuck Schumer to act like he doesn’t like it and wait and see what happens.”
Reached by telephone, Friedman said Graham’s proposal could easily drift into single payer.
“If Senator Graham is talking about anybody with pre-existing conditions, that would be up to 75 percent of the population,” Friedman said. “Most people have a pre-existing condition — high blood pressure, depression, stress.”
“Medicare would be taking all the sick people, except for the first time they get sick,” Friedman said. “It would be 75 percent of medical costs in the United States. It would easily drift into single payer.”
“You are healthy, you are on private insurance. You get sick. Private health insurance covers your first trip to the doctor. Then at that point, you have a pre-existing condition. They you get shifted into Medicare.”
Friedman said there have been proposals over the years to cover one disease at a time.
“One organ is currently covered by Medicare — that’s the kidney,” Friedman said. “Kidney disease is covered by Medicare now, regardless of age. If you need dialysis, you are covered by Medicare.”
Friedman says he doubts if Graham’s proposal will get much support.
“If the Republicans want to repeal and replace, they should just adopt single payer,” Friedman said. “It’s more efficient than Obamacare, it’s cheaper than Obamacare.”
But isn’t Graham’s proposal just a bailout of the private health insurance industry?
“Yes, but it will erode their business very quickly,” Friedman said. “In the short run, it’s great for private health insurance. It gets rid of everybody at risk. It lower rates dramatically. You only have healthy people left in their pool. But these companies make money off of sick people too.”
Friedman said that Bernie Sanders will introduce his single payer bill within the next couple of weeks. Friedman said that he has heard that there as many as nine Senators who will co-sponsor the Sanders single payer bill.This is my take on the retro-futurist lettering used in the "Liberty Island Security Station" for the Manhattan Island Maximum Security Penitentiary in the film "Escape From New York."
It's not used in the credits or advertising for the film, but in the "Liberty Island" sets themselves. I strongly suspect that it was never an actual "font," just some stencils, cut out and used as needed. A great deal of searching has turned up no more info.
I replicated the letters I could by looking at screenshots of the movie, and designed the rest myself to impart the same goofily future-cool vibe.
Put on your camo stretch pants and eyepatch, brew up a cup of Chock Full O' Nuts, and look forward to the future police state of 1997 from the safety of 1981!
EDIT: added a photo of my first project: a sign for Splatspace's new "Fabrication Annex" (the room down the hall where we keep all the big noisy tools.)
splatspace.orgItaly's top appeals court has annulled a five-year jail sentence against a 60-year-old man found in bed with a girl of 11 on the grounds it's a "romantic relationship", it's reported.
The case happened in the southern Italian town of Catanzaro, reports Italian news website TGCom24. The girl is said to be from a disadvantaged background and was in the care of the man, who works in the town's social services department. Police discovered the pair in bed during a raid on his seaside villa. He was given a five-year sentence for sexual violence against a minor. The age of consent is 14. It rises to 16 where one of the partners is in a position of authority or care over the younger party.
But the court has quashed the original sentence due to extenuating circumstances - the girl has reportedly professed to be in love with the defendant, and the court has found the pair have a "romantic relationship". The case has been sent back to the Catanzaro court for a retrial. Court cases in Italy are normally subject to several levels of appeal before a sentence is confirmed.
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.As much as we all like to complain about hipsters (including so-called hipsters), hip trends tend to insinuate themselves in every context. Academia, for example, whose participants imagine themselves beyond the common hipster culture of clothing fashion, is not immune to this problem. Theory tends to develop in cycles of hipness, and one can chart the development of various journals and institutions––what is being published, what projects are considered worthy, who is getting a job––based on what isat a given time and place.Having been a part of academia for a decent amount of time, I've had the opportunity to observe and sometimes dabble in a variety of chic theoretical fashion currents. And though my general concerns are mostly such that I have doomed myself to being "left behind" by the tides of fashion, there are a few moments where my concerns have happened, luckily or unluckily, to overlap with what happens to be in fashion, or a few years out of fashion, to at least perceive these cycles of theoretical hipness.When I was doing my undergraduate degree Baudrillard, for some reason, was fashionable––maybe a little bit of Debord if you were feeling slightly "transgressive" and wanted to give academia the finger without really giving it the finger. Then there was Deleuze and Guattari, intersected with some Hart and Negri––right whenwas all the rage. Another trajectory of Butler and Spivak was strong enough to get some papers published and some careers solidified, if you acted quickly. There was also that dead-end of Carl Schmitt that I never understood (I really didn't see how the insights of a fascist were useful) but that some people are still pursuing. Following this there was Agamben, still a viable pursuit if you're running in the right circles. Yet another direction: Nancy, who is still blossoming as a theoretical fad if you have the stomach for that kind of thing. And then there is Zizek, Badiou (who I do happen to follow because he most directly concerns my discipline), Ranciere…Theory as fashion, academic work following hip trends, is unavoidable in academia. Suddenly one day everyone who wants to be everyone is reading the same work, or at least referencing the same theorist, just like whatever is the normative fashionable look these days. Ten years ago everyone who was everybody was carrying a copy of; today they are carrying around something by Zizek or Badiou (but usually not, when it comes to the latter,orwhich aren't really all that much fun); tomorrow it will be something by someone else––the shelf life on what is hip is only a few years.I can't really complain about this because I am part of this very problem, and the desire to be part of what isis, unfortunately, quite unavoidable. After all, the abstract hipster is defined as hipster by avoiding, critiquing, and trying to outrun the very problem of hipness that s/he rails against: "you thinkhip, well I'm avoiding your hipster real altogether by doing something so beyond cool it is the essence of the new cool!" Academic theory is no exception, and we all want to be fashionable because we all want our work to matter and the only way we can understand itsis in terms of what is currently fashionable.This is why I have always found every joke about, no matter what the context, somewhat suspicious. If someone complains about hipsters, and disparages what these hipsters are doing (whether it be in the realm of banal fashion or the realm of academic fashion), then I cannot help but feel that what they really want is for themselves to be accepted as the true measure of coolness. Indeed, every critique of hipsters, which is a rather vague category of being if it is even a category at all, emerges from the very context that is being critiqued. Only hipsters complain about hipsters because who the hell else cares about what or what is not fashionable enough to waste time complaining about it? Television shows such asare a perfect example of the hipster disgust of hipsterism. And in the context of academia we have the graduate student who complains about everyone studying Badiou because s/he is certain that only s/he can understand Badiou because s/he was reading it "before it was cool" and thus has a truer grasp on the material.So rather than try and avoid the problem of hipness, why not try to make a radical politics that spills beyond the theory that is currently hip fashionable again? Why not make revolution hip? Why not make communism hip? Why not makehip? That is, rather than complaining about how nobody in academia is following revolutionary movements in the world because they are two misguided by their pet theoretical concerns––rather than complaining about how the popular fashionistas don't give a shit about class revolution––why not try and make these things take on the veneer of a hip coolness that will only become "uncool" when the petty-bourgeois as a class realize that they are being sent down to the countryside and it is too late to embrace another fashion trend? Maybe I'm being tongue-and-cheek, suggesting something similar to what I once wrote about branding communism, but it is worth considering.To be honest, I'm getting tired of people complaining about hipsters and academics complaining about hip theoretical trends when these things seem to be unavoidable. You cannot escape this kind of popularization because you are not an isolated individual unaffected by what is or what is not popular. And since the ruling ideas of the ruling class produce, in every historical context, popular values, one way to fight this is to struggle to make a counter-politics also popular I mean, do we really want communism to remain at the margins of popular culture, to be forever branded as unhip (although thanks to the work of some "hip" theorists there is some reversal to this trend), and ourselves as unique (but secretly and "truly" hip) militants to a cause that will always remain alternative and underground? It's not hard to get the feeling that some marxists want communism to retain its unhip hipness, so that they can be the true and unrecognized "cool" struggling against the mainstream and thus feel superior to everyone else. This is a pretty uncommunist way of being communist: we should be struggling to make it hip so that people want to rally to its banner; we should be struggling to popularize its hipness so that it eventually becomes mainstream.To be fair, the problem of hipness is a problem that only emanates from a certain sector of first world society thanks to the imperialist-derived "culture industry". But those of us who are communists at the centres of capitalism, because we cannot escape the vicissitudes of the culture industry, should find a way to make some of its aspects work in our favour rather than just opting-out and pretending that we can avoid this problematic. If we want to produce a counter-hegemony than we have to struggle to make communism hip, but in a decidedly non-ironic way, so that it is no longer seen as some throwback to cold war politics. And if we want to avoid the perceived problems of culture industry hipness, we also have to make a revolutionary communism seem cool rather than an anything goes movementist communism that lacks the means to actually build communism.I mean, back during the cold war, anti-communist reactionaries at the centres of imperialism were terrified by the possibility that communism would be perceived as more cool than capitalism, that everything that defied conservative fashion was a secret communist plot. Maybe we need to give them this plot again so that they are terrified that the communist monster is |
a professor of law, and later held several government positions. Tsai first contested a local election in 2010. In the 2012 presidential election, she ran an unsuccessful bid against the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT.
Opposition candidate Tsai (center) ran an unsuccessful bid against President Ma Ying-jeou in 2012
The ruling party candidate, Hung, on the other hand, comes from a relatively poor family. Her father was imprisoned for about three-and-a-half years during "White Terror" - the period of political repression in Taiwan beginning in the 1940s by the KMT government.
Even after his release, her father could not find work for the next 40 years. The family had to survive on her mother's meager income. For a while, Hung worked as a secondary school teacher before she became a member of parliament in 1990.
'Intellect vs temper"
The two candidates also have very different characters. Tsai, for instance, often comes across as a typical civil servant or academic and she is polite and taciturn.
Given her similarities with the incumbent president, Yen Chen-shen, a political-science professor at Taiwan's National Chengchi University, even referred to her jokingly as a "female Ma Ying-jeou." The reason for this is that both politicians stem from well-off families and have similar professional and academic backgrounds. The also resemble in the way the conduct themselves.
Hung, by contrast, always seems to say what's on her mind. She is sometimes so straightforward you may forget she is a politician. She has even been involved in feisty verbal exchanges in the Taiwanese parliament, which is renowned for its brawls.
'For' or 'against' China?
I-Chung Lai, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at "Taiwan Thinktank," explained that a candidate's gender has never been an issue in electoral campaigns. Much more important is his or her stance on China, which still doesn't exclude military intervention should Taiwan officially declare independence. Those candidates who have promised peace in stability in their policies towards the mainland have so far managed to get the most votes.
While Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has generally advocated a "de jure" independence of the island, Tsai has repeatedly stated that she would like the territory to remain "de facto" independent - a position supported by up to 80 percent of Taiwanese, according to opinion polls.
Tsai changed her China policy in 2012 after failing to convince voters of the disadvantages of the China-friendly course being followed by President Ma.
By contrast, Hung Hsiu-chu almost squandered her party's advantageous position on the China issue. Ahead of her official nomination as presidential candidate, she made some remarks which some interpreted as support for a reunification with the mainland. Although Hung denied the allegations, they dented her party's image. Party chief Eric Chu ultimately demanded that Hung re-embrace the KMT's China policy.
Differing economic views
It is important to note in this regard that both candidates' economic programs are also linked to the China issue, although in opposite ways. While KMT candidate Hung wants Taiwan to deepen ties with the mainland, DDP candidate Tsai is seeking to boost trade with other countries in order to lessen the island's economic dependency on China.
Recent polls put Tsai Ing-wen far ahead of her electoral rival, and both Professor Yen and analyst Lai believe Tsai will ultimately win the vote. Some 18 million Taiwanese are eligible to vote in the January 16 election.Barely a couple of days after Malini Parthasarathy, the former Editor of left-leaning newspaper The Hindu expressed her opinion that NDTV was trying to ‘hide behind the shield of press freedom’ in wake of charges of financial wrongdoings against its promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, she has discovered that Prannoy Roy has blocked her on Twitter.
Just for the record…a screenshot. In case it’s denied tomorrow?! pic.twitter.com/ZvFKgxwRLh — Malini Parthasarathy (@MaliniP) June 10, 2017
Blocking is an action on Twitter where you let a user know that you have no time or respect for his or her views, and your life is better without the user around. The other option is to ‘mute’ a Twitter user, which has somewhat similar effects, but blocking makes sure that the blocked user is not able to read your tweets and thus offer counter commentary to your views.
Malini Parthasarathy, who is also a Director in the company that publishes The Hindu, discovered that she was not welcome in Prannoy’s party a day after the NDTV founder had got together a group of ‘eminent’ people and journalists in Delhi to support NDTV and call for ‘unity’ among the journalists.
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With Prannoy deciding to let Malini know in clear terms that her dissenting views were not agreeable to him, Malini also decided to let the world know that Prannoy’s call for unity and solidarity among the journalistic community had no credibility.
“If we as a journalistic fraternity, take umbrage at dissent within our group, what credibility is there for calls for solidarity?” Malini quipped with obvious reference to NDTV’s attempt of drumming up support by parading ‘eminent’ people and journalists.
She reiterated that NDTV crying ‘press freedom’ and ‘attack on democracy’ was not justified, and such attempts of blocking probe into news channel promoters’ financial dealings will actually lower the credibility of the press and journalists.
We need to be careful in sounding alarms on press freedom when we do else our credibility as a force for the public good will be diminished — Malini Parthasarathy (@MaliniP) June 10, 2017
It is not for the first time when NDTV has ‘blocked’ journalists for daring to express opinions contrary to their own beliefs and positions. Former Editor of Outlook magazine Vinod Mehta had claimed that he was ‘banned’ from appearing on NDTV because his magazine carried the Radia tapes.
“Previously, I used to appear at least twice a week on NDTV. But since the Radia tapes story, I have never been invited. And frankly, I don’t miss it,” Mehta had revealed a few months before he passed away in March 2015.
Radia tapes not only contained conversation with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and the then NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt, but one of the tapes also had Radia telling another journalist that “we need to support Prannoy”.
Records suggest that within two weeks of this conversation that is supposed to have taken place in July 2009, NDTV received 350 crore rupees from a company that was owned by Reliance Industries Limited.
Interestingly, Prannoy Roy had decided to leave Twitter after Radia tapes came into public knowledge in November 2010. He tweeted more than 3 years later, and now he is so active on Twitter that he has blocked Malini Parthasarathy.
Apart from Vinod Mehta, Aditya Raj Kaul, currently a journalist with television news channel Republic TV, too had claimed that his views were ‘blocked’ by NDTV. Aditya holds anti-separatist views on Kashmir issue had been an activist in the ‘Justice for Priyadarshini Mattoo’ campaign before he became a full-time journalist.
“I was muted for the views on Kashmir which didn’t match the separatist-tilt of the editor,” Aditya had written in 2015, further adding a line that sums up the situation prevalent currently – “Irony just dies a little when those who ban important voices in a debate, narrative or any discourse, suddenly protest demanding ‘freedom of expression’.”
Share This Post and Support:The Life of Percy Lavon Julian '20
February 19, 2009
Born in 1899 in Montgomery, Ala., Percy Lavon Julian was raised by parents who deeply valued education. His mother, Elizabeth, a schoolteacher, and his father, James, first met at the Lincoln Normal School ( now Alabama State University), one of the few places in the state where a black person could continue school beyond the eighth grade. Upon James' graduation, his teacher, Joan Stuart, a native of Danville, Ind., offered him a chance to attend DePauw. With a young family to support, James turned Stuart down, instead going to work on the railroad for the U.S. Postal System. But opportunity would knock twice for the Julian family. Years later, when Percy graduated from the same school his parents attended, Stuart, still teaching, again extended the DePauw offer. This time, under different circumstances, a young black man could choose a new path.
As his train left Montgomery for DePauw, Percy Julian watched his family standing on the station's platform. His grandfather, a former slave freed by the Thirteenth Amendment, waved a hand missing two fingers, cut off as punishment for learning to write. It was a painful reminder of the past for Julian, and an image that would inspire him in the years ahead. Hungry and nervous when he stepped off the train in Greencastle, Julian was met by the outstretched hand of Kenneth C. Hogate '18, who would later serve as editor of The Wall Street Journal. It was the first white hand that Julian ever shook. Son of the local newspaper editor who, at Joan Stuart's insistence, had pulled strings to get Julian admitted to DePauw, Hogate helped Julian settle on campus.
The University soon found that Julian's education in Alabama had inadequately prepared him for college. In addition to his regular college courses, he took classes at the Indiana Asbury Preparatory Academy run by DePauw, and worked in a fraternity house to pay his expenses. Despite significant academic, financial and cultural challenges, Julian excelled in chemistry. His success after his freshman year prompted his family to relocate to Greencastle so his five siblings - who would all later attend DePauw - could have similar opportunities.
Though diversity was not new to DePauw, which had admitted international and African-American students in the 1880s, not everyone in the college community was welcoming. Leslie R. James, associate professor of Religious Studies and director of the Black Studies Program, says that Julian's success made him especially hard for the University, struggling with the racial inequities of the time, to ignore. "There is a sense in which Julian, as a student and later as a professional, kept posing DePauw with the challenge to be racially inclusive. He was the classic case of someone from the margins who kept challenging the center to reinvent itself through the door of racial inclusiveness. His subsequent success and achievements, which could not be denied, were there for all to see, including the University that had helped to produce him in a significant way."
In 1920 Julian graduated first in his class and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Even with his outstanding academic record, however, Julian was denied an assistantship, fellowship or admission to graduate school. Instead, he found a position as instructor in chemistry at Fisk University. After two years at Fisk, he won an Austin Fellowship to Harvard University and earned a master's degree in 1923. Again, despite his strong academic and research record, no job offer was forthcoming, other than from black institutions. Julian taught at West Virginia State College and Howard University, where he was appointed head of the chemistry department.
In 1929, after the disappointment of being unable to pursue doctoral studies in the United States, Julian received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to study with the distinguished chemist Ernst Späth at the University of Vienna. He earned a doctorate in 1931 and returned to Howard University for two additional years.
In 1933 Julian accepted an appointment at DePauw as a research fellow at Minshall Laboratory, where he directed research projects for senior chemistry majors. He welcomed the chance to return to Greencastle and his alma mater, where two siblings were completing their educations. The senior research project launched in 1933 by Julian and his colleague, Joseph Pikl, produced 11 articles published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society during a three-year span. Many of the students Julian mentored went on to earn doctoral degrees and work with him in industry.
In addition to their work supporting students, Julian and Pikl completed research at DePauw that resulted in the total synthesis of physostigmine, a drug treatment for glaucoma, from the calabar bean. They were competing with Sir Robert Robinson of Oxford University, one of England's foremost chemists. Publication of this work established Julian's reputation as a world-renowned chemist at the age of 36.
Frustrated by his inability to secure a teaching position at DePauw - he was told that "the time wasn't right" - Julian turned to industry.
"It was as if DePauw had become the center of Percy Julian's world," says James, "a fact that the University at that time found hard to accept. So often, as Dr. Julian, the hero, pursued his epic journey, he was able to return to the University for renewal before he set off on the next leg of his journey. I don't think he necessarily needed to. However, the fact is that his ‘home' of DePauw found it difficult to receive him permanently, and he had to keep moving on. What is marvelous about it all is that Julian, in the midst of his struggles, kept good faith with himself, and with those who supported him. Consequently, opposition did not destroy him. On the contrary, it led him to outstanding success. He is one of the most outstanding, classic examples of what it means to say that ‘uncommon success begins at DePauw.'"
DuPont offered a job to Pikl, but declined to hire Julian, to whom they explained that, although initially interested, they had been "unaware he was a Negro." In 1935 he was offered a position at the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wis., but was dissuaded by a local statute that "No Negro should be bed or boarded overnight in Appleton."
In 1936 a vice president of the Glidden Company, who also served on the board of the Institute of Paper Chemistry, hired Julian as assistant director of research of the paint and varnish manufacturer's Soya Products Division, where he quickly became director. During 18 years with Glidden, he built a great research facility.
Julian's research produced many patents and successful products for Glidden. He developed a commercial process for isolating and preparing soya bean protein, which could be used to coat and size paper, to create cold water paints and to size textiles. During World War II, the fire-extinguishing Aero-Foam - the U.S. Navy's "bean soup" - was Julian's brainchild. This soy protein foam was used to smother oil and gasoline fires that erupted on aircraft carriers, before the flames could engulf the ships. Julian's invention, a hydrolyzate of isolated soy protein, potentially saved the lives of thousands of American sailors.
Julian went on to synthesize the female and male hormones, progesterone and testosterone, by extracting sterols from soybean oil. His biomedical research made it possible to synthetically produce large quantities of cortisone for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. His synthesis of cortisone reduced the price from hundreds of dollars per drop for natural cortisone to a few cents per gram.
In 1953 Julian left Glidden and founded Julian Laboratories, which he sold for more than $2 million in 1961. He later established the nonprofit Julian Research Institute, where he worked until his death from liver cancer in 1975.
Perhaps based upon his personal experience, Julian was widely recognized as a human rights advocate. His many honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 and 19 honorary doctorates. He was the first recipient of DePauw's McNaughton Medal for Public Service. In 1990 he was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 1993 the U.S. Postal Service issued the Julian stamp in the Black Heritage Commemorative Stamp series. In 1999 the city of Greencastle renamed First Street to Percy Julian Drive.
"It must be considered that Dr. Julian is probably DePauw's most famous scientist," says James, "and one whose life is very much at the core of what DePauw seeks to be: a mirror of national and global community. Continuous reflection on his life will help DePauw renew its mission and purpose. At the same time, it will help to inspire many young persons, irrespective of ethnicity and gender, to pursue a career in science, and a life of service to humankind."
BackFor those drawn to the guitar of The Smith's Johnny Marr and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, and the astute observations of Jarvis Cocker, Arizona four-piece Draa could be your kind of band.
The Tempe band's upcoming 7" single "Even in My Dreams (All My Life)", to be released on Funeral Party Records, has those sad, catchy hooks and jangly guitars that make driving around alone late at night seem that bit more dramatic. Youthful but uncertain and confused, the song takes a more shoegaze approach to the subject of a quarter life crisis, as MacAndrew Martin's voice warbles under spacey effects.
The pre-order that is available now comes with a limited cassette of a Part Time Punks Session that was recorded in July.
The Draa 7" is available now for pre-order via Funeral Party Records.At the end of Jaws 2, Chief Brody once again defeats a Great White Shark off the coast of Amity Island. While the film was a success - even making only 45% of what Jaws made, it was at the time the highest grossing sequel ever - it strained credulity to imagine a third go-round between Brody and a shark. And that’s if Roy Scheider would even want to come back; he barely returned for the sequel, showing up only because he had quit Deer Hunter (terrible move, Roy. He would have played the John Savage role) and Universal pressured him into the part.
An idea was hatched: rather than just do man versus shark again, why not try something very different? Why not a spoof? And so Jaws 3, People 0 was born.
Producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck saw the success of Airplane! and thought there was a possibility there. They reached out to Matty Simmons, then publisher of National Lampoon and the producer of Animal House. He came aboard as producer, and John Hughes - yes, The Breakfast Club’s John Hughes - was hired, along with Tod Carroll, to write the script. The director they wanted? Joe Dante, fresh off Jaws rip-off Piranha.
The script is fairly bizarre. It’s a total inside joke movie, a film about a film crew trying to make a Jaws sequel (the premise of this film is that the shark is an alien) while being hunted by a Great White. The movie opens with Jaws novelist Peter Benchley being eaten by a shark in his swimming pool, and there’s even a part written for Steven Spielberg, if he felt like being a good sport (the script actually just calls him Director, so they could have been prepared to use an impersonator).
Some of the best jokes in the movie are plays on scenes in the original Jaws, including a redo of the bonfire beach party and first shark attack, except that in the script it’s a bunch of Hollywood execs partying it up. There’s also a sequence where a shark is killed and gutted and a litany of items is pulled out of its stomach, including a violin, a coat and some weed. There’s a tough as nails marine specialist named Pierre Cockatoo, a mix between Jacques Cousteau and Quint.
If the town fathers of Amity were the villains in Jaws, refusing to close the beaches, this time it’s the Hollywood suits, unwilling to shut down the troubled production, even as people die. The film makes a strange third act turn into seriousness, as the hero and his leading lady battle the shark to the finish, and film it as they do. The evil studio execs get their comeuppance, Jaws 3 premieres and at the end we’re promised Jaws 4.
Jaws 3, People 0 never happened, of course. Zanuck and Brown decided it was a bad idea - maybe because it spoofed Hollywood too much, or because it was too bold (on the Jaws 2 DVD commentary Brown says making Jaws 3, People 0 would have been akin to “fouling your own nest”), or maybe because the script is sort of hit or miss, with a lot more misses - and instead they went a little more conventional, with the movie that would eventually become Jaws 3D.
Originally published in the Alamo Drafthouse Summer of '83 guide. For tickets to Jaws 3D and any other Summer of '83 screening, go here.ATHENS — Georgia opened the game with an onside kick, a decision that was made earlier in the week. Perhaps, reading between the lines, around Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.
It didn’t work. South Carolina recovered the ball and began the game with good field position. But a point was made, judging by coach Kirby Smart’s response when asked after the game why the Bulldogs — a heavy favorite in this game and the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings — risked such a play.
“Because it was there,” Smart said. “And I want to be aggressive at the University of Georgia and not be hunted. I want to hunt.”
Georgia hasn’t tried much in the way of trick plays this season. It really hasn’t had to. So, it was hard not to connect this one with what happened five nights earlier.
Georgia was ranked the No. 1 team in the country by the College Football Playoff selection committee. It earned that honor by clobbering opponents, and an onside kick at the start of this game seemed especially out of character. No need for trick plays against this opponent. Don’t give the team a potential break.
But South Carolina (6-3) didn’t score on the ensuing drive. And while it played closer to Georgia than any SEC opponent has this season, the Bulldogs still won in convincing fashion, 24-10.
“It plays out by being aggressive,” Smart said. “We’re not going to change what we do. We believe in what we do. And football is an aggressive game. We’re not going to sit back and play on our heels and say, ‘We’re going to take your best shot.’ We’re going to give you our best shot. And I think that’s how the game should be played.”
As is usually the case, Georgia coaches decided they saw something while watching film of South Carolina’s kickoff return unit. Smart didn’t elaborate on why “it was there,” but that usually means they think the defenders on the front line go downfield to block early, leaving the middle exposed.
“We were watching film earlier in the week, and we went back and looked at film from last year and said, ‘If they line up this way, we’re going to go ahead and do it,’ ” Georgia kicker Rodrigo Blankenship said.
Blankenship felt his approach and kick were right. The ball dribbled about 15 yards, and there weren’t many white jerseys around as Georgia’s Tyrique McGhee got close to it. But South Carolina’s Caleb Kinlaw managed to haul it in and hit the ground.
“I thought it was a pretty good ball. It came off and got a good hop about 11 or 12 yards like it was supposed to,” Blankenship said. “We just didn’t recover it.”
Five plays later, South Carolina’s Parker White missed a 46-yard field goal. It would have been the first time Georgia had trailed in a game since Week 2 against Notre Dame.
Instead, the Bulldogs struck first and led or were tied throughout — for the eighth time this season. And early in the evening they were crowned SEC East champions for the first time since 2012.Who hasn’t seen the television commercials for animal groups? With heart-touching music playing behind a montage of sad-looking dogs and cats, an announcer pleads for contributions to “save” the animals. No organization runs more of these highly effective ads than the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Many contributors agree to donate $18 a month, helping the ASPCA to bring in $111.3 million for the year ending June 2010.
As 2012 came to an end, however, what the ASPCA did not advertise was the fact that, on December 26, $9.3 million in contributions did not go to “save” animals but to Feld Entertainment, the family-controlled company that since 1967 has owned Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which has been in continuous operation since 1919. In settling its lawsuit against “The Greatest Show on Earth,” the ASPCA was admonished by the judge hearing the case that it should have never been filed in the first place, primarily because the group used a paid plaintiff.
To be sure, there’s big money in animal welfare advocacy. During the same period the ASPCA raked in its haul, the Humane Society of the United States brought in even more: $131.2 million. Smaller groups also raised notable amounts: $5.8 million for the Fund for Animals; $2.8 million for the Animal Welfare Institute, and 1.5 million for the Animal Protection Institute.
While these organizations — all tax-exempt 501(c)3s — can vary in size, their goal is the same, says Frankie Trull, a science activist and lobbyist involved in university-based animal research: “These groups believe that animals are not ours to be used to eat or wear — or for entertainment.”
Specifically, the groups believe that when a handler employs chains and a bullhook—a long cane, made of wood or fiberglass, with a sharp, curved metal end—to control an elephant, a pain-free method of guiding elephants that has been in use for decades (think guiding a dog with a leash), he is abusing the animal. But the groups needed an individual with standing to bring suit. That was Tom Rider, a former employee who worked for Ringling Brothers from June 1997 until November 1999, first as a “barn helper” and then as a “barn man,” in the Blue Unit traveling show. (A second traveling show is the Red Unit.) In essence an assistant to an elephant handler, Rider gave food and water to seven Asian elephants—Karen, Nicole, Lutzi, Zina, Mysore, Susan, and Jewell—as well as cleaning up after them.
The original lawsuit was filed on July 11, 2000 by the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) on behalf of the ASPCA, AWI, FFA, Tom Rider, and three other individuals. In December, PAWS and the three individuals dropped out, leaving Rider, ASPCA, FFA, and AWI. Using the Endangered Species Act, the complaint alleged that Ringling Brothers “takes” its Asian elephants — “take” is a general term for “harming,” “harassing,” or “wounding” — by employing chains and bullhooks on them, which in turn caused Rider to suffer “aesthetic or emotional injury” because he witnessed this behavior after developing a “strong personal attachment” to the elephants. The groups demanded that Ringling Brothers stop “taking” Asian elephants, a protected endangered species; forfeit possession of the elephants it owns (54 at present); and pay the groups’ legal fees.
In 2005, the Humane Society became involved in the suit when it acquired the assets of the Fund for Animals; the Animal Protection Institute joined the next year. After almost a decade of legal action—motions, appeals, hearing upon hearing, discovery—a non-jury trial took place before United States District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia in February and March of 2009.
In the trial, Tom Rider, the star witness for the plaintiffs, proved to be problematic. Even though he referred to the elephants as his “girls” and claimed to have a “personal” and “emotional” attachment to them on par with the one he had for his two daughters and his grandson, he was unable to identify the elephants in videotaped footage.
Moreover, Rider’s own employment record indicated he was not upset by the way elephants are handed in a circus. Before Ringling Brothers, he worked for Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus, where he used chains and a bullhook in handling elephants. During his two-and-a-half years at Ringling Brothers, he never complained about elephant mistreatment to the media, circus veterinarians, United States Department of Agriculture inspectors, or his supervisor. When Rider did leave Ringling Brothers, it was not because of the elephants but because the Blue Unit’s traveling show ended. Then he traveled to Europe where he handled elephants owned by Richard Chipperfield that were performing in a circus, again using chains and a bullhook.
Indeed, it was not until he quit his job with the Chipperfield elephants, traveled to London, and gave an interview to The Daily Mirror that Rider complained about the mistreatment of elephants in circuses. For the interview, Rider received hotel and living expenses and $1,100 in cash. After that, members of PAWS arranged for Rider to fly to California. From March 2000 until February 2001, PAWS paid for Rider to live in a motel in Galt, Calif., and gave him spending money. It was during this time that the lawsuit against Feld was filed, with Rider serving as a key plaintiff.
When PAWS left the litigation in December 2000, the support of Rider was taken over by the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Then, from December 2001 until January 2008, Rider was paid by the Wildlife Advocacy Project. He received $500 a week, later $1,000 every two weeks, all by check. Over six years, WAP paid Rider $165,000. Combined with monies from PAWS and other sources, Rider received more than $190,000. In addition, a van was purchased for him, and he was reimbursed for incidental expenses. From 2001 until 2006, Rider never filed taxes, so, in April 2007, when he filed returns for seven years, the IRS placed tax liens on him, which were paid off by “friends” whose identify was never disclosed.
For his compensation, the animal groups claimed Rider was performing “media work” and “educational outreach.” Judge Sullivan didn’t agree. “The Court finds that Mr. Rider is essentially a paid plaintiff and fact witness,” Sullivan stated in a decision handed down in December 2009, “who is not credible, and therefore affords no weight to his testimony regarding the matters discussed herein.” Sullivan ruled in favor of the circus.
As discovery proceeded, it became apparent to Feld’s attorneys that the plaintiffs had engaged in a highly organized effort to fund their key plaintiff. “We found 1,360 examples of predicate acts that constituted racketeering activity,” says John Simpson, Feld’s lead attorney at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. In August 2007, Feld filed a RICO action against the plaintiffs who sued them. That action is now pending, no doubt one reason why the ASPCA settled. Twelve parties—the animal groups and their attorneys—remain defendants in the RICO case.
Over 12 years, Feld spent $22 million on legal fees. The $9.3 million from the ASPCA offsets a portion of that, but Feld seeks to recover the rest of the fees—but no damages—from the remaining RICO defendants. “This marks a significant step for Feld Entertainment in its quest to obtain justice in this case,” Simpson says of the settlement. “The amount suggests their understanding of the seriousness of their predicament.”
But the elephant suit, says Frankie Trull, was just one front in a systematic campaign against organizations that use animals, even for research purposes—the Humane Society, to give but one example, is currently lobbying for all chimpanzees to be banned in bio-medical research—that would have a chilling effect on research into illnesses like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. “If there are no animal models,” she says, “there will be far fewer medical advances. That’s why Ringling Brothers’ pushback has been so significant. Now others may think it’s not a lost cause to do something legally.”
As for the ASPCA, it released a statement confirming that “it has reached a settlement and is ending 12 years of litigation with Feld Entertainment.” It did not mention that it was the ASPCA that started the litigation, only that they wanted to return to their “life-saving work, preventing cruelty and improving the welfare of animals.”
Then again, all the ASPCA had to do was look internally to see that suing Feld might not have been justified. On May 5, 1996, the ASPCA’s Kathi Travers wrote to Ringling Brothers, praising the circus for “the magnificent job you are doing at the new elephant breeding facility” and for “the professional and extremely humane conditions” provided for the elephants. In addition, when Ringling Brothers performs at Madison Square Garden and Nassau County Coliseum, they are monitored by a humane law-enforcement division of the ASPCA, which has routinely given the circus glowing reports. This means that during the 12 years of litigation brought by the ASPCA against Feld for mistreatment of elephants, in two of the nation’s most prominent venues, the safety inspection of those elephants was actually conducted by the ASPCA.
Yet neither incongruities such as this one—nor legal setbacks—have deterred the animal groups. In Los Angeles, the groups have found a friend in Paul Koretz, a City Council member who, later this year, plans to sponsor an ordinance banning the appearance of elephants in circuses in the nation’s second-largest city.The rural Irish town of Kilgarvan has passed a resolution to permit locals to drink and drive.
Local pub owner and politician Danny Healy-Rae initially proposed the bill to the local council, telling The New York Times the bill could preserve pub culture, lower suicide rates and reduce a sense of isolation among the elderly.
“I am talking about mainly elderly people who live in very remote places who come to town to get a bit of shopping, enjoy a couple of pints and a chat with friends and then drive home at less than 30 miles an hour,” Mr. Healy-Rae told The Times. “These are not the ones causing accidents. What is the alternative for them where no public or other transport is available? Staying at home lonely, staring at the four walls?”
The Healy-Rae family pub has gained international attention — some good, some bad — for being behind the measure.
Kerry County Council member Toireasa Ferris was absent during the vote and couldn’t believe it when she heard the bill had passed.
“Never in my wildest imaginations did I think it would ever be passed,” she told The New York Times. “This is not the way to address this problem. Some in an older generation who were used to having a few pints and driving home may still think it acceptable, and they may be lost to us. But we have to break the link between socializing and drinking for the generations following.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.China’s investment in Iran declined by nearly 87 percent in 2012 Al Monitor’s Iran Pulse reported last week, citing a statement made by Asadollah Asgaroladi, an influential merchant and the head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Elsewhere Asgaroladi was quoted as saying that China-Iran bilateral trade last had declined by 18 percent year-on-year.
According to Al Monitor report, Asgaroladi told reporters that Chinese investment in Iran dropped from almost U.S. $3 billion in 2011 to just U.S. $400 million last year. The influential merchant also said that Iranian-Chinese trade in 2012 amounted to U.S. $37 billion, down 18 percent from the $45 billion of two-way trade in 2011. The 2012 figure was still higher than the US$30 billion in bilateral trade between Iran and China in 2010, however.
The merchant attributed the sharp decline in investment to the impact of U.S. and EU sanctions. He also predicted that political infighting in the run-up to Iran country’s presidential election this summer would continue to act as a drag on the economy.
In recent years Iran-China trade has grown steadily commensurate with China’s growing reliance on foreign energy and Western companies exiting the Iranian market. By 2007 China had replaced the EU as Iran’s largest trading partner and the two sides had pledged to more than double their annual bilateral trade to U.S. $100 billion by 2016.
China’s energy companies had been particularly aggressive in replacing their Western counterparts in developing Iran’s oil and natural gas. In 2007, Sinopec announced it had signed a U.S. $2 billion deal to develop an Iranian oil field. Two years later, in 2009, China’s Natural Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) inked a U.S. $4.7 billion deal with Iran to replace France’s Total SA in developing phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars gas field.
This growing trade and investment has not always resulted in more goodwill between the two countries. Ordinary Iranians and media outlets, in particular, often complain bitterly that the influx of cheap Chinese manufacturing goods has undercut domestic industry. The two sides have often been at loggerheads over Iranian charges that China was delaying the development of the oil and natural gas fields it had agreed to develop.
In any case, China has appeared to reassess the benefit of its economic relationship with Iran since U.S. and EU sanctions went into effect last summer. Under the U.S. legislation the president is required to sanction countries that don’t continually reduce their reliance on Iranian oil and natural gas. Any company falling under the sanctions is denied access to the U.S. financial sector. So far the Obama administration has granted China a waiver from the sanctions, citing a decline in China’s oil and natural gas imports from Iran.
Indeed, China has announced a number of moves to comply with the sanctions. The same month that sanctions went into effect last year CNPC announced it was pulling out of the deal to develop part of Iran’s South Pars gas fields. A Chinese bank also pulled out of a deal to finance the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline in 2012, citing the Western and international sanctions. From all available reporting Sinopec has yet to begin significant work on its 2007 deal. Moreover, earlier this year a Global Times report warned Chinese companies to be cautious in making further investments in Iran because of sanctions.
Still, as The Diplomat reported in January, China continues to be one |
arrived at the airport, Judy told Jeff she forgot her driver’s license and had to return home to get it. She took a later flight and then met up with him at the hotel later that night.
The next day, Jeff attended his conference and Judy went site-seeing, as confirmed by other people on the tour of historical landmarks like the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall. But after the tour, what happened next is anyone’s guess. Jeff waited for her at the hotel all evening before calling the police to report her missing. After days of searching, he had no choice but to return to Massachusetts without her. From there he mailed out thousands of missing person flyers to towns up and down the east coast. He also hired private investigators but nothing ever turned up.
Five months later, a father and son hiking in North Carolina found her body along with the red backpack she always carried when travelling. She was deep in the mountains near Asheville. Judy’s diamond ring and cash were not taken, so robbery wasn’t suspected as a motive. Her body was partly underground and pieces were found across a large area of the woods. Because of this, a cause of death was hard to determine but it does appear she was stabbed multiple times. How did Judy Smith end up dead in North Carolina after going missing from a historical tour in Philadelphia? No one is quite sure, but a dark backpack and a pair of sunglasses found at the scene are suspected to be from the killer.
4. The July 4th Massacre in Charlotte (1979)
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Often called the bloodiest killing in the history of Charlotte, the July 4th Massacre, as it is known locally, ended with the deaths of five members and associates of the Outlaws motorcycle gang. In the early morning of Independence Day, two assailants shot and killed the guard outside of the local Outlaws clubhouse before bursting inside with guns drawn. As they entered, they shot and killed everyone they found.
The dead included three Outlaws members, one runaway teenage girl and one man identified later simply as a drifter who has stopped in to party with the gang. The gang’s local leader, William “Chains” Flamont, stopped in around 5:30 a.m. – ironically concerned about their lax security. William “Waterhead” Allen, the guard at the door, was a young probationary member tasked with maintaining security. He was sedated on pain killers and fell asleep on the job, presumably allowing these two men to take down the whole club.
Police suspected the rival Hell’s Angels gang but couldn’t prove they had any connection. In July of 2015, 36 years after the massacre, police decided to close the case and pin it on two dead bikers. The accused ring-leader, Gregory Scott Lindaman, had been in the initiation phase to become a member of the Outlaws but was rejected for insubordination. His friend Randy Allen Pigg allegedly helped him get his revenge on the gang. The police say they believe it was these two men because witnesses say they overheard them bragging about committing the crimes. The guns were never found and no forensic evidence ties them to the scene, so many are not convinced. With both suspects dead and unable to confess, we may never know the full story.
5. Valentine’s Day killings in Durham (1971)
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Since 1971, Durham residents have heard about the Valentine’s Day killings. These particularly cruel murders have never been solved but the contrast between the innocence of the young lovers and the brutality of the killer has captured the public’s attention for decades. The incident began when Jesse McBane, a 19 year old NC State student, picked-up his girlfriend, 20 year old nursing student Patricia Mann, to go to a Valentine’s Day dance at the Watts Hospital where she worked.
Mann stayed at a dorm on the Watts campus and McBane walked her back after the dance. Then they signed her out, promising to return before the 1 a.m. curfew, and were never seen alive again. Patricia Mann’s friends contacted the police the next day but since it had only been a few hours, the police declined to investigate. The friends found Mr. McBane’s car near the Hillandale Golf Club on a side-street dubbed, “Lovers’ Lane.” There was no sign of either of them in the area.
About two weeks later, a man walking in the Eno River State Park area between Durham and Hillsborough (a couple exits up I-85 from the abandoned car), found the two lovers dead. They were tied to each other and to a tree with ropes around their necks and with their hands bound behind their backs. The police say it appears they were tortured as the ropes around their necks had been tightened and loosened repeatedly before finally choking them to death. Both Durham County and Orange County law enforcement have been working the case ever since, but four-and-a-half decades later, it remains a mystery.
6. Massacre at the Be Lo Grocery in Bertie County (1993)
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In one of the most disturbing mysteries to ever hit our state, the Be Lo murders have left a scar on the small town of Windsor, North Carolina that has never healed. Windsor is a close-knit coastal community of 4,000 people where everyone knows everyone. One Sunday summer night though, a stranger walked into this community, committed the unthinkable and then simply vanished.
The Be Lo Grocery was closing at around 6 p.m. that evening and three employees were left inside, as well as three members of a cleaning crew who had just arrived. A man nobody had seen before, emerged from a hiding place inside the store and forced all six of them by gunpoint into the meat-cutting room in the back. In order to save ammunition, he forced them to arrange into stacks on the ground so he could try to shoot through multiple bodies. When he ran out of bullets, he grabbed one of the butcher knives and began stabbing and slashing so violently it broke the blade. The man then left them all laying there to die in pools of blood.
Miraculously, one victim was able to crawl to a phone and call for help. Three of the six survived, but not the man who had called. The store was later closed down and turned into a community college. A plaque hangs in the dead’s honor at the school but the killings are still a very painful memory for the town. Despite a sketch being made from the survivors’ descriptions, he has never been identified or caught.
7. The Seven Bridges Killer (2008)
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Rocky Mount, North Carolina is a struggling town an hour northeast of the state’s capital. Industry has gradually abandoned the area, turning it into one of the poorest and most violent small cities in the nation. Adding horror to this desperate situation, the Rocky Mount Police Department believes a serial killer targeted many of the most vulnerable members of the community – homeless female prostitutes and drug addicts.
Ten women total went missing, but eight of these have since been found dead. All those targeted are black women who operated in areas of town known to be centers of criminal activity. This led investigators to presume the killer is someone within that community who can move around without raising suspicion. Their bodies were found, usually naked, outside of town in the fields and woods along Seven Bridges Road. Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley has had to admit, “It’s clear to me that we are dealing with a suspected serial killer.”
The killings began in 2005 and continued for a few years after. A local man, Antwan Maurice Pittman, has been convicted of one of the killings, but it’s not clear if he has any connection to the others or if the killer is still on the loose. Pittman did in fact live in the Seven Bridges Road area at one time, so many believe he used the knowledge of the road to dispose of the women he killed. Police suspect Pittman in some of the other deaths but have not charged him. The community is split on whether Pittman is the Seven Bridges Killer or if the real perpetrator is still out there.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” disabled=”off” disabled_on=”on|on|” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] [/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#000000″ show_divider=”on” height=”5″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” divider_weight=”5″] [/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”2″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] [/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]The Decorator Pattern
The formal definition of a decorator is as follows:
The decorator pattern applies when there is a need to dynamically add as well as remove responsibilities to a class, and when subclassing would be impossible due to a large number of subclasses that could result.
Background
Recently I was refactoring a godlike draper decorator, that contained many different methods. On top of that, the decorator was responsible for decorating not only the main object but also its relations (lots of has_many and has_one ).
I started dividing the methods into logical parts and refactored them into different draper decorators. The problem with this approach was that I needed several different decorators in one view, because they were constructed using multiple models. Some of them had one or two methods.
Blocks to the rescue
So I decided to roll out my own solution for this. I wanted to use the decorators at will in the view, without prior decoration in the controller. Also I wanted to scope the decoration to a part of a view. So why not use blocks? I quickly came up with this Rails helper method ( app/helpers ):
module ApplicationHelper def decorate(object, decorator) yield decorator.new(object) end end
This little piece of code gave me a way to reference long method names in a shorthand manner (basicly do variable assignment inside the view, without the actual assignment):
%div - decorate(object.with_long_method_name, AwesomeDecorator) do |decorated| = decorated.awesome_header
Decorator Pattern Implementation
Now all I needed was a class that would act as a decorator. My first thought was "use draper". But after a couple of seconds I realized I don't need anything so heavy for this job. What I needed was a class, that will call methods on the decorated object, if they don't exist in the decorator class itself. There are a couple of ways to implement this in Ruby.
First way - method_missing
The first way to do this is by using method_missing :
class FooDecorator def initialize(object) @object = object end def method_missing(m, *args, &block) @object.send(m, *args, &block) end def decorated_bar puts "This is a decorated #{bar}" end private attr_accessor :object end class Foo def bar 'bar' end def fiz puts "Fiz" end end decorated = FooDecorator.new(Foo.new) decorated.fiz decorated.decorated_bar
The output of this script is:
blog_writing|⇒ ruby method_missing.rb Fiz This is a decorated bar
So everything works nice. I can call the new method, defined in the decorator. I can also call methods of the original object.
Second way - #extend
Another way it to extend a class instance on runtime:
module FooDecorator def decorated_bar puts "This is a decorated #{bar}" end private attr_accessor :object end class Foo def bar 'bar' end def fiz puts "Fiz" end end decorated = Foo.new.extend(FooDecorator) decorated.decorated_bar decorated.fiz
This code will output the same text, as the method_missing one. The code is more concise, but the drawback here is that we extend a instance with new methods at runtime, which busts the method cache and can be a performance hit.
Third way - SimpleDelegator
Ruby's standard library already has a way to solve this problem. It's called the SimpleDelegator. It's a subclass of Delegator. If you look at the source of the Delegator class, you will see that it uses the method_missing magic to delegate methods to the underlying object. But it does so with some fancy stuff around that - if you want to find out more about it, refer to the ruby source code delegate.rb.
The following code shows how to use SimpleDelegator to implement our decorator:
require "delegate" class FooDecorator < SimpleDelegator def decorated_bar puts "This is a decorated #{bar}" end end class Foo def bar 'bar' end def fiz puts "Fiz" end end decorated = FooDecorator.new(Foo.new) decorated.decorated_bar decorated.fiz
This approach is my favourite, as it allows you to change the delegation target at runtime, using the __setobj__ method. This opens up the door for decorators with strategies inside them.
The end
If you have objections of passing class names as attributes inside the view, you can define helper methods on your controllers, that will return the proper decorator. But I think this way is pretty neat, because you can do nested decoration:
%div - decorate(object.with_long_method_name, AwesomeDecorator) do |decorated| = decorated.awesome_method - decorate(decorated, MoreAwesomeDecorator) do |super_decorated| = super_decorated.even_more_awesome_method
I don't see any practical application for this, but hey, it's nice to have options!
Bonus
If you want to use Rails helper methods (like image_tag, link_to, etc.) inside your custom decorator, you can define the following method:
def h ActionController::Base.helpers end
And use it like ``h.image_asset`, just like in draper!Posted by Christy on Sep 25, 2015 in Blog |
Ordain Women is hosting a weeklong celebration of women’s history in recognition of this years theme, “Honoring our past, envisioning our future.” Each day this week we will be sharing a new post highlighting stories of women from all over the world, submitted by you. If you would like to share women’s history from your area, you can send your submission to: ordainmormonwomen@gmail.com. This post is one installment in this series.
Contrary to what many people may believe, the oldest women’s college in the world is not in the northeastern United States. Instead, Wesleyan College, which was chartered in 1836, and is the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women is located in Macon, Georgia.
Other firsts for women occurred at Wesleyan. In 1851 and 1852, the first sororities for women Alpha Delta Pi (originally the Adelphean Society) and Phi Mu (originally the Philomathean Society) were founded. In 1860, the first alumnae association of a degree-granting college was founded at Wesleyan. In 1976, the Rotary Club of Macon, acting in conjunction with Wesleyan, initiated the first Rotary International Intern Program. In 1990, a group of Wesleyan alumnae, acting in conjunction with other prominent Georgians, founded Georgia Women of Achievement, an organization designed to recognize and honor the accomplishments of outstanding women in the state. In 2000, Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table, which was founded by Wesleyan’s Lane Center for Community Engagement and Service under the direction of Dr. Catherine Meeks, was awarded the first Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration. The Wesleyan College Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 2, 2004.
Throughout the years, the graduates of Wesleyan have made history in their chosen fields of study. A partial listing of some of Wesleyan’s history making graduates include:
· Catherine Brewer Benson (1840) was one of the earliest women in the U.S. to earn a college bachelor’s degree.
· Mary Eliza McKay (1878) became the first woman in Georgia to receive the Doctor of Medicine Degree.
· Beginning in 1904, the Soong Sisters (Ai-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling) were the first Chinese women to be educated in the United States. May-ling later became Madame Chiang Kai-shek and served as a First Lady of the Republic of China.
· Adelaide Su-Lin Chen Young (1933) became the first American woman explorer to enter the rugged Tibetan-Himalayan area.
· Hazel Jane Raines (1936) became the first woman in Georgia to be issued a commercial pilot’s license.
· Neva Jane Langley Fickling (1955) became Georgia’s first Miss America in 1953.
· Kathryn Stripling Byer (1966) became the first woman to be appointed poet laureate of North Carolina.
· Toni Jennings (approx. 1969) became the first woman to hold the office of Lieutenant Governor of Florida.
· Charlene Payne Kammerer (1970) became the first woman to be ordained Bishop of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Conference in 1996.
· Janice A. Mays (1973) became the first woman Staff Director for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and first woman to serve in the roles of Democratic Chief Counsel and Chief Tax Counsel.
Bryndis Roberts, Ordain Women Executive Board, is a 1978 magna cum laude graduate of Wesleyan College and currently serves on its Board of Trustees.
Having celebrated its sesquicentennial (175th anniversary) in 2011, Wesleyan continues its history of being “First for Women” and being a pioneer in women’s education. If you would like to learn more about Wesleyan college, here is a link: http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/about/history.cfm
This post was submitted by Bryndis Roberts who is an Ordain Women Executive Board member and who lives in Georgia.On Saturdays, we ask some of our favorite sites on the web to fill in for
us. You get to learn about an awesome site you may not have heard
of, and we get to watch cartoons in our boxers. Today we're bringing
you an abridged version of the screenplay for Oscar winner Juno, as
provided by Rod Hilton, creator of The-Editing-Room.com.
FADE IN:
EXT. SOME SMALL TOWN
ELLEN PAGE guzzles SUNNY D as some obnoxious INDIE SONG
blares in the background so that everyone knows that this is
an intellectual, independent film.
She enters a convenience store and meets RAINN WILSON.
ELLEN PAGE
I need to use the bathroom, as I've been downing delicious, high-quality Sunny Delight for the past hour.
RAINN WILSON
Sunny Delight? You mean the delicious orange-flavored drink containing a full day's supply of vitamin C in every serving?
ELLEN PAGE
That's right! I found it in the fridge, behind the purple stuff! Now relinquish the bathroom key geeves, I for shizz need to spout.
RAINN WILSON
I can barely understand you. Is there a reason you're talking like what seems like a teenager designed by a committee of adults that have researched youth by watching MTV around the clock?
ELLEN PAGE
Yes, and you better start talking like that too or you'll have no place in the movie, Dwight.
RAINN WILSON
Oh, er, uh, I mean that's one doodle that can't be undid homeskillet oh my god I need a new agent.
ELLEN PAGE
You're so quirky! And so am I!
ELLEN pisses on a pregnancy test and it tells her that she's PREGNANT as well as PRECOCIOUS.
ELLEN PAGE
This sucks. The only thing left to do is walk home morosely while yet another obnoxious indie song blares.
ELLEN walks home, then calls her friend OLIVIA THIRLBY.
ELLEN PAGE
Hey Olivia. So I'm pregs for real.
OLIVIA THIRLBY
OhMyGodLikeForRealForRealPregs?
ELLEN PAGE
Holy crap, what the hell are you saying? Did someone encrypt your copy of the script or something?
OLIVIA THIRLBY
YouShouldTotallyGetAnAToTheBortion.
ELLEN PAGE
Yeah. First I need you to help me salvage the chair I lost my virginity in, which is on a lawn for some reason that is almost definitely quirky.
They take the chair, then ELLEN sets up an entire living room
set in front of MICHAEL CERA'S HOME.
MICHAEL CERA
Ellen, hey. I like the couch on my front sidewalk, it's incredibly quirky of you.
ELLEN PAGE
Yeah, well I'm pretty quirky.
MICHAEL CERA
So what are you doing here? Do you need someth-
ELLEN PAGE
Wait, hold on. Your track team is about to come running by and I need to do a voiceover narration for no particularly reason, even though I only do it like three more times in the entire movie.
ELLEN PAGE (V.O.)
Whenever I see the track team, I can't help but picture their penises, because doing so allows me to explain that fact in a voiceover narration that I can end with the very hip term "pork swords."
ELLEN PAGE
Alright, sorry about that. What were we talking about? Oh right, I'm pregnant and it's yours.
MICHAEL CERA
Rather than freak the hell out like a typical high school student, I'm going to sputter around for words awkwardly and barely finish complete sentences. It's kind of my thing.
ELLEN calls an ABORTION CLINIC to make an appointment.
CLINIC RECEPTIONIST (O.S.)
Crimson River Abortion Clinic, how may I help you?
ELLEN PAGE
Hi. I'd like to make an appointment for an abortion. Oh wait hang on my Hamburger Phone is acting up.
(shakes phone)
Alright, there we go.
CLINIC RECEPTIONIST (O.S.)
Alright, well just come in any time and we can tak-
ELLEN PAGE
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't think you heard me. I'm talking on a HAMBURGER PHONE. How zany is that? That's for shizz quirky.
ELLEN goes to the CLINIC and signs in. Another INDIE SONG
blares over the scene to make sure you remember that you are
supporting INDEPENDENT CINEMA by watching this movie.
CLINIC RECEPTIONIST
Please sign in here. Do you want a free condom? They make my boyfriend's penis taste like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
ELLEN PAGE
Wow, what a completely quirky and inappropriate thing to say to a complete stranger!
CLINIC RECEPTIONIST
I know, right!?
ELLEN suddenly runs out of the CLINIC and visits her friend
OLIVIA.
OLIVIA THIRLBY
WhatAreYouDoingOhMiGod?
ELLEN PAGE
I decided I want to keep the baby so that I can star in a wholly overrated independent film about a teenager giving her baby to a childless couple.
ELLEN sits down to talk to her father and stepmother.
ELLEN PAGE
So, I'm pregnant.
J.K. SIMMONS
WHAT YOU'RE FUCKING 16 WHAT THE FU-
ELLEN PAGE
Dad, you're in an indie flick, remember?
J.K. SIMMONS
Oh right. Sorry, I didn't mean to blow up, I meant to make a dry, sarcastic remark.
ALLISON JANNEY
And I'd like to follow that up with a second barb.
ELLEN PAGE
It's Michael Cera's. The kid from Arrested Development.
J.K. SIMMONS
Huh. I didn't think he had it in him.
ELLEN PAGE
What, sperm?
ELLEN goes ahead with her pregnancy and the movie SAVED plays
out with fewer jokes and more pretentiousness.
ELLEN finds a couple to adopt her kid: JASON BATEMAN and
JENNIFER GARNER. ELLEN goes to meet them.
JENNIFER GARNER
We're so happy you'd consider us despite the fact that I starred in Elektra.
JASON BATEMAN
So who is the father of the little bastard?
ELLEN PAGE
Oh, just this awkward, typecast kid at school named Michael Cera.
JASON BATEMAN
No shit? He played my son on Arrested Development. I look forward to the scene in this movie that reunites us for the first time since the show was canceled, which is sure to be a real pleasure for fans.
That scene NEVER HAPPENS. ELLEN agrees to give her kid to
JENNIFER and JASON.
TIME PASSES and MORE INDIE ROCK MUSIC PLAYS. ELLEN
goes through the various scenes that movies about pregnant
people are obligated to include.
She visits JASON BATEMAN.
JASON BATEMAN
Hey Ellen. Want to watch some indie horror films and listen to some indie music together?
ELLEN PAGE
That sounds great! I sure hope that watching the movie isn't interrupted by me having to go puke my guts out, sweaty and hunched over the toilet.
(pause)
Just kidding, none of that crap happens in the movie. Pregnancy is easy-peasy.
JASON BATEMAN
Well, I have good news. I'm leaving Jennifer Garner.
ELLEN PAGE
Why, because your marriage to her has robbed you of your youth, which you have been reminded of since you started hanging around with me?
JASON BATEMAN
No, I just rented 13 Going On |
ak's version serves six strips of bacon, battered and fried, with a bowl of cream gravy.[2] He and his restaurant[3] were featured on a Texas Country Reporter episode; the web video has been watched hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.[4]
Versions [ edit ]
Homemade chicken fried bacon frying in a pan
Chicken fried bacon made by Glen Kusak of south Texas won the Big Tex Choice Award for Best Taste in the 2008 State Fair of Texas in Dallas.[5][6] In recent years, the dish has made its way across America and it is served in Chicago at the Risque Cafe in Lake View.[7] The Risque Cafe's version of "country-fried bacon" is served with white gravy and sells for $6.[7] It is prepared using an egg wash, dredged in heavily peppered flour and deep fried in vegetable oil.[7] The café's chef, Andrew Niemeyer, said he "played around with the idea" while a student of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (he graduated in 2005).
Health issues [ edit ]
Since the dish is rich in saturated fat, the majority of health experts who favor low-fat diets suggest consuming it in moderation or not at all.[8] Sally Squires of the Washington Post acknowledged chicken fried bacon's appeal to the palate, but suggests moderation.[8] Other experts note the dish's low nutritional benefits: "They've taken fat, they've double-coated it in fat, they've fried it in more fat, and then they've served it with a side order of fat."[2] Jane Hurley, senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., stated she's "never heard of anything worse."[2]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Car horns and cheers usher in new era as South Pacific country becomes first to change sides since the 70s
Car horns and sirens sounded, church bells rang out and roads were crowded with vehicles as Samoa today became the first country in decades officially to switch from right- to left-side driving.
Officials urged the public to stay vigilant, warning that the danger of crashes could increase in coming days if drivers became complacent before the new road rules became second nature to them.
After months of preparation, the early-morning switch from right to left went without incident and in an atmosphere of national celebration.
As the 6am deadline approached, the police minister, Toleafoa Faafisi, went on national radio to tell drivers everywhere to stop their vehicles. Minutes later, the prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, broadcast the formal instruction for drivers to switch sides.
While there was some hesitation when drivers resumed their journeys, traffic soon flowed again with guidance from police as hundreds of onlookers who lined streets in the capital, Apia, clapped and cheered.
"All we want to see is how smooth it is and how safe it is, and I think we have seen that this morning," one unidentified Apia resident told Television New Zealand. "I mean... you see how cars are moving now, so to me it's good."
The government made the change to bring Samoa in line with Australia and New Zealand, where some 170,000 expatriate Samoans live. It is cheaper to import cars from there than from right-side-driving countries such as the US.
For now, Samoa will allow cars with steering wheels on either the left or the right side of the vehicle – but all will drive on the left side of the road.
Critics accused the government of failing adequately to prepare drivers, and had predicted traffic chaos and a rise in fatal wrecks.
The switch was ushered in with a two-day national holiday, to keep a limit on traffic, and a three-day ban on alcohol sales, to deter accidents.
Police staffed scores of checkpoints, and warned drivers to keep their speed down.
Leasi Galuvao, the chief executive of the Land Transport Authority, said the safety messages would continue for three months.
"The time of most concern is when motorists believe themselves adjusted to the new conditions and press the accelerator a little harder," he said.
Tuilaepa said the government had already widened roads, added new road markings and signs and installed traffic-slowing speed humps on key roads on the nation's two main islands, Upolu and Savai'i.
Tuilaepa said he was glad Samoa had finally made the switch, despite much resistance and a postponement of more than a year.
Samoa is the first country in decades to change the direction of traffic. Iceland and Sweden did it in the 1960s, and Nigeria, Ghana and Yemen did it in the 1970s.
The issue of buses with both doors and steering now on the wrong side had yet to be addressed, Tuilaepa said.NY Post (Screencap)
Vyckie Garrison was once a minor celebrity in the Quiverfull Movement, made famous by TV’s Duggar family. As a devout, Bible-believing Christian and the mother of seven homeschooled children, Garrison spent 16 years, with her husband, publishing a newspaper for families on a similar path. Today, via a website called No Longer Quivering, she publishes resources for women leaving the movement.
Below, she outlines the basic tenets of the Quiverfull Movement.
Q: What is “Quiverfull?”
“Quiverfull” is a convenient, though I believe, somewhat unfortunate term which we’re using at No Longer Quivering to describe a family lifestyle which is growing in popularity among evangelical Christians, particularly those who home educate their children.
Quiverfull is the idea that truly godly families will “trust the Lord” with their family planning. Children are viewed as unmitigated blessings (“As arrows in the hand of the mighty man, so are the children of ones youth, happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them”) and as such, the couple is willing to have as many children as the Lord chooses to bless them with. Artificial or chemical birth control such as the Pill or IUDs are equated with abortion: the sin of murdering your own offspring. “Natural” birth control such as Natural Family Planning is not actually “natural” because a couple must abstain at the very time of the month when the woman is naturally more desirous of physical intimacy. All methods of “conception control” are considered a lack of trust in God to provide for the “children of the righteous.”
See more of our Duggar-related coverage:
Here’s how I described “Quiverfull” back when I still believed it:
Radically Pro-Life – A.K.A. “Quiverfull,” “allowing the Lord to plan our family,” or “trusting God with our family planning.” It is this ideal which has resulted in our having quite a few more than the average number of children. Why do Christians seek to limit the size of their families through the use of chemical birth control? The truth be told, our reasoning generally parallels that of the abortion culture – additional children will cause inconvenience, financial hardships, lifestyle constraints – all this coupled with the desire to separate sex from procreation. How can the Church expect to speak with any moral authority on the evils of abortion when we ourselves are guilty of the very anti-life values fueled by the family planning mentality?
I say that the term “Quiverfull” is “unfortunate” because, I don’t believe that many who are involved in this lifestyle would label themselves as “Quiverfull,” and also because it implies a special focus on the anti-birth control aspect of the lifestyle which is not necessarily primary among those who have adopted some or all of the beliefs associated with what might more aptly be called “the Christian family renewal movement” or the practice of “biblical family values.”
(A mouthful, I know … which is why we continue to refer to this lifestyle as “Quiverfull” and often “QF/P” to include the patriarchal teachings as well.)
Q. Is “Quiverfull” a denomination?
“Quiverfull” is NOT a denomination. Those families which are involved are not required to ascribe to any particular doctrinal beliefs. You will find “Quiverfull” families in many different denominations, though they seem to be most heavily represented in more fundamentalist denominations (Baptist, “non-denominational,” “reformed,” “covenantal,” etc.) as well as churches with Postmillenial/Dominionist leanings (“Orthodox Presbyterian,” for example) and especially among home fellowships.
The teachings of the Quiverfull lifestyle are spread primarily through the Christian home school movement. Many of the publishing companies which cater to the curriculum needs of the Christian home school community also publish and promote materials which address lifestyle choices regarding biblical family structure, roles, and practices.
A few of the most popular of these suppliers include:
• Focus on the Family
• Family Life Today
• Vision Forum (Now defunct due to a sex scandal involving Vision Forum founder, Doug Phillips.)
• Grace & Truth Books
• Rod & Staff
• American Vision
Quiverfull ideals are also promoted through magazines which are popular among homeschoolers including:
• Above Rubies
• Wisdom’s Gate Publications: Home School Digest / Encouraging Word
• SALT Magazine
• Family Reformation Magazine
There are also several websites/ministries which are led by teens who are promoting the Quiverfull family values to Christian youth:
• The Rebelution
• Visionary Daughters
Christian parents who attend their local home school curriculum fair will find at least as much family-oriented materials as they do academic curriculum. Workshop speakers are as likely to talk about “How a wife can use reverence to build or save her marriage” as they are to teach parents how to help their high school-aged students learn advanced mathematics.
Q. What are the basic “family values” teachings which are frequently adopted by “Quiverfull” families?
Along with the idea of “trusting the Lord” in the area of family planning, here are some of the “values” which are promoted among QF/P families:
Patriarchy: This is the belief that by God’s perfect design, it is the father who is the head of the home. In his leadership capacity, the father serves as protector, provider and shepherd for his wife and children. He is primarily responsible for the wife’s and children’s physical, emotional and spiritual well-being and with such responsibility comes the (divinely granted) commensurate authority over the members of his household. According to this view, God works through the father and he serves as an intermediary for his wife and children. Honor, obedience and submission are highly valued qualities because they are necessary to maintain order and work together to accomplish the Lord’s vision for a godly family.
Courtship or Betrothal Instead of Dating: The father’s protection of and authority over his children extends especially to the choosing of a mate. In this system, the fathers play a very influential role in the “courtship” process. Every family seems to have its own take on exactly how courtship is to be carried out. Typically, if a young man is interested in a particular girl, he will consult with his father who then approaches the father of the young lady to discuss the possibility of a potential match. If the girl’s father is in agreement, he will then talk to his daughter, and if she shows an interest, the courtship (or betrothal; which is as binding as marriage) begins and this basically means that the couple is serious about getting married. The parents are in control of the relationship at all times. The couple is not to be alone together. The courtship / betrothal period is usually brief and it is expected that the couple will experience their first kiss at the marriage altar. At that time, the father’s authority over the daughter is transferred to her new husband.
Sheltering of the Children: The home school mindset includes the basic belief that children are to be protected and sheltered from “the world,” i.e., outside influences which could be detrimental to the child’s spiritual well-being. It is often quoted that “foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child” … this coupled with the scripture which says, “a companion of fools shall be ruined,” leads to the logical conclusion that children (fools) should not be socialized by other children (fools), but instead should learn social skills from adults. Isolation and control of outside influences is not only considered normal and good, it is the godly approach to childrearing.
Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: The teaching is that God designed males and females to fulfill distinct roles and that men and women cannot be truly satisfied unless they are consistently filling their special role as a man or woman of God. Men are to be leaders, teachers, initiators, protectors and providers. Women are created to be “helpmeets” to the men in authority over them (husbands, fathers, older brothers). They are to be submissive and yielding. Their primary sphere of influence comes from their role as wives and mothers. The woman’s home is her ministry and her children are her mission field.
Being debt-free and independent of government programs/subsidies: Adoption of this ideal often leads to financial hardship and deprivation in large families. In order to achieve financial independence, a QF/P family will often move to a rural location or live in sub-standard housing. Wives often operate businesses out of their home, often employing the children to help with the work, in order to supplement the husband’s income. Refusal of government assistance sometimes means that these families go without medical insurance; a situation which can influence the parents to choose “natural remedies,” home birth, and similar non-medical approaches to family health.
Home Church / Family-Integrated Church: Because the family (primarily the father) is seen as the primary conveyor of spiritual guidance and teaching, Quiverfull families often seek fellowship with like-minded families in a setting which is not age-segregated. The children worship and learn alongside their parents and peer-interaction is closely monitored by the adults / young adults who are present.
Modesty: A girl or woman whose clothing is “revealing” is guilty of “defrauding” her Christian “brother.” because she is tempting him with impure thoughts in relation to a body (hers) which is not rightfully his to possess. Quiverfull females often wear dresses only. Many will also wear a head covering as a sign of a woman’s submission to her “head” … that is, her husband.
Not all Quiverfull families subscribe to all of the family values listed above … and not all accept and practice these teachings to the same degree. There are Quiverfull families which do not home school. There are Quiverfull couples who, while paying lip-service to the “husband as head” mandate, in actual practice are much more egalitarian (mutual submission) when it comes to the decision-making process.
Generally the longer a Christian family is involved in the home school community, the more deeply they become involved in this “family values” lifestyle. It is a process which transforms a “normal” family into a patriarchal cult completely at odds with the general population. In fact, the more “peculiar” (set apart) the family becomes, the more they consider themselves “true believers” following “the narrow way” as opposed to their neighbors who are on the “broad path which leads to destruction.”It’s Official Dogma in political Washington right now that you can’t touch the Pakistan drone strike policy. “Wasting bad guys for free” is too popular, the story says; besides, Democrats have to have some military killing of foreigners that they’re for, to give them political cover for the military killing of foreigners that they’re against. Most Democrats want to get U.S. troops the hell out of Afghanistan (outside of Official Washington, most Republicans agree.) But, the story goes, these Democrats have to have an “alternative,” and the “alternative” is drone strikes.
As a political matter, this story is true as far as it goes: it’s true because people believe it to be true. But in order for this political story to continue to work, drone strikes have to continue to be a black box, about which you can claim “success,” regardless of whether it is true. If people have to confront the actual reality of the Pakistan drone strike policy – the reality in which its impact is mostly about killing and terrorizing civilians and alienating Pakistani public opinion from the United States as opposed to the fairy tale in which it is all about wasting top-level “bad guys” – the political story will fall apart. A policy that does more harm than good isn’t an alternative to anything.
Recall that in 2006-8 there was very little Democratic opposition to the war in Afghanistan. It was the “good war” and the “right war,” unlike Iraq, which was the “bad war” and the “wrong war.” If you pressed Democrats on why they were cheerleaders for the war in Afghanistan while they slammed the war in Iraq, some would say what amounted to: “well, we have to be for some war.”
Today the situation is totally reversed on Afghanistan: Democrats overwhelmingly want to get out. What changed? Did the war change? Was the war in Afghanistan from 2009-12 fundamentally different from the war in Afghanistan from 2006-8? Or was it more that the perception of the war in Afghanistan changed, as the drawdown of troops in Iraq and the escalation of troops in Afghanistan brought the Afghan war under greater public scrutiny, so that it couldn’t be a black box anymore, about which you could claim “success,” regardless of whether it was true?
Now there is a new level of effort in the United States to open the black box of the drone strike policy and reveal to Americans the injustice that has been hidden inside the box. A report this week has given an unprecedented amount of mainstream media attention to impact on civilians of the drone strike policy. Next week I will join 34 other Americans in visiting Pakistan, meeting with the families of victims of US drone strikes, participating in a peace march against the drone strikes, and delivering a petition to US and Pakistani officials from Americans, calling for the drone strike policy to end.
Here are the facts that will cause the Pakistan drone strike policy to fall:
US drone strikes in Pakistan have killed and harmed too many civilians. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported 474 to 884 civilian deaths caused by US drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, including 176 children. Moreover, as a recent study from researchers at NYU and Stanford law schools notes, “US drone strike policies cause considerable and under-accounted for harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and physical injury,” as civilians live in a state of constant fear, since drones could strike at any time. Families are afraid to attend weddings or funerals, because US drone operators might strike them.
US drone strikes in Pakistan aren’t making America safer. The Stanford/NYU study notes, “Publicly available evidence that the strikes have made the US safer overall is ambiguous at best … The number of ‘high-level’ militants killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low – estimated at just 2%. Evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks.”
US drone strikes in Pakistan have helped turn the Pakistani public against the United States. Three quarters of Pakistanis now consider the United States to be an enemy. Only 13% of Pakistanis think relations with the U.S. have improved in recent years; four-in-ten believe that US economic and military aid is having a negative impact on Pakistan, while only about one-in-ten think the impact is positive. Only 17% back U.S. drone strikes, even if they are conducted in conjunction with the Pakistani government.
US drone strikes in Pakistan violate international law. Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, has said that US drone strikes in Pakistan threaten fifty years of international law, and that some drone strikes may constitute war crimes. A recent Congressional Research Service report noted that the US claims that drone strikes in Pakistan are in “self-defense” run afoul of international law which limits self-defense against prospective threats to ones which are “imminent.” And international law experts say that attacks on civilian rescuers are clearly illegal, regardless of whether they take place in a legal conflict or not.
US drone strikes in Pakistan violate U.S. law. The Administration claims the drone strikes in Pakistan were authorized by the 2001 authorization of military force after the 9/11 attacks. The 2001 AUMF authorized attacks on those who carried out the 9/11 attacks and those who harbored them. Judge Katherine Forrest has held that the 2001 AUMF did not cover mere “supporters” of such groups, and she questioned whether it covered “associated forces.” Under this ruling “signature strikes” and “secondary strikes” would be illegal under U.S. law.
US drone strikes in Pakistan undermine democracy. US officials claim that the Pakistani government has secretly approved the strikes by not opposing them in private. But in public, Pakistani officials vigorously oppose the strikes. The Pakistani parliament has unanimously demanded that the drone strikes stop. Meanwhile, the US government refused to give the US public, Congress, or US media basic information about the drone strike policy, claiming the policy is “secret” even as US officials publicly boast of the policy’s claimed successes. This lack of transparency undermines Americans’ ability to democratically control US foreign policy in the public interest.
Sign our petition to end the drone strike policy in Pakistan, and we will hand-deliver it to U.S. and Pakistani officials in Pakistan.What we all really want is to be loved radically and understood completely
Several years ago, I called my sister and shared what I thought was an amazing revelation, breaking news.
“Everyone just wants to be loved!” I practically screamed into the phone.
“Uh, OK, Theresa” my sister responded warily.
“No, really,” I said insistently, “Listen to me, this is the key to understanding yourself and relating to every single person you will ever meet!”
“Well, minus the occasional psychopath,” I added.
We laughed and I am sure my sister made a mental note to screen my calls in the future.
But I still remember that realization. It was one of those moments in life when cliched, superficial knowledge became real, deep, and profound.
Everyone just wants to be loved.
Some express their desire to be loved by rejecting others, before they have a chance to be hurt by them, because they have never experienced unconditional love.
Others express their desire to be loved by trying to always be on top — to be the smartest and the most charismatic in the room — because they confuse respect with love.
Others try to be physically appealing, because they confuse lust with love. The methods of our wayward pursuits of love go on and on.
We all have looked for love in ways that hurt ourselves and others at some point in our lives. But beneath our confused searches, what we all really want is to be loved radically and understood completely.
But, even when we look in the right places for love, all of us eventually learn a lesson that is terribly difficult to understand and to accept:
No one will ever love us completely.
No one will ever understand us completely.
No spouse, friend, family member, or child will ever look into our eyes and see it all.
Except Jesus.
When Jesus first meets Peter in the Gospel of John, Jesus “looked at him” and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (Jn 1:42).
This one sentence is so rich with meaning; it tells us so much about God’s love for Peter and for us.
Regarding this incident, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote in his commentary on John: “Christ, wishing to raise [Peter] up to faith in his divinity, begins to perform works of divinity, making known things that are hidden.”
Jesus gives Peter evidence that he knows him through and through and that he knows things about him that no one else knows. Jesus’ knowledge of Peter stretched from the present and into the past, encompassing even Peter’s family tree. Jesus looked at Peter and he knew him, so well that he named him prophetically, prior to his transformation in Christ, according to the person he would become in the future. Jesus knew Peter so well that he knew where he came from, where he was, and where he was going, or could go if he chose to immerse his life in Jesus.
This demonstration of God’s all-encompassing love did not just happen between Jesus and Peter in the past. It happens now between each of us and Jesus. It happens every time we take the time to search for Jesus and to look at him.
The secret of progress in the spiritual life is found in our encounter with this unconditional, endless love of Christ. It is only when we are immersed in God’s love that we will have the strength to let go of the many unhealthy ways we search for love.
After all, we will never find anyone who knows, understands, and loves us as Jesus does.
So we should probably stop looking.The text of the letter sent by the WikiLeaks founder to the actor playing him in The Fifth Estate, in response to an approach by Cumberbatch to meet
Dear Benedict,
Thank you for trying to contact me. It is the first approach by anyone from the Dreamworks production to me or WikiLeaks.
My assistants communicated your request to me, and I have given it a lot of thought and examined your previous work, which I am fond of.
I think I would enjoy meeting you.
The bond that develops between an actor and a living subject is significant.
If the film reaches distribution we will forever be correlated in the public imagination. Our paths will be forever entwined. Each of us will be granted standing to comment on the other for many years to come and others will compare our characters and trajectories.
But I must speak directly.
I hope that you will take such directness as a mark of respect, and not as an unkindness.
I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film.
I do not believe it is going to be positive for me or the people I care about.
I believe that it is going to be overwhelmingly negative for me and the people I care about.
It is based on a deceitful book by someone who has a vendetta against me and my organisation.
In other circumstances this vendetta may have gone away, but our conflict with the United States government and the establishment press has created a patronage and commissioning market – powerful, if unpopular – for works and comments that are harmful to us.
There are dozens of positive books about WikiLeaks, but Dreamworks decided
to base its script only on the most toxic. So toxic is the first book selected by Dreamworks that it is distributed to US military bases as a mechanism to discourage military personnel from communicating with us. Its author is publicly known to be involved in the Dreamworks production in an ongoing capacity.
Dreamworks' second rights purchase is the next most toxic, biased book. Published and written by people we have had a bitter contractual dispute with for years, whose hostility is well known. Neither of these two books were the first to be published and there are many independent authors who have written positive or neutral books, all of whom Dreamworks ignored.
Dreamworks has based its entire production on the two most discredited books on the market.
I know the film intends to depict me and my work in a negative light.
I believe it will distort events and subtract from public understanding.
It does not seek to simplify, clarify or distil the truth, but rather it seeks to bury it.
It will resurrect and amplify defamatory stories which were long ago shown to be false.
—
My organisation and I are the targets of political adversary from the United States government and its closest allies.
The United States government has engaged almost every instrument of its justice and intelligence system to pursue—in its own words—a 'whole of government' investigation of 'unprecedented scale and nature' into WikiLeaks under draconian espionage laws. Our alleged sources are facing their entire lives in the US prison system. Two are already in it. Another one is detained in Sweden.
Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly under the radar of conscious exclusion.
This film is going to bury good people doing good work, at exactly the time that the state is coming down on their heads.
It is going to smother the truthful version of events, at a time when the truth is most in demand.
As justification it will claim to be fiction, but it is not fiction. It is distorted truth about living people doing battle with titanic opponents. It is a work of political opportunism, influence, revenge and, above all, cowardice.
It seeks to ride on the back of our work, our reputation and our struggles.
It seeks to cut our strength with weakness. To cut affection with exploitation. To cut diligence with paranoia. To cut loyalty with naivety. To cut principle with hypocrisy. And above all, to cut the truth with lies.
The film's many distortions buttress what the prosecution will argue. Has argued. Is arguing. In my case, and in that of others. These cases will continue for years.
The studio that is producing the film is not a vulnerable or weak party.
Dreamworks' free speech rights are not in jeopardy – ours are.
Dreamworks is an extremely wealthy organisation, with ties to powerful interests in the US government.
I must therefore question the choices and motives behind it: the opportunism, fears and mundanity; the unwritten rules of film financing and distribution in the United States; the cringe against doing something useful and brave.
I believe that you are a decent person, who would not naturally wish to harm good people in dire situations.
—
You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth.
Not because you want to, of course you don't, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched.
Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world.
I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise.
Consider the consequences of your cooperation with a project that vilifies and marginalises a living political refugee to the benefit of an entrenched, corrupt and dangerous state.
Consider the consequences to people who may fall into harm because of this film.
Many will fight against history being blackwashed in this way. It is a collective history now, involving millions of people, because millions have opened their eyes as a result of our work and the attempts to destroy us.
I believe you are well intentioned but surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you.
By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give.
I cannot permit this film any claim to authenticity or truthfulness. In its current form it has neither, and doing so would only further aid the campaign against me.
It is contrary to my interests, and to those of my organisation, and I thank you for your offer, and what I am sure is your genuine intent, but I must, with inexpressible regret, turn it down.
Julian Assange
• Interview: Benedict Cumberbatch
• Review: The Fifth Estate
• News: Cumberbatch as Assange wins David Cameron's praiseAlexander Gauland says Germans ‘have the right’ to be proud of the achievements of nation’s soldiers in two world wars
AfD co-founder says Germans should be proud of its second world war soldiers
Germans should be proud of what their soldiers achieved during the first and second world wars, the top candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has said in the run-up to elections on 24 September at which the party is expected to enter parliament.
Opinion polls show the anti-immigrant AfD iwinning up to 12% of the vote, meaning it could become the third largest party in Germany’s lower house behind Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD).
AfD's top candidate hit by 'overrun by Arabs' email allegation Read more
“If the French are rightly proud of their emperor and the Britons of Nelson and Churchill, we have the right to be proud of the achievements of the German soldiers in two world wars,” Alexander Gauland, 76, said in a speech to supporters on 2 September that has since been uploaded to YouTube.
“If I look around Europe, no other people has dealt as clearly with their past wrongs as the Germans,” he said.
The Nazis ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945, during which time they killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
“People no longer need to reproach us with these 12 years. They don’t relate to our identity nowadays,” Gauland said.
He said the battle of Verdun during the first world war belonged to German history, as did Erwin Rommel, the second world war field marshal celebrated as the Desert Fox and the army officer Claus von Stauffenberg, who led an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.
Gauland said Germany needed to reclaim its history.
The AfD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, Björn Höcke, the AfD’s chief in the eastern state of Thuringia, provoked outrage by describing the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame” and demanding a “180-degree turnaround” in the way Germany seeks to atone for Nazi crimes.Get ready for more stupid Mideast violence
If memory serves, one of the lessons of Roger Fisher’s little book International Conflict for Beginners was "settle conflicts early and often." This isn’t always possible, of course, but his basic insight was that unresolved conflicts are dangerous precisely because they provide opportunities that extremists can exploit, they harden perceptions and images on both sides, and most importantly, they can always get worse. So when a promising opportunity to settle a conflict arises, wise leaders should pursue them energetically.
I thought of that insight when I heard about the attack in Israel yesterday, which left eight Israelis dead and some thirty wounded. The perpetrators are reportedly Gazans who took advantage of Egypt’s present turmoil to cross the lightly guarded Egyptian-Israeli border, and the killings themselves are a reprehensible act that will bring no good to anyone. Just as Operation Cast Lead was both immoral and strategically foolish, this latest act of violence — though on a smaller scale — was equally misguided and morally bankrupt.
However one sees this situation, a key point to keep in mind is that this sort of thing isn’t going to stop as long as the occupation and the siege of Gaza persists, and as long as one people has a state of their own and the other does not. If the situation were magically reversed and a million-plus Israelis were being kept in the same condition as the Gazans, I’d be astonished if some of them didn’t try to take up arms against whomever was oppressing them. And I’ll bet Commentary magazine would think that such actions would be perfectly okay. That thought-experiment doesn’t justify the murder of innocents, mind you, but it may help us understand where such deplorable actions come from.
The usual response by partisans of each side is to blame the other for all the trouble, but in reality there is plenty of blame to go around. Israel’s occupation is illegal, unjustified, and relies on brutal coercion to continue, and its current government is more interested in expanding settlements than in pursuing reasonable opportunities for genuine peace. The Palestinian people have been repeatedly betrayed by their own leaders’ blunders, by supposedly sympathetic Arab states that have frequently sought to exploit their plight (or worse), and by extremists who seem to think killing a few more Israelis will somehow advance their quest for statehood. In truth, both sides have done a good job of "never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity," which is one reason why the conflict remains unresolved to this day.
In such a situation, one might hope that outside powers would use their influence to bring the conflict to a close, out of their own self-interest. It is hardly good for the United States to be perennially distracted by this issue, or to have its regional image tarnished and its diplomacy complicated by its one-sided position. Nearly twenty years ago, the Oslo agreements seemed to provide an opportunity to end the conflict once-and-for-all, except that the United States proved to be a hopelessly inept steward of the "peace process." And as Fisher might have warned, it’s just gotten worse. Remember that Hamas did not have a lot of popular support when the Oslo process began, but its popularity increased when Oslo failed to deliver and Fatah’s corruption became more apparent. Meanwhile, Israeli politics has drifted steadily rightward, making any sort of territorial compromise less and less likely. Given where we are today, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a "do-over" of the 1990s? Alas, that sort of replay is a mere fantasy.
To repeat: yesterday’s attack was morally wrong and strategically foolish. But until more people start thinking outside the box on this one — and demanding that political leaders think differently too — you can be confident that we’ll see more of the same — by both sides — in the future. And the danger of a larger explosion will grow.With a stellar lineup that includes rock legend Van Morrison, alt-country queen Lucinda Williams, roots travellers Wilco and Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, the inaugural edition of CityFolk can’t help but stand out from this summer’s crop of Ottawa-area festivals.
Conjuring a lineup that attracts attention was a challenge that executive and artistic director Mark Monahan rose to meet in his mission to transform the former Ottawa Folk Festival. The revamped version of the late-summer music festival takes place Sept. 16-20 in a spiffy new location: the Great Lawn of the recently renovated Lansdowne Park.
“I think that the festival scene is becoming very crowded and what I’m trying to do is to carve out a niche for this event that will get an Ottawa audience excited. That’s the first goal I had in mind,” Monahan said in an interview.
“When I look at the lineup, it can’t just be like every other festival. It’s about taking what’s out there and trying to figure out what is best given our location and audience. That’s where I start. We’re not going to bring in someone who’s been here in the last year. It can’t be the same thing.”
What’s more, the CityFolk lineup had to be different than that of RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest, too, the 10-day festival that’s been run by Monahan and his team for more than 20 years. They took over management of the folk event in 2011, moved it to Hog’s Back Park, put some new ideas into the programming and have been watching attendance grow ever since. Last year’s festival attracted a record crowd of |
set-piece situations (not including his one goal direct from a free-kick) and, in 2015/16, no player scored more goals from inside the box. All the indicators are he'd be a more than useful presence in the opposition box for corner-kick routines.
However, the bare facts of his corner-taking at Euro 2016 make for interesting reading: no player has completed more successful corners so far in the tournament and Kane's corner-kick stats are far more impressive than Dimitri Payet's efforts for France against Romania.
Corner-kick takers in first two days of Euro 2016 Player Country Corners taken Found team-mate Success rate Nicolae Stanciu Romania 3 3 100% Harry Kane England 6 4 66.6% Xherdan Shaqiri Switzerland 3 2 66.6% Taulant Xhaka Albania 2 1 50% Vladimir Weiss Slovakia 2 1 50% Oleg Shatov Russia 3 1 33% Dimitri Payet France 5 1 20% Adrian Popa Romania 1 0 0% Ricardo Rodriguez Switzerland 1 0 0% Ermir Lenjani Albania 1 0 0% Ergys Kace Albania 1 0 0% Aaron Ramsey Wales 2 0 0% Robert Mak Slovakia 1 0 0% Aleksandr Kokorin Russia 1 0 0%
It should be pointed out, though, that one of Kane's completed corners was a short pass to Adam Lallana and another found Alli - who had to fetch the ball from the far side of the field after it had been over hit.
None of England's other starters against Russia are regular corner-kick takers for their clubs - although second-half sub James Milner took 116 in the Premier League for Liverpool - so Kane seems likely to retain the role for England's second Group B game with Wales.
Until an England player heads home one of his centres, the debate about his suitability for the task will rumble on…Programs that are written in the Rust programming language can be compiled to run on many different computers. For example, a Rust program may be written on Linux, and compiled to run on Windows, without changes needing to be made to the Rust code itself. This usually just works without you needing to think about it as a programmer, but sometimes you need to make a distinction.
For example, when it compiles on Windows, you might need to process files in a subtly different way to take into account that file names on Windows are case-insensitive. FileName.TxT and filename.txt would be considered the same file on Windows, and different files on Linux.
For these situations, Rust provides a conditional compilation attribute, #[cfg(...)] and a conditional compilation macro cfg!(...).
Taking Rusty Microphone to the Web
Rusty Microphone is a Rust desktop application that I’ve been working on. I’ve recently decided that it would be a good idea to use Rust’s support for WebAssembly through Emscripten to make a version of Rusty Microphone that I can embed in my website. Apologies for the piles of jargon, but what it boils down to is that I’ll be writing a library in Rust and calling it from JavaScript.
Rusty Microphone currently uses GTK to create a window on the screen and PortAudio to manage audio devices. In other words, it’s a Linux desktop application. I want to replace these with HTML and the Web Audio API respectively on the web, without changing my desktop build. This is where I’m using conditional compilation in my own project.
The Emscripten Build, and the Not Emscripten Build
Making this split meant going through the project and stubbing out the parts that don’t make sense in a web application.
For functions that should only be included in a web build, I annotate the function with #[cfg(target_os="emscripten")]. The target OS of ‘emscripten’ covers both WebAssembly and an older option for compiling code to run in a web browser, Asm.js. Other valid target OS options would be things like “windows” and “linux”, but since I’m logically splitting on “emscripten” and “not emscripten”, my functions that don’t work with a web build get this attribute: #[cfg(not(target_os="emscripten"))].
#[cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten" ))] fn main () { // This main will be run on Windows, Mac and Linux use rusty_microphone :: * ; let gui_result = gui :: start_gui (); if gui_result. is_err () { println! ( "Failed to initialize" ); return ; } } #[cfg(target_os = "emscripten" )] fn main () { // This main will be run on WebAssembly or Asm.js builds println! ( "Hello Emscripten" ); }
If the functions have the same name and take the same arguments, as they do here with the two mains, you can actually create a situation where platform independent code can call platform dependent code. If you have an implementation for all platforms, it would mean that you have a platform independent program, even though some parts of it have platform specific behaviour.
You can also do this on a module level. For example, my lib.rs looks like this now:
// transforms is the core logic of my application that I want // everywhere. pub mod transforms ; // gui (depending on GTK and Cairo) will only be for desktop // builds. The WebAssembly build will have HTML for this. #[cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten" ))] extern crate gtk ; #[cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten" ))] extern crate cairo ; #[cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten" ))] pub mod gui ; // audio (depending on Portaudio) will only be used for desktop // builds. The WebAssembly build will use the Web Audio API #[cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten" ))] extern crate portaudio ; #[cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten" ))] pub mod audio ;
Platform-Specific Dependencies in Cargo.toml
Different platforms may need to specify different dependencies. You can do this by specifying target-specific dependencies, with a similar cfg string, in your Cargo.toml. My dependencies now look like this:
[dependencies] bencher = "0.1.2" [target.'cfg(not(target_os = "emscripten"))'.dependencies] portaudio = "0.7.0" gtk = "0.1.1" cairo-rs = "0.1.1"
What Other Conditions can I Use?
The full list of cfg attributes is available in the Rust documentation. It has things like the target architecture (32 bit, 64 bit, ARM…), the target operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS…), whether or not this is a unit test build, and whether or not this is a debug build.
I’d suggest taking a read through the docs to know what the options are. I’m not sure when else these attributes will come up in my projects, but I’m keeping them in the back of my mind just in case.Ukraine Part Of US/NATO/EU Plan To Break Up Russia
Interview With Prof Francis Boyle
22 February, 2014
Countercurrents.org
It is a fact that since 9-11-2001, the US Government has been in the business of destroying countries and using NATO as it principle instrument. That was stated more than a decade ago by then US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and later by General Wesley Clark. The Pentagon drew up a list of 7 states that were to be destroyed: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria and they have systematically proceeded to destroy all of the Countries on the list. The strategy in Ukraine is the same, US/NATO/EU are promoting the destabilization and the breakup of Ukraine in order to achieve the NATO goal of moving into Ukrainian territory closer to Russia. Harvard Professor Francis Boyle, a US based Russian expert who was invited to the Soviet Union to lecture spoke on these issues and more in an interview with the Voice of Russia. While Russia was distracted into believing that the US wanted a reset US foreign policy was being planned and dictated by rabid Russia haters like Zbignew Brzezinski and Richard Pipes. Brzezinski wants to breakup Russia into approximately 68 parts and has placed his protégés in key US foreign policy posts. According to Mr. Boyle, Brezezinski has staffed the Obama administration with his acolytes and protégées, including the US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, a specialist in color revolutions. At the end of the day the US plan is to see the breakup of the Russian Federation, that is the goal.
This is John Robles, you are listening to an interview with Professor Francis Boyle. He is a Professor in International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, Illinois. This is part 1 of a longer interview. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.com
Robles: Hello Sir! How are you this evening?
Boyle: Very fine. Thanks for having me on, John, and my best to your listening audience.
Robles: Thank you Sir! And thanks for agreeing to speak with us. News of the day is Ukraine. Now you've recently made some statements and done some work regarding Syria. I'd like to ask for your correlations between what is going on right now in Syria and what is going on right now in Ukraine. Do you see a connection? Some people are saying that Ukraine, the push there was because the US was not allowed to carry out military operations against Syria. Do you see a relationship between them?
Boyle: Well I wouldn't say that is necessarily the reason. As we know, Ukraine has for a long time been a strategic objective of the United States and trying to get Ukraine into NATO. And this EU plan was simply a first step in that direction. The EU wasn't really offering anything to Ukraine. But it was very clear, if they could move Ukraine closer to the EU, that would be a step closer to NATO. In fact, I regret to say over the years, even though I have EU citizenship and carry an EU passport, the EU now has become nothing but an anteroom to NATO.
So, I think this really has to be understood in terms of the gradual movement of NATO further to the east in violation of the pledge that George Bush Senior and Jim Baker gave to then President Gorbachev that if he agreed to the reunification of Germany, NATO would move no farther east, towards Russia's boundaries.
Robles: Well, we've seen those promises, similar promises were made to President Gorbachev the first and last President of the Soviet Union those were also ignored. And regarding
Boyle: The problem was he never got them in writing.
Robles: That's exactly what I was going to say.
Boyle: That is incredibly naive on his part not to get them in writing. And I would point out, right now the United States is trying to do the exact same thing on the deployment of BMDs (ballistic missile defense) into Europe and around the borders of Russia saying you have to accept our assurances, but we are not going to give you anything in writing.
You know, it is preposterous. In fact, we had something in writing and that was the Anti-ballistic Missile System Treaty of 1972 that prevented all of this. And then Bush Junior pulled out of that treaty. So, as it stands now, really anything goes, these verbal assurances mean nothing.
Robles: Getting away a little bit from the ABM system now, you mentioned NATO and Ukraine; there is a military objective, if you could tell us about that? And is there a similar military objective for Syria? Or what is the objective of the US Government in Syria?
Boyle: Since 9/11 2001, as publicly admitted by then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, the United States Government would be getting into the business of destroying states. And that was later confirmed by General Wesley Clark, as you know in his memoirs, his meeting there at the Pentagon where they had the list of seven states they were going to proceed to take over.
Afghanistan was first, Iraq was second, Sudan was on the list, Libya was on the list and Syria was on the list, Iran was on the list. So, they are proceeding systematically down that list of destroying states. Syria is now near the top, Iran might be next. And it also appears now the same strategy is being applied to Ukraine to promote the crackup of Ukraine between east and west and, I would hate to say it, the dissolution of Ukraine as a state.
Robles: Can you repeat that quote again? He said
Boyle: Yes Wolfowitz said I have the citation in my book The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, where Wolfowitz said: We are going to get into the business of destroying states. And then, soon thereafter General Wesley Clark (head of NATO) was in the Pentagon and can confirm they drew up a list of seven states that they were systematically going to go after.
So, that's really, the objective here of Syria, against Syria, is as they did to Libya: to crackup Syria as a state into its constituent, religious and ethnic units not only for the United States but also for the benefit of Israel.
As you know, Israel has been a long time opponent to Syria. They headed a plan there, the Yi Nolan Plan to crackup surrounding states in order to better manage them and keep them under control. So, here you see a congruence of interests certainly between the United States and Israel.
And I regret to say it, but pretty much they have cracked up Syria in its constituent units, as they had done to Iraq. We now have basically three mini states in Iraq. The same has been done to Afghanistan and also Libya, where you have, you know it is hard to say there is a meaningful state there anymore. I have a new book out called Destroying Libya and World Order where I have all these citations in there and an analysis. And then, I tried to extend this to Syria near the end of the book.
And it does appear we are seeing a similar pattern of behavior here on Ukraine: to destabilize Ukraine, promote a crack up, some type of civil war or who knows what. And I guess the theory is, well if NATO-EU can get western Ukraine fine! they can extend the borders of NATO, the EU that far.
So, it is a very dangerous situation, because, as you know, Ukraine is of utmost strategic significance to Russia. And second, Russia believes that Ukraine is the cradle of its civilization.
Robles: Well it is, that's not a belief. Ukraine is the mother of Rus.
Boyle: I've been to Ukraine and I've been to where Nestor wrote his chronicles, and I have studied Russian and Ukrainian history, sure, at Harvard. And I went through the same PhD program at Harvard that produced Zbigniew Brzezinski before me and Richard Pipes, both of whom were, are ardent Russia haters, there is no question at all about it. And that is really part of the problem here in the United States, when it comes to Russian studies, that so much of it is biased against Russia inherently.
Robles: Why is that, please, if you could? You've been through the system, you know the system. Why does the US hate Russia so much? Why?
Boyle: Well I spent ten years at the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School studying Russian history, Russian literature, Soviet politics, Russian politics. Indeed I even offered Soviet politics and Russian history on my PhD General Exams at Harvard, which qualified me to teach both those subjects to undergraduates at Harvard. But I never learned the language because that was not what I was intending to do.
And all those years, ten years of studying, I only had two professors who I thought were fair, reasonable and balanced when it came to Russia and the Soviet Union. And understand Harvard and Chicago are two of the leading centers in the United States for training Russian experts. They train professors and experts, government officials and things of that nature.
Robles : Diplomats
Boyle: So, and again, you had Brzezinski, I went through the same PhD program that produced Brzezinski and Kissinger. You know Brzezinski is an expatriate Pole who hates the Russians with a passion.
Robles : Oh God yes, yeah
Boyle: Indeed Brzezinski wants to crackup Russia into its constituent units.
Robles : Right, I think it was 68 autonomous regions, if that's what it was.
Boyle: It's more dangerous than that! In that Obama's mentor at Columbia was Brzezinski. And Brzezinski ran the foreign affairs apparatus for Obama's campaign and he has staffed the Obama administration with his acolytes and protégés, like McFaul the recently resigning ambassador.
Robles: I'm sorry, can you expand a little bit on McFaul? You said he is one of Brzezinski's protégé.
Boyle: Yes, he is from the Hoover Institute at Stanford, which is a neo-conservative operation out there, and Brzezinski is one of these people.
Robles : Was McFaul chosen by Brzezinski?
Boyle: I think all the high-level appointments in the Obama administration in foreign affairs have been run by Brzezinski. That is my personal feeling looking at it. Yes, Brzezinski decided not to take a position himself, but all these people that have surrounded Obama, not just on Russia, but other areas, are Brzezinski protégés and indeed that goes back in the Democratic Party I think since Carter came to power and Brzezinski was his National Security Advisor. You know, he was the one who started the Afghan Mujahidin war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and bragged about it.
So, within the Democratic Party Brzezinski is considered to be their foreign affairs guru and he was Obama's mentor at Columbia, and it is a matter of public record that Brzezinski was running the foreign affairs apparatus for the Obama campaign.
Robles: Wow!
Boyle: So, I certainly believe he helped staff this administration on foreign affairs matters.
Robles: People are thinking about a reset and trying to improve relations. And I don't think anyone knew that it was all Brzezinski, because people knew who Brzezinski was a long time ago.
Boyle: Right. Well, this I think is part of their plan to see the crackup of the Russian Federation, at the end of the day. Sure, that's I think what his objective is.
You know, if you want to get credentialed as an expert on Russia, you have to go to somewhere like Columbia or Harvard, or Chicago and get your Master's degree or PhD from people like that. At Harvard they also had Richard Pipes, he was the Reagan's top guru on the Soviet Union, The Committee on the Present Danger.
I had Pipes for imperial Russian history, again, another expatriate Pole who hates the Russians with passion. Pipes was so bad in his course on Imperial Russian history, he used to break into sweat when he was lecturing on Peter the Great or Catherine the Great and had to take a handkerchief out of his pocket and wipe his brow. So, he is another fanatic against the Russians, only prominent in the Republican Party.
So, we don't really have you know Professor Cohen at NYU I think is fair, balanced and reasonable when it comes to Russia. He just wrote something in The Nation on Ukraine. And I think he wrote a very good book on Russia. But you know, he is really the exception to a pretty abysmal rule here in the United States when it comes to training and credentialing what were Soviet and now Russian experts.
Robles : So, why are you fair-minded Sir?
Boyle: I try to come at Russia and the Soviet Union with an open mind. I lived through the Cuban missile crisis and I concluded that probably the most important issue of my time would be to learn to understand Russia across the board and the Soviet Union. So, that's why I spent the ten years studying at the University of Chicago and Harvard and getting formally credentialed in these areas.
And I have to say I was pretty appalled. I did have Professor Edward Keenan at Harvard who was my teacher, mentor and friend. And he was Director of the Russian Research Center. And he is very fair, balanced and reasonable, and Professor Harold Berman at Harvard Law School, again, very fair, balanced and reasonable. But that was pretty much about it.
I was invited over twice by the Soviet Government to lecture, once around the country in 1986 and then in 1989. And I guess they just figured I was a reasonable American to talk to. And I was open, I met with people and lectured and I seemed to get along with everyone. We didn't necessarily agree about everything, but at least we could try to talk it out.
But that's not what we are seeing now. That's for sure! As we know from the Nuland tape here with the Ambassador in Kiev, she admits they had spent at least $5 million right away now trying to promote opposition to the democratically elected government in Ukraine. Whatever you think of Yanukovych, he is democratically elected and so far I think he's shown a remarkable restraint.
You were listening to an interview with Professor Francis Boyle. He is a Professor in International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. That was part 1 of a longer interview. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.comThe term gaslighting originates from a play/film called Gas Light, in which a man tries to convince his wife she is mad. He does this by changing her environment (e.g. dimming the gas lighting) and then telling her she’s imagining things.
As a psychological term, it is essentially a technique that allows someone to bully others by making someone doubt their own perceptions, memories and feelings. It is used in cases as slight as passive-aggression to cases as serious as domestic violence, abuse and sexual assault.
Gaslighting works as a poison – it is the victim’s doubts and mistrust of their own perceptions of reality that makes the technique effective. That means that gaslighting is an excellent way of targeting someone with whom there is already a power imbalance (e.g. doctor or therapist and patient, teacher and student, adult and child, boss and worker, popular and unpopular).
Examples of gaslighting may be about brushing things off, pretending to get offended when issues were brought up, telling the victim that they were being unreasonable, outright denying that something was said/done, claiming the victim has misunderstood (e.g. it was “banter”, deliberately over-reacting to make the victim feel silly, or suggesting that the victim is “too” (stressed, tired, sensitive). Additionally, gaslighters may bring in other people, who are ignorant of the whole picture, to shame the victim and emphasise the idea that it is an overreaction.
Usually the events that constitute gaslighting are innocuous and small. It is not outright, clear abuse, but incidents that seem minor and build up over time. This means it’s easy to make the victim doubt their perceptions of what has happened, or how serious something is. By stirring up guilt and shame in the victim, or outright claiming something never happened, it is possible to do some pretty horrible things.
These small acts often progress like a trail of breadcrumbs. This progression of small things allows the perpetrator to “get a foot in the door” with their gaslighting, and push the boundary just that tiny bit further each time. By the time the victim realises things have gone too far, it may be too late.
Regarding pushing the boundary, an example may be a person in the workplace who is overly touchy-feely. The first time it happened they brushed past the victim when there was plenty of space. Then, a few days later, they may pass the victim a folder, brushing their hand against theirs. Perhaps they progressed and insisted on giving the victim a congratulatory hug for a minor achievement. Everyone in the office was watching and the victim felt unable to refuse the hug without looking like they were overreacting.
Such incidents continue, and the hugs start to occur in private places rather than in public. Yet, there is never any obvious problem such as sexual assault.
If the victim brought this up with the gaslighter, the person may retort that they are just being friendly, and suggest that the victim is arrogant to think otherwise. They may bring up the long history of hugging and suggest “It was never a problem before”. In the workplace, a gaslighter may bring colleagues in to publicly shame the victim “Have you heard this?”.
The key thing about this situation is that the first incidents were too small to bring up, because the person being gaslighted wasn’t sure what was happening. The first hug was done in public, and it was difficult to backtrack – and this leads the way to claim the victim is “overreacting, you were never bothered before”. This is especially difficult for women who are considered overreactive and unstable in the first place.
Gaslighting, aside from victims into unwanted situations, does insidious damage to self-esteem. It teaches victims that they have no understanding of people or of the world around them, that they can’t believe your instincts, or that they are helpless and vulnerable. It makes them feel they “need the support” and “can’t cope alone” which is another form of discrediting and gaslighting. Most importantly, the person being gaslighted unable to trust their own feelings.
This is especially easy to perpetrate on people who already doubt their own feelings and perceptions, which may include those who have experienced abusive relationships, invalidating childhoods, women, children, and people with mental health problems,
To protect oneself, and others, against gaslighting, a physical written record is important. That prevents the victim from doubting their memory, and it allows them to track any gentle progression of behaviours. This also provides a record for anyone who is in a position to help, to support them in understanding and believing the victim’s situation.
Additionally, speaking to a trusted other who can provide an outsider view would be useful, if such a person were around. Especially regarding passive-aggressive bullying, or subtle sexual inappropriateness, it may be that others are also victims, or people who have the same emotional experience of the gaslighter. It is also crucial to identify someone with power who can provide support and help.
On an individual level, Gavin De Becker’s book ‘The Gift of Fear’ explains the importance of recognising gaslighting, and critically developing the skills of trusting one’s gut instincts, learning to be assertive (especially, but not limited to, women, who are socialised to be polite and gentle), building confidence, and being more forthright one’s wants and needs There are also free resources online.
One can also use simple statements such as “Can you explain why that joke is funny?”, “I never told you before, but I’m actually not a huggy person”, “I hear you say that it’s not on purpose, but it makes me feel awkward anyway, so can you stop it?”, “I know you think I’m overreacting but this is important to me. Is there a problem with changing your behaviour?”.
This is not at all to suggest that a victim is responsible for protecting themselves from gaslighting. The victim is not responsible for making the gaslighting stop. However, some of these ideas may support a victim in trying to recognise gaslighting, minimise the harm and seek appropriate support. Some of these individual techniques are impossible due to a power dynamic, or because of worries about physical safety. If it isn’t safe to use simple deflection techniques, then removing oneself from the situation and getting help from others are the best options.
It is important for us to recognise this process, in ourselves and with the people around us. Gaslighting’s key feature is invalidation. There is a crucial difference between a curious “Have you thought about it in this way?” and “You are overreacting, it’s not like that at all, you’re so sensitive”. It is true that an individual’s feelings may not always seem reasonable or understandable from an outsider perspective. Additionally, the way that one reacts to those feelings is not always acceptable (e.g. the valid feeling of anger does not make physical aggression okay).
However, feelings are real and they are true for that person. They are always, always valid, and nobody has the right to tell anyone otherwise.
Let’s all work together to put out those gaslights.The riveting news events of the last several months buried three other news items that collectively indicate perhaps a far more critically important development. The global warming movement is rapidly losing one of its two remaining avenues for greenhouse gas regulation enforcement: the courts.
Item #1 occurred on Jan 10th, when the Supreme Court denied the petition for mandamus filed by plaintiffs in the Comer v. Murphy Oil global warming nuisance lawsuit, which would have had the Supreme Court require the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to re-examine the case. A web site analyzing the action said about the lack plaintiffs asking for more review by the courts:
This should be the end of the case because the plaintiffs did not file a petition for certiorari, but given how convoluted the lawsuit's path through the courts has been, perhaps there's a strange maneuver that could revive it.
Item #2 very quietly happened on February 11th:
Wisconsin has withdrawn from a Supreme Court case in which it defended a court of appeals decision that allowed a public nuisance lawsuit to proceed against American Electric Power and several other utilities for their greenhouse gas emissions (American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, U.S., No. 10-174, party withdrawn 2/21/11)
Item #3 relates to the same case initial case, Connecticut v. AEP, and happened just days ago :
New Jersey has withdrawn from a lawsuit brought by several states that sought to have five electric utilities cut the greenhouse gases emitted by their power plants in 20 states.... Eight states had initially brought the suit, along with New York City and three nonprofit land trusts seeking to combat global warming. But that number shrunk to seven in February, when Wisconsin dropped out of the suit.
American Electric Power will have its appeal heard by the Supreme Court sometime this spring, basically about whether the lawsuit has enough merit to be heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. If the justices decide it does not, then this lawsuit dies just like Comer v. Murphy Oil.
There are highly problematic details in this case that might prompt the justices to ask questions beyond the Court's ability to enforce greenhouse gas regulation alongside the EPA. Essentially, the premise of the case only remains intact if they don't question why the architect of the entire lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers for the nonprofit land trusts, is tied is to a small group of people whose main goal seems to have been to marginalize skeptic climate scientists. That group, anti-skeptic book author Ross Gelbspan, and enviro-activists at Ozone Action, are described in my December 2010 article as having based their central accusation on an out-of-context phrase taken from an otherwise unseen 1991 coal industry internal memo.
By focusing on why so much effort is made via unsupported accusations to portray skeptic scientists as corrupt cranks, the Supreme Court justices might not simply wipe out a lower court re-examination of a lawsuit mandating the regulation of greenhouse gases. Such questioning might instead prompt a complete re-examination of "man-caused global warming", and how it survives under unrestrained criticism from whistle blowers detailing why the IPCC is unable to support its own underlying science assessments. The revelation of 15+ years of journalistic malfeasance on this one issue, and all the repercussions from it, could end up being one of the bigger stories of the last two decades.Miranda Chavez was 8 years old when she walked along the sandy shore in Edisto Beach, South Carolina, with her parents and a glass bottle in hand.
Instead of writing a letter to a pen pal, like other third-graders in her class, Chavez went a different route — she put a message in a bottle and tossed it into the ocean, hoping someday she'd get a response. That was on September 26,1988.
"I remember my mother being really insistent on writing the date on the note for me," Chavez told CBS News. "I threw it as far as I possibly could. I was afraid I would leave and it would wash back up on shore."
The letter didn't end up on shore.
Miranda Chavez tossed a message in a bottle into the ocean in South Carolina when she was 8 years old. Miranda Moss Chavez
Instead, it drifted about 90 miles away to Sapelo Island, Georgia. Linda Humphries and her husband, David, discovered the bottle 29 years later while doing a beach sweep on Saturday.
"We have a current name and city for the now 37 year-old sender, but any phone numbers we've found were dead ends," Humphries wrote in a Facebook post. "Will keep trying."
Hours later, she got in touch with Chavez and told her about the old crinkled letter.
Chavez couldn't believe it. She was certain the bottle was lost and buried after Hurricane Hugo slammed into South Carolina in 1989.
"But the moment I looked at it I knew it was mine," Chavez said. "Granted, I had forgotten about it. It had been 29 years."
Chavez moved out of her childhood home when she was a teenager. In fact, the address on the letter doesn't even exist anymore.
"That was so long ago," Chavez said. "It would be pretty difficult to find me."
Luckily, the power of social media brought the pair together.
"Who would have thought? It's so awesome how something that small — no matter what you've got going on in your life — can take you back to your childhood and to some of the absolute happiest times of your life," Chavez said.
Since Humphries posted about the 29-year-old letter, Chavez says she has been contacted by several former classmates.
"I lost contact with all of those people when I moved from that town," Chavez said. "Not only have I made new friends, like Linda and David, but I've also been able to reconnect with people."
Chavez says she's already made plans to meet Humphries and her husband in the coming weeks, and she also hopes to visit the island where her letter was discovered.
"It was meant to be found. It was meant to do something, even if it was just to have people have something positive to say for a few days," Chavez said. "I guess it served it's purpose."'Half Asian'? 'Half White'? No — 'Hapa'
She was tall and freckled, with long, dark hair — and we stood out in the same way. As I leaned in to say hi, she yelled over the din, "You're hapa, aren't you?" It was the last word I expected to hear in D.C., but I welcomed the refreshing respite from the constant and inevitable question: "What are you?"
What am I? This is what they're really asking here: What is the particular racial mix that created you? Because YOU don't fit into a single box in my mind, and that confuses me.
I'm half Korean and half white, and it's usually easier to just leave it there. If I were to volunteer my identity though, I would tell you I'm hapa.
Enlarge this image toggle caption istolethetv/Flickr istolethetv/Flickr
Hapa is a Hawaiian pidgin word used to describe mixed-race people — primarily, though not exclusively, those who are half white and half Asian. It's short for hapalua, the Hawaiian word that literally means "half" — and it originated as a derogatory term toward mixed-race children of plantation guest workers from the Philippines, Korea, China and Japan, and the women they married in Hawaii in the early part of the 20th century.
In recent years, though, hapa has become a term mixed-race people in Hawaii are proud to embrace. I learned the word in Hawaii, where I spent my elementary school years being one of the "whitest" kids in my school in Waialua, Hawaii. I would later move to Kansas and become the only "Asian" in my fifth-grade class. My white friends held their noses at the kimbap my mom sent on special occasions. Even now, friends marvel at their incompetence with chopsticks before vowing to marry Asian men — because "mixed babies are so cute!"
But on the rare occasion that I do find myself among Koreans, it's blatantly clear that I am not part of the club. I'm self-conscious of my Korean pronunciation, and I bow just a little too long in an attempt at a respectful greeting.
It's this confusion of identity that characterizes the experience of being hapa — struggling to find a balance between being too white and too Asian.
In identifying as hapa, I've found a way to normalize my in-betweenness. Having a specific word for what I am connects me to a larger racial demographic in which I perfectly fit — and more than that, it makes me remarkably unspecial. Among hapas, I'm no longer a biological curiosity, just a product of this country.
It's not a coincidence that the term originated in Hawaii; its cultural and geographical isolation makes the state a particularly interesting case study for race and identity in the U.S. About 27 percent of Hawaii's population identifies solely as white, compared with the country's 77.7 percent. And while less than 3 percent of the U.S. population at large identifies with more than one race, 23.3 percent of Hawaii's population identifies as mixed in some way. Demographically, people in Hawaii meld and mix in ways the country's population as a whole won't come close to reaching for years.
Artist Kip Fulbeck lived in Hawaii for several years, and he remembers a more keen awareness of racial and cultural differences among nonwhites than on the mainland.
"I think [hapa] is a much more interesting and accurate word than 'Amerasian' or 'Eurasian' or any these words that are two words combined, because I don't think of myself as half Asian and half white. I think of myself as a whole."
"If I'm living in Hawaii and playing pickup basketball," he said, "they'll say 'Hapa haole, throw me the ball!' or 'Hey, buddhahead! Hey, kimchi!' "
Like me, |
the quest with Deekonus in all situations.
Returning Winter’s Bite: This quest will now advance properly if you already have Winter’s Bite in your inventory.
Returning Winter’s Bite: Fixed an issue where the boss Thorfa could potentially not respawn for several minutes.
Breaking the Coven: Eyeballs will no longer duplicate themselves within your inventory.
A Walk Above the Clouds: If you die to the boss, you will be able to use the kindling and light fires again.
Yngrel the Bloody: Fixed an issue where the boss Yngrel could potentially not spawn for several minutes.
Storming the Hall: Vigrod is now present, and you will no longer become blocked at the step “Talk to Vigrod.”
Tomb Beneath the Mountain: The boss scene will now reset if Hakra becomes stuck and unable to reach his destination.
Revised the messaging when you use /stuck so the text gives you clearer feedback.
Fixed an issue when you turned in a quest to an NPC and leveled up, and the experience bar would still appear to be full.
Fixed an issue when launching the game in full screen, and occasionally you would be using the incorrect resolution.
If you lose focus of the game (due to clicking outside of the game window), clicking back on the game window will now take into account if you clicked something on the HUD. It will use this to determine whether you should be put into the mouse cursor mode or targeting mode.
For example, clicking on the chat window while the game is out of focus, will bring the game back into focus with the cursor. Clicking on the world while the game is out of focus, will bring the game back into focus with the target reticle.
Fixed an issue within the split stack dialogue that was preventing you from typing into the text field.
Fixed an issue if you took all the resources of a keep in Cyrodiil around the same time, the icons would not update in real time.
Fixed an issue after setting a home campaign, and the Overview UI would overlay on top of the screen.
All chat messages are now limited to 350 characters.
Fixed an issue with Guild Officer chat. It will now work properly.
Fixed an issue if a Smith created an item and had less material left than required to make it again, and adjusting the amount down did not update the UI properly.
Fixed an issue where veteran-rank stat increases were not displaying in the UI.
Fixed an issue where some Mundus Stone buffs were appearing incorrectly in the UI.
Note: This did not affect your stats.
Fixed an issue where you would occasionally have the prompt to resurrect an ally, even if you were significantly out of range.
The player-to-player prompt now indicates when a target is being resurrected, and when they have already received a resurrection.
Fixed an issue where guild store glyph filters only specified "Glyph" and not the type (for example: Armor Glyph, Weapon Glyph & Jewelry Glyph.)
Added a new overhead icon for group leaders.
Fixed an issue where some light chest armor and shields that were combined with gold quality magicka enchantments appeared incorrectly in the UI
Note: This did not affect your stats.
Volenfell: You will no longer be shown as off the map or in the wrong location while in the Guardian’s Orbit, The Guardian’s Skull, or The Eye’s Chamber.
Updated the icons for public and instanced dungeons to better delineate public dungeons from delves: The icon for delves is a torch. The icon for a public dungeon is a torch with a plus sign (+). The icon for an instanced 4-man dungeon are crossed torches.
Fixed an issue where items with no sell value would still display a value in the item tooltip.
Addressed minor text issues in trait tooltips on clothing stations.
Fixed an issue where quest item tooltips were not showing the quest item name in all capitals and had no icon.
Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online v1.1.2. This version contains our first major content update: the Adventure Zone Craglorn, as well as many other fixes and refinements.You’ll need allies to take on the new challenges—Craglorn’s quests and exploration are designed for groups of four Veteran Rank 10+ characters. (You can enter Craglorn and play the content earlier than Veteran Rank 10.)We’ve also added our first Trials in Craglorn, 12-player adventures meant to test even the strongest heroes. In Trials, your team will have a limited number of resurrections to use as you attempt to reach the final boss. If you finish the Trial quickly, you might earn a place on the leaderboards and receive extra rewards!Another new feature is the Death Recap. This screen will help you understand what contributed to your death and hints that can help improve your performance next time.Alongside the new content, we’re deploying bug fixes and improvements to make your adventures in Tamriel even better. You’ll see fixes for quests and skill line abilities, updates to systems and quests in Cyrodiil (including bonuses for outnumbered alliances), and much more.We’re looking forward to your feedback so get in, group up, and enjoy Craglorn and the rest of the update!The concept of player specific chemistries / traits is not a novel idea. The Madden MUT franchise has incorporated player specific ability chemistries that can change the way the player performs on the field. For example, there is a Chemistry called “Never Stumble” and it serves to automatically prevent your running back from falling to the ground while stumbling. Typically, when controlling a player without the never stumble chemistry, you would have to manually use the right stick to keep them on their feet.
The FIFA FUT series has utilized the concept of “Player Traits.” EA has not been as candid with how the Player Traits impact the players performance in FUT. Some traits are more self explanatory than others, such as “avoids weaker foot.” Others, including but not limited to playmaker, finesse shot and power header are less clear on how they impact the card’s performance. Even more specifically, we are not able to view how these traits change the in-game stats. The NHL series should consider a line-based traits system.
Continue reading “NHL 19 – HUT Line Combination Traits Concept”The Senate cleared the way to President Donald Trump's tax plan when a $4 trillion budget plan was narrowly pushed through by GOP lawmakers Thursday - this, as attention was focused on Trump and Chief of Staff John F. Kelly's public argument with Rep. Frederica Wilson over the president's alleged mistreatment of a Gold Star widow. (Published Friday, Oct. 20, 2017)
President Donald Trump promised tax cuts Friday "which will be the biggest in the history of our country!" following Senate passage of a $4 trillion budget that lays the groundwork for Republicans' promised tax legislation.
Republicans hope to push the first tax overhaul in three decades through Congress by year's end, an ambitious goal that would fulfill multiple campaign promises but could run aground over any number of disputes. Failure could cost the GOP dearly in next year's midterm elections.
The budget plan, which passed on a near party-line vote late Thursday, includes rules that will allow Republicans to get tax legislation through the Senate without Democratic votes and without fear of a Democratic filibuster. Nonetheless, the GOP's narrow 52-48 majority in the Senate will be difficult for leadership to navigate, as illustrated by the Republicans' multiple failures to pass legislation repealing and replacing "Obamacare."
The final vote on the budget was 51-49 with deficit hawk Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky the lone opposing GOP vote.
President Trump Summarizes His Tax Plan in Under a Minute
President Donald Trump delivered a speech to lay out his tax plan on Oct. 11, 2017, in Pennsylvania. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017)
Trump insisted over Twitter on Friday that Paul would be with him in the end on taxes, even though the senator has been critical of the tax package as it's emerged thus far.
Trump wrote, "The Budget passed late last night, 51 to 49. We got ZERO Democrat votes with only Rand Paul (he will vote for Tax Cuts) voting against........This now allows for the passage of large scale Tax Cuts (and Reform), which will be the biggest in the history of our country!"
It remains to be seen whether the overhaul will add up to the biggest tax cuts ever. Trump and Republicans have only produced a nine-page framework, leaving plenty of blanks that Congress needs to fill in over the coming months on income-tax brackets and elimination of some favored deductions.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Friday the GOP will add a fourth tax bracket for high-income people to the three originally proposed, but Ryan didn't say what the tax rate would be for that bracket. Speaking on "CBS This Morning," Ryan said Republicans are working on the tax rate for "the fourth bracket that the president and others are talking about that we're going to do."
The House has passed a different budget, but House Republicans signaled they would simply accept the Senate plan to avoid any potential of delaying the tax measure.
"I look forward to swift passage and to working with the president on tax reform," House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black, R-Tenn., said Friday.
Michael Cohen Faces Congress for 1st of 3 Days of Testimony
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former attorney, faced the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday on the first of three days of scheduled testimony during which Cohen is expected to outline campaign hush money payments, lying and even crimes committed in office. (Published 6 hours ago)
Republicans are looking for accomplishments following an embarrassing drought of legislative achievements despite controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House. Republican lawmakers publicly admit that failure on taxes would be politically devastating with control of the House and Senate at stake in next year's midterm elections.
"It would be a complete disaster," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after the final budget vote.
But Republicans are split on taxes. A restive rump of House Republicans from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California staunchly oppose the tax plan's proposed elimination of the federal deduction for state and local taxes. They maintain it would hurt low- to mid-income taxpayers and subject them to being taxed twice.
Their vocal opposition has led Republican leaders in Congress like Ryan and Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who heads the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, to hear out the fractious GOP members and seek a compromise with them.
At the same time, the White House is making overtures to conservative Democrats in the House and Democratic senators from states that Trump won in the 2016 election. Most heavily courted have been Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. The trio dined this week at the home of daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, both top advisers to Trump.
But Manchin said after Thursday's vote, "I fear that passage of this budget today will make it difficult to pass bipartisan tax reform in the coming weeks." In his conversations with Trump, Manchin said, "we have discussed our shared goal of ensuring any tax-reform package passes with both Republican and Democratic votes, and focuses on providing tax relief for working Americans. The current tax-reform proposal... does not reflect my conversations with the president."
Pence Calls for More Sanctions Against Venezuela
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday announced new sanctions against Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his supporters. (Published Monday, Feb. 25, 2019)
The Democrats were excluded from the drafting of the tax blueprint, and they continue to demand that any tax-cutting plan not add to the mounting $20 trillion national debt. The newly adopted Senate budget plan provides for $1.5 trillion over 10 years in debt-financed tax cuts, busting earlier Republican pledges of strict fiscal discipline.
The money would be used for the tax plan's cut in the corporate tax rate from 36 percent to 20 percent, reduced taxes for most individuals, and the repeal of inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. The standard deduction would be doubled, to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families, the number of tax brackets would shrink from seven, and the child tax credit would be increased.
Trump and the Republicans pitch the plan as a boon to the middle class and a spark to economic growth and jobs. Democrats charge it mainly would benefit wealthy individuals — like Trump — and big corporations.
Copyright Associated Press"The manner in which the Americans relate to the intelligence report on Iran is similar to the way in which they viewed those reports they received during the Holocaust on railways transporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to their death at Auschwitz," Minister Yitzhak Cohen of Shas said during a security cabinet meeting Sunday morning on the Iranian nuclear issue.
"It can not be that (US President George W.) Bush is committed to peace as was declared at Annapolis, and then the Americans propagate such an intelligence report which contradicts the information we have proving Iran intends to obtain nuclear weapons," Cohen said. "How can we rely on the Americans if they publish this report that emasculates what the world explicitly knows regarding Iran, and renders impotent the entire struggle against the Iranians?"
Minister Cohen asserted that the report must have been "ordered by someone who wants dialogue with Tehran" and formulated an historical analogy to express just how serious the situation is: "In the middle of the previous century the Americans received intelligence reports from Auschwitz on the packed trains going to the extermination camps. They claimed then that the railways were industrial. Their attitude today to the information coming out of Iran on the Iranians' intention to produce a nuclear bomb reminds one of their attitude during the holocaust."
Cabinet Member Cohen had this to say to his fellow ministers not present in the meeting: "Whoever thinks that the president of Iran is a lover of Zion, with Kosher certification from the Americans, misleads and is mislead. He is not a lover of Zion, but instead an aspiring strangler of Zion. Someone in America fell asleep on his watch, but we must remain awake and aware."
'Pressure on Iran must continue'
Neither Cohen nor the Shas party would confirm nor deny the remarks the minister made in the meeting.
Earlier a senior security source told Ynet that "Iran will do all in its power to proceed on the path (to a nuclear weapon), while trying to confuse the western world." In the meeting, policy makers attempted to formulate the Israeli response to the American National Intelligence Estimate, published last week, which asserted that Iran suspended its activities for acquiring nuclear weapons in 2003.
British Response Report: UK spy chiefs believe Iran 'deceived' CIA over nuclear program Sunday Telegraph report says British intelligence has serious doubts that Tehran has shelved nuclear weapons program. 'Iranian nuclear staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation; they will say anything to throw us off,' UK official quoted as saying Report: UK spy chiefs believe Iran 'deceived' CIA over nuclear program
The uniform stance of most cabinet members is that Israel must neutralize the effects of the American intelligence report.
According to senior ministers, Israel has information proving that Iran did not cease in its efforts to obtain a nuclear bomb, and is only acting in secret. Nevertheless, none of the three top ministers, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, or Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni seeks to create a confrontation with the American administration.
A senior security official who has seen the materials Israel possesses claims that there is enough incriminating information regarding Iran's intentions.
"Even if the world lacks clear evidence, the (Iranian) agenda is clear. We have no doubt that it is (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs who are directing the program. Israel has gathered enough information to obligate the international community to continue with its intensive activity against creating a bomb," he said.
Yishai: Delaying the inevitable
Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, also of Shas, said before the cabinet meeting: "International pressure on Iran must continue. We know the truth, as does the rest of the world. We must not play dumb in the face of the report's supposed findings. This report is mistaken and is only trying to delay the inevitable. It has only intensified the danger. Don't say this is more of the usual, because we are thus likely to fall asleep and wake up with a nuclear Iran."
Minister Yishai warned that "these attempts at postponement endanger us and the world at large."
According to the minister, this is not the right time to address the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, but that "we must act on all levels to eliminate the Iranian danger."
Over the weekend NATO foreign ministers met and decided to continue applying pressure on Iran after European Union leaders expressed the identical opinion in a meeting last week with American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Foreign Minister Livni, who met with Rice in Brussels during the NATO convention, welcomed the unified front, but instructed Israeli ambassadors and representatives throughout the world to expand the diplomatic struggle to impose additional sanctions on Iran.
The Foreign Ministry, it seems, fears Moscow and Beijing will use the NIE's findings as an excuse to veto any such sanctions on Iran in the Security Council, which is set to begin conducting on the issue Monday.Spread the love
Ft Worth, TX — Two of the Fort Worth Police Department’s highest ranking men in blue were demoted this month for being good cops. The officers now stand accused of the ‘crimes’ of leaking body camera footage and the personnel file belonging to one of their own, Officer William A. Martin.
As The Free Thought Project reported, leaked body camera footage showed Martin responded to a call in December 2016, where a black Ft. Worth woman had called 911 alleging her white neighbor had put his hands on her son and choking him.
Instead of arresting the man for assaulting the boy, Martin ended up violently arresting the mother, Jacqueline Craig, and two of her daughters, in what many considered was a racially motivated miscarriage of justice.
The bodycam footage has finally been released.Full story: https://bit.ly/2h77VIeJoin Us & Help: Police The Police تم نشره بواسطة Police The Police في 26 يناير، 2017
For his actions, Martin was suspended for 10 days without pay but not fired, as many critics contended should have been his fate. The incident was seen by many, all across the country, as an example of badge abuse directed at Ft. Worth’ African American community.
Chief Joel Fitzgerald announced the demotions at a press conference May 19. Deputy Chiefs Abdul Pridgen and Vance Keyes were given an administrative reassignment to the rank of Captain. Fitzgerald recommended to the Civil Service Commission that Pridgen return to the police department as Sergeant and Keyes was given three days without pay.
An internal investigation was launched in January to determine who leaked the files to an attorney working for Craig, who then uploaded the body camera footage to the Associated Press.
Fitzgerald’s department considered the unauthorized release of Martin’s files a crime. But lawyers for the two demoted officers will likely contend the body camera footage was and is public record, available for anyone who chooses to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain a copy of the files.
For the moment, it’s unclear if the two officers had anything to do with the video footage being released, or if they were attempting to comply with a request from Craig’s lawyers for Martin’s bodycam footage and his personnel file.
Craig and her two daughters were facing charges of interfering with the duties of a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, and failing to show identification, but all charges were dropped after the videos surfaced.
In a press conference of his own, Keyes fired back at his chief. He told reporters, “I don’t care your title, your position, you don’t get to impune my character in the media and not expect a response…the police department and ultimately the city’s mishandling a response to the incident was akin to trying to extinguish a forest fire with a water pistol.”
Keyes says the fires of racism have ultimately spread wider as a result. Indeed the fallout has blanketed the city of Ft. Worth, all because one officer used the implicit authority of his badge to abuse a concerned black mother over the treatment she alleged her son received at the hands of a neighbor.
Instead of firing the officer at the very moment the department learned of the incident (remember they were in possession of the body camera footage and should have been aware of their officer’s actions), they did nothing until after the footage had been leaked.
Fitzgerald says Internal Affairs has video footage of the computer where the files were downloaded to an external drive, and then uploaded later to an external source, and that the computer used belonged to Pridgen and Keyes was present in Pridgen’s office at the time the files were downloaded. Both men claim they’re innocent.
As CBS DFW reports, at the press conference Monday morning Craig’s attorney, Lee Merritt, talked about the punishment for Officer Martin versus the punishment for the FWPD officers. “Martin amassed a series of felonies on that day from assault, to aggravated assault, to perjury, official corruption, false arrest [and] to each of these he received no criminal investigation, no criminal prosecution. He received a 10-day vacation and he was returned to the force with a scheduled promotion,” Merritt said. “It’s a sad day for the city of Fort Worth. The level of blatant racism and unapologetic hypocrisy should no longer be tolerated and so we take this stand together today.”
As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, whistleblowers are often the target for retaliation, especially if they’re police officers. The Whistleblower Protection Act is not always followed, and whistleblowers sometimes lose not only their jobs but are targeted for harassment.The man, often hailed as the greatest screen actor of his generation, is famous – some say notorious – for his obsessive attention to detail in building character. His latest role, playing Abraham Lincoln, is no exception
Thick mud and blood mingle in the opening scenes of Steven Spielberg's latest film, Lincoln. In a brutal demonstration of what happens when politics fails, bodies pile up across a boggy battlefield. The rest of the film, also full of dark and muddy tones, looks steadily at how politicians might end or prolong such a grim civil war. And at the heart of the matter, trying to abolish slavery and adorned with a representation of one of the most famous beards of all time, stands Daniel Day-Lewis.
In playing the revered 16th president of the United States, the 55-year old actor adds to the series of New World archetypes he has tackled on screen. He has moved from the fleet-footed, fictional scout Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans to the compromised religious settler John Proctor in The Crucible and on to the society figure of Edith Wharton's Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence. Later, he embodied the ferocity of the mobster Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York and the obsessional frontiersman Daniel Plainview in There Will be Blood.
Lincoln opens in Britain in January, but already the film has put Day-Lewis in contention for his third Oscar, with one critic, AO Scott of the New York Times, suggesting he "eases into a role of epic difficulty as if it were a coat he had been wearing for years".
The plot begins a good while after we left Henry Fonda, the other notable Honest Abe, in John Ford's 1939 film The Young Mr Lincoln. Gone is the straightforward lawyer from a Kentucky cabin. Spielberg's mature Lincoln has just been re-elected, yet faces a Capitol in revolt. The Democratic opposition regards him as a dictator and his Republican party is riven with feuds.
The British film critic David Thomson once said that Day-Lewis "knows how to grasp an audience without noticing them" and in Lincoln the actor again delivers what could be called a total performance. He adopts an odd, light, cracked voice that has divided audiences so far, although Spielberg claims he won the role by sending him a recording of the way he felt Lincoln ought to speak. Day-Lewis also surprises by bringing out the folksy manner and homespun humour that apparently belied the intellect of the great man. Rather like TV detective Colombo in a stovepipe hat, he is full of anecdotes and shaggy dog stories.
One shaggy dog story not included in the screenplay is the old one about an actor who is so determined to play the part of Abraham Lincoln in an upcoming show that he grows a beard and walks about in costume for weeks. At the risk of spoiling the Spielberg film for newcomers to American history, the punchline inevitably involves the actor, who fails to get the part, not making it home from a night out at the theatre. It is a black joke that could well have been on the mind of Spielberg's cast as they watched Day-Lewis between scenes. He stayed in his Kentucky accent at all times and even, according to Sally Field, who plays his wife, texted her silly limericks in the character of Abe.
Each role Day-Lewis has played since his first success as a gay, fascist, punk in My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985 has been trailed with news of his extraordinary attempts to immerse himself in character. In the Oscar-winning guise of Christy Brown in My Left Foot, in 1989, Day-Lewis lived in a wheelchair and learned to paint with his toes.
As Hawkeye for Michael Mann in 1992, he studied survival techniques, skinning rabbits and hollowing out canoes. While making In the Name of the Father in 1993, he rehearsed his portrayal of the incarcerated Gerry Conlon by eating prison food and sleeping in a cell, yet in the same year he also donned Victorian garb to walk Manhattan's sidewalks in preparation for going back to the 1870s in The Age of Innocence. By the time Nicholas Hytner cast him in The Crucible the crew cannot have been surprised to hear he wanted to help them build Salem.
If a reputation for seeking ludicrous authenticity follows Day-Lewis, it is probably because his performances are so strong they demand explanation. As Thomson has pointed out: "Day-Lewis is uncanny. Watch his Newland Archer or his Hawkeye and it is not easy to believe we are seeing the same person."
When audiences learn that the actor sharpened knives between takes on Scorsese's set for Gangs of New York in 2002, it helps them understand why he dominated the screen. "Day-Lewis gives a gargantuan performance as the mad, charismatic Bill, a cross between Fagin and Bill Sikes, inevitably overshadowing DiCaprio and Diaz as the Oliver and Nancy figures," Philip French noted in this newspaper at the time.
And the legends are not confined to the film set. Before he appeared in The Crucible, there were reports he had become a nomad, wandering Europe and learning how to cobble.
He has been linked to a string of famous women, too, from Madonna and Sinead O'Connor to Winona Ryder and Julia Roberts, and is most infamously supposed to have dumped Isabelle Adjani, the French actress and mother of his first child, by fax. Then, while working on Arthur Miller's The Crucible, he became close not only to the late playwright, but to his daughter, Rebecca, and headlines swiftly ensued. Day-Lewis's live-in girlfriend, fitness trainer Deya Pichardo, told the press of her horror at the news he had married the 32-year-old painter and film-maker in a secret ceremony in Vermont.
Day-Lewis was born the son of the Irish-born British poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and the actress Jill Balcon, herself the daughter of the renowned film producer Sir Michael Balcon. According to his elder sister, Tamasin, a chef and film-maker, home life was not warm. "We didn't come down for dinner," she recalled last week. "We had tea in the nursery with nanny and were thrown together into a solitary world, but for each other, which led us straight into the landscape of the imagination."
Describing her parents as "emotionally distant", she added that at boarding school in Hampshire, they spent their time rebelling. "I egged Dan on and, he has told me since, was an evil influence. He insists I made him steal for me," she said. But her brother's former English teacher, the film producer David Thompson, does not remember a trouble-maker.
"He was a little wild perhaps, but he was one of those we all wanted to teach. He was staggeringly talented in school plays even at 14. He had incredible charisma," he told the Observer. "Smoking was the issue, I remember. It was a sackable offence and we had a long talk about whether he should really confess, when such a small misdemeanour would get him expelled."
After school, Day-Lewis considered taking up furniture-making, but returned to acting, to the relief of his mother. "She probably feared for me much more than she ever let on, because all I ever got from her, no matter what I was doing, was encouragement – so much so that I think I became quite a harsh judge of myself to try to restore some kind of balance," he has recalled.
At 25, he appeared in the West End in Another Country, the same play that gave Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett their big break. Seven years later, he met his match on stage in Hamlet at the National Theatre when he collapsed during a performance in the ghost scene. The play was thought to have recalled his sorrow for his lost father, who had died 10 years earlier.
The actor has recently explained he did not see the ghost of his father on stage "that dreadful night", although he admits the content of the play was hard for him. "I probably saw my father's ghost every night, because of course if you're working in a play like Hamlet you explore everything through your own experience."
Twenty years ago, Day-Lewis wrote a piece for this newspaper about his difficult feelings for his father. He recalled the moment family members had urged him to hold his dying father's hand.
"Since that bizarre, alienated, emotionless first encounter with the great scythe, which left me reeling from my own indifference, my sense of loss has grown, soured, devoured, belched and finally purified into what is now the eternal certainty of grief, ignorance and the mystery of love," he wrote bleakly.
His sister now argues that life, even with success and his own family, gets more difficult daily for her brother as "the stakes get higher".
If so, in the weekend that Stephen Fry, the troubled star of that other infamous theatrical walkout, courageously returns to the London stage, it is impossible not to wonder whether an actor who is hailed by many as the best working in film may one day return to the scene of his Shakespearean crime.Boil Water Advisory: 5 Things We’re All Wondering
CJ Hunt Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 24, 2015
Photo by James E Petts
If you live in New Orleans, you are familiar with one of the city’s quieter traditions: suffering through a precautionary boil water advisory.
Somewhere between two and fifty times a year, the Sewerage & Water Board mysteriously loses power in one of its treatment plants, and the public is advised to boil their water for one minute prior to drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, bathing or preparing food.
Each time this happens, the city’s emergency response website is overwhelmed with residents asking variations on what appears to be the same five questions about water safety. Fueled by a genuine desire to help my city, I have taken it upon myself to assist in answering these Frequently Asked Questions about how to stay safe during a boil water advisory.
Q: Is it safe to bathe or shower during a boil water advisory?
A: Yes, it is safe to bathe or shower. Pathogens associated with fecal contamination pose minimal risk unless ingested, where they can enter the bloodstream from the gut (e.g., intestine, stomach) and infect the blood (septicemia) and/or various organ systems.
Q: Can I still bathe/shower with NOLA tap water if my skin is mostly open wounds and sores?
A: No. Why is your skin like that? It is recommend that you seek immediate medical attention to find out what is going on with all those sores. Seriously.
Q: Can I still use NOLA tap water to make poop soup?
A: This question has been raised in the S&WB comments section with alarming frequency. At this time, I would like to reiterate: I do not know what “poop soup” is. If “poop soup” is indeed a food item, it is recommended — as with all soups — that the broth and ingredients be boiled for at least 10 minutes to ensure that any errant fecal particles are neutralized. However, if “making poop soup” is simply a colloquial term that you and your friends have assigned to passing a very sloppy bowel movement, then proceed as normal. Make all the poop soup you’d like.
Q: I suspect my neighbor, Craig, is sleeping with my wife. I’ve had my suspicions ever since I saw them making eyes at each other during last year’s Po-Boy Fest. This fella, Craig, has got it all. He wears expensive shirts from Express, he drives a Hyundai Elantra, and he’s as handsome as a young Ray Liotta. I have no “proof”of their affair, other than the fact that when she’s around him, her eyes contain a glow that I haven’t seen in years. Anyway, I waited for this piece of shit, Craig, to come home last night and I captured him with a trap I set. He’s tied up in my garage. Even after a good amount of roughing up (despite my appearance, I’m VERY strong) he claims that nothing is happening between him and Cheryl. I don’t believe him, and I intend to get some answers. Is it safe to use New Orleans tap water to waterboard this disgusting liar?
A: No. By its design, the practice of waterboarding leads the participant to ingest a significant amount of water as he/she struggles to breathe. As I have stated, at this time, New Orleans tap water is unsafe to ingest without first bringing to a flat boil for at least one minute. You can monitor http://www.swbno.org/ for updates on when the local tap water will once again be safe for your intended use. Also, consider just talking to Cheryl. She’s your wife, after all.
Q: Until the advisory is lifted, is it safe to drink the city’s tap water provided I run it through a Brita filter?
A: No. What are you? Some kind of idiot?Homeland Security Pick Kelly Splits With Trump Over Immigration, Torture
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Updated at 8 p.m. ET
Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, broke with the president-elect on many of his key campaign promises on immigration during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, including a border wall, Muslims coming into the U.S. and torture techniques.
The former head of the U.S. Southern Command, Kelly agreed with a question from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., over the strategy to defend the country's southern border, both from immigrants crossing into the U.S. illegally and from drug traffickers, saying that a border wall would not be enough.
"A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job. It has to be a layered defense," Kelly said, calling for more human patrols and assistance from drones and other sensors.
Kelly also stressed the need to work with other Latin American countries to forge better relationships to stop drug trafficking.
Kelly agreed with McCain that waterboarding should continue to be prohibited and that the Geneva Conventions should be followed.
"I don't think we should ever come close to crossing a line that is beyond what we as Americans would expect to follow in terms of interrogation techniques," Kelly said.
During the campaign, Trump pledged that he would bring back the controversial form of torture in order to fight terrorism.
Kelly also said he had "high confidence" in U.S. intelligence reports that found that Russia had engaged in cyberattacks in order to influence the U.S. elections. Trump has cast doubt on those findings.
Pressed by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., on whether it was lawful to conduct surveillance on mosques or create a database of Muslims in the U.S., Kelly agreed that would violate the Constitution.
"I don't think it's ever appropriate to focus on something like religion as the only factor," Kelly said.
The Department of Homeland Security is a sprawling enterprise, with a budget of some $40 billion and a quarter-million employees. Its responsibilities encompass everything from natural disasters (FEMA), to airport security (TSA), presidential security (U.S. Secret Service), the Coast Guard and cybersecurity.
DHS agencies are also responsible for defending the nation's borders and overseeing the immigration system. It's those areas that are most in the sights of the incoming president, who has called for measures including a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. and "extreme vetting" of immigrants wishing to enter the country.
Trump said on the campaign trail that screening should be focused on those coming from "some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism." Those comments were an adaptation of the ban on Muslims entering the U.S. that Trump had proposed at the end of 2015.
Asked by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., about deportation priorities, Kelly suggested that undocumented children who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would "probably not be at the top of the list" and that he would "keep an open mind."
Kelly said that the incoming administration's immigration policy is still "ongoing," but that he has "not been involved in those discussions."
Overall, Kelly was well-received by both Republicans and Democrats during his testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ranking member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., praised him during her opening statement and later tweeted that he was a "good choice" to lead DHS.
Kelly was introduced by McCain, Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in both the Bush and Obama administrations. Kelly was an adviser to Gates at the Pentagon.
Gates praised Kelly, calling him "one of the finest people I have ever known," also saying, "I would trust him with my life."
The 66-year-old Kelly had appeared before lawmakers before, in his role as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for military matters in the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Kelly's nomination is unlikely to be met with much opposition, and the questions on the committee bore that out. He has built up relationships with lawmakers who respect his service and his sacrifice. (Kelly lost a son to combat in Afghanistan.)Fundamentalist crus |
false models but these which help you or make your work harder. Choose wisely 🙂What I'm trying to do is to create cool and useful apps for use in Nordic style live action roleplaying events. The app has allowed players to talk with each other in-game in real time, created world maps together, track each other in real time on the map, play hacking mini-games to help their teammates out in the field, get immersed with lore and visual effects and more. It has so far been successfully used at several events ( Blodsband Reloaded Vinterland ) and will be used at many more.I want to continue to build and expand these tools, to create an even better experience for both players and organisers. You can make that happen by becoming a supporter. Oh, and by the way. Everything is still up and running and available for you to try out at http://devbbrterminal.thethirdgift.com/ (with a look that was used during Blodsband Reloaded, Ockulta Medborgarbyrån and Rex). Perhaps you rather try out a more "modern" look at https://devvinterland.thethirdgift.com (used at Vinterland).Want to contact me? You can reach me through Twitter @yxeri Facebook https://facebook.com/thethirdgiftgames. Want even more examples of what has been accomplished in the app so far? Keep on scrolling down.Before the start of the Mad Max style post apocalyptic event Blodsband Reloaded, players could together create a common world map (off-game to the right and in-game to the left). This map was automatically imported to the terminal and available in-game.A normal work day as a government employee in the Orwellian world of Ockulta Medborgarbyrån was filled with ritual sacrifices, miles of red tape and demonic possessions of the internal work system.While their teammates were out battling in the fields the hackers stayed behind to help out through the terminal in Blodsband Reloaded. They could boost their teams score output by finding and hacking user accounts.The post-apocalyptic world of Vinterland, where war and disease has killed off most of humanity, is a simple world that is trying to rebuild what they've lost. Their system has a more simplistic and modern look.Oh. It is also open source and available at https://github.com/yxeri/roleHaven and https://github.com/yxeri/roleTerminal Reached all the way down here? Please consider becoming a supporter. Food goes in and code comes out./AleksandarDevelopment contributors:- Stanislav B - GithubDetection Edit
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In popular culture Edit
The Vela Incident formed the basis for a novel by Abe Ariel titled The Last War. The novel describes the test of an Israeli neutron bomb on an uncharted island. [63]
. The novel describes the test of an Israeli neutron bomb on an uncharted island. The Vela Incident is also mentioned briefly in Season 4, Episode 24 of NCIS: Los Angeles, entitled "Descent", when an old Soviet nuclear bomb is detonated in the Mexican desert. [64]
, entitled "Descent", when an old Soviet nuclear bomb is detonated in the Mexican desert. In The West Wing fifth season episode "The Warfare of Genghis Khan", the main story revolves around a present day Vela incident, here confirmed to be a nuclear test performed by Israel.
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References EditIt is a criminal offense to possess a Schedule I substance. But what if an illegal substance held the key to mental health stability for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder?
As firefighters know all too well, PTSD is one of the most damaging disorders among first responders. The continuous and cumulative day-to-day stress from on-the-job exposure to death, shootings, child abuse, violence and other trauma often leads to post-traumatic stress.
This becomes a disorder, PTSD, when the duration of the stress reactions from trauma lasts more than one month and creates problems with one’s daily living. Reversing the effects of trauma is not easy, either.
MDMA also known as Ecstacy and/or Molly (Photo/Wikipedia)
Many options are available to treat PTSD: pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy and meditation, among others. One less accepted but potentially more effective treatment is MDMA (street names of variations include Molly and Ecstasy).
MDMA as a treatment for PTSD
Known best by its street name Ecstasy, MDMA, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine, is a substance that increases the activity of at least three neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers of brain cells): serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. These chemicals enable nerve cells in the brain to communicate with one another.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the regulation of mood, sleep, pain, appetite and other behaviors. The excess release of serotonin by MDMA causes mood-elevating effects in users. The effects last between three and eight hours.
Recently, psychiatrists have taken an interest in MDMA as a catalyst to psychotherapy due to its ability to decrease fear and defensiveness while increasing trust and empathy. It may open a "window of tolerance" in patients undergoing psychotherapy for PTSD and hold it open long enough for them to step through, as Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies puts it.
In 2008, MAPS completed double-blind, placebo-controlled, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study on 21 subjects. The results were promising: 83 percent of patients with PTSD who were enrolled in the study showed progress. MAPS is currently working on a PTSD MDMA-assisted psychotherapy treatment pilot specific to veterans, firefighters and police officers.
In 2013, Canada won approval from Health Canada and the Institutional Review Board to test MDMA as well. After funding has been completed and MDMA secured for study, the trial will bring in a small group of soldiers, police officers and sexual assault victims suffering from chronic PTSD to see if the drug can ease their symptoms.
MAPS is undertaking a roughly $20 million plan to make MDMA into a Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription medicine by 2021.
History of MDMA and psychotherapy
MDMA was first developed in Germany in the early 1900s as a parent compound to be used to synthesize other pharmaceuticals. During the 1970s, it saw a brief period of therapeutic use in psychiatry, but in 1985, the DEA ruled that the drug had high abuse potential and no approved medical use, making it illegal to possess. Thus, psychiatric research has been difficult to conduct.
MDMA does not come without dangers, especially if manufacturing of the drug is unregulated. Substances created on the street likely contain unknown and/or dangerous adulterants. In 2015, 12 students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut were poisoned by the MDMA they took, which was likely cut with another substance.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse also cautions that, by releasing large amounts of serotonin, MDMA causes the brain to become significantly depleted of this important neurotransmitter, contributing to the negative behavioral aftereffects that users often experience for several days after taking MDMA. A giddy high can lead to a crushing low.
It’s too soon to make definitive decisions supporting MDMA’s benefits, or lack thereof for PTSD treatment, but it’s an interesting theory to consider. And it is important to remember that situational and prescribed use of MDMA is different than recreational use and abuse.
For more information on services and resources for PTSD, click here.The results of a new study published in the journal Addiction earlier this month challenged the United States' "provincial" drug policy rhetoric, especially as it relates to youth. The study compared data on cannabis use among US teens to newly available numbers on usage rates in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. The results: The Dutch have about 700 adults-only clubs that sell 50 to 150 metric tons of cannabis per year, yet Dutch teens report lower levels of weed usage and availability than youth in the United States. The author of the study, Robert J. MacCoun, a professor at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy and Boalt School of Law, shared with Legalization Nation some thoughts on what's going on:
(A print version edited for space is on newsstands or here.)
Legalization Nation: It seems like the major take-away from your paper is that marijuana stores can cause an increase in use, but only a modest one and it doesn't lead to harder drugs.
Cal Prof. Robert MacCoun
: Yeah, it's always nice when you have a paper that has a single punchline, but the reality is that the Dutch system is pretty complicated so its a mixed story.
On one hand, it's probably true the Dutch have more cannabis use than they would have had if they hadn't adopted this coffee shop model. But at same time, the data seem to suggest that it doesn't promote escalation into harder drugs and it doesn't promote the heavier levels of cannabis use that you would see in U.S. Their actual level of cannabis use is pretty modest by European standards.
It's a trade-off, but the Dutch were probably thinking it's a fair trade-off, because they initially set out to reduce hard drug use by separating the soft drug market from the hard drug market, and the data in the paper suggests that seems to have worked.
Legalization Nation: You've been looking at this issue for twenty years. What's changed?
MacCoun: When I first started looking at it there really was so little data available it was hard tell you anything you could call definitive. There's certainly a lot more information now.
We know a lot more about other countries in Europe, so now we can compare them to their neighbors, and when we do that you might expect the Dutch would look a lot worse than their neighbors on various drug outcomes —but they don't. They're right in middle of the pack in terms of marijuana use and, as I say, they have a lower likelihood of going onto hard drug use than you would expect from looking at their numbers.
There's really been a concerted effort in the past decade to do cross-national data collection in Europe and this is partly driven by the European Union and its desire for what they call "harmonization." They want to harmonize their laws, and frankly, the neighbors of the Netherlands have been eager for the Dutch to shut down their coffee shop system. I don't think the data provide much of an indictment of the Dutch system that their neighbors might have expected.
As I mentioned in the paper, for political reasons, it does look like the Dutch are going scale back coffee shops and they're proposing to end tourist sales, which is a pretty significant change — because there may may be a million people in Amsterdam who go to shops while visiting there. It's a significant change. It's partly driven really though by the emergence of a right-wing party in what used to be a pretty liberal country.
Legalization Nation: How's the US data data you compare it to? I seem to remember RAND questioning some government marijuana stats last year.
MacCoun: I think it's really important to clarify something here. I would be willing to bet that they were talking to you about the Mexico data, because Beau Kilmer had the report last year saying the government estimate of how much marijuana comes from Mexico and what share of the market it is were just numbers that were made up.
I want to make a distinction here and I'm quite confident — I worked at RAND for several years and I was part of the team that did the Prop 19 analysis — I'm pretty sure I can speak for them in saying we would all make a big distinction between the survey data, which is by no means perfect, but has been scrutinized in various ways and seems to be pretty reliable (for example, you can look at urinalysis data and compare it to what people say in surveys and you do find that surveys do a pretty good job of accurately reflecting what people are actually using). I would distinguish that from when the government does source-country control like going into South and Central America and trying to do crop eradication. They make claims about success, they make claims about how much drugs are being transported, and those numbers sometimes seem to come out of nowhere. It's very difficult to validate those numbers and lot of those numbers are not internally consistent. They're just not very plausible.
The survey research is actually pretty good. The other sources of data are pretty dreadful, especially compared to tobacco and alcohol, where we know so much about tobacco and so much about alcohol because they're legal.
UC Berkeley
American kids: on one
These surveys really started in the 1970s and for a good ten years there was an enormous literature on the validity of these self-reports because everyone was skeptical. What we found is that there are various ways you can check it to sort of validate these reports and it turns out if someone really believes that it's anonymous they'll talk your ear off about their drug use.
I also know this from focus groups of teenagers, once they decide you're not a cop, they'll talk your ear off.
It's not perfect, but what's the alternative? The alternative is to know nothing about what's going on.
Legalization Nation: So shouldn't there be more 15-16 year-olds smoking pot, per capita, in the Netherlands than in the US?
MacCoun: That's what everyone thought, but a number of papers over the past five years have focused on this new survey data that doesn't seem to support that. There are a couple things to say about this:
The Dutch are pretty strict about not letting minors go in these coffee shops. In fact, dozens of coffee shops got shut down for letting minors in. Now, the majority of owners are really concerned about it, because they know they can get shut down.
The Dutch have reduced the street market. Since adults can go into coffee shops, there are fewer street dealers, and since there are fewer street dealers, that reduces the opportunities for teenagers to go buy from someone on the street.
So, it would be naive to think no adults are buying in the coffee shops and are providing for younger brothers, just as that happens with alcohol in the U.S. but —
Legalization Nation: But it's not a free for all?
MacCoun: It's not a free for all.
Another thing: the coffee shops are not uniformly distributed throughout the country, but they tend to be concentrated in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and a couple of college campus towns. There actually a lot of smaller towns that don't have coffee shops.
San Francisco cannabis dispensary SPARC
Legalization Nation: What's going with this stat about how 71.5 percent of US teenagers said it's very easy to get pot, while in the Netherlands, where pot is legal, it's 41.5 percent. That seems way out of the realm of the margin of error.
MacCoun: So that' a pretty striking finding and I was just as surprised as you were by that, because I certainly expect greater perceived availability in the Netherlands. But because it's been found in more than one survey, I'm inclined to give it some credence. It's not just the Netherlands, the U.S. is an outlier with respect to all of Europe.
In the US kids have consistently told us that marijuana is easy to obtain, and the vast majority of kids at most schools will say that.
Then again, that's at least 75 percent, and it's usually more than 85 percent in a lot of schools, saying, 'It's easy to obtain marijuana in my school.' And that's been true in the US for several decades and you just don't see that in Europe. For whatever reason, we really have — in this campus market — well-established supply lines into schools.
You could try to make up a story that US kids are exaggerating for some reason, or that European kids are paranoid. I don't think it's very plausible, because there's really no risk to kids saying that they think it's easily available.
Even kids who don't use will say it's easily available. There's also no particular reward for telling them how much it's available. I don't really think it's a big motive to exaggerate, so I'm inclined to think it's just the reality of how easy it is to get marijuana in the schools.
Some people want to point to medical marijuana, but it's not a new story and marijuana has been readily available long-before we had medical marijuana in dispensaries.
Legalization Nation: And American kids are three times as likely to report using other illicit drugs. Does this validate the Dutch's market approach to the gateway theory?
MacCoun: In the U.S. we usually think that marijuana is a gateway, that it will increase the appetite for intoxicants, but the Dutch in the Seventies had a very different theory, which was the gateway is created by contact with hard drug sellers. They had this idea: if we can separate the markets and let people who want soft drugs get them without having to go to drug dealers then we can reduce the gateway and the data in my paper seem to suggest there's something to that.
Now part of it is, for reasons that no one completely understands, certain drugs have just been much more popular in the U.S. than in Europe, so crack cocaine did catch on in Europe but never to the degree it did here. Methamphetamine has caught on in Europe to some extent, but never to the degree it's caught on here. On the other hand, ecstasy is quite popular in Europe, and it's at least as quite popular here.
Nobody has a great theory about why certain drugs and populations in certain countries — even in the US. it's kind of a mystery why a drug like PCP was so popular in some parts, but never spread to other parts of the country. Or why African Americans have shown so little interest in methamphetamine. You know, I just have to throw up my hands and say "Well, it's culture." It's not much of an explanation at all. There's something going on, we don't fully understand, it's regional and cultural differences and tastes for drugs.
Legalization Nation: Does that make this paper an apples to oranges study? I think of California — let alone America — as this extremely heterogeneous place, while Amsterdam comes off as more homogeneous.
MacCoun: I think it's a fair point although it would probably be more accurate for Oslo or Stockholm than for the Netherlands, because the Dutch have a lot of immigrants from the east Indies and from other places and so it's a little more diverse. But you're right, it is a leap to generalize from the Netherlands to the US. But, as I say in the paper, it's the only game in town. If you want to understand the effects of alternatives, if we're talking about legalizing cannabis, you got to go where people have actually experimented with different policies, and so that's why it's worthwhile looking at the Dutch system. If we just refuse to look at any countries' experience other than our own, there's no opportunity to learn. This is how sausage gets made.
Legalization Nation: As an observation: it's 2011. It's crazy the hard data on effective drug policy, even basic data, is just now coming online.
MacCoun: That's right. This is one of the unintended consequences of prohibition — it becomes hard to study. If you look at tobacco and alcohol, there are vast databases about the economics of tobacco and alcohol. Then you look at marijuana: we're flying blind.
Legalization Nation: You're paper seeks to provide provisional judgments over provincial ones. What provincial notions are you talking about and how might this paper challenge them?
MacCoun: I think the US is often very provincial in refusing to look at what we can learn from other countries. There's this kind of notion of American exceptionalism —that we're different than every other country.
Now, another policy area I've been very involved in is the Don't Ask Don't Tell Issue, analyzing that during the Clinton Administration and then in the Obama administration and a similar issue came up there. People would say, "Don't tell me what's going on in the Norwegian army or the Dutch army or countries the have non-discrimination policies, I don't want to know, because they're not really a fighting force." Well, then Israel adopted a non-discrimination policy and nobody could say Israel is not a real fighting force. So little by little. Then Britain and Canada and Australia actually fought with us in Afghanistan, and they had non-discrimination policies.
And eventually, it just wasn't credible to say no other country's experience is relevant. If you look at every other country that has ended the ban on gays and lesbians, and you find that none of them had problems, you got to take it seriously. In the same way we should be cautious in looking to other countries and what we can learn from them, but we shouldn't be so provincial that we just refuse to learn.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
June 11, 2016, 4:33 AM GMT / Updated June 11, 2016, 7:13 PM GMT By Jillian Sederholm, Elizabeth Chuck, Gemma DiCasimirro and Molly Roecker
A 27-year-old man wielding two handguns shot former "The Voice" contestant Christina Grimmie after a Friday night concert in Florida, and then fatally shot himself, police said Saturday.
Grimmie, 22, died from her injuries from the shooting, which happened around 10:30 p.m. ET at The Plaza Live in Orlando. The singer had opened for the band Before You Exit and was meeting fans and signing autographs a half hour after the concert ended when she was shot.
Police hailed Grimmie's brother as a hero, and said he rushed the suspect, whom they described as a white male with two loaded magazines and a large hunting knife in addition to the two handguns he was carrying.
The Voice Season 6 contestant Christina Grimmie performing as part of The Voice Tour in 2014. Robb Cohen/Invision/AP
"Almost immediately, her brother Marcus Grimmie tackled the suspect," Orlando Police Chief John Mina told reporters Saturday. "Shortly after that, the suspect killed himself."
Police did not release the attacker's identity, but said he had traveled to Orlando from his home somewhere else in Florida. Authorities initially said he was 21 years old, then corrected his age later Saturday to 27.
"The suspect traveled to Orlando apparently to commit this crime and then had plans to travel back to where he came from," Mina said.
Detectives were scouring his cellphone and computer to find a motive for the killing. Mina said there was "no indication" so far that he knew Grimmie.
The shooting happened inside the venue as about 120 concertgoers crowded around Grimmie for a chance to meet her and buy merchandise. Fans' purses and backpacks are typically checked when they enter The Plaza Live, but there are no metal detectors there, Mina said.
"This isn't a crowd that you would suspect would be carrying guns into a venue like this," he said of fans of Before You Exit, an Orlando pop/rock band.
The Plaza Live said in a statement that it was "deeply saddened by the tragic events," and would be suspending all events there until further notice, including a Kidz Bop concert that was scheduled for Saturday night.
Detectives planned to meet with Grimmie's family later Saturday.
The name of her killer could be released as early as Saturday afternoon, Mina said. It wasn't clear whether the man had a prior criminal record. (UPDATE: The suspect has been identified as Kevin James Loibl, a 27-year-old from St. Petersburg, Florida.)
It's "unknown what his plans were for after killing Christina, but very heroic actions by Marcus Grimmie to jump in definitely could have prevented future loss of life there," Mina said.
A witness said multiple shots were fired.
Josh Call, who was working at a vegan hot dog stand outside the venue, told the Orlando Sentinel he heard four or five shots.
"It was quick like pow, pow, pow," he told the paper. After a few minutes, he said he went inside and saw a man and a woman on the floor bleeding heavily.
"It was horrifying," he told the Sentinel.
Grimmie, a native of Marlton, New Jersey, came in third place on Season 6 of "The Voice," NBC's singing competition, which aired in 2014. She was just 19 when she auditioned with Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" and chose Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine as her coach.
"This is yet another senseless act of extreme violence."
Levine said he and his wife "are absolutely devastated and heartbroken" by Grimmie's death.
"Christina was a natural, a gifted talent that comes along so rarely," he said. "This is yet another senseless act of extreme violence. I am left stunned and confused how these things can conceivably continue to happen in our world.
Before You Exit called the singer "such a loving, caring, beautiful person with the biggest heart" in a statement posted to Twitter hours after her death was announced.
"She was an absolutely incredible musician and an even better friend," it added. "We are so so saddened by her passing and are completely heartbroken."
NBC's Carson Daly, host of "The Voice," told TODAY that Grimmie was "such an incredible talent and incredible person."
"She really was special," he said. "She had an infectious laugh, she was determined, she was confident, but she was so incredibly sweet. You would never forget meeting her."
Related: More from Carson Daly: 'We're All Still in Shock'
Other fellow artists and fans also wrote tributes to Grimmie, who was discovered on YouTube and had more than 3 million followers on her account zeldaxlove64. When reports of Grimmie's death first surfaced, #PrayforChristina was the top trending hashtag on Twitter.
Grimmie's publicist Heather Weiss confirmed her death early Saturday morning.
"It is with a heavy heart that we can confirm that Christina has passed and went home to be with the Lord," Weiss said in a statement. "We ask at this time that you respect the privacy of her family and friends in their time of mourning."
After her death was confirmed, #RIPChristina became the top trending hashtag as Grimmie's fans took to social media to express an outpouring of grief.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2014 that Grimmie moved to Los Angeles two years earlier after joining Selena Gomez on tour.
Her brother, who goes by Mark, frequently appeared on Grimmie's social accounts, starting with YouTube videos that attracted millions of views before she was on "The Voice." In some, he plays guitar while Grimmie sings and plays piano.
Mark Grimmie told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2014 that he was in awe of his sister's talent.
"I'm done being surprised by cool things she does. She's very talented and she's worked incredibly hard — it's a dangerous combination," he said.Raytheon, L-3 Communications and ViaSat have received U.S. Air Force contracts for the Wideband Global Satellite Communications, or SATCOM, program. Image by Wideband Global SATCOM Satellite program office/Wikimedia Commons
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems, L-3 Communications Systems and ViaSat have received U.S. Air Force contracts for the Wideband Global Satellite Communications, or SATCOM, program.
The contracts for protected tactical service field demonstrations seek to demonstrate the ability to provide wideband anti-jam communications to tactical users using the Wideband SATCOM constellation and commercial SATCOM.
All three contracts are expected to be completed by September 2020.
Raython received a $39 million contract, with L-3 getting $38 million and ViaSat $33 million.
Raytheon's work will be done in Massachusetts, L-3's in Utah and ViaSat's in California.
The Space and Missile Systems Center is the contracting activity.
The Wideband Global SATCOM satellite is the backbone of the U.S. military's global satellite communications and provides flexible, high-capacity communications.Tea Party conservatives failed to oust Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE last month, but they’re threatening to try again if the Ohio Republican caves in the fight against President Obama’s immigration actions.
While there’s not a coordinated effort yet, chatter of another coup attempt has grown louder now that the Senate is moving to pass a funding bill to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without the immigration riders.
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Conservatives on and off Capitol Hill are pressuring Boehner not to relent unless Democrats agree to gut Obama’s executive orders protecting millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.
But Boehner and his allies are concerned that partially closing one of the top national security agencies could do lasting damage to the party.
Some of the 25 Republicans who tried to strip the Speaker’s gavel from Boehner on the House floor in January are having informal discussions about ways they might overthrow him if he brings a clean bill to the floor, according to one conservative lawmaker who voted against Boehner in January.
“I think the political repercussions both for him and the Speakership are going to be pretty substantial,” said another House conservative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue. “He knows that it would be a big political mistake, and he doesn’t want to throw away all of his political capital on this.”
While Democrats would certainly help get the clean bill to Obama’s desk, bringing it up would likely violate the GOP’s informal Hastert Rule, which states that a bill should only receive a vote if a “majority of the majority” supports it.
“If it happened, conservatives would be outraged,” said another conservative Republican who also voted against Boehner last month but said a coup wouldn’t necessarily take place immediately. “It’s a long year. It is only the end of February.”
Ousting a sitting Speaker in the middle of the session is extremely difficult. But after two attempts on his Speakership in as many years, Boehner is on high alert.
He’s reacted cautiously to Senate Republicans’ plan, refusing to say whether he’d even bring a clean DHS bill to the House floor.
And he’s distancing himself from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), telling rank-and-file members in a meeting Wednesday that he hasn’t spoken to his Senate counterpart in two weeks, even with an agency shutdown just days away. The two met later that day, and aides to the two leaders have been in close contact.
Asked at a news conference Wednesday whether he believed a clean bill could mean the “end of your Speakership,” Boehner dodged the question.
“I’m waiting for the Senate to act. The House has done its job to fund the department and to stop the president’s overreach on immigration,” Boehner said. “Until the Senate does something, we’re in a wait-and-see mode.”
Conservatives probably had their best shots at taking out Boehner at the beginning of the past two Congresses. But during the surprise coup in January 2013, some members backed out at the last minute, leaving dissidents shy of the number needed to force a second ballot.
In January, a record 25 Republicans voted against the GOP leader, but they, too, fell short of denying Boehner another term.
The mechanics of ousting a sitting Speaker in the middle of a legislative session aren’t clear. Neither the Constitution nor House rules spell out exactly how a Speaker can be removed.
The last time it was tried was against Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997. The effort faltered before it even got off the ground, doing severe political damage to the party and many of the key players involved.
Boehner, then the House GOP Conference chairman, has disputed reports of his involvement in the 1997 coup, but he lost his No. 4 leadership job just a year later.
“It’s incredibly difficult and it’s very undesirable,” conservative Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), who took part in the bungled Gingrich coup, said of the process of deposing a sitting Speaker. Salmon added, however, that he wasn’t aware of any discussions now about trying to remove Boehner.
One option that the current conservative rebels have studied is presenting a privileged resolution on the floor calling on the Speaker to vacate the chair. “I’ve explored it fully,” said one conservative.
But any Boehner ally could quickly make a motion to table or kill the resolution with a simple majority, said Donald R. Wolfensberger, the director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Wolfensberger served as the staff director of the Rules Committee when Gingrich was Speaker.
Infuriated Republicans could also hold a vote of no confidence in Boehner in a closed-door conference meeting. It would be “less challenging but it would have the same effect,” Wolfensberger said.
Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) warned that if Boehner were to put a clean DHS funding bill on the floor, the backlash from the right could be harsher than what the Speaker faced after moving the “cromnibus” appropriations bill in December. Conservatives at the time were outraged that the government-wide funding bill didn’t include provisions to block Obama’s immigration moves.
“Our base would be extremely angry,” Fleming said. “So this is very, very delicate territory for our leadership.”
Fleming was one of 216 Republicans who voted last month to give Boehner another two years. But the Louisiana congressman said he had received more calls urging him to vote against Boehner than when he voted against ObamaCare in 2010.
“So there was a huge swell, huge spike of calls. And that all goes back to the cromnibus,” he said. “To cave at this point, on this bill … I think our leadership sees real danger in doing that.”
Cristina Marcos contributed to this report.A deer leapt into the King Middle School swimming pool Thursday morning, narrowly avoiding landing on young children taking a swimming lesson there, according to a pool staffer.
The deer ran across the pool deck and jumped into the deep end, said Jasper Solomon, a lifeguard at the pool, who said the children, around 3-6 years old, were attending a summer camp swim class. Solomon and his boss, Adonis Boyd, both leapt into action as soon as the fawn landed, he said. They asked everyone to leave the pool and then, using a lifejacket and a floater as buffers, they steered the animal to the shallow end. The fawn then scrambled out of the water and ran away.
Solomon said the incident surprised the kids, but that fortunately nobody was hurt. He described the deer as small and male, probably a fawn.
“The kids got a kick out of all the excitement!” Jeff Johnston, whose son was part of the swim class, wrote us.
“Luckily, no children were hurt! It seems like it was pretty exciting!” said Teresa Price who tipped Berkeleyside about the incident.
Animal Control was called but the fawn had scampered off before they arrived, said Solomon.
A pool staffer had spotted the deer earlier near some trash cans, Solomon said. He said employees think the animal must have “hopped a fence” to get onto the pool deck.
The King pool is on the middle school grounds at Hopkins Street and Carlotta Avenue.
After the drama — which several people snapped photos of — the children went back to their class, Solomon said.
Read more about animals in Berkeley in past coverage.
Related:
See new calf at Little Farm in 360-degree video (07.07.16)
How I became a docent for burrowing owls. What a hoot! (05.02.16)
Gypsie the dog (and its owner) rescue bird on the bay (04.07.16)
10 Berkeley animal stories you didn’t want to miss in 2015 (12.31.15)
Would you like the latest Berkeley news sent to your email inbox once a day? Click here to subscribe to Berkeleyside’s free Daily Briefing.Homework 3 - Nathan Hominiuk a guest Jan 15th, 2014 81 Never a guest81Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint C 1.18 KB //If anybody could help with the question I added in the "Making Second Node" section, I'd appreciate it. :) #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> struct node { int data ; struct node * next ; struct node * prev ; } ; main ( ) { struct node * myList ; struct node * data01 ; struct node * data02 ; int num1 = 7 ; int num2 = 11 ; //Two pieces of data. myList = NULL ; //Initializing the empty header node. //Making first node. data01 = malloc ( sizeof ( struct node ) ) ; //Allocating storage. data01 -> data = num1 ; //Saving first piece of data. myList = data01 ; //myList now points to first node. //Assigning pointers to first node. data01 -> next = NULL ; //This is now the end of the list. data01 -> prev = myList ; //Points to beginning of list. //Making second node. data02 = malloc ( sizeof ( struct node ) ) ; //Allocating storage. data02 -> data = num2 ; //Saving second piece of data. data02 -> next = NULL ; //This is now the end of the list. data01 -> next = data02 ; //First 'next'pointer now points to this new node. //How else could I do this? Manually works, but it's not exactly elegant. data02 -> prev = data01 ; //Points to last list entry. print ( myList ) ; }
RAW Paste Data
//If anybody could help with the question I added in the "Making Second Node" section, I'd appreciate it. :) #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> struct node { int data; struct node *next; struct node *prev; }; main() { struct node *myList; struct node *data01; struct node *data02; int num1=7; int num2=11; //Two pieces of data. myList=NULL; //Initializing the empty header node. //Making first node. data01=malloc(sizeof(struct node)); //Allocating storage. data01->data=num1; //Saving first piece of data. myList=data01; //myList now points to first node. //Assigning pointers to first node. data01->next=NULL;//This is now the end of the list. data01->prev=myList;//Points to beginning of list. //Making second node. data02=malloc(sizeof(struct node)); //Allocating storage. data02->data=num2; //Saving second piece of data. data02->next=NULL;//This is now the end of the list. data01->next=data02;//First 'next'pointer now points to this new node. //How else could I do this? Manually works, but it's not exactly elegant. data02 |
of RSA private key/public key and contact the CA with your public key. The CA will register your public key The program will then ask the CA to verify your domain. The CA will answer with a set of challenges. These are some tasks you can complete to prove to the CA you own that domain. One of the common one is to upload a certain file at a certain address of that domain. The program you installed will then do that for you and poll the CA for a confirmation The CA will tell you "OK man, all is good". The program will then generate another long term pair of private key/public key, generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) with the new public key and send that CSR to the CA. The CA will extract the information, create a beautiful x509 certificate, sign it and send it back to you. lets-encrypt will install the certificate on your server and set certain options (or not) to force https
By the way, the certificate you will get will be a DV certificate, meaning that they only verified that you owned the domain, nothing more. If you want an EV certificate this is what you will have to go through (according to wikipedia):
Establish the legal identity as well as the operational and physical presence of website owner;
Establish that the applicant is the domain name owner or has exclusive control over the domain name; and
Confirm the identity and authority of the individuals acting for the website owner, and that documents pertaining to legal obligations are signed by an authorised officer.
But how does it really work?
So! The lets-encrypt program you run on your server is open sourced here: https://github.com/letsencrypt/lets-encrypt-preview. It is called lets-encrypt-preview I guess because it isn't done yet. It's written in Python and has to be run in sudo so that it can do most of the work for you. Note that it will install the certificates on your server only if you are using Apache or Nginx. Also, the address of the CA is hardcoded in the program so be sure to use the official lets-encrypt.
The program installed on the CA is also open sourced! So that anyone can publicly review and audit the code. It's called Boulder and it's here: https://github.com/letsencrypt/boulder and written in Go.
Lets-encrypt and Boulder both use the protocol ACME for Automated Certificate Management Environment specified here as a draft: https://letsencrypt.github.io/acme-spec/
ACME
ACME is written like a RFC. It actually wants to become an RFC eventually! So if you've read RFCs before you should feel like home.
The whole protocol is happening over TLS. As a result the exchanges are encrypted, you know that you are talking to the CA you want to talk to (eventhough you might not use DNSSEC) and replay attacks should be avoided.
The whole thing is actually a RESTful API. The client, you, can do GET or POST queries to certains URI on the CA webserver.
Registration
The first thing you want to do is register. Registration is actually done by generating a new pair of RSA keys and sending them the public key (along with your info).
ACME specifies that you should use JWS for the transport of data. Json Web Signature. It's basically Json with authentication (so that you can sign your messages). It actually uses a variant of JWS called Jose that doesn't use a normal base64 encoding but that's all you should know for now. If you really want to know more there is an RFC for it.
So here what a request should look like with JWS (your information are sent unencrypted in the payload field (but don't worry, everything is encrypted anyway because the exchange happens over TLS)):
POST /acme/new-registration HTTP/1.1 Host: example.com { "payload":"<payload contents>", "signatures":[ {"protected":"<integrity-protected header 1 contents>", "header":<non-integrity-protected header 1 contents>, "signature":"<signature 1 contents>"} }
Boulder will check the signature with the public key you passed, verify the information you gave and eventually add you to its database.
Once you are registered, you can perform several actions:
Update your infos
Get one domain authorized (well actually as many as you'd like)
The server will authenticate you because you will now send your public key along AND you will sign your requests. This all runs on top of TLS by the way. I know I already said that.
Boulder's guts
Boulder is separated in multiple components, this makes the code clearer and ensure that every piece of code does what it is supposed to do and nothing more.
One of the components is called the Web-Front-End (WFE) and is the only one accepting queries from the Client. It parses them, verifies them and passes them to the Registration Authority (RA) that combines the other authorities together to produce a response. The response is then passed back to the WFE and to the client over the ACME protocol. Are you following?
TWe'll see what other authorities the RA has access to in the next queries the client can do. But just to talk about the previous query, the new registration query, the RA talks to the Storage Authority that deals with the database (Which is currently SQLlite) to register your new account.
All the components can be run from a single machine (for the exception of the CA that runs on another library), but they can also be run seperately from different machines that will communicate on the same network via AMQP.
New Authorization
Now that you are registered, you have to validate a domain before you can request a certificate.
You make a request to a certain URI.
Well to be exact you make a POST request to /new-authz, and the response will be 201 if it works. It will also give you some information about where you can go next to do stuff ( /authz )
Here's the current list of API calls you can do and the relevant answers.
The server will pass the info to the Policy Authority (PA) and ask it if it is willing to accept such a domain. If so, it will then answer with a list of challenges you can complete to prove you own the domain, along with combinations of accepted challenges to complete. For now they only have two challenges and you can complete either one:
SimpleHTTPS
DVSNI
If you choose SimpleHTTPS the lets-encrypt client will generate a random value and upload something at the address formed by a random value the CA sent you and the random value you generated.
If you choose DVSNI, the client will create a TLS certificate containing some of the info of the challenge and with the public key associated to his account.
The client then needs to query the CA again and the CA's Validation Authority (VA) will either check that the file has been uploaded or will perform a handshake with the client's server and verify that specific fields of the certificates have been correctly filled. If everything works out the VA will tell the RA that will tell the WFE that will tell you...
After that you are all good, you can now make a Certificate Signing Request :)
New Certificate
The agent will now generate a new pair of private key/public key. And create a CSR with it. So that your long term key used in your certificate is not the same as your let's encrypt account.
a CSR example, containing the identifier and the public key
After reception of it, the Web-Front-End of Boulder will pass it to the Registration Authority (RA) which will pass it to the Certificate Authority (CA) that will do all the work and will eventually sign it and send it back to the chain.
1: Client ---new-cert--> WFE 2: WFE ---NewCertificate--> RA 3: RA ---IssueCertificate--> CA 4: CA --> CFSSL 5: CA <-- CFSSL 6: RA <------return--------- CA 7: WFE <------return------- RA 8: Client <------------- WFE
Oh and also. the CA is talking to a CFSSL server which is CloudFlare's PKI Toolkit, a nice go library that you can use for many things and that is used here to act as the CA. CFSSL has recently pushed code to be compatible with the use of HSM which is a hardware device that you HAVE to use to sign keys when you are a CA.
After reception the lets-encrypt client will install the fresh certificate along with the chain to the root on your server and voila!
You can now revoke a certificate in the same way, but interestingly you won't need to sign the request with your account key, but with the private key associated to your certificate's public key. So that even if you lose your agent's key you can still revoke the certificate.
Other stuff
There are a bunch of stuff that you will be able to do with the lets-encrypt client but that haven't been implemented yet:
Renew a certificate
Read the Terms of Service
Query OCSP requests (see if a certificate has been revoked)...
Moar
This post is a simplification of the protocol. If you want to know more and don't want to dig in the ACME specs right now you can also take a look at Boulder's flow diagrams.
If you've followed the news you should have seen that Let's Encrypt just generated its root certificate along with several other certificates: https://letsencrypt.org/2015/06/04/isrg-ca-certs.html
This is because when you are a CA you are suppose to keep the root certificate offline. So you sign a (few) certificate(s) with that root, you lock that root and you use the signed certificate(s) to sign other certificates. This is all very serious because if something goes wrong with the root certificate, you can't revoke anything and well... the internet goes wrong as a result (until vendors start removing these from their list of trusted roots).
So the keys for the certificate have to be generated during a "ceremony" where everything is filmed and everyone must authenticate oneself at least with two different documents, etc... Check Wikipedia's page on Key Ceremony it's "interesting".
Also, I received a note from Seth David Schoen and I thought that was an interesting anecdote to share :)Temporary bans on moped riders carrying pillion passengers have been suggested as a strategy to curb crime.
London Assembly Green member Sian Berry said police should consider the idea in parts of the capital badly hit by moped robberies.
She added: “A very small number of people are causing large amounts of fear on our streets. I live in a huge hotspot in Camden and resident concern and debate on how to deal with this is running very high.
“A local safer neighbourhood panel chair pointed out a tactic used in some other countries: to temporarily ban the carrying of pillion passengers across whole cities.
“I’d like to know what people think as I’m really not sure this is right for London. But it’s possible that temporary bans on moped passengers in particular areas would help to identify and better target police action, as anyone defying a ban would know they might be spoken to.”
Ms Berry, deputy chairwoman of the assembly’s police and crime committee, said she had raised the idea of the bans with senior Met officers.
Adie Kitachi, of the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Community, said: “It’s a good idea. I pillion my partner sometimes but it is not that popular, so I don’t think too many people would be aggrieved. What you do get are criminals using high-powered mopeds with a pillion passenger tooled up with weapons.”
In 2011, Honduras banned motorcycle passengers after a series of drive-by killings and a similar ban was imposed in Medellin, Colombia, at the height of drugs cartel violence.
Commander Julian Bennett, of Territorial Policing, said: “We would consider any suggestion or proposals from anyone that might make this type of offence even more difficult to commit. However, any initiative adopted must be proportionate, practical and within current law.”
Officers are now using a DNA-type tagging spray on moped thieves while they carry out crimes, so they can be identified without a pursuit, and are also deploying portable stinger traps.
In the past Scotland Yard has used “super-Asbos” banning convicted robbers from riding pillion on bikes.This post is based on material from Docker in Practice, available on Manning’s Early Access Program. Get 39% off with the code: 39miell
We’re writing a book on Docker that’s focussed on its practical aspects.
Why? James Turnbull’s “The Docker Book” is a great introduction to Docker for those that want a good grounding in the basics of Docker. And other books like Docker in Action are in the pipe that take you through the standard usage of Docker in detail.
But as busy engineers with day jobs we didn’t have the problem of getting to know Docker. We were sold on it, and wanted to know how to get this thing to useful, and fast. That meant overcoming all sorts of challenges both big and small, from the philosophical to the mundane. And in our own time to boot.
– Do we need to adopt a microservices architecture to make this work?
– Can this solve our capacity issues?
– How do we manage the way this is changing the way we work?
– Is it secure?
– How do we get the typical engineer to understand what’s going on? Where do they get lost?
– The ecosystem is overwhelming and growing every day! How do we navigate it?
– Does this replace VMs?
– What do we do about Configuration Management?
What we lacked was a coherent guide for these real-world problems. We went out and gave talks, built tools, wrote blogs, and lots of them, all with a slant of Docker’s use in the real world.
We first used Docker in anger at work in the fall of 2013. So by the time we were approached to write a book we knew what we wanted to communicate and had had over a year of real-world experience (or “the name we give to our mistakes”, as Oscar Wilde put it) to write up. And there was a happy ending – our organisation embraced Docker and saved a load of money in the process.
Writing a book on Docker is an interesting challenge as it intersects with so many different parts of the software lifecycle. So we cover a broad range of subjects.
The book is divided into four parts:
1) Docker Fundamentals
Where we give a brief introduction to Docker, its use and its architecture
2) Docker and Development
How Docker can be used by developers, some of the benefits, development patterns and pitfalls
3) Docker and DevOps
How Docker fits in with the test, continuous integration, and continuous delivery cycles
4) Docker in Production
Orchestration decisions, aspects of working systems, and how to deal with troubled waters
Each part contains discrete techniques where we discuss solutions to problems we’ve come across, or ideas to maximise the benefits of Docker adoption. But the arc of the narrative is: “Docker from desk to production”.
The book’s now available to buy on the Manning Early Access Program. You can get 50% off the book with the code ‘mlmiell’ and help to shape its content in the author forum.
This is a big technological shift, and we’re excited about being able to be part of it. We’re really interested in your experiences and views on the approach we’ve taken and solutions we’ve found.
The code for the book will be published and maintained here, and Docker images (of course!) available here.
Enjoy!
This post is based on material from Docker in Practice, available on Manning’s Early Access Program. Get 39% off with the code: 39miell
AdvertisementsOh look, someone from Hollywood wants us all to promise not to normalize locker room talk and treat each other with kindness and respect. Wonder if Alyssa gets how ironic this is coming from the cesspool that IS Hollywood.
Paging Harvey Weinstein, Louis CK, and Charlie Sheen.
*eye roll*
Please, to everyone reading this, can we promise to not be a part of the culture that normalizes and encourages locker room talk!? Can we promise to take care of each other with kindness and respect? Do you promise? Reply to this tweet with #IPromise. — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 9, 2017
Guys, she said please.
Heh.
I have had enough of you Hollywood hypocrites. You all wallow in filth, then preach at normal people, accusing them of what you morally stunted degenerates do. STFU and STFD. — Alo Konsen (@OhioCoastie) November 10, 2017
It is absolutely tiresome being lectured on we should behave by cretins in Hollywood.
Let’s see if I understand what you’re saying! You’re upset because there are males talking stuff about females IN LOCKER ROOMS? Yet you live in a city where there is a multi billion dollar porn industry? And you worked for a film industry that depicts females as uber sluts? — David (@MentatsRule) November 9, 2017
Silly ain’t it?
How many years did you spend turning a blind eye to the Weinsteins and Spaceys of your Hollyweird bubble? And now YOU have the nerve to virtue signal to US- decent people that you consider “flyover rubes”? GFY! — MrClarkJosephKent (@MrClarkJKent) November 10, 2017
Decades apparently.
All those POOR houseplants.
Our culture is garbage. Wonder how it got there. Such a mystery. https://t.co/SyETIhTjIe — Mo Mo (@molratty) November 10, 2017
Whatever could it be?
"Do we promise to stop dehumanizing people? Ok, good. Moving on, BIG round of applause for everybody who fought hard to enable this woman to kill her baby!" pic.twitter.com/1Jqagg7n9h — Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) November 10, 2017
Ouch.
But fair point, MAYBE Alyssa and Hollywood should get their own moral compass adjusted a bit before telling the rest of us how to behave.
Related:
AWKWARD: Rosie tries fat shaming Trump and it just goes IMPRESSIVELY downhill from thereCulture warriors who are invested in the idea that there is a secular, anti-American “War on Christmas” should avoid watching the History Channel’s documentary, “Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas.” Exposure to the historical facts about the holiday could well make their heads explode.
And we wouldn’t want that. Not at Christmas.
As is widely known, it is unlikely Jesus was born in December, a time when it was usually too cold in the Holy Land for shepherds to be watching their sheep in the fields by night. In fact, the holiday wasn’t dedicated to Jesus’ birthday until centuries later — and only after early Christians had co-opted popular pagan mid-winter festivals from Roman and northern European traditions. Christmas primarily took the place of the Romans’ Saturnalia, which was a celebration of debauchery.
According to the History Channel’s overview of the documentary:
By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was celebrated. By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. On Christmas, believers attended church, then celebrated raucously in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere similar to today’s Mardi Gras. Each year, a beggar or student would be crowned the “lord of misrule” and eager celebrants played the part of his subjects. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink. If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorize them with mischief. Christmas became the time of year when the upper classes could repay their real or imagined “debt” to society by entertaining less fortunate citizens… In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas.
History-challenged readers should note that Cromwell and the Puritans were Christian radicals who opposed the monarchy (and so would have been liberals in that era) but who believed in theocracy, the melding of church and state. Ironically, these Christmas-haters are direct ideological ancestors of the militantly pro-Christmas right-wing Christian extremists of today.
From the documentary’s narration: “The tension between piety and revelry at Christmas would reach it’s logical and extreme conclusion in Puritan England, when the holiday would be considered so un-Christian, it was done away with altogether.”
Later, under Cromwell, laws were passed forbidding businesses to close and churches to open on Christmas Day.
By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday. The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident…
Here is the part that will cause the pro-Christmas warriors’ heads to explode:
NARRATOR: “After Independence, all things British fell out of favor in America — Christmas included. In fact, on Dec. 25, 1789, the United States Congress sat in session and continued to stay open on Christmas Day for most of the next 67 years.” (Emphasis added.)
Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870. It wasn’t until the 19th century that Americans began to embrace Christmas. Americans re-invented Christmas, and changed it from a raucous carnival holiday into a family-centered day of peace and nostalgia. But what about the 1800s peaked [sic] American interest in the holiday? The early 19th century was a period of class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the city’s first police force in response to a Christmas riot. This catalyzed certain members of the upper classes to begin to change the way Christmas was celebrated in America.
The right wing’s promotion of the War on Christmas over the past decade and a half or so — it started after the launching of the GOP’s Fox channel in 1996 — is a prime example of how they have learned to use both their own Fox propaganda outlet and the “liberal media” to commandeer political discourse with positions that are so anti-factual as to be laughable and really should be unworthy of serious consideration.
The historical fact is that the Christmas traditions we know now are largely re-purposed pagan practices mixed with commercialized Victorian-era sentimentality and a dash or two of religious imagery.
The right wing’s imaginary secular war on Christmas today pales in comparison with the real anti-Christmas practices of the Pilgrim settlers and policies of the Founding Fathers and the American political establishment in the first six decades after Independence.
War on Christmas? Bah! Humbug!Cori Bush, Candidate in Missouri’s 1st District, Statement on the Minimum Wage
We need an economy that works for the many, not the few. With his decision to slash St. Louis’ minimum wage from $10 per hour to just $7.70, Governor Greitens has shown that he puts profit before people.
Fostering the conditions for economic growth and job creation is crucial in St. Louis. The poverty rate is 25 percent, double the national average. It has the highest violent crime rate of any US city and the median household income is a full $10,000 less than Missouri’s average.
This is why rewarding workers for a hard day’s work, putting money in their pocket to spend in local stores, is so important.
The Governor’s decision only helps the big businesses that back him. When a group of corporations and big donors bankrolled his inaugural party earlier this year, Greitens refused to disclose where his contributions came from. These are likely the same shadowy donors pushing him to have made this decision on the minimum wage.
I am running for office with with a slate of progressive candidates called Brand New Congress. Together, we believe that to rebuild the American dream we need to rebuild the American economy.
That means paying workers fair wages and thus, we support a $15 per hour minimum wage. It is wrong that someone can work sixty hours a week and still struggle to make ends meet. In the richest country in the world it doesn’t need to be this way.
Additionally, we will not take a penny of big corporate money. Our campaigns are funded entirely by small donations from real people, which means that if I enter Congress in 2019 I will fight for those left behind by this Governor and his bad decisions.Bell also gave us an update on the Frozen sequel. She said the script "is just being finished written and I think we start recording next month."
Too exciting!
"I have a couple of clues as to what's going to happen," Bell teased.
As for another hit like "Let It Go," Bell said, "Nothing should top that. Even when I hear it, hearing it as many times, as I have, every time I hear it, it gives me the tingles.
"It's a brilliantly written song and it's so perfectly suited for her," she continued. "I think there's going to be a lot of great songs in the next movie but I don't know if any of them will top 'Let It Go.'"
Bell recently reunited with her Frozen costars Idina Menzel and Josh Gad in New York City for a fundraiser for Menzel's A BroaderWay. "She asked Josh and I if we'd come and do a sing-a-long and it was so much fun!" Bell beamed. "There were a couple hundred kids there, we sang songs from the movie, some that were cut that no one ever heard before, and it's just such a nice time to see your friends and it's really fun to sing. It's really, really fun to sing especially alongside of people that you love."We're happy to announce the Domino debut Potential from Brooklyn, NY-based musician James Hinton, aka The Range, out March 25, 2016.
The magic of Potential, following 2013’s Nonfiction - is as a document of its time. The Range has made an electronic record inspired by Baltimore club, early ‘00s grime and mid ‘00s electronica, but also as a member of the last generation that will remember going online for the first time. Listen to lead single “Florida” below.
As its backbone, Potential utilizes a series of vocal samples that Hinton found in the deep corners of YouTube, introducing us to unknown artists expressing themselves unfettered by the constraints of industry. He might be fascinated by the code that determines his YouTube searches, but what truly grips him are the human stories behind the samples. Hinton explains, “I found each person by using a small set of search terms on YouTube. Each song is inextricably linked to the point in time that I came across each video. I endeavored to tie the songs of Potential together by telling my own story alongside the stories of the people I sampled. Every song tries to acknowledge a sense of vulnerability or difficulty in life, as well as an intense drive to cope with problems in ways that don't drag you into the abyss.”
In addition to the forthcoming album Potential, a documentary titled Superimpose, directed by Daniel Kaufman, out this spring, will look at the human stories behind the unknown artists included on the album. As Hinton states, “I am very conscious that these people who I have sampled elevate what I do, just as much as my record brings their work somewhere else.” Watch the documentary trailer below.
Potential will be available in CD, LP, deluxe double LP edition, and digital formats. The deluxe double LP edition, pictured above, is available to pre-order exclusively from the Domino Mart and includes a bonus 4 track Strings 12” EP and instant download of “Florida.” It will be limited to 1000 copies worldwide.
The Range will be playing a handful of pre-release shows in March. Dates below, with more extensive touring to be announced soon.
The Range live dates:
03-01 Los Angeles, CA - Resident
03-09 London, UK - Pickle Factory
Potential tracklisting
1. Regular
2. Copper Wire
3. Florida
4. Superimpose
5. Five Four
6. Falling Out of Phase
7. No Loss
8. Skeptical
9. Retune
10. So
11. 1804
Strings EP tracklisting
1. The Magic
2. True Value
3. Flag
4. Naught
The Range photo by Alexandra GavilletAUGUSTA — A judge has found Leroy Smith III incompetent to face trial on a charge of murdering his father, while a state psychologist says the man suffers from a mental illness and “does not think anything is wrong.”
The written order followed a competency hearing that ended abruptly Monday after Smith, 25, of Gardiner, stood in the courtroom and told the judge his attorneys failed to properly represent him and that a gun was held to his head in 2011 in an incident somehow involving the heavy metal band Slayer.
Additional Images Leroy Smith III listens Monday to attorneys discuss his mental competence at Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta. Staff photo Andy Molloy Leroy Smith Jr., 56, was found dead in the woods of Richmond last May and his son, Leroy Smith III, is accused of killing him. Contributed photo State Police Detective Terry James, center, photographs the interior of a Dumpster May 5, 2014, outside the apartment that Leroy Smith Jr. shared with his son in South Gardiner. Detective Sgt. Jason Richards, left, and Trooper Breanne Petrini searched the Dumpster in the evening after the elder Smith’s body was recovered in Richmond. Staff file photo by Andy Molloy
“I have something I want to say,” said Smith, continuing to speak even after the judge warned against it and told him that if he did not stop, he would have him removed from the courtroom. Justice Donald Marden said he would accept anything in writing from Smith through his attorneys.
“With my case, they’re telling me that my story is delusional grandiose of proceedings that happened,” Smith said. “They’re not investigating it, that it happened.”
He said that at some point in 2011, “I had a gun held against my head and was sworn to keep secret about what I am. They refused investigating any persons responsible. The whole entire group Slayer was there. I was told then that what they did was too overboard. I sent them a message on Facebook and Jeff Hanneman guitarist took his own life. He took his own life May 5.” (Information on the band’s official website says Hanneman died May 2, 2013, of alcohol-related cirrhosis.)
The judge told the long-haired, bearded Smith to sit down or be removed. Smith responded, “Then I have no fair trial.”
Smith had tried to fire his lawyers at a previous hearing in July when he also was found incompetent to stand trial.
Police say Smith stabbed his father to death on May 3, 2014, in the apartment they shared, dismembered the body and distributed body parts in a rural area of Richmond. At a hearing five days later, the younger Smith claimed to be a political prisoner.
Ann LeBlanc, director of the State Forensic Service, who evaluated Smith for the court, testified Monday the younger Smith consistently demonstrated “acute delusional thinking” since May and was unable to cooperate with his defense attorneys even in a rudimentary way.
“He had delusions that he thought he was God, grandiose delusions he was the best guitarist in the world,” LeBlanc said, adding that he also had delusions that people associated with heavy metal or thrash metal bands were out to kill him.
Five uniformed deputies and a court marshal were in the large courtroom at Kennebec County Superior Court while Smith was there, and 10 members of the media watched the hearing as well as several investigators and two women who were accompanied by the victim’s advocate from the Office of the Attorney General.
Marden noted that Smith was indicted May 16, 2014, but had yet to be arraigned in connection with the murder charge.
LeBlanc testified that Smith does not have skills associated with legal competence in the state of Maine and that restoration to competence is dependent on Smith’s willingness to take antipsychotic medication, which he had previously been unwilling to do.
“He does not think anything is wrong,” LeBlanc said. She said he has a very serious psychosis related to a schizophrenic disorder.
On Monday, Pam Ames, one of his defense attorneys, said Smith was taking some prescribed antipsychotic medication while in the Kennebec County jail, which appeared to come as a surprise to others in the courtroom.
The judge’s finding of incompetence says Smith is to be committed to the custody of the state’s commissioner of the Department of Health & Human Services for care and treatment. Smith is expected to be held at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, where he has been held at various times since his arrest in May. Periodic reports on Smith’s condition are to be sent to the court.
LeBlanc testified that Smith refused to release his out-of-state records of previous psychiatric hospitalizations.
She also said Smith suffered a head injury in a motor vehicle accident in 1989 and had been treated for psychiatric reasons as well.
Smith was arrested in Westbrook two days after the slaying of Leroy Smith Jr., 56. After the younger Smith was taken to Cumberland County Jail, Smith allegedly told officers he had killed his father and “filleted him and buried him in the woods because his dad sexually assaulted him his whole life,” according to an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Jonah O’Roak.
Smith has also referred to himself as God in discussions with police, and said he was affiliated with Hells Angels, according to the affidavit.
Police found the father’s mutilated remains in trash bags that Smith told them he dumped in Richmond. Investigators also searched the woods for explosives that the younger Smith claimed to have planted in the area, but no devices were found.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
[email protected]
Twitter: @betadams
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filed under:JERUSALEM — An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a Palestinian man to three life terms for his role as logistics commander in the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank in June, a crucial chapter in last year’s deterioration of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
The man, Hussam Qawasmeh, 41, part of a sprawling clan in the West Bank city of Hebron with ties to the militant Islamist Hamas movement, was convicted last week of handling $60,000 in five installments from the Gaza Strip to buy two cars, two M-16 rifles and two pistols for use in the operation. In September, Israeli troops cornered and killed the two men they believe carried out the kidnapping and murders: Marwan Qawasmeh, 29, a relative of Mr. Qawasmeh’s, and Amer Abu Aisha, 33.
“The defendant is charged with the most severe crimes in the book of laws,” said a seven-page court document summarizing the sentencing by a three-judge panel. “The lives of the teens ended at once, and the lives of the families have changed forever.”
The document said the prison time was the maximum allowable, and it also ordered Mr. Qawasmeh to pay the victims’ families the equivalent of about $63,000 each. It added, “The murder disrupted the feelings of the region and led to a security escalation in a chain of harsh events.”The usually cool Senate Finance Committee hearing room got a little hot Thursday when Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch spit a flaming hot torch of truth at Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown for insinuating the desire to pass tax reform was nothing more than an attempt to benefit “the rich.”
The explosive exchange occurred during the fourth day of a mark-up on The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which was slightly altered by Hatch to temporarily cut taxes for individuals and ax the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. The bill, which passed out of committee late Thursday 14-12, also includes a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
Brown can be heard during the exchange insisting that the public believes tax reform is nothing more than a tax cut for the upper middle and rich upper class. Hatch, in an unusually explosive bit of passion, defended the measure with gusto citing his own beginnings in relative poverty and his long tenure on the Hill working for people that “don’t have a chance.”
“I really resent anyone saying that I’m just doing this for the rich,” Hatch said, disgust evident in his voice. “Gimme a break. I think you guys overplay that all the time and it gets old.”
I grew up in a shack with a Meadow Gold Dairy sign for a wall. I worked as a janitor to pay for law school. I believe in opportunity because I’ve lived it. And that’s what we’re going to deliver with #TaxReform. pic.twitter.com/D4VUj3lwls #utpol — Orrin Hatch (@OrrinHatch) November 17, 2017
Brown tried to counter several times, saying that tax cuts have been tried “over and over and over again,” but the Senior man literally threw up his hand, pulled rank, and said, “I’m not through!”
“If we work together we could pull this country out of every mess it’s in,” Hatch insisted.
Earlier yesterday, the House passed it’s long-awaited tax reform bill, which now faces significant hurdles to clear the Senate. GOP legislators remain confident in the effort.
The White House issued a statement Friday commending the work of the GOP on tax reform.
“President Donald J. Trump applauds the Senate Finance Committee for passing its companion to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act today,” the statement read. “For far too long, the tax code has been rigged in favor of well-connected special interests. This legislation cuts taxes for middle-income families and empowers American businesses to create more jobs, increase wages, and propel our economy toward a brighter future. This Administration looks forward to working with Congress to make tax reform a reality by the end of the year.”Ten years before the recent global panic over the U.S. government’s domestic spying program, the Pentagon solicited contractors for a searchable database of people’s lives.
In 2003, the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( |
into a 440-horsepower tarmac terror. The car sports a a supercharged E85-burning engine massaged to produce 270 horsepower; it's mated to a synchronous electric motor. Just about every part of the car, from the drivetrain to the suspension to the brakes, has been heavily modified. Yeah, it's extreme and bears almost no resemblance to the Altima Hybrid you'll find in a showroom, but it shows what's possible. Photos by Braille Battery.
*Most modified hybrids are more along the lines of Paul Goldman's Prius. The owner of Juiced Hybrids installed a body kit, bolted on a set of alloy wheels with sticky tires and made other mods to trick out a sportier Prius. *Photo by Paul Goldman.Image copyright Plan International Image caption The River Niger burst its banks last week, flooding parts of the country
Heavy flooding in Niger over the past few weeks has killed up to 65 people and left 125,000 homeless.
After appeals from the country's president for international aid, the first supplies, donated by Ireland to Plan International, have now arrived.
The southern Dosso region has been worst affected, with over 10,000 homes destroyed according to the UN.
The capital Niamey was also hit when the River Niger burst its banks, flooding the city's suburbs.
Plan International's Niger director Rheal Drisdalle said on 18-19 August, the river reached levels "not seen since the 1920s".
"As the river has not been this high for a very, very long time, people had built their houses near to the river - and then all the rice paddies along the river have been flooded," he told the BBC.
At last count, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the floods have destroyed 14,000 homes and 7,000 fields of cereal crops across the country.
The West African country is already suffering from severe food shortages caused by recent drought.
President Mahamadou Issou pledged 1,400 tonnes of food and 900,000 euros (£712,443) in aid for people affected by the flooding, but admitted that it would not be enough and called for international help.
The first international aid - 35 tonnes of supplies on a plane chartered by Ireland - arrived on Sunday.
Mr Drisdalle said the United Nations and other aid agencies were trying to raise funds to send further supplies.
Other West African countries have also experienced higher than average rainfall and flooding this season, including Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Ghana.Dating when our ancestors split from Neanderthals and other relatives has long been a puzzle, but DNA advances are making our evolutionary journey clearer
Why we're closer than ever to a timeline for human evolution
Anthropologists and geneticists had a problem. And the farther back in time they looked, the bigger the problem became.
For the past several years, there have been two main genetic methods to date evolutionary divergences - when our ancestors split from Neanderthals, chimpanzees, and other relatives. The problem was, the results of these methods differed by nearly two-fold.
By one estimate, modern humans split from Neanderthals roughly 300,000 years ago. By the other, the split was closer to 600,000 years ago. Likewise, modern humans and chimps may have diverged around 6.5 or 13 million years ago.
Puzzled by this wild disagreement, researchers with diverse expertise have been studying it from different angles. Their combined discoveries, recently reviewed here and here, have shed light on how genetic differences accumulate over time and have advanced methods of genetic dating.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Primate evolutionary relationships. Photograph: Bridget Alex
And if you’re in suspense, yes, they’ve also pinned down important events in our evolutionary timeline. Everyone alive today seems to share ancestors with each other just over 200,000 years ago and with Neanderthals between 765,000-550,000 years ago.
Dating with the molecular clock
Go back in time and you’ll find a population of Homo sapiens who were the ancestors of everyone living today. Go back farther and our lineage meets up with Neanderthals, then chimps, and eventually all primates, mammals, and life.
In order to date these evolutionary splits, geneticists have relied on the molecular clock - the idea that genetic mutations accumulate at a steady rate over time. Specifically this concerns mutations that become neutral substitutions, or lasting changes to letters of the genetic code that do not affect an organism’s chances of surviving and reproducing.
If such mutations arise clocklike, then calculating the time since two organisms shared common ancestors should be as easy as dividing the number of genetic differences between them by the mutation rate - the same way that dividing distance by speed gives you travel time.
But you need to know the rate.
For decades, anthropologists used fossil calibration to generate the so-called phylogenetic rate (a phylogeny is a tree showing evolutionary relationships). They took the geologic age of fossils from evolutionary branch points and calculated how fast mutations must have arisen along the resulting lineages.
For example, the earliest fossils on the human branch after our split with chimps are identified by the fact that they seem to have walked on two legs; bipedalism is the first obvious difference that distinguishes our evolutionary lineage of hominins from that of chimps. These fossils are 7-6 million years old, and therefore the chimp-human split should be around that age. Dividing the number of genetic differences between living chimps and humans by 6.5 million years provides a mutation rate.
Determined this way, the mutation rate is 0.000000001 (or 1x10-9) mutations per DNA base pair per year. Applied to genomes with 6 billion base pairs, that means, over millions of years of chimp and human evolution, there have been on average six changes to letters of the genetic code per year.
Why archaeology needs to come out of the cave and into the digital age Read more
This rate can be used to date evolutionary events that are not evident from fossils, such as the spread of modern humans out of Africa.
But genetic dating got messy in 2010, when improvements to DNA sequencing allowed researchers to determine the number of genetic differences between parents and their children. Known as pedigree analysis, this provides a more direct measurement of the current mutation rate within one generation, rather than an average over millions of years.
Pedigree analysis counts 60-some mutations every generation; that converts to a rate approximately half the phylogenetic estimate—meaning evolutionary events would be twice as old.
The erratic molecular clock
Resolving this disagreement propelled researchers to reassess and revise their starting assumptions: How accurately were they counting the small number of differences between genomes of parents and children? Were fossils assigned to the correct branches of the evolutionary tree? And above all, how constant is the molecular clock?
It turns out that among primates, the molecular clock varies significantly by species, sex, and mutation type. A recent study found that New World monkeys (i.e. monkeys of the Americas like marmosets and squirrel monkeys) have substitution rates about 64% higher than apes (including humans). Within apes, rates are about 7% higher in gorillas and 2% higher in chimpanzees, compared to humans.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Calculating the date of the human-chimp split. Photograph: Bridget Alex
But even among humans, mutation rates differ, particularly between the sexes with age. As fathers get older, they gain about one additional mutation per year in the DNA they can pass on to children. Mothers, on the other hand, accumulate considerably fewer mutations with each passing year.
These species and sex differences make sense when you consider how mutations form. Most heritable mutations occur from mistakes when DNA copies itself in the germline, or cells leading to eggs and sperm. The number of times germline DNA has to copy itself depends on developmental and reproductive variables including age at puberty, age at reproduction, and the process of sperm production.
These traits vary across primates today, and certainly varied over primate evolution. For instance, average generation times are six years for New World monkeys, 19 years for gorillas, 25 years for chimps, and 29 years for humans.
And those extra mutations as fathers get older? Sperm are produced continuously after puberty, so sperm made later in life are the result of more rounds of DNA replication and opportunities for replication errors. In contrast, a mother’s stock of eggs is formed by birth. The small increase with maternal age could be due to mutations from DNA damage, rather than replication errors.
Ways forward for dating backwards
It’s now clear that one mutation rate cannot determine the dates for all divergences relevant to human evolution. However, researchers can secure the timeline for important evolutionary events by combining new methods of genetic dating with fossils and geologic ages.
Innovative computational methods have incorporated reproductive variables into calculations. By taking into account ages of reproduction in both sexes, age of male puberty, and sperm production rates, researchers have estimated split times that accord with the fossil record.
Another new approach has analysed mutations that are mainly independent of DNA replication. It seems that certain classes of mutations, related to DNA damage, do behave more clocklike.
And some researchers have focused on ancient DNA. Comparing human fossils from the past 50,000 years to humans today, suggests a mutation rate that agrees with pedigree analysis.
At least one evolutionary split was pinned down in 2016, after ancient DNA was extracted from 430,000 year-old hominin fossils from Sima de los Huesos, Spain. The Sima hominins looked like early members of the Neanderthal lineage based on morphological similarities. This hypothesis fit the timing of the split between Neanderthals and modern humans based on pedigree analysis (765,000-550,000 years ago), but did not work with the phylogenetic estimate (383,000-275,000 years ago).
Where do the Sima hominins belong on our family tree? Were they ancestors of both Neanderthals and modern humans, just Neanderthals, or neither?
DNA answered this definitively. The Sima hominins belong to the Neanderthal branch after it split with modern humans. Moreover, the result provides a firm time point in our family tree, suggesting that the pedigree rate works for this period of human evolution.
Neanderthals and modern humans likely diverged between 765,000-550,000 years ago. Other evolutionary splits may soon be clarified as well, thanks to advances brought about by the mutation rate debates. Someday soon, when you see a chimp, you may be able to salute your great, great… great grandparent, with the correct number of “greats.”
Thanks to Priya Moorjani and David Pilbeam for their input on this piece.Wednesday, December 16th, 2015 (1:48 pm) - Score 1,645
A new report from Ofcom has revealed that the vast majority of fixed line home broadband ISP subscribers have, after being given an “enforced” choice, chosen not to implement their provider’s network-level filtering (Parental Controls), which are designed to block adult websites (porn etc.).
Currently all of the markets largest broadband ISPs are required, as part of a semi-voluntary agreement with the Government, to adopt network-level filtering through a system called Active Choice Plus. The intention is to prevent children from seeing unsavoury online content.
Under this system customers who sign-up to Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk or Sky Broadband are given the “enforced” option of whether or not to enable filtering, which comes pre-ticked as “Yes” (to disable it you have to specifically un-tick the box). A list of various categories is then offered for censorship (e.g. self-harm, social networking [Facebook], porn, dating, sex education etc.).
Since then the ISPs have also presented their existing customers with a similar choice and the system has thus now been in place for over a year, which means that we’re past the early adoption stage (virtually 100% of subscribers have been given the choice) and so this should give us a better idea of actual adoption (note: data collected to June 2015).
Take-up of Family-Friendly Filters (New and Existing Subscribers)
1. Sky Broadband 30-40%
2. TalkTalk 14%
3. Vigin Media 12.4%
4. BT 6%
Some implementations of this system are more aggressive than others. For example, Sky will eventually enable the feature regardless of whether or not you missed the original notice, but the account owner can still disable it whenever they want (that’s true of all the above ISPs). Sky’s spokesperson said, “The automatic position of Sky Broadband Shield is the safest one for all – that’s ‘on’.” This explains why Sky are so high in the table, although that position is under threat from the new EU Net Neutrality rules (here).
Interestingly the take up figures for new customers (excluding existing subscribers), who see the unavoidable choice during their order process, are much higher and that’s perhaps partly because it looks less like SPAM when you first see it. Equally some ISPs, such as TalkTalk, have been offering the service for many years. Still the results are mixed and the majority choose not to enable filtering (note: sorry for the low quality illustration, blame Ofcom).
At this point Ofcom’s report goes on to survey parents and children in order to discover their attitudes towards filtering. The results note how awareness of ISP content filters has increased among parents of 5-15s since 2014 (from 50% to 57%). Use of these filters has also increased among parents of 5-15s since 2014 (from 21% to 26%) and 97% of parents who adopted the filtering say they find it useful, obviously. We’ve highlighted some of the other results below.
Highlights – Ofcom’s Parents and Child Survey (Internet Filtering) * In 2015 more parents said they had looked for or received information or advice about how to help their child manage online risks (from 70% to 75%). * In 2015 most parents agreed that they knew enough to help their child to manage online risks; 80% of parents of 3-4s and (76%) of parents of 5-15s agreed with this statement. * There has been a decrease since 2014 in the number of parents who trust their child to use the internet safely, from 83% to 78%. * The top three reasons given by parents for not using filtering are consistent: 1) around half of parents of children aged 5-15 prefer to talk to their children and use other methods of mediation; 2) four in ten say they trust their child to be sensible / responsible; 3) around two in ten parents say it is because their child is always supervised or there is always an adult present. * Parents were asked about eight different technical tools and whether they thought their child could “get round them”. Around one in five parents of 5-15s who used each tool felt that their child was able to bypass the tools, while a quarter of parents felt that their child could get around their ISP’s network-level home filtering, and about one in 12 parents who used each of the eight tools said they were unsure whether their child could bypass it.
As readers of ISPreview.co.uk will know, bypassing such filtering systems can often be as easy as simply visiting a different website address (e.g. web-based proxy), using a VPN or installing special web-browser software. However Ofcom suggests that the knowledge of how to do this, among children, is actually quite low; although we have to wonder whether a child being asked such a question would always answer honestly.
Certainly some older children (12-15s) did have knowledge of potentially risky behaviours, for example one-third knew how to delete their browsing history to mask what they had been doing, although only 1 in 10 said they have actually done it. Elsewhere 1 in 10 also said they knew how to disable a filter or control and 6% say they know how to use a proxy site or a VPN, although only 1% admitted to having done this.Judge me all you want, but when I used Windows, my browser of choice was Internet Explorer. You know why? Because text in Internet Explorer looked bloody beautiful. Unlike, you know, Chrome, where text was a blurry mess. Seriously, it was painful. Until today.
Chrome's latest update, version 37, finally adds support for DirectWrite on Windows for improved font rendering, according to the release notes. If you aren't a font nerd, you only need to know this: DirectWrite is a text layout rendering API that first arrived in Windows Vista, which was released in 2007. Chrome came along a year later, and by 2009, people were already asking why fonts in Chrome on Windows looked so awful.
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According to The Next Web:
Until now, Chrome used the Graphics Device Interface (GDI), which dates back to the mid-80s and the lower-resolution monitors of the time, to render text. Google says the switch "required extensive re-architecting and streamlining of Chrome's font rendering engine."
Check out the difference in the image below. No biggie, it only took five years to fix. Thanks, Google. [The Next Web]Funerals for the victims are due to be held over the weekend
A black box voice recording from the Polish jet which crashed in Russia shows the pilots knew they were about to crash, Polish officials say. Polish chief prosecutor Andrzej Seremet said it was clear the crew knew disaster was "inevitable" after the plane hit tree-tops. A Russian source said there was no evidence the pilots were pushed by their VIP passengers into taking risks. Poland's president and numerous other top figures died in Saturday's crash. The bodies of Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were the first to be repatriated from Russia. The crew was aware of the inevitability of the coming catastrophe, if only due to the plane shaking after the wings hit the trees
Andrzej Seremet
Polish chief prosecutor Poland, which is in national mourning all of this week, received the remains of 35 other victims on Thursday, including those of Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last leader of Poland's government-in-exile during the period of communist rule. In all, 67 of the 96 victims have been brought back from Russia. Most of the remains, believed to be badly disfigured and burnt, were taken to Moscow for identification shortly after the crash in the western region of Smolensk. Mr Kaczynski and his wife are to be given a state funeral in the city of Krakow on Sunday, with world leaders including US President Barack Obama set to attend. However, Poles are divided over whether the late leader, whose popularity ratings had fallen sharply, should be interred in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral, a site traditionally reserved for Poland's kings and heroes. 'Dramatic' seconds Russian investigators, who have been working in conjunction with their Polish counterparts, said soon after the crash that the jet's pilots had disregarded repeated warnings from Russian air traffic controllers to land at an alternative airport because of heavy fog at Smolensk. The wreckage of the jet has been removed for further examination Some have suggested the crew were under pressure to land regardless because they were carrying their passengers to a memorial at nearby Katyn, where Stalin's secret police massacred Polish military officers during World War II. A senior Russian aviation official, Tatyana Anodina, said on Thursday that the plane only tried to land once - not up to four times as previously reported. An unnamed source close to the investigation in Moscow also told Russia's Interfax news agency that no evidence had been found in the flight recorders that "any of the high-ranking passengers forced the pilots to land near Smolensk". "The panel's analysis, namely data from the black boxes, shows that it was the pilot's mistake that caused the crash," the source added. Poland's chief military prosecutor, Krzysztof Parulski, rejected the Russian report as "speculation" and warned that it was too early to draw any conclusions since the investigation was still ongoing. Mr Seremet, for his part, told Polish radio: "The crew was aware of the inevitability of the coming catastrophe, if only due to the plane shaking after the wings hit the trees - which we are certain happened." Col Zbigniew Rzepa, a Polish military prosecutor, said the pilots had been aware of the imminent crash as the last seconds of the voice recordings "were dramatic". He did not elaborate. One of the three black boxes on the Soviet-built Tu-154 Polish government jet has been returned to Poland while the other two are being examined in Moscow, Polish prosecutors' spokesman Jerzy Artymiak said. Mr Artymiak said investigators had hoped to disclose the contents of the black boxes officially on Thursday but would wait until after the weekend's funerals. A state funeral for those killed along with the presidential couple is due to be held on Saturday.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThirty Syrian children were raped for months at a Turkish refugee camp and government authorities failed to notice, according to BirGün newspaper. It comes amid allegations that Turkey is not a safe country for asylum seekers.
The 30 boys were raped by a cleaner at Nizip Refugee Camp in Antep, from September 2015 until the beginning of 2016.
The rapist, identified only as E.E., has confessed that he lured children between the ages of eight and 12 to have sex with him in return for 2 to 5 Turkish Lira (US$.70-1.80). He is now in pre-trial detention.
In addition to E.E.'s confession, the children were able to describe in detail how they were raped in the toilets of the camp.
Read more
The families of eight children have so far come forward with a legal complaint. The rest of the families have not done so amid fears that they would be deported.
But despite the rapes taking place over the course of several months, they were never detected by the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), which runs the camp. Instead, the rapes were only revealed after military personnel noticed the perpetrator taking children to the blind spots of cameras.
In response to the revelations, a high-ranking military officer from the camp told BirGün that the AFAD is to blame for the rapes.
“The AFAD is responsible of the camp and for this disaster,” he said.
But the AFAD wasn't the only party unaware of the crimes taking place within the camp, which has a capacity of 14,000 refugees.
The site was praised for its standards last month, during a visit from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and various other Turkish government figures.
The shocking news comes amid reports of Turkish border control officers abusing and shooting Syrian refugees, prompting Amnesty International and other human rights organizations to claim that Turkey isn't a “safe” place for asylum seekers.
But despite any controversy surrounding Turkey's treatment of asylum seekers, the country is host to the largest number of refugees in the world, including 2.7 million Syrian refugees.
The EU and Turkey are currently aiming to work out a deal under which Ankara would take back all illegal migrants crossing into Greece from Turkey. In exchange, the EU would take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey. Whether the agreement will be solidified remains to be seen, as it is currently in a deadlock, with both Brussels and Turkey seemingly refusing to budge.
Meanwhile, Europe continues to face the worst refugee crisis since World War II, with more than a million asylum seekers reaching the continent in 2015. Most of the refugees hail from war-torn Syria, where around 250,000 people have been killed and more than 12 million displaced since 2011, according to UN figures.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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One year ago today, Israel began its 51-day aerial and ground offensive against the besieged population of the Gaza Strip. During the military campaign, Israel concentrated the population into the center of the territory, thus exacerbating its severe density; sealed the borders; launched more than 6,000 airstrikes; and fired almost 50,000 artillery and tank shells. Under these circumstances, the results could only be devastating—and they were. The offensive killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children; communities were devastated, with 142 families losing three or more members; more than 1,500 children were orphaned; more than 150,000 homes as well as 140 schools were partially or completely destroyed; and 373,000 traumatized children were left in need of psycho-social treatment. Ad Policy
The intervening year has brought little relief to the people of Gaza. Not a single home that was destroyed has been rebuilt, the siege remains intact, and 80 percent of the population is dependent on some form of aid for survival. Yet, amid the instability, Palestinians in Gaza can count on one certainty: Last summer’s onslaught of the Gaza Strip will be repeated with similar or greater force.
Despite the ferocity of Operation Protective Edge (Israel’s name for the onslaught), the destruction of the coastal enclave, home to nearly 2 million Palestinians, was not an exceptional policy in the face of exceptional circumstances. It is Israel’s official policy toward the Gaza Strip, and a particularly brutal extension of its broader policy toward all Palestinians.
Israel’s policies toward Palestinians are built on a set of twin axioms: to obtain maximum amount of Palestinian land with the minimum number of Palestinian people and to concentrate a maximum number of Palestinians onto a minimum amount of land. Israel removes, dispossesses, and concentrates Palestinians throughout Israel and the occupied territories regardless of their geographic residence or legal jurisdiction. It does so by martial law in the West Bank, by a mix of martial and administrative law in East Jerusalem, and by civil law in Israel. In the Gaza Strip, it does this by siege and warfare. Palestinians in Gaza can count on one certainty: last summer’s onslaught of the Gaza Strip will be repeated...
Israel explains its crippling siege and devastating attacks on Gaza as necessary responses to Hamas rocket fire. In this scenario, Hamas is the powerful aggressor, and there would be no conflict without it. Yet this claim does not withstand empirical and historical evidence.
Gaza, once a city-district of historic Palestine and now a “Strip,” sits on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Its harbor and fertile land has made it a focal point of trade and empire for centuries, including for the Romans, Napoleon’s France, the Mongols, and now Israel. Prior to 1948, the Gaza district contained almost 90 towns and villages. It was 38 times larger than the current Strip, making it the largest district in Mandatory Palestine (the name for the territory during the period of British rule, after World War I), until Zionist militias destroyed a majority of these towns. Upon Israel’s establishment, a truncated Gaza absorbed nearly 25 percent of Palestinian refugees exiled from their former homes, increasing the enclave’s population from 80,000 to 280,000. That number has grown to 1.8 million today, making Gaza one of the most densely populated places in the world.
From the end of the 1948 war until the war of 1967, Gaza was ruled by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt. It was during this time that the Gaza Strip became a “hotbed of Palestinian nationalism,” in the words of French academic Jean-Pierre Filiu, and a site of resistance to Israeli settler-colonialism. Filiu continues that Israel “became obsessed with the menace from Gaza.” THE NATION IS READER FUNDED. YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL TO OUR WORK. DONATE NOW!
Israel first tried to occupy the Gaza Strip in 1956, during the Sinai War, but was forced to withdraw its troops under intense US pressure after only four months. Just a decade later, during the War of 1967, it occupied Gaza more successfully and immediately began to integrate Gaza’s water system and electricity grid into Israel’s own. Hamas was nowhere in existence when Israel staged both of these invasions. In fact, when Sheikh Ahmed Yassin established the precursor to Hamas as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1973, Israel tolerated it because it viewed the organization as an effective counterweight to the far more popular Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Hamas was not established as an Islamic-nationalist resistance movement until 1988, and it did not launch its first armed attack until early 1989, when it captured and killed two Israeli soldiers.
In 1991, Israel entered into the Madrid Peace Conference, the negotiations with the PLO that preceded the Oslo Accords. In preparation for incremental withdrawal stipulated by the Oslo agreement, Israel accelerated its isolation, containment, and systematic de-development of the Gaza Strip. It did so in order to separate Gaza from the broader Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to ensure control over the territory under any ensuing permanent arrangement. Israel began importing foreign labor to replace its Palestinian labor force, which had performed much of Israel’s most grinding and lowest paid work.
This was the beginning of a particularly challenging period for the people of Gaza. At the end of the Gulf War, in February 1991, Kuwait evicted Palestinians in retaliation for Yasir Arafat’s support of Iraq’s occupation. This caused a complete halt in remittances, estimated at $120 million in 1989, to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Together with the fact that Gaza no longer had an export market for its produce in the Gulf, the economic downturn was severe. The number of Palestinian families receiving food aid rose from roughly 10,000 in June 1990 to 120,000 by June 1991, and Gaza’s gross national product fell by 41 percent. Significantly, by 1993, the number of people who depended on aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the primary humanitarian organization for Palestinian refugees around the world, had stabilized at 80,000. By the end of Operation Protective Edge, that number skyrocketed to 830,000.
The years leading up to 1991 also marked the period of the first intifada, the popular, and largely nonviolent, Palestinian uprising (the intifada began in late 1987). Palestinians engaged in civil disobedience, general strikes, economic boycotts and resistance economies, as well as the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails. But Hamas had still yet to launch a single suicide attack on Israeli civilians when, in March 1993, Israel initiated its closure policy of both the West Bank and Gaza (encircling Gaza behind an actual fence), which controlled the movement of people and goods within and between the noncontiguous territories. In instances of “total closure,” it prevented all entry and exit by Palestinians from the territories. With the borders now fully controlled by Israel, the Gazan economy became completely dependent on Israel and incapable of self-sustenance. Nine months later, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords. Shortly after that, then–Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told a UNESCO conference that he saw the Gaza Strip progressively evolving into a Palestinian state, while the West Bank would become an autonomous polity of Palestinians and Israeli settlers whose status and borders would eventually be defined. The WHO predicts that, due to siege and warfare, the Gaza Strip will be unlivable by 2020.
By the eve of 1994, Israel had sealed Gaza, set it on a course of de-development, and set it apart from the broader conflict with the intent of establishing it as the Palestinian micro-state—all before Hamas launched a single suicide attack or mortar into Israel.
Hamas launched its first suicide attack on April 6, 1994, in retaliation for the murder of 29 Palestinians praying in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. In 2000, during the start of the Second Intifada, Israel declared that it was now engaged in an “armed conflict short of war” in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip and deployed unprecedented military force against Palestinians, including aerial bombardments and airborne extrajudicial assassinations, also known as targeted killings. In this context, Hamas launched its first rocket into Israel in March 2001.
In April 2004, then–Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly announced his plan for unilateral disengagement from Gaza in exchange for consolidation and control of settlements in the West Bank, thus setting in accelerated motion Peres’s vision for Palestinian statehood articulated in his UNESCO speech. Sharon’s senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, explained that the disengagement was meant to freeze the peace process by supplying “the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.” The idea was that unilateral withdrawal would alter the balance of power by offering a veneer of Palestinian independence without relinquishing Israeli control.
To prepare for disengagement, Israel embarked on a series of military campaigns that continue to the present day. Israel launched the first campaigns in April 2004, a little more than a year before the disengagement in August and September 2005, with the aim of expanding the northern and southern buffer zones between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Since disengagement, Israel has declared several all out wars against the Gaza Strip. It tightened its siege in January 2006, when Hamas won parliamentary elections in Gaza, and declared Gaza a “hostile entity” in September 2007, after Hamas routed Fatah from the Gaza Strip in response to a US-backed preemptive coup. Upon Hamas’s assumption of power in Gaza, Israel, together with the United States and the European Union, imposed the most severe form of a naval blockade and land siege experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. The siege together with Israeli military campaigns ushered a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and it is in this context that Palestinians began building a tunnel network to survive, and resist, the blockade.
Hostilities between Hamas and Israel continued during this time until Egypt negotiated a cease-fire in June 2008. After just four months, Israel broke that cease-fire, thus triggering Operation Cast Lead, which lasted for 22 days, from December 27, 2008, until January 18, 2009. Israeli forces killed some 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, and injured approximately 4,300 others, including 1,100 children. They also destroyed 2,900 homes, 29 schools, 121 commercial and industrial workshops, 60 police stations, and 30 mosques. Significantly, the Israeli defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak, had begun planning Cast Lead long before he helped launch it, some six months before, as Israel was beginning to negotiate the June 2008 ceasefire.
Israel and Hamas then entered into another cease-fire that Israel disrupted when it assassinated Ahmed al-Jabari in November 2012; Jabari was the designated diplomat representing Hamas in negotiations with Israel. This assassination triggered Israel’s second large-scale military offensive since 2008, Operation Pillar of Cloud, which killed 177 Palestinians and injured approximately 1,500 others in eight days. The operation launched one year ago, on July 7, 2014, which Israel provoked, is a continuation of these policies and worse than any of its predecessors. Under the present circumstances, the premature death of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is inevitable.
Insisting that Hamas rocket fire explains Israel’s engagement with Palestinians in Gaza does not adequately explain Israel’s decades-long policies toward the coastal enclave. It also does not explain Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, or within Israel who continue to endure removal, dispossession, and containment despite the lack of rockets from there.
Israel’s policies toward Gaza are an extension of its ambitions to remove and replace Palestinians living on their historic lands. The cessation of this violence requires a comprehensive political solution that grapples with the settler-colonial conditions endured by all Palestinians.
At this point Israelis and Palestinians are in a holding pattern. The question is for how long? The World Health Organization predicts that, due to siege and warfare, the Gaza Strip will be unlivable by 2020. Given Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s tunnel networks in the summer of 2014, its only lifeline since 2007, relief from this intensifying humanitarian catastrophe is nearly impossible without ending the siege. Therefore, as far as some Palestinians are concerned, they will either die quietly at the hands of these cruel policies or die in front of cameras militarily resisting these conditions. Under the present circumstances, the premature death of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is inevitable.
Responsibility for altering this course belongs to all of us—individuals, organizations, and states. The status quo in the Gaza Strip today is a function of human-made politics, not natural disasters. And it will take human-made solutions, captured in a series of political choices and formative junctures, to upend the status quo and alter this daunting calculus.Do you know Chris Selmer? He’s one of the Senior Partners here at Intridea. He’s also a person that likes to run, even when nothing is chasing him. Its baffling, I know. Although, I guess I’m no better, as I’ve recently started going to the gym and picking things up just to put them down. Not my best decision. Regardless, Chris likes to run. Thanks to this little tidbit I was granted the fortune of attending Ruby Nation this month when Chris, who had already purchased a ticket to the conference, decided to sign up for a marathon to run an only-acceptable-while-in-a-car distance that very same weekend. Good for him, and |
Stongsville OH
Lehigh Valley Mall Whitehall PA
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Plaza at King of Prussia King of Pr PA
Ross Park Mall Pittsburgh PA
Susquehanna Mall Selinsgrove PA
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Wyoming Valley Mall Wilkes-Barre PA
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Shops at La Cantera San Antonio TX
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Southridge Mall Greendale WI
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Meadowbrook Mall Bridgeport WV
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Who is Khizr Khan?
ICANN, others. | Today | jessduntno
Posted on by jessduntno
Who is Khizr Khan?
Clarice Feldman did some good investigative work on this already at her blog.
Google shows this for his law practice:
Khan, Khizr M. CFC Law Offices of KM Khan 415 Madison Avenue 15th Floor New York, NY 10017 Phones: 202.279.0806 Fax: 646-673-8401 Contact Us
Mission is:
To create an enlightened community by providing and developing Patriotic American Muslim leadership and Encouraging American Muslims to participate in the democratic process at local, state and national level and vote on the election day.
Who registered this domain name and when? Khizr Khan registered it on July 23, 2016.
Google shows this for his law practice: His NYC address is here (but the phone number is in D.C.) Khan, Khizr M. CFC Law Offices of KM Khan 415 Madison Avenue 15th Floor New York, NY 10017 Phones: 202.279.0806 Fax: 646-673-8401 Contact Us: http://www.americanmuslimsvote.org/contact-us.html
TOPICS:
Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS:
clinton
khan
muslim
ICANN Registration Showing results for: AMERICANMUSLIMSVOTE.ORG Original Query: americanmuslimsvote.org https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=americanmuslimsvote.org
To: jessduntno
He is a muslim brotherhood lawyer who used his connections with the Clintons to enrich himself. And shamelessly used the death of his son for political purposes.
by 2 posted onby 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
To: jessduntno
Who is Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen US soldier?
By Clarice Feldman Khizr Khan is the father of a U.S. soldier who died in Iraq, who spoke poignantly of the loss of his son and then used that platform to attack Donald Trump. On Sunday he tweeted further disparaging remarks about Melania. Google shows this for his law practice:
His NYC address is here (but the phone number is in D.C.)
Khan, Khizr M. CFC
Law Offices of KM Khan
415 Madison Avenue
15th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phones: 202.279.0806
Fax: 646-673-8401
Contact Us: http://www.americanmuslimsvote.org/contact-us.html I was surprised that a N.Y. law office would list a D.C. telephone number, so I called it to check and was told by the man who answered that it was not Khizr Khan’s law office. The man who answered would not tell me who it was. So I did more digging and learned that that is also the phone number of a group called American Muslims Vote, which says its mission is: “To create an enlightened community by providing and developing Patriotic American Muslim leadership and Encouraging American Muslims to participate in the democratic process at local, state and national level and vote on the election day.” I did some further research into who registered this domain name and when. Khizr Khan registered it on July 23, 2016. He’s looking increasingly like a plant to me a Muslim Cindy Sheehan playing on people’s sympathies to foster a Democratic Party political agenda. And of course, in that goal, he has the full-throated support of the American media.
by 3 posted onby jessduntno (The mind of a liberal...deceit, desire for control, greed, contradiction and fueled by hate.)
To: 2banana
I guess if you are part of a religion that approves of homocide vests, trading on your son’s death shouldn’t be a big thing.
by 4 posted onby jessduntno (The mind of a liberal...deceit, desire for control, greed, contradiction and fueled by hate.)
To: jessduntno
Top notch Jess!
To: All
To: jessduntno
He’s a Muslim plant.
by 7 posted onby laplata ( Speaking The Truth Is Now Considered 'Hate Speech')
To: jessduntno
Khan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so sick of seeing that name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by 8 posted onby dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
To: jessduntno
Someone on here posted they called the number and some military defense intelligence place answered the phone.
Seems odd. He’s also involved with the Clinton Foundation. Seems like a setup b.s. thing. We heard from anyone that served with the son?
To: jessduntno
Kizr Khan is running American Muslims Vote from his home. The domain registration lists a Charlottesville, Virginia address. It is a residential address. Khizr Khan bought it 09/07/2004. He sold it to wife(?) daughter(?) Shaharyar Khan 03/12/2010 http://gisweb.albemarle.org/GISWeb/Welcome.aspx
by 10 posted onby Ray76 (The evil effect of Obergefell is to deprive the people of rule of law & subject us to tyranny!)
To: jessduntno
Another $^&%hole immigration lawyer!? Thanks for doing the job the treasonous press won’t do.
To: DaxtonBrown
“Top notch Jess!” Thanks, but the ICANN register is free to look at. There are some REAL interesting devils in the details of the registration page, including a VA address that looks like a sold home under his son’s name, listed after his death. This whole thing was staged like the Candy Crowley surprise on Mittens.
by 12 posted onby jessduntno (The mind of a liberal...deceit, desire for control, greed, contradiction and fueled by hate.)
To: jessduntno
Khan needs to be exposed and Trump will make sure Khan is exposed to the American people.
To: jessduntno
Sounding more and more like the SON joined the infidel US Army in order to... 1. Piss of scumbag dad 2. Reclaim some honor for the family
To: Timpanagos1
It’ll have to be Trump and places like FR...The MSM won’t say a word about this POS......
To: jessduntno
EXCELLENT SLEUTHING..! Dan Rather repeat.
To: jessduntno
I Was Just Joking: Media Apoplectic as Khizr Khan Attack on Donald Trump Goes Down in Flames Breitbart ^ | 8/1/2016 | MATTHEW BOYLE
Posted on 8/1/2016, 4:57:15 PM by BlackFemaleArmyCaptain Mainstream media figures from the New York Times to the Huffington Post to CNN are apoplectic Monday as theI Was Just Joking: Media Apoplectic as Khizr Khan Attack on Donald Trump Goes Down in Flamesir latest attack on Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has crumbled yet again under the slightest bit of scrutiny. Specifically, the newest line of attack to fall apart is the criticism of Trump over Khizr Khan, the Muslim Gold Star father who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week. Over the weekend and for the past few days since Khan spoke alongside his wife Ghazala Khan about their son, U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, media-wide reporters, editors, producers, and anchors have tried to lay criticism on Trump over the matter. They thought they had a good one, a specific line of attack that pitted Trump against the militaryand supposedly showed him as a big meanie racist in the process. But, as Breitbart News showed on Monday midday, that clearly was not the case. Khizr Khan has all sorts of financial, legal, and political connections to the Clintons through his old law firm, the mega-D.C. firm Hogan Lovells LLP. That firm did Hillary Clintons taxes for years, starting when Khan still worked there involved in, according to his own website, matters firm wideback in 2004. It also has represented, for years, the government of Saudi Arabia in the United States. Saudi Arabia, of course, is a Clinton Foundation donor whichalong with the mega-bundlers of thousands upon thousands in political donations to both of Hillary Clintons presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016plays right into the Clinton Cash narrative. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3455419/posts
by 17 posted onby Grampa Dave (Like NSA. ItÂs the only part of the federal government that actually listens to the American people)
To: dp0622
Im so sick of seeing that name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Im so sick of seeing that name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by 18 posted onby mkjessup (Hillary Rotten Criminal is a f--king murdering sociopath. You want that in the Oval Office?)
To: Eisenhower Republican
“Another $^&%hole immigration lawyer!?” A specialist.
by 19 posted onby jessduntno (The mind of a liberal...deceit, desire for control, greed, contradiction and fueled by hate.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John RobinsonThe journalist at the centre of a contested article featuring comments attributed to Dimitri Payet insists that the interview was genuine.
A story by writer Justin Allen, published in The Sun newspaper earlier this week claiming that Payet had told him he intends to remain at West Ham was subsequently dismissed as "fabrication" by the French international's representative Jacques Olivier Auguste.
Speaking to Daily Mercato on Friday, Auguste claimed that "Dimitri has not done an interview with any media outlet", adding "these declarations are pure inventions in the imagination of a journalist".
However an angry Allen contacted KUMB.com last night to challenge Auguste's version of events and insist that the interview DID take place - adding that he has witnesses plus a photo of Payet, taken at the time of the interview, to support his case.
Dimitri Payet with my pals at M20 services returning from Euro 2016, where he said: I'm 100% staying at #whufc pic.twitter.com/yuhBYsLXUl — Justin Allen (@justinallen1976) July 16, 2016
In the initial story, Allen - who has since posted the above picture via his twitter timeline - claimed that Payet told him he was "100 per cent staying at West Ham". He was offered the right to reply, but refused to comment.Did you see that coming? I didnt see that comingOh yes and. Cover your eyes!Bought Apollo Justice just couple of days ago, bring my total of Gyakuten Saiban games to a resounding... two. How was I to know that Justice was Gyakuten Saiban 4?! I thought it was a spinoff!So thanks Capcom, ruining 1 and 3 for me. Thanks a bunch.I had no intention of making a comic out of this: at first I only wanted to doodle panel 3 (btw anyone notice the multiple relevances of Apollos interesting use of hand sign?), but I guess things just escalated.Like an escalatorNot only that, but i drew this comic with a completely different (ok slightly different) punchline in mind, but it didnt work out too good, and so that may explain for the lack of flow you feel in this one.Different background and panelling method used in this, yadda yadda yadda, you dont really careI don'toh yes, and here is the alternate panel 5 I intended to uselulzBCH reader @firehat recently pointed me to a report at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center.
The 1946-1947 report, prepared by consultants James A. Hamilton and Associates for the Texas Medical Center, looked at how local hospitals would have to meet the needs of a growing Houston.
Among some of the more curious findings in this report are snapshots of Houston-area hospitals. It’s fascinating to see how medical care has changed over the last 60 years.
Below, you’ll find excepts from the report on some of the profiled hospitals. I’ll follow up with a second post on other hospitals — like St. Joseph’s Infirmary — next week.
***
Chronicle file Heights Hospital, 1917 Ashland, 1949
This would appear to be a well organized and operated hospital, with generous physical quarters for patients and personnel. The general manager, although lacking experience, seems interested in the operating of the hospital and its advancement toward satisfactory compliance with known measurements.
3,071 patients were admitted to Heights Hospital in 1945. The average adult patient stay was 4.6 days, the lowest of all the hospitals surveyed. Some of that was attributed to a higher number of tonsil and adenoid operations being performed, as well as emergency room cases becoming inpatient cases.
***
Chronicle file Hermann Hospital, 1951
No contagious cases are received but contagion developing after admission or as a secondary diagnosis is treated in the hospital. A few nervous or mental cases are admitted but these are limited to the three neuro-psychiatrists on the staff. … Venereal disease, unless related to another condition normally treated in the hospital, is not a basis for admission. The hospital does not treat alcoholics, incurables, epileptics, chronics or convalescents. […] The feeling has been expressed that a general over-all personnel shortage exists. The greatest seriousness is in the graduate nurses group, where it is estimated that there is a shortage of 30. The personnel problems are emphasized by the present turn-over existing in this hospital as in most all hospitals, and this coupled with certain administrative and supervisory short-comings on which a good deal of thought and work is at present being expended will help in answering the turn-over and shortage problems.
There were 294 beds available at Hermann Hospital, 49 of which were set aside for blacks.
***
Chronicle file Houston Negro Hospital, 2900 Elgin, 1949
The first floor houses various cramped business offices, whose work is hampered by the overflow of visitor traffic which reaches the point of having to use the porch and adjacent grounds of the building. […] On the first floor, in addition to the above and to the emergency receiving section, is the obstetric ward of 10 beds and the nursery with 20 bassinets. Access to the latter is through the labor rooms, and all three — the ward, the nursery, and the labor room — are so closely knit that safe nursing technique is jeopardized.
The average length of stay at Houston Negro Hospital was 5.7 days.
***
Post file Jefferson Davis Hospital, December 1937. Buffalo Drive (now Allen Parkway) runs diagonal at top right. Taft Street, Temple Drive and West Walker Street appear at top. Gillette Street appears under construction at the bottom.
In 1945, the average length of stay at Jefferson Davis Hospital was 11.2 days.
That year, the hospital saw 25,708 emergency room cases. Of that number, 13,321 were were black and 12,397 were white. During this time, the hospital started receiving private patients to ease crowding at other hospitals.
***
Chronicle file Memorial Hospital, 602 Lamar, early 1950s. This view is looking south-southeast from the Julia Ideson Building. The building was demolished in 1977.
In the 37 years this hospital has operated its records indicate $1,500,000 in free care to this community. In 1945, 1,139 non-paying cases were accepted — or slightly over 9 percent of its patient load and presumably about the same proportion of its bed capacity. If, through its participation in the Texas Medical Center, an allotment of 20 percent teaching beds are exacted and in turn are limited to non-paying cases, the financial structure of the hospital will need careful study. […] It was learned that Memorial Hospital does a considerable amount of emergency work, particularly in the field of traffic accidents, resulting no doubt from their downtown location. They have advised private ambulance owners that only a limited number of cases will be accepted and that the remaining must be distributed among the other hospitals as they feel that their facilities are being over-taxed.
Chronicle file Closeup of above photo. Corner of Smith and Lamar.
***
Contributed photo Methodist Hospital, 3020 San Jacinto at Rosalie in 1924. The building at the far left is still standing.
It is to be mentioned in passing that the frame building previously mentioned as being used for the care of 29 children is a non-fire resistant one-story building and is considered neither safe nor adequate and should be abandoned for the care of any bed patients as soon as possible.
(The building described in the excerpt isn’t in the above photo. It’s also worth nothing that Methodist Hospital would soon relocate from its earlier location at 3020 San Jacinto to the Texas Medical Center.)University of Nevada
When the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi river in Minnesota collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people, it was because of defects in steel plates that safety inspectors had missed. A new robot helper could help avoid such tragedies by making bridge checks cheaper and more accurate.
Surveying a bridge used to involve drilling into the road to check the concrete and steel structures underneath. Although radar has simplified the work since the 1980s, sending out teams of people to check bridges is still expensive and can require extended road closures. Human inspections aren’t immune to error either, as the I-35W case shows. The upshot is that many bridges are overdue a health check – thousands in the US alone, for instance.
To address these issues, Spencer Gibb at the University of Nevada and his colleagues have built the first fully autonomous robot bridge inspector – one that shuttles back and forth along the side of the road without getting in the way of passing traffic.
Advertisement
The four-wheeled, waterproof, battery-powered device uses ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity sensors to locate any corroded steel parts or deteriorating concrete inside the bridge. Surface cracks can be detected using the on-board camera.
Maps of weakness
A machine-learning algorithm converts the readings in real time into a colour-coded map of the bridge, highlighting any areas of weakness. The results are sent to human inspectors, who can keep tabs on the robot as it does its rounds.
The team tested the robot on four road bridges in Nevada, New Hampshire, Maine and Montana, where it proved speedier and more accurate than human inspectors. “The robot takes the same amount of time to physically scan the bridge as a human inspector but it processes the data in minutes instead of hours,” says Gibb. The team is now working on ways to cut down the inspection time of the robot as well.
Another benefit is that one robot is cheaper than a team of people, says Gibb. When human inspectors check a bridge, other workers are needed to close it off to traffic and analyse the data.
Tommy Chan at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia says the cost-effectiveness will ultimately depend on how the robot compares with other upcoming technologies like drones and sensors built into bridges themselves.
Chan believes that robots should be a complementary technology for bridge inspections. “Human experience is precious so, at least for now, I don’t see robots replacing humans altogether,” he says. “But robots do cut out human error so we should definitely consider them as a way to help.”
Reference: arXiv.org/abs/1704.04663The Power Of Closures - Deferred Object Bindings In jQuery 1.5
Over the weekend, I started to explore the Deferred objects that were added to jQuery 1.5. Deferred objects are stateful queues that can trigger success and fail event handlers. In a follow-up exploration, I wanted to see if I could use Deferred objects to power asynchronous script loading. As it turns out, you certainly can; but, the way in which I listened for the DOM-ready event should have raised some eyebrows.
Most of the asynchronous script loading that I wrote depends on the Promise objects returned from the $.ajax() method (which was completely rewritten in jQuery 1.5 to use Deferred objects). However, in addition to loading scripts, my asynchronous script loader also needed to wait for the DOM-ready event before it could use the loaded scripts.
In jQuery, we typically bind to the DOM-ready event by passing a function reference to the $() method:
$( function(){... DOM-ready code... } );
Following this approach, I created a one-off Deferred object that would resolve when the DOM-ready event was fired:
$.Deferred(
function( deferred ){
// In addition to the script loading, we also
// want to make sure that the DOM is ready to
// be interacted with. As such, resolve a
// deferred object using the $() function to
// denote that the DOM is ready.
$( deferred.resolve );
}
)
As you can see, the logical end of this code is the following line:
$( deferred.resolve );
Here, rather than passing a lambda (anonymous) function to the jQuery constructor ($), as we might normally, we are passing a reference to the resolve() method of the one-off Deferred object instance. Passing function references can be a bit tricky, though; in this case, we're not actually passing the function as a method on the "deferred" instance - we're simply passing the free-floating function reference that happens to be a property of the deferred object.
The binding of a function doesn't matter until the function is invoked. This is why functions can be copied from one object to another; this is also why native functions like call() and apply() exist in Javascript and why functions like $.proxy() exist in jQuery.
So, how is it that we can pass the resolve() function reference and have it act upon the intended Deferred object? The answer: Closures. If you look at the source code for the jQuery 1.5 Deferred (and the _Deferred) constructor, you'll notice that it explicitly returns an object. This is why the "new" keyword is optional - you're not getting the instantiated Deferred class instance, you're getting an explicitly created object literal.
Without digging into the jQuery 1.5 source code, I can quickly illustrate this concept with a small demo. In the following code, I create a Girl constructor; but, within the constructor, notice that I am explicitly creating and returning a local object:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Deferred Object Bindings in jQuery 1.5</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../jquery-1.5.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Define the girl constructor. This returns a new Girl
// instance, but not in the traditional sense.
function Girl( name ){
// Create a girl singleton.
var girl = {
// Set the name property.
name: name,
// I say hello to the calling person. Notice that
// when this method invokes properties, it calls
// them on the local "girl" instance. This function
// has created a closure with the local context and
// therefore has access to the "girl" instance no
// matter how this method is invoked.
sayHello: function(){
return(
"Hello, my name is " + girl.name + "."
);
}
};
// Return the girl instance. This will be different than
// the actual instance created by the NEW constructor
// called on the Girl class (though no references to the
// NEW-based instance will be captured).
return( girl );
}
// -------------------------------------------------- //
// -------------------------------------------------- //
// Create some girl instances.
var sarah = new Girl( "Sarah" );
var jilly = new Girl( "Jilly" );
// Collect the sayHello methods. By collecting the method
// references, they are no longer bound to their original
// context objects; the closure behavior of the functions,
// however, remains in-tact.
var methods = [
sarah.sayHello,
jilly.sayHello
];
// Loop over the functions to execute them.
$.each(
methods,
function( i, sayHello ){
// Execute the context-less function.
console.log( sayHello() );
}
);
</script>
</head>
<body>
<!-- Left intentionally blank. -->
</body>
</html>
Once I've defined my constructor, I create two instances of the Girl class which, in turn, creates two instances of the "girl" literal. Then, I am gathering up the two sayHello() method references and executing them outside the context of their original binding. When I do this, I get the following console output:
Hello, my name is Sarah.
Hello, my name is Jilly.
As you can see, the methods, though invoked without their parent context, are still bound to the appropriate "name" values. This is possible because we're not actually relying on the object binding; rather, we're relying on the method's lexical binding - in other words, its role in creating a closure.
Closures are not the easiest things to wrap your head around, so I've tried to outline this particular case graphically:
Inside the Girl() constructor, our encapsulated "girl" object is defined within the local scope of the function. Then the sayHello() method is defined within constructor. As such, no matter how we pass the sayHello() function reference around, it will always have access to the "girl" object literal; the caveat to this, of course, being that the function cannot make use of the "this" keyword, which depends on the invocation context.
I find this to be particularly interesting because I've never actually returned anything other than "this" from a class constructor. To be honest, I don't think I was even aware that you could override the value returned from a class constructor; I assumed this was one of those things that was auto-wired by the language. Creating objects in this way adds overhead and method duplication; I have to assume that the jQuery team chose this approach specifically so that resolve() and reject() methods could be passed around without object binding. Very clever stuff!
Tweet This Deep thoughts by @BenNadel - The Power Of Closures - Deferred Object Bindings In jQuery 1.5 Woot woot — you rock the party that rocks the body!Judicial Watch reports that the Obama administration has turned over about 42,000 pages of documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal. The administration was forced to turn the documents over to Judicial Watch in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Judicial Watch is posting them on its web site. The administration turned them over on November 18, 2014.
One of the documents provides smoking gun proof that the Obama White House and the Eric Holder Justice Department colluded to get CBS News to block reporter Sharyl Attkisson. Attkisson was one of the few mainstream media reporters who paid any attention to the deadly gun-running scandal.
In an email dated October 4, 2011, Attorney General Holder's top press aide, Tracy Schmaler, called Attkisson "out of control." Schmaler told White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz that he intended to call CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer to get the network to stop Attkisson.
Schultz replied, "Good. Her piece was really bad for the AG."
Schultz also told Schmaler that he was working with reporter Susan Davis, then at the National Journal, to target Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA). Issa led the House investigation into Fast and Furious. Davis now works at USA Today. In the email chain, Schultz tells Schmaler that he would provide Davis with "leaks."
Davis wrote a critical piece on Issa a few weeks later.
Attkisson was later subjected to hacking of her computer by people who remain unknown, but who likely belong to a government agency. She and CBS parted ways earlier in 2014, and Attkisson has since said that the network blocked her reports from airing.
Update: More about Schmaler here, here, here and here.
Flashback: In April 2014, Attkisson appeared on Fox with Bill O'Reilly. According to Attkisson, CBS "felt the story was over" long before she had gotten to the bottom of it, so the network stopped her. She tells O'Reilly that CBS ran "hot and cold" on her stories about Fast and Furious and Benghazi, and would switch from being supportive to acting like they did not want her to bring her stories on those topics anymore.Gommendy Heading for Indy 500
Auto Hebdo and RACER have confirmed plans heard privately by DSC a week ago that should see Tristan Gommendy make his Indianapolis 500 debut next year with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
The entry has been negotiated by Didier Calmels, co-founder of the Larrousse F1 team and current co-owner of Signatech.
Gommendy had a spell in Champ car a decade ago with KV Racing.
Hartley IndyCar Bound?
In similar vein there is a flurry of interest in both directions from the IndyCar paddock in potentially available talent from the world of sportscars. racer.com report that Brendon Hartley is expected to become the latest signing for the ganssi team, replacing the outgoing Tony Kanaan
Tavares Ring-Bound
PSA boss Carlos Tavares is the latest industry leader to successfully gain his Nordschleife race permit. He is set to make his racing debut on the Green Hell in a VLN race in October – In an Opel!
Tavares has also recently revealed an update to the Adess 03 LMP3 car after buying into the constructer with a personal stake.
The recently completed chassis 09 has been built with an all-carbon body and now meets the minimum weight for the class having been substantially overweight previously.
Ligier Incentivising US Customers
Onroak Automotive has announced a prize for their customers competing in the IMSA Prototype Challenge.
The constructor will award a prize to Ligier teams finishing in the Top 5 in the 2018 Championship, plus an additional prize for winning the Overall Championship.
These teams will take part a test session at the end of the season in a Ligier JS P217 LM P2 car.
Each team will be awarded a set number of kilometres based on how many cars they enter in the series: 75, 50, 35, 25, 15km per car, for 1st-5th place in the championship. For example, if a 3-car team wins the championship, they will receive 75km x 3 = 225km of testing.
For winning the Overall championship, the line-up will additionally receive hot-pit, paddock and hospitality passes to the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Road to Le Mans LM P3 Race.Toronto forward Phil Kessel's sizzling start has earned him October's highest honor.Kessel on Tuesday was named October's NHL Player of the Month, with Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen coming in second and Edmonton goalie Nikolai Khabibulin landing in third.Kessel finished October leading the League with 10 goals and 18 points in 11 games. He has been held off the score sheet only twice and has five multiple-point games, including two 3-point games and a season-high 4-point game Oct. 8 against Ottawa, when he also had a hat trick."He had the best month of his career so far," Leafs coach Ron Wilson told reporters after Tuesday's practice. "He's been consistent in the 11 games he's played. Lots of shots and doing things that I haven't seen him do before like play hard in our zone, get pucks out, get in hard on the forecheck. I guess I should say I expect him to play the same in November. We'll see."Kessel's torrid start has helped the Maple Leafs jump to the early lead in the Northeast Division with a 7-3-1 record. Their 15 points are one better than the streaking Senators, who have won six straight games."It's all about winning here," Kessel said. "We're here to do whatever we can to win, and right now it's working out. We have to keep it going. You can't just have one good month in this League."Lehtonen has been the difference-maker in Dallas, helping the Stars tie Pittsburgh for the most wins in the League with eight. Lehtonen is responsible for all of them, while his goals-against average (1.75) is fourth in the NHL and his save percentage (.947) is tied for second with Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick Lehtonen has allowed more than two goals in a game only once through his first nine starts. The Stars have 16 points (8-3-0) to lead the Pacific Division.Khabibulin, who won just 10 times in 47 games last season, has helped the Oilers get out to one of the NHL's most surprising starts. He has a 5-0-2 record and leads the League with a 1.12 GAA and.960 save percentage. He has not allowed more than two goals in any of his seven starts, and Edmonton leads the Northwest Division with 16 points (7-2-2).\
OCamlEditor
OCamlEditor is a source code editor and build tool for the OCaml programming language.
It provides many features to facilitate editing code, accessing API reference directly from the editor and compiling projects. It is entirely written in OCaml and uses LablGtk for the graphical user interface; it is light-weight, free and open source and runs on Linux and Windows.
Features
Standard Editing Features
Bookmarks
You can place markers in the editor. This saves the location so you can return to this line again later. The bookmarks are persistent and project-wide.
You can place markers in the editor. This saves the location so you can return to this line again later. The bookmarks are persistent and project-wide. Edit location history and "Last edit location" button
Incremental search
Search for text incrementally, as you type in the search string.
Search for text incrementally, as you type in the search string. Find and replace in path
The Find In Path and Replace In Path commands provide easy ways to find, navigate to, and replace strings in multiple files and directories in a defined path.
The Find In Path and Replace In Path commands provide easy ways to find, navigate to, and replace strings in multiple files and directories in a defined path. Automatic reload when file changes on disk
The editor automatically detects any changes to a file that is loaded and is changed outside of the editor.
The editor automatically detects any changes to a file that is loaded and is changed outside of the editor. Automatic file backup and recovery
When a file is saved the option to generate a backup file is provided. Backup copies are sequentially numbered and stored locally in a sub-directory of the project.
In the case of a crash of either the application or the OS, any files open for edit with unsaved changes will be saved as temporary files. When the application is restarted the user will be prompted with the Auto Recovery dialog prompting the user with a list of modified but unsaved temporary files saved at the time of the crash.
When a file is saved the option to generate a backup file is provided. Backup copies are sequentially numbered and stored locally in a sub-directory of the project. In the case of a crash of either the application or the OS, any files open for edit with unsaved changes will be saved as temporary files. When the application is restarted the user will be prompted with the Auto Recovery dialog prompting the user with a list of modified but unsaved temporary files saved at the time of the crash. Diff files between revisions
Highlighting of matching delimiters
Highlight all occurrences of selected text
Indentation lines
Highlighting of current line
Line numbers
Automatic indentation to match preceding line
Tabbed views
Ability to switch rapidly between currently opened and recently used files
OCaml Editing Features
Customizable syntax highlighting
Color, style, weight and underline of lexical categories can be customized.
Color, style, weight and underline of lexical categories can be customized. Automatic indentation.
Commenting/uncommenting of code blocks
With the same shortcut key you can comment/uncomment blocks of code or select, from the current cursor position, the enclosing or nearest comment.
With the same shortcut key you can comment/uncomment blocks of code or select, from the current cursor position, the enclosing or nearest comment. Automatic compilation of the currently open file
Delay and compiler flags are configurable in project properties. Error/warning locations are underlined in the source and marked in the "gutter" and in the global gutter. Error messages are shown with a tooltip.
Delay and compiler flags are configurable in project properties. Error/warning locations are underlined in the source and marked in the "gutter" and in the global gutter. Error messages are shown with a tooltip. Code folding
Folding points are syntax-dependent.
Folding points are syntax-dependent. Completion popup |
off the presidential nominating process, and ultimately to air television ads in those states. The group will begin its push with a website, “Run Warren Run,” allowing supporters to sign a petition urging Ms. Warren to pursue a White House bid and featuring a video about her.
“We want to demonstrate to Senator Warren that there’s a groundswell of grass-roots energy nationally and in key states and to demonstrate there’s a path for her,” Mr. Sheyman said. He added that the effort was not being made in coordination with Ms. Warren and that the group advised her staff about it only last weekend.
Ms. Warren, who is entering her third year in the Senate, has fast become a favorite among liberal activists for her unapologetic brand of economic populism, but she has also repeatedly denied any interest in pursuing the presidency.Seattle’s all-female football team: This isn’t the lingerie league The women of the Seattle Majestics make huge sacrifices for their sport, full-tackle football. For many, the reward is nothing short of salvation.
Visuals produced by Aileen Imperial, KCTS9 and additional photography by Christine Unten and Eugene Fox.
On Aug. 22, 2013, Toakase Tukutau was about to hit the rugby field at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where she was awaiting acceptance. She was plugged into her music and getting ready to play when her phone rang. That’s about the time her whole world came crashing down.
Her 19-year-old cousin had been shot and killed outside a convenience store in Utah.
“We had a pact that, no matter what, we were always going to be tight, always be in contact with each other, so it was a hard hit to our family,” says Tukutau, who goes by the nickname Kase (“kah-SAY”). “I had talked to him a month before and he was saying he was getting married, so it went from planning a wedding to planning a funeral.”
Tukutau immediately left Kansas, came back to her hometown of Tacoma, Washington, and lost control. She quit sports, started partying more, making bad choices and working dead-end jobs. She wasn’t happy.
Then she found the Majestics.
An all-women, full-tackle football team, the Seattle Majestics are part of a nonprofit league called the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA), which has teams across the United States, from Seattle to Dallas to Pittsburgh. Each year, Seattle’s women go head-to-head with teams from Tacoma, Everett and Portland, Oregon, as well as more far-flung places such as Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Diego, California.
The women playing for the Seattle Majestics don’t hold back. They go full force, and they hit as hard as men. They’ve gone undefeated for two years in a row. So far this year, their record is 2-0.
On a deeper level, though, the team is a tight-knit community, an outlet for players’ energy and a source of self-identity and pride. In a time when headlines shout about the damage football does to players’ brains and bodies, team members say the Seattle Majestics saves lives.
“When I found this football team, my life was in a dark dark place,” Tukutau says. “Football got me out.”
For Tukutau, joining the Majestics wasn’t a huge leap. She played for Lincoln High School in Tacoma all four years she was there. She was a starting player on the freshman team, then moved to junior varsity and eventually varsity.
There was no girls’ team; Tukutau played defensive line with the boys. And with her football pads and helmet on, she was mistaken for a guy more times than she can count. She’s Tongan, 5-foot-8 and rock solid, with long, dark, curly hair that sticks out of her helmet. She says her tough-looking exterior makes other teams scared of her.
But when she talks football, there is a gentler tone to her voice.
“Playing football is kind of like my air,” she says. “It’s more than an adrenaline rush to me, more than love for the sport, it’s life, and I can’t really explain the happiness that fills my heart when I’m playing.”
In 2014, the Majestics named Tukutau Rookie of the Year, and she was selected for the Women’s Football Alliance All-American team for her work on the line. Last year, she was picked for the All-American team again.
Outside of football, she is also doing better. On March 25, she graduated from the training program Apprenticeship & Non-Traditional Employment for Women (ANEW), which she found through Majestics teammates. She will pursue a career in carpentry.
Tukutau isn’t the only one whose life has been transformed on the gridiron.
Rebecca Samuelson had just moved to Seattle when she left an abusive relationship and lost her grandmother. “Everything was terrible,” Samuelson says. “I went down this YouTube rabbit hole one night, when the Seattle Majestics popped up as a ‘video you might enjoy next.’”
She spent the entire night absorbing everything she could find about the team (which wasn’t much) and realized that the final training camp of the season was the next week. So Samuelson left her comfortable 10-block bubble and drove to Kent from downtown Seattle.
“It was horrible,” she says. “I showed up with my softball cleats, it was freezing cold and one of the veterans knocked me on my butt. I almost didn’t come back.”
Samuelson, with her blonde hair, blue eyes and bubbly personality, doesn’t look like your typical football player. But today, on top of 55- to 60-hour weeks as a technical marketing manager at Galvanize, she spends about 14 hours working and playing for the Majestics as a defensive end. “Despite the drive in rush hour, despite not getting home until 11 and feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck, it’s weirdly worth it,” she says.
The story repeats, with variations, among the Majestics’ 35 players.
Kiki Williams is a juggler — she works full-time at Boeing, attends school at Tacoma Community College, and somehow makes time for a relationship and a dog, a cat and two bearded dragons. On top of it all, she spends three days a week playing football.
Then there is Elisha Edlen, who lives on the Eastside, drives to Renton for her carpenter apprenticeship and then to practice with the Majestics in Kent. Edlen played sports through high school. When she graduated, she no longer had an outlet to release stress and be competitive. But on a camping trip with cousins she met a former Majestics player who told her about the team. Edlen has been with them for five seasons.
“It’s boosted my confidence,” she says. “I’m pretty soft-spoken and playing has gotten me to come out of my shell a lot more.”
The transformative power comes, in part, from the sport itself, and the structure and focus its given these women in their often erratic lives. “I think it’s the level of intensity, and how immersive it is,” Samuelson says. “When I walk onto the football field, no one can get ahold of me. Not a single person. Unless you’re on that football field with me, you can’t reach me. It’s my time to focus on me.”
As players work together day in, day out, the team has also become a family. “You can’t get away from the team if you want to,” Samuelson says. “We play together. We travel together. We go out to eat together after practices and games. We go out for birthdays. We are in constant communication.”
Whatever it is, players say they can’t imagine life without it.
Although these players say they’ve found a place they belong, it comes at a steep price. It costs $70,000 to run the team for a year. That money goes toward uniforms, equipment, referees and a field to play on. To cover those costs, the team relies on fundraising, sponsorships and ticket sales, but it’s not enough. So each team member puts down $900 to play for the season, and they still have to pay for travel out of their own pockets.
They’re trying new things — more social media, player profiles, upping ticket sales, crowdfunding, bake sales, pancake breakfasts at IHOP, raffles and working the concession booths at Seahawks games. They’ve revamped their sponsorship package to make it more appealing. Coaches and players use themselves as walking billboards, wearing Majestics gear everywhere they go — from the grocery store and gym to airports and new cities. They’ve tried radio spots and print ads.
Still, few sponsors or advertisers are willing to take a chance on the team, and the media doesn’t pay attention.
“We win a lot and we do a good job. We have a fan base that really loves us,” Samuelson says. “But there are challenges, like we play in Kent, and its women’s athletics, so it’s hard to get press. People don’t quite get it.”
That’s the big thing: People just don’t quite get it.
“We’ve tried contacting local ESPN radio and they don’t care,” says Cyndi Butz Houghton, the team’s CEO and one of seven volunteer coaches for the Majestics. “They’d rather interview the lingerie league players than the real tough women football players.”
That’s something else they’re up against: The Majestics always seem to be in the shadow of the Seattle Mist, a team that plays in the Legends Football League, which changed its name from the Lingerie Football League, although the women still play in bikinis with inadequate padding.
Most Majestics players say it’s usually the first question they’re asked when they tell people they play women’s football. “You get asked, ‘Oh the lingerie league?’ and we are like, no, we play 11-on-11, full-contact football with real pads, real helmets — we hit,” Edlen says.
Samuelson says people don’t really understand until they see it, so she often shows them pictures. One of her favorites shows seven players on the Fremont bridge, flexing after a Seattle Pride Parade.
“When I’m talking to a guy, I’m like, look, this is who I play with, they could whup your ass,” she says. “Once they get past the lingerie thing, they generally think it’s cool.”
In fact, the team has had more luck getting respect on the national level than here at home. While the Majestics changed their team colors a few years ago to match the Seahawks, they don’t get any help from the other football team in town. “The Seahawks have not expressed interest in us,” Butz says.
But in early March, the New Orleans Saints became the the first NFL team to host the USA Football’s Women’s World Football Games III. There were 224 women from 17 different countries, including seven Majestics players and Butz.
The Saints opened their practice facility to teams, provided lunch, had a personal nutritionist on site. Former wide receiver and Saints Hall of Famer Michael Lewis and Dr. Jen Welter, the first female coach in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals, spent time with the teams.
“The New Orleans Saints treated us like royalty,” Butz says.
When they’re not trying to pay the bills, members of the Majestics have found another crusade: building a pipeline for young women to play football.
Samuelson grew up in middle-of-nowhere Michigan, where football was a ritual every Friday night during fall. In middle school, they introduced light-weight and heavy-weight football teams. She was desperate to play for the light-weight team, but the coach refused.
“He wouldn’t let me try out or even put on pads,” Samuelson says. “I can remember the feeling as a seventh-grade girl, knowing I could have handled it, and being more excited than any of the guys, but not being allowed to. I hate that there are other seventh graders out there feeling the same way.”
Just last year, the country’s first known tackle football league for fifth- and sixth-grade girls made its debut in Utah, and it was a hit. The league filled all 50 spots in three days and former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning even showed up to one of the practices.
Still, nationwide, only 1,565 high school girls played tackle football last season, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. It’s a number that has steadily grown since 2008, when 759 girls played, but it is still small. (The Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association doesn’t keep statistics on how many boys or girls play football in our state, like it does for basketball and soccer. Spokesperson Conor Laffey says the association is going to start next year.)
“We don’t have a talent pipeline for women’s football,” Samuelson says. “There is one youth program in one state, no high school program for girls, certainly no college program. Even if there are men out there who want women on the field playing, there is nowhere to get them.”
Instead, most women playing now got into the game in their 20s and 30s.
Majestics quarterback Rachel Woods grew up wanting to play football, but didn’t want to be the only girl on the team, putting on football gear after school in the locker room. She began to see it differently, though, when her little sister started playing with the boys at Whatcom Middle School in Bellingham.
Woods says early on in practices, the coaches told her sister she probably wouldn’t see a lot of playing time. That didn’t last long. “She destroyed the boys,” Woods says. “She killed it as a starter on all sides of the ball.”
Woods started thinking again about playing herself when she saw the Majestics walk in the Pride Parade. At first, she dismissed the thought, but in 2009, she spotted a flyer at a bar and decided it was time to give it a shot. Seven seasons later she is still playing with the team.
“Now, I play to keep exposure going and not let the sport die,” Woods says. “I want younger girls to grow up seeing other girls playing, and that it’s actually something they can aspire to and not just a dream.”
The recent revelations about head injuries in football creates another major barrier to getting more girls involved in the sport. “Until we learn more about concussions as a society, I think that is going to hold back younger girls from playing,” says Head Coach Scott McCarron.
Still, the attention has brought renewed focus on preventing head injuries, and the appeal of the sport, both for players and the masses, is undeniable. Perhaps, given time, women’s football will follow the path of women’s hockey, which last year saw the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, the first of its kind in the country.
In the meantime, female football players aren’t going to see a paycheck. There probably isn’t a big Nike endorsement in their future. Instead, they’ll continue on, paying to get hit, tackle others and risk their health — all for the love of the game.
“Women who play football are a special breed,” says Butz. “They’ve embraced a sport they love and sacrifice every day to play this game. I think it makes them that much more special to watch, because you know what they’re giving up to play.”
A typical weekday for Mckenzie Tolliver looks like this: Head to downtown Seattle from Kent, work a full eight hours, back to Kent, football practice until 9 p.m. and then get home, hopefully in time tuck her kids into bed. She’s a Majestics safety, tight end, an asset manager and a mother of two.
She competed nationally as a swimmer in high school and eventually went to Washington State on a full ride scholarship. She played soccer and basketball, but was never able to pursue her real passion: football.
Tolliver contemplated a move to Texas just to play women’s football, but her dream was put on hold after having her kids. When she found the Majestics, she was all-in, despite the risks that come with a hard-hitting sport.
“You have one chance to be out here and play, and I’m not getting any younger,” says Tolliver, who has a fierce energy, and talks incredibly fast. “It’s a dream I’ve always had that has been presented and I have the opportunity so I have to capitalize. Otherwise, 10 years from now I’m going to be like, wow, I wish I had played.”
Now, it’s a balancing act between football and motherhood. “My issue with sports growing up was being too aggressive, but now it’s funny because I’m not aggressive enough, and I think it’s being a mom,” she says. “I can’t be an aggressive person and be a good mom.”
For three quarters of the season, she says, she couldn’t turn off that mothering instinct. On the field, she was “almost too nice,” she says. Then it clicked.
“We hit other women as hard as men hit other men. We play just as hard as they do,” Tolliver says. “I think they’d see that too. If they came out and watched us, they’d be impressed.”
The Majestics next game is Saturday, April 23 against the Tacoma Trauma at Lincoln High School in Tacoma. You can purchase tickets and find their entire game schedule on their website at theseattlemajestics.com.
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This story was a collaboration between KCTS9 Digital Studios and Crosscut. Read the story, designed and developed by Joseph Liu, here on KCTS9.org.
Cambria Roth is Crosscut’s Editorial Assistant. She focuses on writing, reporting, editing, social media and audience engagement. After graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in journalism, she moved to Portland and now Seattle. She’s written for Willamette Week, Forbes, Reno News & Review and more. Find her on twitter at @cambriaroth or email her at cambria.roth@crosscut.com.
Aileen Imperial is a visual producer at KCTS9 Digital Studios. She combines her experience in documentary film and dance videography to produce a unique mode of storytelling, with a commitment to the act of thoughtful observation and engagement. Her independent and freelance work has screened at several film festivals and galleries, and has aired nationally on the PBS American Masters series, PBS World’s Global Voices, and the PBS NewsHour’s arts and culture blog Art Beat. Most recently, she was a regular segment producer for the KCTS 9 arts and culture show PIE.Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)
It was Ladies Night and my cinema was packed with women laughing riotously as Absolutely Fabulous (2016) gave them absolute permission to say, think and feel things that respectable girls are never allowed in polite company. Just over a quarter of a century ago, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley fell upon a formula for entertainment that works even better as therapy today. It is pure hag-gag comedy based on two try-hards in constant battle with their demons and is now a global brand with legions of female followers who adore their irreverent slapstick and satire. For many, they are also a freedom trip.
The plotline of the film is implausible and often incoherent, but that’s irrelevant for Ab Fab. In place of a plot there is a premise: supermodel Kate Moss is accidentally bumped off a balcony at a party and Eddy and Patsy flee to the French Riviera to avoid arrest. Along the way the story twists and turns in hilarious ways with a swathe of big name celebrities popping up all over the place. Most of the original ensemble make an appearance, and Patsy’s long-suffering over-responsible daughter continues the parent-child inversion that is the envy of many mothers. Along the way they do endless boozing and drugs (and a swig on a Chanel No 5), worry about being fat, old and loveless as they freeload off anyone foolish enough to let them. With the fridge empty of Bollinger, lack of money continues to drive the pair and, just like Jane Austen characters of a bygone era, using one’s sexuality to find an advantageous marriage is the holy grail. Do not expect subtlety as the jokes are blatantly bawdy and beautifully bitchy.
Like all movies that are spawned from books or television series, the litmus test is would the film work on someone who knew nothing about the Ab Fab legend. For most the answer is no, but that is not the intended audience. The humour is fast-paced and full of brilliant one-liners, while the acting is based on caricature rather than character. The original thirty-minute episodes were great comic relief, but a ninety-minute film struggles and feels like a binge too far. Many audiences will warmly greet Eddy and Patsy like old school friends at a reunion while muttering something under their breath about the ravages of time. For others there is pure nostalgia in watching two outrageous baby boomers who broke all the rules in the 1990s and are still getting away with pure anarchy. Would we could all be like them.
Director: Mandie Fletcher
Stars: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna LumleyPublished by American Thinker
Written by Rick Moran
In a major break with Obama policy, the Trump administration will begin supplying the Ukraine with lethal weapons. Ukraine has been the victim of Russian aggression as President Valdimir Putin has sent tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and massive amounts of equipment to aid rebels in Eastern Ukraine looking to break away from the national government.
Putin has warned western countries numerous times not to supply the Ukrainian government with lethal aid. He has maintained the lie that Russian soldiers are not fighting in the Ukraine on the orders of Moscow, but are only “volunteers.” Try telling that to the families of Russian soldiers killed in the conflict, whose loved one’s funerals have been kept out of sight.
While there is currently a cease fire agreement between the Russians/rebels and the government of Ukraine, at any point that Putin sees and advantage, he is liable to break the deal. He has just recalled military officers serving on a joint cease fire commission, signaling another escalation of the fighting may be on the way.
The small arms being sold to Ukraine will not alter the battlefield situation for the government. But more orders may be in the pipeline, including anti-tank missiles that could make a decisive difference.
The Hill:
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the administration approved the sale of Model M107A1 Sniper Systems and associated equipment to the country at a value of $41.5 million. The administration has not yet moved to approve heavier arms requested by Ukraine’s government, including Javelin anti-tank missiles. The move from the White House is a departure from the Obama administration, which frequently condemned Russian aggression in the Ukraine but refused to approve the sale of arms to the country’s western-aligned government. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) applauded the Trump administration’s decision in a statement to the Post. “I’m pleased the administration approved the sale of defensive lethal arms to Ukraine,” Corker said. “This decision was supported by Congress in legislation that became law three years ago and reflects our country’s longstanding commitment to Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.” “We have crossed the Rubicon, this is lethal weapons and I predict more will be coming,” another senior congressional official told The Post. But…but…but…I thought Trump was supposed to be in Putin’s pocket? Isn’t he an intelligence asset for Russia? Former DNI James Clapper thinks so. He told CNN that Putin was Trump’s “case officer”: SCIUTTO: You heard the president’s speech today. He calls out Russia and China, describes them as rival powers, rival powers to the U.S., but also says he wants to build a great partnership with them and had all of these friendly stuff to say about his phone calls with Vladimir Putin this week. Is that a contradictory message? CLAPPER: Well, it is to me. I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that’s what he’s doing with the president. SCIUTTO: You’re saying that Russia is handling President Trump as an asset? CLAPPER: That seems to be — that’s the appearance to me. So, you know, we’ve shared intelligence with the Russians for a long time. We’ve always done that. Although in my experience with them has been pretty much of a one-way street, where we provide them intelligence and we don’t get much back. This kind of hysteria about Trump’s relationship with Russia should make Clapper a laughingstock. Instead, he is seen as an expert. Is the left serious about this idea that Trump is some kind of Russian Manchurian candidate? Every time Trump says something nice about Putin, the left erupts into spasms of lunacy, saying that it’s “proof” that Trump and Putin are in bed together. This move to sell lethal aid to Ukraine will be a blow to that narrative – not that the left will pay it any mind.
December 21, 2017
Link:http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/lethal_aid_to_ukraine_blows_up_liberal_narrative_of_trumpputin_bromance.html#ixzz51uPTDyS0More Journalists Leaving 'Las Vegas Review-Journal' After Sale To Billionaire
Enlarge this image toggle caption John Locher/AP John Locher/AP
With Monday's departure of reporter Jennifer Robison from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, none of the three journalists who helped uncover the secret sale of the newspaper to casino magnate Sheldon Adelson remains at the company.
Robison, who took a job in communications for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in San Francisco, left after the exits of her former colleagues, reporters Howard Stutz and James DeHaven.
After Adelson and his family bought the Review-Journal late last year in a secret transaction, the journalists in the paper's newsroom turned their investigative reporting skills inward. NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik said the deal was "initially intended to keep the new owners' identity secret from the public and the newsroom itself." He wrote:
"The paper's reporters covered the mystery and subsequently identified the Adelsons despite the efforts of the paper's publisher to delay and soften the coverage. The paper's editor was among those who subsequently left. Promises of scrupulous disclosure of the Adelsons' interests were scaled back."
DeHaven was already on his way out when the story broke, as he told CNN last year. He now works as a Montana statehouse reporter for the Helena Independent Record.
Howard Stutz, a longtime casino industry reporter, announced last week that he was leaving the newspaper to work with the Las Vegas law firm Greenberg Traurig. As NPR member station KNPR reported:
"After 11 years covering the gaming industry for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Howard Stutz has stepped down. "Stutz's tenure as a reporter and columnist in Las Vegas lasted some 30 years, with time spent with both the Las Vegas Sun and Review-Journal. "His latest tenure at the Review-Journal included covering a devastated casino industry following the Great Recession in 2008. "And, being part of the team of reporters who confirmed Sheldon Adelson's $140 million purchase of Nevada's largest newspaper."
A flood of reporters and editors left the newspaper after it was bought by the Adelson family, citing curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers. As David reported in April, one veteran columnist, John L. Smith, left the paper because he couldn't write about "two of the state's biggest players, including his newspaper's new owner."
"Smith had written columns for the Review-Journal for nearly three decades, with a frequent focus on Adelson, one of the most powerful figures in Nevada gambling and national Republican politics. The billionaire sued Smith for libel over a passage in a 2005 book about power players of Las Vegas. "Smith prevailed in court, but paying the fees helped bankrupt him. (NPR told that remarkable story, including a rabbi's offer of a secret $200,000 payoff from Adelson for Smith to admit libel, earlier this year.) Years later, the case has helped trigger the end of Smith's career at the Review-Journal, as his new bosses cited it as a conflict of interest.... "Smith says new management implemented a new policy earlier this year: He could not cover anything to do with Adelson. The then-acting editor, Glenn Cook, regretfully conveyed the decision from publisher Craig Moon. Smith says he took issue: 'I said, "He's the one who sued me, he lost, and I'm conflicted?"'"Smith says Cook told him: 'You can't do it or you'll be fired.' "
Last week, the newspaper's features editor, Stephanie Grimes, announced her departure, too, via a post on Medium. She said the journalists in the newsroom "felt paranoid, communicating in whispers and texts about the latest rumors lest we were overheard by — well, we didn't know." Grimes wrote:Available Through Steam
Deus Ex: Revision is freely available through Steam. Everyone who owns Deus Ex Game of the Year Edition through Steam will find it available to install in their personal Steam Library.
Standalone Installer
An installer for Deus Ex: Revision can be downloaded directly from our own server or from ModDB. This installer contains all of the files necessary to play the latest version of Revision. It requires that you already own Deus Ex Game of the Year through Steam, and is intended to serve as an alternative download for those who encounter difficulties with the Steam servers.
The minimum system requirements for Deus Ex: Revision are:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Dual-core 3.0 GHz or better
Memory: 5 GB RAM
Graphics: 2 GB DirectX 9-compatible dedicated GPU
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 6 GB available space
Additional Notes: A faster CPU will deliver better performance, as will a higher amount of RAM/VRAM. 32-bit operating systems are not supported due to memory limitations.
Full Installer (Deus Ex: Revision v1.4.0.2) SHA-1: c1fe0bb6e02c90185ac7c0cc2f293b728ff43702
1.4.0.2 Update (For pre-existing installations of Deus Ex: Revision) SHA-1: 58eb639cbe8790e4e60836d6ea6c5609789fb2d1It’s been half a decade since I coined ‘‘Doctorow’s first law of electronic publishing’’: ‘‘Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you, and won’t give you the key, you can be sure that the lock isn’t there for your benefit.’’
I’m talking, of course, about ‘‘digital rights management,’’ one of those immortal, terrible ideas that resurfaces under a new name every couple of years. You may know it in one of its other euphemistic guises, like ‘‘copy protection,’’ or ‘‘digital locks,’’ or ‘‘technical protection measures.’’ I’ll just call it ‘‘DRM,’’ because that can also stand for ‘‘digital restrictions management,’’ which is a much more apt name for it.
DRM attempts to accomplish the impossible. The idea of DRM is that I, the publisher, don’t trust you, my customer, with my products. However, I want your money, and you won’t part with it unless I give you the product. So I give you the product – an e-book – but hope that I can somehow control how you use it after I’ve given it to you.
In order to do this, I supply the e-book in a scrambled format. Then I supply you with a program that can descramble the e-book, but that won’t let you save it in a descrambled, share-able form. And I pray with all my might that you won’t figure out how to subvert this program, even though historically this has been a terrible bet, a task akin to keeping the bank vault in the robber’s living room and trusting the lock to keep her from opening it and walking away with the contents.
As silly as this idea sounds, it has gripped policy-makers and technology vendors with a kind of feverish zeal that has endured for decades. Back in the 1990s, the world’s governments started to enact laws to protect DRM. They had been sold on a story of how DRM could be used to sell rights to all digital goods in infinitely subdivided, variably priced slices (‘‘rent this movie for ten minutes on a Wednesday for half price!’’).
The laws they made started with a pair of UN treaties passed in 1996: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performers and Phonographs Treaty, which were integrated into US law through the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Law, or DMCA (compliance with these treaties is also a condition of participating in the World Trade Organization).
Under the DMCA, removing DRM is against the law, even if you’re not otherwise violating copyright. For example, under copyright, you have the ‘‘fair use’’ right to publish brief excerpts from a movie as part of your critical analysis, but if that movie is locked up with DRM (as all DVDs are), you are not allowed to remove the DRM to accomplish this.
Likewise, your right to ‘‘format shift’’ your DVDs to files that can play on a tablet or phone is superseded by the prohibition on removing DRM to do this. That’s why Apple’s iTunes will helpfully rip your CDs and load them onto your tablet for you, but won’t do the same for your DVDs.
Critically, publishers, authors and other copyright holders cannot create or distribute DRM-breaking technology to unlock their own works, after those works have been locked up with a tech company’s DRM. Random House, with all its market might, cannot authorize you or enable you to break the Amazon DRM on its books.
And without this DRM removal, you can’t move Amazon e-books to competing ereaders – Kobo, Nook, etc – meaning that every dollar that Random House books generate in sales is a dollar that Random House’s customers will have to surrender if Amazon and Random House part ways and Random House hopes to tempt those readers to come along as it moves to one of Amazon’s rivals.
This isn’t a hypothetical, these days. As I write this, in July 2014, we’re into the second month of a serious dispute between Hachette (owner of Little, Brown; Orbit; and many other imprints) and Amazon over pricing, discounts and promotions, in which Amazon has simply stopped carrying Hachette e-books in its Kindle store. Hachette could fight back by offering a tool to convert all your Kindle books to run on rival platforms and offer 50 percent discounts on all its titles everywhere except Amazon until the dispute was resolved, sending tens of thousands of previously loyal Kindle customers into a rival’s clutches.
Or rather, Hachette can’t do that, because the company has a doctrinaire belief in DRM, and has insisted that every one of its e-books ever sold by Amazon had Amazon’s DRM on it. Only Amazon can remove Amazon’s DRM from Hachette books, and they’re in no hurry to release Hachette’s readers from their walled garden.
Amazon has a complicated relationship with its retail suppliers, customers, and DRM. The company made history in 2008 by launching a DRM-free store to compete with Apple’s Itunes, which required that all the labels who supplied it agree to its DRM. Apple later removed DRM from iTunes and insisted that it had hated DRM all along, but requires DRM for its apps, videos, audiobooks, and virtually every other digital product it sells.
Like Apple, Amazon eschews – and decries – DRM where there is a competitive reason to do so, but it insists on DRM in those categories where it dominates, requiring its suppliers to allow their copyrights to be locked up with a lock whose key only Amazon possess.
Take Amazon’s subsidiary Audible, a great favorite among science fiction writers and fans. The company has absolute dominance over the audiobook market, accounting for as much as 90 percent of sales for major audio publishers. Audible has a no-exceptions requirement for DRM, even where publishers and authors object (my own audiobooks are not available through Audible as a result). Audible is also the sole audiobook supplier for iTunes, meaning that authors and publishers who sell audiobooks through iTunes are likewise bound to lock these to Amazon’s platform and put them in Amazon’s perpetual control.
As John Scalzi wrote recently:
These businesses and corporations are not your friends. They will seek to extract the maximum benefit from you that they can, and from others with whom they engage in business, consistent with their current set of business goals. This does not make them evil – it makes them business entities (they might also be evil, or might not be, but that’s a different thing). If you’re treating these businesses as friends, you’re likely to get screwed.
Anyone who believes that Audible would hesitate to use its market power to extract additional profit at the expense of its suppliers – that is, writers and publishers – is delusional. Not because Audible is evil, but because it is a for-profit corporation that is seeking to maximize its gain. The lesson of Hachette is that Amazon plays hardball when it can, and the more leverage Amazon has over its suppliers, the more it will use that leverage to its suppliers’ detriment.
Even if you are a copyright True Believer who loves DRM, all of your alarm bells should go off when you learn that a tech company has decided that it, rather than copyright holders, should have the final say over whether or not DRM is used. The foundational belief of the copyright religion is that copyright is property owned by creators and publishers. If a retailer won’t let you sell your property in the manner of your choosing, you can bet that this isn’t a decision prompted by a charitable impulse to protect you from your thieving customers.
The good news is that Amazon is biddable. Its industry-dominating e-comics division, Comixology, announced in July 2014 that it would allow its publishers to sell their comics on a DRM-free basis. This means that comics publishers can sell through Amazon without selling out to Amazon. This is a remarkable turn of affairs, and quite laudable, because it means that comics readers who buy from Amazon can read, organize, and use those comics alongside all the other comics they buy, including comics bought from Amazon’s competitors.
There is no market demand for DRM. No comics fan, audiobook listener, or e-book reader woke up this morning and said, ‘‘You know what I want? Electronic media that lets me do less!’’
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relations.” It was as if they were all working from the same playbook, employing such tactics as: deny the problem, minimize the problem, call for more evidence, shift the blame, cherry-pick the data, shoot the messenger, attack alternatives, hire industry-friendly scientists, create front groups.
Documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner encountered this last strategy while shooting his 2008 film Food, Inc. He has said that he “kept bumping into groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom that were doing everything in their power to keep us from knowing what's in our food.” Kenner has called them “Orwellian” because such front groups sound like neutral nonprofit think tanks in search of scientific truth but are, in fact, funded by the for-profit industries associated with the problems they investigate.
Consider “Citizens for Fire Safety,” a front group created and financed in part by chemical and tobacco companies to address the problem of home fires started by cigarettes. Kenner found it while making his 2014 film Merchants of Doubt, based on the 2010 book of the same title by historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. (I appear in an interview in the film.) To misdirect regulators and the public away from the link between cigarettes and home fires, the tobacco industry hired Sparber to work with the National Association of State Fire Marshals to promote the use of chemical flame retardants in furniture. As another memo reads: “You have to fireproof the world around the cigarette.” Suddenly Americans' furniture was awash in toxic chemicals.
Climate change is the latest arena for pseudoskepticism, and the front group du jour is ClimateDepot.com, financed in part by Chevron and Exxon and headed by a colorful character named Marc Morano, who told Kenner: “I'm not a scientist, but I do play one on TV occasionally … hell, more than occasionally.” Morano's motto to challenge climate science, about which he admits he has no scientific training, is “keep it short, keep it simple, keep it funny.” That includes ridiculing climate scientists such as James E. Hansen of Columbia University. “You can't be afraid of the absolute hand-to-hand combat metaphorically. And you've got to name names, and you've got to go after individuals,” he says, adding with a wry smile, “I think that's what I enjoy the most.”
Manufacturing doubt is not difficult, because in science all conclusions are provisional, and skepticism is intrinsic to the process. But as Oreskes notes, “Just because we don't know everything, that doesn't mean we know nothing.” We know a lot, in fact, and it is what we know that some people don't want us to know that is at the heart of the problem. What can we do about this pseudoskepticism?
In Merchants of Doubt, close-up prestidigitator extraordinaire Jamy Ian Swiss offers an answer: “Once revealed, never concealed.” He demonstrates it with a card trick in which a selected card that goes back into the deck ends up underneath a drinking glass on the table. It is virtually impossible to see how it is done, but once the move is highlighted in a second viewing, it is virtually impossible not to see it thereafter. The goal of proper skepticism is to reveal the secrets of dubious doubters so that the magic behind their tricks disappears.Norwich City player of the season Robert Snodgrass on verge of Hull City switch
Norwich City's Robert Snodgrass is reportedly in talks with Hull. ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +447814 482222
Hull have reportedly agreed a fee with Norwich City for last term’s player of the season, Robert Snodgrass.
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An initial fee of £7m, rising to £8m, has been quoted for a transfer that would see the club’s first reluctant player departure in almost five years.
The 26-year-old Scotland international has been at City for two years since signing for £4m from Leeds, and was voted player of the season following the Canaries’ Premier League relegation in May.
He has one year left on his current deal, with City said to have initially slapped a £10m price tag on a player they had hoped would stick around for their bid to make an immediate return to the top-flight via Championship promotion.
It is believed current discussions over personal terms won’t prove a problem either, with Snodgrass set to significantly up his wages at the KC Stadium and preserve his own Premier League career.
If the move goes ahead, it will exceed City’s record transfer fee received – which was the £7.25m after add-ons for the sale of Dean Ashton to West Ham in January 2005.
Hull’s recruitment drive included breaking their transfer record to sign Jake Livermore for £8m from Tottenham earlier this week.
The Tigers will compete in next term’s Europa League, thanks to their FA Cup final appearance – hence a concerted effort to bolster a squad that was playing Championship football until last season.
Sunderland were also in the running for Snodgrass’ signature but decided against matching Hull’s bid, while Newcastle and West Brom were also linked.
Scotland’s international player of last season, Snodgrass was also City’s Premier League joint top scorer. He has 13 goals in 73 City appearances.If you've been watching the Eee Pad Transformer promo video and salivating over that awesome keyboard dock with 2 USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader, and a secondary battery that doubles the tablet's battery life, what you're about to read may serve as a splash of cold water in your face.
While we knew that the keyboard dock was optional (but only if you paid really close attention, because based on the videos and the tablet's name, it wasn't the most obvious fact), an East Coast retailer PC Richard & Son just spilled the beans on the pricing of said accessory - it'll cost you $150.
If you've never head of PC Richard & Son, you're not alone - today was the first time I've heard of them too, but the retailer is legitimate, with 8 5-star ratings at ResellerRatings, 65 superstores, and apparently 100+ years in the business.
If Best Buy's $400 price point for the 16GB version that leaked the other day is to be trusted, you're looking at $550 + tax for the full Transformer experience, which lands $50 under the 32GB XOOM Wi-Fi and right in between the 16GB and 32GB iPad 2, while bearing one of the most useful accessories we've seen in a long time.
If you ask me, this Tegra 2 tab/keyboard combo is definitely the one to get if you're thinking of picking up a Honeycomb tablet in the next few months.Microsoft and Japanese peripheral and device maker I-O Data Device Inc. have updated their patent-protection pact.
On September 29, Microsoft announced that I-O Data had signed an updated licensing agreement with Microsoft that covers I-O Data's Linux and Android-based devices.
Neither company is disclosing financial or other specifics about the agreement.The only revelation that's in Microsoft's press release: "This agreement includes I-O DATA network-attached storage devices and routers, as well as tablets."
This isn't the first patent agreement between Microsoft and I-O Data. In 2010, Microsoft and I-O Data signed a patent agreement via which I-O Data paid Microsoft an undisclosed sum for I-O Data's products running Linux and other related open source software.
I-O Data is one of nearly two dozen companies with which Microsoft has signed patent-protection agreements involving Linux, ChromeOS and/or Linux devices. In some, fairly rare occassions, Microsoft has sued and/or countersued Android and Linux vendors, including Kyocera, Barnes and Noble and Samsung, over alleged violations of Microsoft patented technologies in their devices.Please login or register to be able to edit or vote this feature.
Merge kernel-desktop back into kernel-default / kernel-pae
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Description
To allow for easier maintenance of the Leap and SLE kernels, it makes sense to unify the set of flavors where applicable. The SLE kernel has no -desktop flavor and the difference between -default and -desktop in openSUSE is minimal. The proposal is to copy these three settings to -default:
CONFIG_PREEMPT=y
CONFIG_HZ=1000
vm.dirty_ratio=20
Set description Switch to richtext editor <p> To allow for easier maintenance of the Leap and SLE kernels, it makes sense to unify the set of flavors where applicable. The SLE kernel has no -desktop flavor and the difference between -default and -desktop in openSUSE is minimal. The proposal is to copy these three settings to -default: <ul> <li>CONFIG_PREEMPT=y</li> <li>CONFIG_HZ=1000</li> <li>vm.dirty_ratio=20</li> </ul> nd drop the -desktop flavor. The rationaly is that openSUSE is more often used on desktops than servers, although the effects of these settings are often overrated. </p> After clicking 'Preview' above, the description will be shown in the feature. Don't forget to save the feature afterwards.
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nd drop the -desktop flavor. The rationaly is that openSUSE is more often used on desktops than servers, although the effects of these settings are often overrated.I’ve said it before, but I feel I should repeat myself. Using the SSMS GUI for data entry and data manipulation is not the preferred mechanism. T-SQL is the right way to manipulate the data in your database. For purposes of completion though, I will show the GUI methods in this blog series.
Information doesn’t go into the database and stay there, unchanged, forever. Data is modified. This occurs because information changes, such as when a person marries and changes their name, or information was incorrectly entered, in which case you need to fix it, or just about anything else. You have to have a mechanism for modifying existing information.
Modifying Data
You start modifying data in the tables the same way you did the insert, by taking advantage of the functionality offered by the Query Designer Interface. Open this window the same way as you did before, right click on the Personnel.Person table and select “Edit Top 200 Rows” from the context menu.
You can see that the PersonID values have been populated automatically. You can also see that the CreateDate values that were using GETDATE() to populate the date and time have a time value that was automatically filled in. Since you can’t see all the column by default, you can move your mouse over to the column border, when it changes to two arrows pointing in different directions, you can click and drag to show the different time values that were previously partially masked.
To edit a value, just highlight the one you’re interested in. For example, to change the DateOfBirth for the row of PersonID 6, you can select the whole date value or a part of it and type in your replacement value. Let’s change the year from 1972 to 1969. If you hit tab like you did before, you’ll see the exclamation point appear for that one column. Changing the focus another row, either by tabbing until focus shifts back to the PersonID column on the next row, or by clicking on a different row will commit the changes you typed to the database.
Just as before, you can’t edit any of the values to store information that is contrary to the datatype for that column. If you do, you will generate an error when you attempt to move away from the edited column.
For the PersonID with a value of 5, change the year of birth from 1980 to 1981. Then look down at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see something that looks a little bit like a video control. If you’ve edited the data, you’ll also see the text, “Cell is Modified.” Just like here:
You can use these buttons to control the focus of the grid. Working from left to right, the first icon moves your cursor to the first cell. The next icon moves it to the previous cell in line from where it is currently. After that is a text box with a value in it. You can put a number into this text box to immediately navigate to the row defined by that number. You just have to hit the Enter key after you type the number. The focus will change to the row you defined and it will be in the equivalent cell in the new row. The next button will move a cell to the right, or to the next cell, depending on how you think about it. The next button will move you to the last cell. The button right after that, with the little gold star, will move you to a new row. The final button isn’t covered here. Finally, you can see the status of the cell you’re in, if that status has changed.
This toolbar can help to make the use of the GUI a little bit easier, if you’re uncomfortable using the tab key or the mouse to navigate around.
Conclusion
This is how you can use the SSMS GUI to manipulate data within SQL Server. However, the real strength of a system like this is the ability to automate functionality. You have no automation ability using the GUI. You have much less control. Overall, there are many reasons why you should avoid using this. Again, I’m showing you the functionality so you know it’s there. If nothing else, when you get support calls from someone who has gone down this bad path, you’ll have a little awareness so that you can help back them out.Alabama Mad: Before Tuesday’s Alabama Republican senatorial primary, Chamber of Commerce strategist Scott Reed said his organization had gone “all in” for incumbent Luther Strange in order to “remind [populist ex-Trump aide Stephen] Bannon who’s in charge,”
Mission Accomplished! The Chamber’s candidate lost in a 55-45 rout to Bannon’s candidate, Roy Moore, a former judge once regarded as too much of a religious zealot to make it all the way to the U.S. Senate.
Here are 5 reasons why this outcome is significant, not counting the obvious one (GOP primary voters were PO’d at what Reed boasted was the “governing wing of the party”– i.e. the GOP Establishment).
1. Moore won without Trump: Only a few days ago it was fashionable to declare “there is no such thing as Trumpism”–there was only Trump, and his changing positions. Trump’s voters would simply follow whichever way their leader led — even, most controversially, into a deal with Democrats to give formal amnesty to the illegal immigrants known as “Dreamers,” who had been protected by an Obama executive action (DACA). But, in Alabama, Trump said ‘Follow Big Luther’ and his base said, ‘No thanks. We’ve found a Trumpier candidate.’ Turns out there is such a thing as Trumpism without Trump:
2. Moore won without Drudge: This one’s more surprising. Drudge’s website has been a rock of support for both Trump and Trump’s underlying cause of immigration-skepticism. Given the pro-immigration bias of the mainstream press, he’s seemed indispensable. Populists winning an election without him was like… Moby Grape without Bob Mosley [LeBron-ed] the Cleveland Cavaliers winning without LeBron James! But that’s what happpened. In recent months, Drudge has seemed more in tune with Jared & Ivanka than Bannon. The site didn’t feature many articles on the Alabama race as it headed down the stretch–but a few hours before the polls opened there was a beautiful picture of Ivanka, who was on her way to Detroit. In the long run, Drudge is probably still indispensable. But the idea that the king of alt media could be sidelined and scrappy Breitbart would fill the void must terrify the GOP “governing wing.”
3. Bannon won: They mocked when Bannon left the White House and pledged a vague campaign to somehow support Trump while still attacking him as he strayed from his former populist “America First” ideas on immigration, trade, and war. Here’s A.B. Stoddard of RealClearPolitics:
Bannon’s new self-described role as “wingman” growling from outside instead of inside the White House — where as chief strategist he fought openly against the “globalist” forces he believed included Trump’s family members — isn’t going very well.
Um … recalculating!
4. Jared Kushner was wrong again: The president’s son-in-law advised him to fire FBI director James Comey. Kushner was also behind the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci, who was supposed to make the White House communications operation more professional and instead quickly drowned himself in a sea of serotonin. They say three examples make a trend — and, sure enough, it seems that Jared was also part of the The president’s son-in-law advised him to fire FBI director James Comey. Kushner was also behind the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci, who was supposed to make the White House communications operation more professional and instead quickly drowned himself in a sea of serotonin. They say three examples make a trend — and, sure enough, it seems that Jared was also part of the Establishment effort to inveigle Trump into supporting Luther Strange
Jeff Roe, Strange’s top consultant, fed regular updates to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser.
How much awful advice from his son-in-law is the President going to take?
5. Immigration Amnesty lost big: Two weeks before the Alabama election, some polls apparently showed a very tight race. About this time, Trump held his infamous dinner with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi at which he seemed to cut a Dem-friendly deal to give amnesty to the “Dreamers” — in exchange for a grab-bag of feel-good border security measures that did not include his promised Wall. Candidate Moore denounced the deal. Strange wouldn’t commit. Moore soon opened up a lead that doesn’t seem to have been cut even by Trump’s appearance in Huntsville on Strange’s behalf. I’m not saying there weren’t other big factors in the race, like anger at the GOP’s failure to repeal Obamacare. I’m saying the seemingly impending Trump-endorsed Dreamer cave-in was another big factor. The difference between the two factors is that the mainstream press, which instinctively avoids crediting restrictionist concerns, will tell you about the former but not the latter.
And the Alabama revolt will make a difference in the eventual legislative outcome. Remember when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s defeat by an anti-amnesty outsider in 2014 sealed the doom of the massive, heavily hyped “Gang of 8” amnesty? The bill had already passed the Senate, but when Cantor went down House Republicans who valued their job security didn’t want to go anywhere near it.
Luther Strange is Cantor II. Which House Republicans want to try out for the role of Cantor III by backing the Pelosi/Trump amnesty? Not many, I suspect. The pundits may tell them the Alabama race was all about vague anti-Establishment anger, or the failure to repeal Obamacare, or about “local dynamics.” Elected Republican legislators, with their careers on the line, know better.Anyone who bought bitcoins some years ago keep saying that current bitcoin's price swings doesn’t matter, because of the potential of the blockchain technology behind the currency, or the fact that in 5 years from now, the price will be at least $10,000 because of the limited supply or more users buying it or institutional investors who will drive the price up. Let’s face it. It hurts when your bitcoin holdings are worth 5 times less than in November 2013. But let’s not forget that in the past 6 years, bitcoin has performed great as an investment and very bad as a currency because of volatility. Bitcoin's widespread adoption as a currency and price stabilization are challenging goals that cannot be achieved immediately. Bitcoin's volatility is a problem but in the same time is also a solution in getting bitcoin(as a currency) mainstream. Volatility is a good thing because it draws speculators, traders, hedgers and a lot of people who are looking to profit from price swings into the market.
In 1970s, banks found great opportunities to build foreign exchange trading desks because after the collapse of Bretton Woods system, exchange rates wildly fluctuated and trading activity was very profitable. Exchange rates became relatively stable because of the development of sophisticated trading tools and the liquidity of the markets which attracted traders. Liquidity attracts liquidity.
In any financial market, traders have a huge impact, because they buy and sell assets in a short period of time to profit from price moves in any direction. This activity provides liquidity to markets, which means that people who want to sell an asset will quickly find buyers and buyers of a certain asset will quickly find sellers.
The same thing is happening in digital currencies market right now: As more and more people are involved in selling and buying these new type of assets, there are more buyers and more sellers, the holy liquidity is increasing and the price is becoming more stable. It's important to emphasize that traders are getting into bitcoin markets because of volatility and not because price gains, simply because price volatility means bigger profits. For example, If prices are going up or down 10-15% daily, traders can make more money on being on one side or another of the trade. They just need robust, professional, secure and transparent trading platforms and services.
The connection between volatility and trading volumes is well established in financial markets and is beginning to emerge in digital currencies markets too. Volatility will finally create the payment network and monetary base that bitcoin needs and people will start to trust bitcoin as an effective, efficient, cheap and fast way to send money around the world almost instantly, 24/7.
I predict that bitcoin as a currency will be stable as euro or dollar in less than 10 years.
Stelian BaltaIn the end, liberalism must lose
What all of this means is that if socialists want to at least slow down industrial civilization's descent into the horrors of late capitalism - at least enough to buy us some time - we have to make tactical alliances with non-socialists.
Plenty of people who are far more intelligent and eloquent than I am have made this case at length, so I'm not going to go into it here. If you want to know why Marxists should do things like "make deals" and "negotiate", read what Marx had to say about what is "achievable within the framework of capitalism". If you want to know why Marxists should form alliances with other people, read some Gramsci or whatever. The case for coalition and compromise has been laid out so exhaustively that there's really no need to relitigate it here.
Liberalism: not a good look
Here, I simply want to point out that for the socialist, cooperation with liberalism is a compromise. It is a terrible compromise. Liberalism is not some off-brand version of socialism or some kind of Diet Socialism: it is a distinct, hideous, antiquated ideology that is responsible for tremendous oppression and suffering all over the world. The great hope of the socialist is not to make peace with liberalism or to seek some kind of accomodation with it: we must annihilate liberalism, root and branch.
If you take Marx seriously, you should find liberalism horrifying and repulsive. Did a liberal just bring up meritocracy? Think of sweatshops. Is a liberal red-baiting? Think of US bombings in Southeast Asia. Is a liberal fetishizing entrepreneurs? Think Ron Paul berating the poor for not bootstrapping themselves out of poverty. Is a liberal fetishizing science and technology as solutions to political problems? Think polar bears starving to death and decomposing as climate change evaporates our sea ice while we wait for our green-energy-deus-ex-machina.
Compassion for the victims
None of this is to argue against the need for popular-front coalition building with liberals when necessary - but it should go far in explaining why a socialist would meet such alliances with skepticism and suspicion. A socialist with any minimal sense of decency and integrity will find the beliefs of their liberal allies absolutely monstrous, just as she would find disagreeable an alliance with any other bigot or reactionary.
Socialists should also recognize that the distinct ideology of liberalism implies distinct goals and thus distinct political incentives and priorities. In 2016, for example, faced with the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump, liberals insisted on running an unusually weak and vulnerable opponent rather than one who was much more popular. One can, of course, always explain this as a kind of mass error, but that misses the fact that liberals had an incentive to make this kind of mistake. If you are a liberal, you have a personal interest in risking defeat for the sake of putting a liberal in office. Socialists, of course, have a symetrical set of incentives, but that just affirms the point: liberals and socialists are not necessarily reliable allies.
And what that means is that among other things, liberals may be willing at any moment to
Again: there are times when socialists will have to risk that betrayal anyway, particularly for the sake of building a popular front to defeat fascism. But this is a terrible risk to take, and an extremely hard one if you care about the victims of capitalism and want to end its oppression once and for all. Instead of hectoring each other for our lack of tactical savvy and our occasional failures to bite the bullet, comrades should be understanding about this. For the socialist, hostility to liberalism comes not from a place of factionalism or piousness or short-sightedness - it comes from compassion for the lives and the world that capitalism is destroying every day. And if you can't understand the contempt your comrades have for liberalism, it's possible that you are, yourself, a liberal. At a bare minimum, liberals are definitionally capitalists. They do not ultimately believe in the absolute democratic sovereignty of the people over the commonwealth; they believe that there are cases where individuals have a "right" to do whatever they want with property, whether everyone else agrees with it or not. For the reasons so persuasively laid out by Marx, this kind of economic system inevitably leads to massive and increasing oppression, immiseration and exploitation. No matter what technocratic fixes and policy band-aids liberals invent to get around this, their ideological committment to private property functions as a guarantee of endless, escalating destruction. Their gross, primitive ideas destroy lives and destroy the earth.If you take Marx seriously, you should find liberalismand. Did a liberal just bring up meritocracy? Think of sweatshops. Is a liberal red-baiting? Think of US bombings in Southeast Asia. Is a liberal fetishizing entrepreneurs? Think Ron Paul berating the poor for not bootstrapping themselves out of poverty. Is a liberal fetishizing science and technology as solutions to political problems? Think polar bears starving to death and decomposing as climate change evaporates our sea ice while we wait for our green-energy-deus-ex-machina.None of this is to argue against the need for popular-front coalition building with liberals when necessary - but it should go far in explaining why a socialist would meet such alliances with skepticism and suspicion. A socialist with any minimal sense of decency and integrity will find the beliefs of their liberal allies absolutely monstrous, just as she would find disagreeable an alliance with any other bigot or reactionary.Socialists should also recognize that the distinct ideology of liberalism implies distinct goals and thus distinct political incentives and priorities. In 2016, for example, faced with the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump, liberals insisted on running an unusually weak and vulnerable opponent rather than one who was much more popular. One can, of course, always explain this as a kind of mass error, but that misses the fact that liberals had anto make this kind of mistake. If you are a liberal, you have a personal interest in risking defeat for the sake of putting a liberal in office. Socialists, of course, have a symetrical set of incentives, but that just affirms the point: liberals and socialists are not necessarily reliable allies.And what that means is that among other things, liberals may be willing at any moment to break the terms of the popular front alliance if they think they can gain from it. Substantively, for the liberal, this will necessarily mean a betrayal right at the fracture-point of the liberal-left coalition: their commitment to capitalism.Again: there are times when socialists will have to risk that betrayal anyway, particularly for the sake of building a popular front to defeat fascism. But this is a terrible risk to take, and an extremely hard one if you care about the victims of capitalism and want to end its oppression once and for all. Instead of hectoring each other for our lack of tactical savvy and our occasional failures to bite the bullet, comrades should be understanding about this. For the socialist, hostility to liberalism comes not from a place of factionalism or piousness or short-sightedness - it comes from compassion for the lives and the world that capitalism is destroying every day. And if you can't understand the contempt your comrades have for liberalism, it's possible that you are, yourself, a liberal.
The US's socialist movement is still too small and marginalized to take power. We typically can't even win local elections, let alone national ones; we just don't have the votes. Outside of the electoral arena, we can only win limited, temporary victories within the narrow political spaces of resistance and dissent that the powerful haven't decided to crack down on. Protest and discourse activism remains trapped in symbolism. Consumer activism is almost always futile. The labor movement is on its knees, and it's going to stay there until enough workers develop class consciousness.Enlarge By Max Whittaker, Getty Images Republican presidential candidate John McCain greets supporters after a town hall meeting at Reed High School Tuesday in Sparks, Nevada. WASHINGTON (AP) Republican presidential candidate John McCain's signal that he may be open to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, is drawing sharp rebukes from conservatives. McCain's shift has come in stages, catching some Republicans by surprise. Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. "I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table," he said. He went a step farther Sunday on ABC's "This Week," in response to a question about payroll tax increases. POLITICS BLOG: McCain ad compares Obama's celebrity to Britney's "There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table," McCain said. "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table." That comment drew a strong response from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain's comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are "shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances." During a town-hall meeting in Sparks, Nev., McCain insisted anew Tuesday that he would not raise taxes if elected. He frequently has promised not to raise taxes. At a July 7 town-hall meeting in Denver, he said voters faced a stark choice between him and Democrat Barack Obama. "Sen. Obama will raise your taxes," McCain said. "I won't." In a March 16 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, McCain said he would cut taxes where possible, and not raise them. "Do you mean none?" Hannity asked. "None," McCain replied. Both candidates have said Social Security's funding formula needs to be changed to ensure the program's long-term viability. Obama has called for imposing a new payroll tax on incomes above $250,000. Currently, only incomes up to $102,000 are subject to the 12.4% payroll tax, which employers and employees split evenly. When Obama announced his plan June 13, McCain's top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters that as president McCain would not consider a payroll tax increase "under any imaginable circumstance." McCain has made no specific proposals for Social Security, refusing to rule in or out anything to strengthen the benefit program for retirees and the disabled. Both candidates have said that, if elected, they would try to work out details with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Asked for an explanation of McCain's latest comments, campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said the Arizona senator "has a clear and demonstrated record of opposing tax increases. John McCain is going to cut taxes" and improve government discipline, he said. Promises never to raise taxes have bedeviled past Republican officeholders. Before being elected president in 1988, George H.W. Bush said, "Read my lips, no new taxes." But facing severe budget problems, he reneged on the promise. Some conservative groups never forgave him. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read moreCook and Jobs. Flickr/Thetaxhaven We're about to get a deeper look into the life of Steve Jobs.
A new book, "Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader," paints a lesser-known picture of Jobs that shows how he became the leader that made Apple what it is today.
The book, written by former Wall Street Journal and Fortune reporter Brent Schlender and Fast Company editor Rick Tetzeli, is filled with fascinating anecdotes about Jobs, including the conversation he had with Cook that led to Cook's becoming the CEO of Apple.
Here's an excerpt from the book (out March 24) that describes the conversation in which Jobs told Cook that Cook would take over as CEO, via Fast Company, which got an exclusive look at the book before its launch:
On August 11, a Sunday, Steve called Tim Cook and asked him to come over to the house. "He said, 'I want to talk to you about something,'" remembers Cook. "This was when he was home all the time, and I asked when, and he said, 'Now.' So I came right over. He told me he had decided that I should be CEO. I thought then that he thought he was going to live a lot longer when he said this, because we got into a whole level of discussion about what would it mean for me to be CEO with him as a chairman. I asked him, 'What do you really not want to do that you're doing?'
"It was an interesting conversation," Cook says, with a wistful laugh. "He says, 'You make all the decisions.' I go, 'Wait. Let me ask you a question.' I tried to pick something that would incite him. So I said, 'You mean that if I review an ad and I like it, it should just run without your okay?' And he laughed and said, 'Well, I hope you'd at least ask me!' I asked him two or three times, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' because I saw him getting better at that point in time. I went over there often during the week, and sometimes on the weekends. Every time I saw him he seemed to be getting better. He felt that way as well. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way."
Read more at Fast Company here >>We’ve gotten soft. The economic crash of 2008, and then the rise of natural gas from the fracking boom, have gotten us used to small but steady declines in U.S. CO2 emissions. Not anymore. According to the newest Monthly Energy Review from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, released Wednesday, that five-year trend is clearly over.
CO2 emissions from fossil fuels increased by 2.39 percent in 2013. For January and February of 2014, the only months this year for which the EIA has data thus far, carbon emissions increased by 7.45 percent over the same period last year.
The main culprit is coal, and that illustrates the importance of the EPA’s forthcoming regulations for emissions from coal-fired power plants, which President Obama is expected to unveil on Monday. CO2 emissions from coal burning rose by more than 4 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 and are almost 12 percent higher for the first two months of 2014 versus the first two months of 2013.
However, CO2 emissions from natural gas also rose: Just over 2 percent in 2013 compared to 2012, and around 10 percent for the first two months of 2014 compared to January-February 2013.
This will not only exacerbate climate change, but may also have been caused by it. The unusually cold winter in the eastern half of the U.S. meant that people burned more natural gas to heat their homes. That led to more emissions. The increased demand for natural gas also caused its price to spike, leading power plants to burn more coal instead of gas. Climate change may be partly responsible for the terrible winter we endured, thanks to the Polar Vortex. (Long story short: The warmer temperatures and melting ice in the Arctic alter wind patterns bringing colder air into the Lower 48 states.)
In other words, climate change is a terrible feedback loop, causing more of the very emissions that make global warming happen in the first place. And natural gas, which accounts for almost as much total emissions as coal, is not going to break the chains of our fossil fuel dependence. Only strict regulations will achieve that. On Monday, we’ll find out just how strict some of those regulations will be.Looking for news you can trust?
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Paul Krugman has an interesting post up today asking why we’ve had so many bubbles over |
ib Park. She said Irshad Bibi had gone somewhere with her children and there was no one to take care of her. Fayyaz says he and his wife were adamant that Khansa stay with them but Kiran Ibrar allowed the girl to go with her grandmother. She says she felt sorry for her mother-in-law. Fatima Bibi additionally promised that the girl would stay with her for only a couple of days.
Three days later, Fatima Bibi called Kiran Ibrar and gave her the shock of her life: Khansa had gone missing. “How can you misplace someone like that?” asks Kiran Ibrar. She breaks down every time she mentions Khansa.
She went to a nearby police station and filed a First Information Report (FIR) about her daughter’s disappearance, nominating Fatima Bibi as the main culprit. “The disappearance was pre-planned and Fatima Bibi knew about it,” she says.
“I feel very sick. There are no words to explain the anger I feel,” she says when asked about reports that her daughter might have gone to Syria. “They brainwashed her,” she says referring to Fatima Bibi and Farhana Hamid. “My daughter was studying in grade eight” — too young to understand anything.
A couple of years ago, however, Halima Apa started saying that it should be the duty of every Muslim to migrate to the Islamic State if and when it is created somewhere in the world.
Fatima Bibi seems to know quite a few things though she does not reveal much. The elderly woman now lives in Pattoki, a small town about 100 kilometres to the south of Lahore, with her daughter and son-in-law. She, however, does not meet media persons at their house but at another place owned by a local member of Ahle Hadith Youth Force — an affiliate of Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith headed by Professor Sajid Mir, who is a member of the Senate and is closely associated with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PMLN) and its top leadership.
Illustration by Samya Arif
Fatima Bibi’s husband passed away when her son Ibrar Hassan was only five and she raised her children working as domestic help in Lahore. She can barely walk and is on medication for various ailments but she talks incessantly and vociferously claims that she does not know where Khansa has gone.
Her daughter, Irshad Bibi, had received religious education from various madrasas while she was still married to one Mohsin Nazir who also worked at Wapda. At the time she was living in a government provided residence in Lahore’s Wahdat Colony neighbourhood. After her divorce, she raised her children on her own by becoming a teacher at a madrasa in Lahore’s Scheme Mor area.
While living in Wahdat Colony, Irshad Bibi developed family ties with Farhana Hamid, the wife of another government employee, who found in Irshad Bibi a friend in whom she could confide about the privations of her family life. By a fortuitous coincidence, Irshad Bibi was also friends with Bushra Cheema, says DSP Kiani.
Irshad Bibi’s son, Bilal Nazir, was around 20 years of age when, in January 2015, he told his family that he was leaving for Dubai to find a job there. A graduate of an Ahle Hadith madrasa, Tanveerul Quran, in Habib Park, he was teaching the Quran to children in his neighbourhood to earn some money, says Fatima Bibi.
A few weeks later, he called his mother and told her that he had reached Syria, the police say. He then invited Irshad Bibi to join him there. In April last year, Irshad Bibi also left for Syria and has been reportedly living there with her son since then.
Fatima Bibi denies being aware of Irshad Bibi’s plans. “I came to know that she was leaving for Syria only after she asked my other daughter to also leave her family and go with her,” she says.
Irshad Bibi’s own daughter, Ammara, is married to a well-off businessman and lives in the posh Defence Housing Authority area in Lahore. She accuses Bushra Cheema of convincing her mother and Farhana Hamid to leave for Syria. Ammara has broken all ties with her mother and brother now settled in Syria.
Illustration by Samya Arif
Mehr Hamid Ali is an English literature graduate from Punjab University. He was a good student and fancied himself as a car aficionado, according to his relatives. He began his career as a government employee in the Punjab Board of Revenue in the 1990s and married Farhana Khan in 1996, who then became Farhana Hamid. Seen as an honest and upright man who abhorred corruption and hated the corrupt, Hamid is also known to be a reserved person who does not talk much about his family life, sources in his family say.
They also say that he underwent a personal transformation in the late 1990s. Slowly but surely, he shed off the image of a fashionable young man who once drove around on a heavy bike. His love for fine dining was soon replaced by a penchant for religious preaching. All of his five children have memorised the Quran and have received extensive religious education from various madrasas in Lahore.
The man credited for changing his life is Hafiz Saeed, the head of JuD. Hamid Ali is said to have attended a 45-day religious training camp arranged by JuD around 2001 and became a fundraiser for the organisation. Only a few years later, his family sources say, he distanced himself from JuD because he became disenchanted with the lavish lifestyle Saeed and other prominent members of the organisation allegedly lead.
Hamid Ali, however, would actively engage everyone around him in religious arguments. He would also preach publicly on social and political issues wherever he could. It was not long before he hit the radar of the intelligence and security agencies. In 2008, he was picked up for investigation but was released soon afterwards without being charged of any crime.
In December 2014, the counterterrorism police arrested Hamid Ali again as one of the suspects involved in an attack on a military-run school in Peshawar that had led to the killing of about 150 people, mostly children. But he was again released and faced no charges or trial.
In January 2015, he suddenly disappeared from home. For months, his family had no knowledge about his whereabouts. In October 2015, the police eventually presented him at an antiterrorism court in Lahore but his relatives were still not sure why he had been kept in custody for so long.
Also read: In plain sight
Officials suggest his prolonged detention was meant for investigating whether he was involved in any anti-state activities. “He was found to be neither linked to al-Qaeda or Daesh,” says DSP Kiani who is one of the main investigators working on the cases of those who have left for Syria or who have been arrested while trying to go there. “[Hamid Ali] is very vocal and says lawyers are bad, journalists are bad and the army is bad. That is basically the issue — that he is against the army.”
The court record shows otherwise. The charges being pressed against him include possessing and distributing hate material and raising funds for banned organisations. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials in Lahore claim they found 75,000 rupees in his possession when they took him into custody. More importantly, he had with him 13 pamphlets – titled Dawat-e-Haq – which carry jihadi and sectarian propaganda.
In early December 2015, Hamid Ali was released from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore on bail, says Shehzad Sultan, his lawyer and also a relative. After his release, he went straight to his sister-in-law’s house in Township area only to find out that his wife and his children had all left for some unknown place. “He thought his family had been picked up by the law enforcement agencies,” says Sultan.
On December 21, security and intelligence agencies took him into custody once again. The reason: he was alleged to have played some role in the disappearance of his family.
Farhana Hamid moved in with her sister in Township after her husband was taken into custody in January 2015. She was already facing serious financial problems since Hamid Ali had been dismissed from his government job after being detained.
One of her close relatives says she could not sustain herself and her family on her own. “She was heavily dependent on her brothers and sisters for financial and social support,” says the relative on condition of anonymity.
People close to her say she was going through serious psychological and emotional pressure at the time and thought her husband had died. “She suffered bouts of depression and was convinced that Hamid Ali had died in the state’s custody,” says one of her relatives.
The stress and the dependence on her siblings made her increasingly distant from everyone around her. In March 2015, she decided to move out of her sister’s house, telling her siblings that she would now learn to live independently.
While living in Township, Farhana Hamid had become a regular at Bushra Cheema’s religious sermons, introduced to her by Irshad Bibi. Bushra Cheema took advantage of her emotional and financial vulnerability, says a close relative of Farhana Hamid, and convinced her to travel to Syria as their mutual friend Irshad Bibi had already done.
The reason why women like Bushra Cheema, Irshad Bibi and Farhana Hamid want to migrate to Syria seems straightforward to those fueled by religious motivations, though to others it may appear incomprehensible. “Girls as young as 14 or 15 are travelling to Syria to marry jihadis, bear their children and join communities of fighters, with a small number taking up arms,” is how the September 29, 2014 edition of the British newspaper The Guardian reports on the phenomenon of women migrating to territories under control of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) which prefers to call itself by its Arabic name, ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fil-Iraq wa-ash-Sham (Daesh for short).
Umm Sumayyah al-Muhajirah, an Arab woman who migrated to Syria along with a group of non-Arab women a couple of years ago, explains it further while writing in an early 2015 post in the English language online journal, Dabiq, published by Isis. She states that the process of female migration is a part of their emancipation.
Many of these women have given up a life of luxury and wealth to become a part of the Islamic State, she writes. “The first obstacle the [female migrant] faces is the family. And what can make you know what the family is? In most of the cases, the families [consist of] the laymen Muslims and... merely thinking about [discussing] the subject of hijrah (migration) with them is like butting a rock with your head. Yes, the sister is their honour and it is their right to fear for her, but why do they not fear for their honour when the sister wants to travel to Paris or London to specialise in some worldly field of knowledge?”
Illustration by Samya Arif
Ranjhai is a quiet village near Daska town, almost midway on the highway connecting Sialkot and Gujranwala. On a Sunday it seems even quieter, perhaps weighed down by the whispers that have been going on about its fragile social and religious situation for close to two years. A small mosque stands across a popular private school next to a pharmacy. It bears a plaque which carries a number – 1532 – and some Arabic text mentioning the emirate of Kuwait. This is perhaps a reference to the number of mosques financed by that wealthy Arab state in Pakistan.
Said to be built in 1998, the mosque is part of a large network of religious establishments run by Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith across Punjab. Most of the local residents see both the mosque and the Ahle Hadith sect as an outside intervention.
The mosque now opens only during prayer timings and remains deserted through most of the day. Few, if any, in the village want to have anything to do with the place. Adherents of the Ahle Hadith sect, in any case, are only one per cent of the local population.
In March 2014, this mosque assumed centre stage when a group of young men from Ranjhai appeared in a video posted on a social media website, pledging allegiance to Isis. Hamza Imtiaz, then only 15 years old, was one of them.
His father, Imtiaz Butt, who has spent over 25 years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, working as a labourer, says Hamza and seven of his class-fellows regularly attended evening prayers at the mosque. One evening, a local homeopath, Fahad Mustafa, aged about 35 years, contacted the boys and invited them for dinner. He told them that some jihadis visiting from other towns and cities would also join them.
The teenagers were excited at the prospect of meeting some real-life jihadis. Some locals claim Hamza tried to get a gun from his uncle’s house so that he could take a photograph of himself, with a gun in hand, seated next to the mujahideen. His uncle is said to have shooed him away.
Mustafa, his cousin Sadaqat Ali – who comes from Hafizabad, a district town some 70 kilometres to the west of Ranjhai – and Moazzam Ali – a young man from Ranjhai who had prepared food for the evening – joined the boys inside the mosque at the appointed hour. There were two more people there. They had come from Lahore and spoke in fluent Arabic.
After the dinner, Mustafa and Sadaqat Ali unfurled a banner and told the teenagers to pose for a picture. The two men from Lahore had brought some filming equipment with them which they gave to Sadaqat Ali for making a video. Everyone covered their faces with black scarves, Moazzam Ali took a gun in his hand and Mustafa picked up a knife as everyone lined up in the mosque. The two outsiders started speaking in Arabic as soon as the camera started rolling. They were announcing the entire group’s oath of allegiance to Isis and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Many local residents claim the boys were ignorant and thought the Quran was being recited. “We also assumed that the two men were reciting the Quran,” says Imtiaz Butt of his reaction after first watching the video before it was uploaded online. “Only later did we find out that this was, in fact, an oath taking ceremony.”
The video, tagged as “Sympathizers of the Islamic State”, was released on the Internet soon after it was filmed. Still, nobody really bothered about it for months. However, it went viral on both social media and television channels after it was aired on Aaj News and Geo News on October 31, 2014.
Even then it took government officials more than a month to trace who had uploaded it. On December 2, 2014, law enforcement agencies arrested all the seven teenagers as well as Mustafa and Sadaqat Ali. Moazzam Ali had disappeared from the village before that.
Malik Jamil Akhtar, a lawyer in Daska, later moved the Lahore High Court against the detention of the boys. All seven of them were released in February 2015 but Mustafa and Sadaqat Ali still remain in custody.
“The men who came from outside knew Sadaqat and Sadaqat’s link to the local community was through Fahad,” says Imtiaz Butt. Muhammad Pervez, Mustafa’s father who retired from the Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah Cantt many years ago, is now taking care of his son’s young wife and two small daughters.
Mustafa and Sadaqat Ali are known to be the protégés of Abdul Jabbar Shakir, a firebrand preacher who at one point was associated with JuD, which he then left to join Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith. One of the main themes in his speeches – as gleaned from online videos – is that Islam in Pakistan is under attack because of a society and a state which both have become increasingly un-Islamic. He states that people are distracted by their worldly endeavours even while Muslim children are being slaughtered by Western troops in different countries.
At least in style, his speeches resemble the loud and deep-voiced rhetoric of Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, a Gujranwala-born religious scholar who had founded Jamiat Ahle Hadith back in 1986. He was very close to the Saudi monarchy and this proximity ultimately led to a split in his party with one of the seceding groups eventually forming Markaz Dawat-wal-Irshad under Saeed’s leadership in the early 1990s. The new organisation set up its headquarters near Muridke town, about 20 kilometres to the north of Lahore, and soon became known for sending fighters to the Indian-administered Kashmir under the banner of LeT.
But the substance of Shakir’s speeches is different from those of Zaheer who was an active participant in the political process in the country. Shakir, on the other hand, evokes emotions rooted in religious guilt and alienation from the political system.
Shakir visited Ranjhai a couple of years ago and delivered a fiery sermon at the Ahle Hadith mosque. “I remember my son was thoroughly impressed by Shakir. I told him to stay away [from Shakir] and not waste his time with these things,” says Mustafa’s father, Muhammad Pervez. Sadaqat Ali later recruited Mustafa into Shakir’s group through persistent preaching.
The security agencies have arrested Shakir more than once in the past only to release him later. His anti-state and anti-democracy rhetoric, however, becomes even stronger after each release. Under fire from the state, he and his supporters seem to believe that joining Isis could provide them the cover they need, some police officials say.
Also read: What is the most potent existential threat to Pakistan?
An official source close to the case suggests that the Ranjhai video, in fact, was an extension of a long-standing turf battle between Shakir’s group and JuD. Members of the former group wanted to use the video to build up their position in the area, the official says. It was also an attempt by them to gain support and protection from Isis in their tussle with JuD, he adds.
A senior JuD official says his organisation does not have anything to do with Shakir and his group. He also states that JuD does not support the Isis ideology and methodology. “We see the rise of Isis as a movement against Islam,” he says.
The ideology and practices of Isis, he adds, resemble those of the seventh century Khawarij movement which rejected the authority of the caliphs and declared all Muslims, including many senior companions of the Prophet of Islam, as heretics and regarded only its own members as true believers.
JuD has also published two books and a pamphlet recently to rebut the Isis ideology as antithetical to Islam. Saeed himself has appeared in online lectures to condemn Isis and support the Pakistani state against it.
On November 26, 2014, female students of the Jamia Hafsa madrasa, affiliated with Islamabad’s famed Lal Masjid, pledged their support for Isis in a video released on the Internet. The girls called themselves “Sympathisers of the Islamic State” and invited Isis to start its operations in Pakistan.
Lal Masjid’s chief cleric, Abdul Aziz, did not distance himself from the video and, instead, said a caliphate was something that he and Isis were both fighting for. He, however, stated that he had no direct links with Isis but claimed to understand why people would want to join it as a means to implement shariah. In a television interview with journalist Saleem Safi in December 2014, Aziz said a committee should be formed to understand why the students of Jamia Hafsa had made the video and why madrasa students were looking towards Mullah Omar and al-Baghdadi rather than towards Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Around the same time, in November 2014 to be exact, pro-Isis wall chalking appeared on the boundary wall of Idarae Minhajul Hussain, a large Shia madrasa in Lahore’s Township area — the same neighbourhood where Bushra Cheema was running Noorul Huda. The police have still not found the culprits.
A few weeks later – on December 7, 2014 – CTD officials conducted a raid in the same area on the information secretly gleaned about a group that had named itself Sautul Ummah (the Voice of the Islamic Ummah). This group was said to be conducting public lectures on the need for a global caliphate. The police officials say that members of Sautul Ummah were preaching and promoting the same point of view that Isis has on the issue of caliphate. They are also alleged to be involved in attacks on media houses in Lahore and were seen by the law enforcement authorities as a local franchise of Isis, having pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Sources knowledgeable about the working of the group say its members had no money because almost all of them were unemployed – though well-educated – young men but their meetings were always lavish and featured expensive food. Sautul Ummah’s amir, Dr Javed Abdullah, is said to be a university professor and can be seen in many web based videos delivering lectures advocating a global caliphate.
In a statement he issued after members of his group were arrested, Abdullah, however, distanced himself from the ideology espoused by Isis. He also stated that his organisation’s ideology was closer to that of the 19th century conservative Arab cleric Sheikh Muhammed bin Abdul Wahab, the founder of Salafi Islam whose followers in Pakistan call themselves Ahle Hadith while their sectarian opponents call them Wahabis.
But a pamphlet published by Sautul Ummah in October 2014 suggests that the organisation studied Isis or Daesh as a possible source of inspiration for at least some time. “For a year, we researched and followed the movement of Daesh, and we do not see any proof to the notion that Daesh is the result of an American and Jewish agenda, but its takfiri and extremist ideology has made it unacceptable to those organisations that have been struggling for the Muslim Ummah and its rejuvenation,” reads the pamphlet.
Born in Saudia Arabia in 1989, Zain Shahid came to Pakistan with his family in 2000 and started living in Karachi’s sprawling, middle-class neighbourhood of Nazimabad. He joined a private business school for his undergraduate studies in 2008 but dropped out and joined Pakistan International Airline’s aircraft maintenance training centre. Within a year, he quit the centre too and started working at his family’s grocery store.
In late 2014 and early 2015, he started reading about the war in Syria and developed a keen interest in finding out about Isis and its ideology. Using Twitter, he interacted with one Abu Khalid who claimed to be an Isis member based in Syria. Through him, Zain Shahid found out about another young man in Karachi, Bilal Rind, seeking to join Isis.
Illustration by Sana Nasir
Rind, three years older than Zain Shahid, belongs to an affluent Baloch family settled in Dubai. He was also born there and first moved to Pakistan in 2001. He returned to Dubai in 2004 to join the American University there. Like Zain Shahid, he did not finish his studies. Instead, he joined his brother, in a hotel business. When the war in Syria started in 2011, it affected him deeply.
Rind says in a confessional statement he gave to the CTD in Karachi: “I started worrying about Syria after watching news channels in Dubai. I thought about the people living happily and freely in Dubai. But the situation in Syria was so different.”
In 2013, he moved back to Karachi again to live with his brother in an apartment in the Boat Basin area. By then he had started scouring the Internet for jihadi literature. “I read that Isis was recruiting people via Twitter so I made an account and tried contacting different accounts who could help me out,” he writes in his statement.
In late 2014, he interacted with a Syria-based Isis recruiter who called himself Abu Uqba. This recruiter informed Rind about the Isis ideology, shared jihadi literature with him and sent him propaganda videos. The recruiter also persuaded him to travel to Syria along with another young man in Karachi — Zain Shahid.
The two met for the first time in March 2015 in Masjid Umar Farooq near Rind’s apartment in Boat Basin and reached out to human traffickers to get to Iran. They then started saving money to collect the 260,000 rupees the smugglers had asked for, to help them go to Syria in the summer.
On his 26th birthday on July 30, 2015, Zain Shahid wrote a note for his family. “I am going back to where I came from as that is where I belong,” it reads. He left his home the same day and met Rind at a predetermined spot near Sohrab Goth in Karachi where they got into a bus to travel to Gwadar in Balochistan. They threw away their mobile phone sim cards before embarking on a journey that was supposed to start the most blessed part of their lives.
A senior CTD official says his department’s intelligence network heard about a missing young man from Nazimabad even though his family had not approached any law enforcement agency. The law enforcement personnel soon traced Zain Shahid’s residence and got hold of his parting note as well as his cell phone number.
By that time the two men had reached Gwadar from where they then travelled to Jiwani, a small coastal town at the southernmost tip of Pakistan and just a few kilometres from the Iranian coast. The human traffickers bundled them into a ferry which took them to Iran, along with close to 300 other illegal migrants.
Also read: In unsafe custody
Once in Iran, they were put in a small station wagon with 25 others. This is when they started to realise their folly, according to their confessional statements. “While Isis recruiters painted a picture of prosperity and sense of fulfilment in Syria, the road to Syria was hell. We were given only a bottle of water and three or four dates per day [to eat],” the statements read. “[Those] who couldn’t cope with [the lack of food] or fainted, or died, would be thrown out of the vehicle.”
Travelling through the border areas of Iran, they stopped only to sleep for a few hours. After nearly two weeks of being on the move, they made a stopover at Bandar Abbas, the port city near the Strait of Hormuz. It was there that their luck ran out. Iranian border guards arrested them, along with 227 other Pakistanis, and deported them all to Balochistan where the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) took them into custody.
Rind and Zain Shaid, as per their confessional statements, had by then rid themselves of whatever aspirations they had of participating in Isis-led jihad. The FIA imposed a meagre fine of 3,000 rupees on each of them for illegally crossing the border and released them.
After their release, the two men came back home on August 19, 2015, nearly three weeks after their self-inflicted ordeal had started. On the night of August 20, CTD officials swooped in and picked them up for interrogation.
Illustration by Samya Arif
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a former al-Qaeda commander in Iraq, formally announced the formation of Isis in July 2014. He declared himself the first caliph of the Islamic State during a Friday sermon in the grand mosque of the Iraqi city of Mosul. Since then it has been a matter of when, not if, Isis will extend itself into Pakistan, already a hotbed of Islamic militancy with over 200 different terrorist groups operating in different parts of the country – al-Baghdadi’s announcement of a five-year global expansion plan, of which a key component was to establish the wilayat (province) of Khurasan – consisting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan – gave a fillip to such speculation.
In August 2014, Isis called for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani jailed in America on terrorism charges, as part of the ransom it demanded for an American journalist, James Foley, abducted by al-Baghdadi’s men in Syria. America refused the demand and Isis executed Foley.
A small splinter group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaatul Ahrar, praised Isis for demanding Siddiqui’s release. Jamaatul Ahrar then became the first Pakistani militant group to pledge its allegiance to Isis. Little else is known about its members and leadership.
Around the same time, a booklet titled Fatah, published in Pashto and Dari languages, was distributed among the Afghans living in refugee camps on the outskirts of Peshawar. The booklet made a strong appeal to the refugees to support the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate. It did not mention the names of its authors and publishers but the ideas it propagated closely matched those of Isis.
In October 2014, a number of senior commanders defected from the TTP and pledged their allegiance to Isis and al-Baghdadi. These included Hafiz Saeed Khan (TTP chief for Orakzai Agency), Shahidullah Shahid (former TTP spokesman), Daulat Khan (TTP chief for Kurram Agency), Gul Zaman al-Fateh (TTP chief for Khyber Agency), Shiekh Mufti Hasan (TTP chief for Peshawar) and Khalid Mansoor (TTP chief for Hangu). A previously unknown outlet calling itself Khurasan Media released a professionally made video in January 2015, in which Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an Isis spokesperson, endorsed the formation of his organisation’s chapter in Pakistan and Afghanistan and declared Hafiz Saeed Khan as its supreme leader.
Since then Shahidullah Shahid has reportedly died in a drone strike in Afghanistan where other members of the group are said to be based now. There have been at least two reports about the death of Hafiz Saeed Khan. In the first one, he was reported to have died in a blast in Tor Darra area of Khyber Agency in April 2015. The second claimed three months later that he had been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan. He, however, continues to live.
Isis did not just attract the breakaway Taliban. Towards the end of October 2014, the Balochistan government sent a confidential memo to the federal government, warning that some Pakistani militant groups have been in talks with Isis for mutual cooperation. “It has been reliably learnt that Daesh has offered some elements of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ) to join hands in Pakistan,” daily Dawn quoted the memo as saying.
Even in Karachi, small cells started carrying out acts of terrorism in order to attract Isis attention. They were expecting that their actions would get them monetary support and/or an invitation to join jihad in Syria and Iraq, security and intelligence officials reveal.
Zoha Waseem, a researcher on urban security and policing in Pakistan, has found at least one clue to the existence of such cells — a 60-page jihadi advisory. Titled Safety and Security Guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen and Small Cells, it is known to have been doing the rounds among militants in Karachi for months. In the words of its undisclosed author, it is meant for “brothers who want to bring victory to this religion.”
Jessica Stern has written several acclaimed books on terrorism. These include Denial: A Memoir of Terror, Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill and The Ultimate Terrorists.
In 1994–1995, she worked as part of the then American President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent American think tank and publisher.
But most important to this report is the fact that she is the co-author of ISIS: The State of Terror, one of the few books that explain the nature of the ideological appeal and the organisational infrastructure of Isis. “Isis is simultaneously a criminal organisation, a proto-state, and an apocalyptic cult with global terrorist ambitions,” Stern tells the Herald in an email interview.
Isis offers potential jihadis a “five-star jihad,” that includes free housing, free healthcare, schooling for the fighters’ children, orphanages and the opportunity for individuals who cannot afford a wife to acquire sex slaves or concubines.
Isis, she says, has set forth two principal but contradictory goals, which it labels ‘options’. The first is to spread a totalitarian caliphate throughout the world. The second is to polarise Muslims against one another, to incite internal divisions within the West, to turn the West against Islam and to “goad the West into launching an all-out ground attack, thereby setting the scene for the final battle between Muslims and the Crusaders prophesied to be held at Dabiq in Syria.” This millennial ideology is attracting many Muslims from all over the world who are expecting an early end to the world in a victory for Islam.
At an operational level, according to Stern, Isis offers potential jihadis a “five-star jihad” that includes free housing, free healthcare, schooling for the fighters’ children, orphanages and the opportunity for individuals who cannot afford a wife to acquire sex slaves or concubines. “Two German recruits who escaped from Isis and were then tried upon their return to Germany said they had been recruited by a “false preacher” who promised that they “would drive the most expensive sports cars and have many wives” and that they could leave whenever they wished. “Neither of these claims was true, the German recruits would find,” Stern says.
Further explaining the reasons for Isis’ appeal, she says “a group that is fired up with righteous indignation” may have the ability to exert an “undeniable” pull on potential recruits. Some individuals, she says, “see jihad as a cool way of expressing dissatisfaction with a power elite, whether that elite is real or imagined.”
As far as an Isis presence in Pakistan is concerned, Stern believes Isis “has designs on Pakistan, where it would presumably try to exploit sectarian tensions.” She also points out that “individuals and small groups [in Pakistan] have been claiming they are killing in the name of Isis” which, in turn, “appears to be happy to claim credit” for these attacks.
Illustration by Samya Arif
The nerve centre of Sindh Police’s operations against terrorist groups, their sympathisers, facilitators and financiers in Karachi is a small distance away from the Chief Minister House in the city’s highly secure red zone. This is the CTD headquarters and the militants are well aware of its significance. Six years ago, Taliban militants drove an explosives-laden vehicle into its premises, killing 18 people.
One of the top CTD officials, Raja Umer Khattab, has spent the last 26 years of his life as a policeman, specialising in investigating and dismantling transnational terrorist groups. A heavyset man in his early fifties, he is on the hit list of many militant organisations and has survived three assassination attempts in the last eight years. It was his network of informers which last year found out about Rind and Zain Shahid’s (failed) attempt to go to Syria. And yet he insists that all the panic in the media about Isis presence in Karachi has no real basis. Khattab has a simple explanation for that: “Before it takes on the state, Isis will have to fight against the TTP and al-Qaeda which are resisting Isis incursion into their territory.”
Aftab Sultan, the chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), does not agree with this assessment. He told a senate standing committee early last month that Isis is emerging as an internal security threat mainly because almost all the militant groups operating in Pakistan have a soft corner for it. “Even TTP in Pakistan coordinates with Daesh, though both are dead rivals in Afghanistan,” he is reported to have said.
Intelligence sources in Islamabad also endorse Sultan’s statement. They cite intelligence reports that say Isis enjoys some support among almost all religious-political parties and militant groups in Pakistan. “We, however, have been unable to gauge how deep Isis has penetrated,” one of them says without wanting to be named.
Officials in Islamabad admit the government lacks a clear strategy to deal with Isis though renewed efforts are being made to monitor social media which has often worked as the main conduit between Pakistani militants and their Isis handlers.
He says the question confronting the intelligence community is this: does Isis only have individual sympathisers in Pakistan or has it attracted organised groups “waiting for the right moment to strike?”
According to Ehsan Ghani, head of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), “fringe elements” among the militant groups are finding the Isis appeal hard to resist. He says a number of developments have alienated these elements from the organisations they have been working with. Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden’s assassination in 2011 and the Taliban after Mullah Omar’s death last year no longer have leadership that can offer charisma, courage and conviction all in one person, he notes.
Coupled with the fact that the Afghan Taliban are negotiating peace with the government in Kabul, these incidents have created an ideological and organisational vacuum among major militant organisations in this part of the world, he says. With its extremely exclusivist ideology and very brutal tactics, Isis “has started to fill this vacuum,” Ghani tells the Herald in an interview. Disgruntled militants are joining it though they are yet to coalesce into an organisational hierarchy, he adds.
Officials in Islamabad admit the government lacks a clear strategy to deal with Isis though renewed efforts are being made to monitor social media which has often worked as the main conduit between Pakistani militants and their Isis handlers. It was this social media monitoring that led to the arrest of those who had appeared in the pro-Isis video made in a Daska village, officials in Islamabad say proudly.
Also read: Triangle of terrorism
The fact is that they took seven months to find out about the video after it was uploaded online — and that too after mainstream television news channels had already aired it.
Ghani says part of the reason why there is no concrete government strategy to counter the Isis threat is that the organisation “poses a low |
nice messages in your blogging journey. How do you deal with them? Xanthe : Not well to say the least xD I can take criticism but when people get rude or aggressive I tend to just sort of mope in a corner. I’m sure after a while I’ll just ignore them but I’m still so new to all of this, it can get a bit overwhelming sometimes. I’m just glad I have friends like *COUGH*ZEE*COUGH* I can talk to about my feelings.
: I know you have had some…not very nice messages in your blogging journey. How do you deal with them?
Zee : so, from a fashionista POV. Say someone has just started SL-ing. What are the top essentials one should get, right off the bat? Xanthe : New skin, new hair, new AO. There is nothing more noob-looking than avatars from 2007. Clothes can come next but really skin, hairs and AO’s should be top priority!
: so, from a fashionista POV. Say someone has just started SL-ing. What are the top essentials one should get, right off the bat?
Zee : ok! coolest SL experience. or experiences. so far Xanthe : Coolest experience would have to be getting my first rental. Decorating my first home was a pain but I loved it so much. I’d definitely had enough of being an SL hermit. Well that’s a cool experience for me anyway. I don’t have a very exciting SLife xD
: ok! coolest SL experience. or experiences. so far
Zee : You have progressed from blogging freebies in FabFree: scaling the grids for free items, doing hunts etc. to doing vendor commissions from glossy brands to getting sponsored by big brands. How was that transition? Odd? Or…? Xanthe : Well X2L started out as a freebie blog. I’m a very frugal person so I don’t like spending a lot of money which is why Fabfree appealled to me. But it was definitely limiting my creativity, good freebies are few and far between. but then after I left FF, I broadened my horizons onto events, sales, discounts and now I’m getting sponsors from big brands like Finesmith and Dead Dollz! I still can’t quite believe how I’ve gotten this far in such a short amount of time!
: You have progressed from blogging freebies in FabFree: scaling the grids for free items, doing hunts etc. to doing vendor commissions from glossy brands to getting sponsored by big brands. How was that transition? Odd? Or…?
Zee : What was your readers’ reaction to the transition though? From reading you to get info on freebies, to finding out you’re starting to blog more expensive stuff. Has there been any feedback on that? Xanthe : I haven’t stopped blogging freebies altogether so I think that’s why there hasn’t been any complaints (yet!) they’re just a lot less frequent than they were before.
: What was your readers’ reaction to the transition though? From reading you to get info on freebies, to finding out you’re starting to blog more expensive stuff. Has there been any feedback on that?
Zee : Your first sponsor? Xanthe : Well I was first invited into the We love to blog group. Where a load of designers send out their packs but my first OFFICIAL sponsor was a store called Mmm…Kay! They made some cute hunt items that I blogged so when they saw the post I was invited to blog for them.
: Your first sponsor?
Zee : Photo-wise: how do you find the pretty locations you used for your photos? Xanthe : Travel blogs! If I’m looking for a location the first place I look is Berry’s Friday finds, then I go to Cait’s blog because she goes to some great places! And then after that I have a look through the ‘Explore second life‘ flickr group. Loverdag is my favourite sim photographer!
: Photo-wise: how do you find the pretty locations you used for your photos?
Zee : speaking of favourite photographer! Who is your favourite fashion photog? Let’s make it easy by letting you name 3. I’m feeling generous today Xanthe : LOL! Okay 3 fashion photographers? Probably Kaelyn Alecto, Strawberry Singh and Lilo Denimore 😀
: speaking of favourite photographer! Who is your favourite fashion photog? Let’s make it easy by letting you name 3. I’m feeling generous today
Zee : Tell the world your Number 1 Favourite Person, or I shall never let you leave. Make sure the answer is me though. Xanthe : CLEARLY MY FAVOURITE PERSON IS ZEE ZULEICCA RESIDENT. *now put the whip down okay!?*
: Tell the world your Number 1 Favourite Person, or I shall never let you leave. Make sure the answer is me though.
I also got a few questions in my Ask.FM box so I’ll answer some of those too!
Thank you so much! A lot of my inspiration comes from the items that I blog. If I have a pair of shoes that would look great in a fantasy themed outfit, I’ll try and work them in and it all kind of clicks together from there. But I’m always looking on Flickr at photos other people have done for inspiration too.
I love dressing up more than dressing down. High heels and glitter all the way!
I’m just a weirdo in general! Proud weirdoes unite!
Every time I go on holiday, I buy a post card for myself to put on the fridge! But I also put postcards that other people have written for me too.
I’ve only ever made one shape and that’s my own haha! But thank you!
Actually, yes! Turn off the adult filters on the marketplace and you’ll see what I mean haha!
—-
Oops! Sorry Shae, I forgot to check my fanmail box before publishing. Here’s a little section just for you!
If you could have one blog wish fulfilled – what would your wish be and why? More wishes! That’s the general rule isn’t it?
Have you ever published an embarrassing mistake without realizing it until it was live and what was it? I can’t remember any specific ones but usually it’ll be something to do with autocorrect haha!
Who is your biggest blogger crush (in a bloggy way, not a weird baby having way)? I crush on Jay Tedder Murs so hard. He’s a beautiful beautiful man.
Anyway that’s it from me today! I hope you know a little more about me now. And sorry for the wall of text but I got a helluva lot of questions! Sorry if I didn’t answer yours!
*X*
Location: Whisper forest
Advertisements2012 Mitsubishi i electric car, New York City, August 2012
Soon, New York City's electric-car drivers will have an easier time finding a parking space.
A new law will make 20 percent of the city's off-street parking charger-ready over the next decade or more.
Giving drivers more places to charge plug-in electric cars, in a city where spaces are as coveted as any other real estate, could help make zero-emission electric cars more appealing to New Yorkers.
While New York City has by far the nation's largest and most comprehensive mass-transit infrastructure, it is not universally distributed across the city's five boroughs.
Roughly half of New York City's 8.3 million residents drive their own cars at least once a day.
The law, as codified in Intro. 1176, will require new off-street parking facilities--such as garages and surface lots--to build in sufficient electrical capacity to accommodate charging stations for 20 percent of their spaces. The mandate also applies to existing structures enlarged to the point that they require increased electrical service.
In addition, the law sets standards for the electrical hardware, requiring a minimum of 3.1 kilowatts of capacity for electric-car charging.
The legislation is expected to create a total of 10,000 charger-ready parking spots, roughly 5,000 of which should become available over the next seven years. New York City currently has just under 200 electric-car charging stations.
2012 Mitsubishi i electric car, New York City, August 2012
In addition to encouraging the use of electric cars in New York City, legislators believe building charger-readiness into new parking facilities will ultimately be less expensive than retrofitting existing structures with charging stations.
Intro. 1176 is a concrete step toward outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to reserve one-fifth of the city's new parking spaces for electric cars.
In his State of the City address back in February, Bloomberg proposed making off-street parking charging-ready, as well as installing curbside charging stations.
In pursuit of that goal, a few creative ideas have been proposed to meet the needs of electric car drivers in the Big Apple.
One proposal involved replacing phone booths with curbside charging stations, while a company called Hevo Power has designed a wireless resonance charger disguised as a manhole cover, which could be used by delivery vehicles.
While even NYC residents can find driving and parking in Manhattan intimidating, a slow influx of charging stations should help clear the air by making the city's streets more hospitable for electric cars.
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Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.Hillary Clinton’s campaign needs a resurrection in New Hampshire, but this is a strange way to go about it.
(RELATED: Bernie Sanders Rockets Past Clinton By Nine In New Hampshire)
The Democrat invited the “alternative” women’s chorus Voices From the Heart to sing at a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H. on Saturday. And the group did so, distorting the African-American spiritual “Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus)”:
Woke up this mornin’ with my mind, stayin’ on Hillary
Woke up this mornin’ with my mind, stayin’ on Hillary
Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Voices From the Heart, which consists of 200 members, didn’t just decide to praise Clinton on its own. Clinton’s campaign invited them to sing, according to a post on the group’s Facebook page:
CALLING ALL VOICES SINGERS, Active Singers and Sabbatical Singers! Please check your email for details of an amazing invitation we’ve received from the Hillary Clinton campaign to sing SATURDAY MORNING in PORTSMOUTH. We need a certain # of singers to sign on before we can commit later today.
It is unclear who decided to replace “Jesus” with “Hillary” in the lyrics. The group did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Portsmouth’s very own ‘Voices of the Heart’ signing for the crowd kicking off #NHWomen4Hillary pic.twitter.com/SArhHiTPPW — Hillary for NH (@HillaryforNH) September 5, 2015
Clinton needs all the help she can get in New Hampshire. A NBC News/Marist poll released on Sunday shows that Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the former secretary of state by nine points. Clinton was up by 10 over Sanders when the same poll was conducted in July.
Voices From the Heart has put a political spin on African folk songs before.
In Jan. 2009, the chorus sang and dedicated the Swahili folk hymnal “Bwana Awabiriki” to newly-elected president Barack Obama. Swahili is one of the official languages of Kenya, the homeland of Obama’s father. As with its ode to Clinton, the group interspersed Obama’s name in the song.
[h/t The Blaze]
Follow Chuck on TwitterUpdate: Wednesday, March 13, 1:50 p.m.
A memorial celebration will be held for Christien Rodriguez this Friday, March 15 from 1:30 – 5 p.m. in Doheny Beach AB in the UCI Student Center.
Facebook Event Page
The UC Irvine community mourns the passing of a former student and activist.
The Orange County Coroner confirmed that the passing of former UC Irvine student, Christien Rodriguez, took place around 5 p.m. on Friday, March 8.
The UCI LGBT Resource Center released an email on Monday to various student groups on campus, honoring Rodriguez and his accomplishments.
“Christien was a co-founder of T-Time, the support group for transgender, gender queer and gender questioning students. He was a member of the Transgender Task force on the campus and for many of people one of the first visible and openly transgender person many staff, faculty and students had ever met,” Davidian Bishop, Director of the LGBT Resource Center, said in the message.
“He was a long-time speaker for the Center’s Speakers Bureau and has presented for several years across the campus. For those of us that were fortunate enough to know him, we will remember his incredibly sharp mind, his awareness, advocacy and devotion to social justice issues and how he crafted words and language to help people understand marginalized, under-represented and under-served populations. He was a leader in the housing community at AV. He was heavily involved in Irvine Queers and touched many of the other queer organizations in a variety of ways.
“Everyone who knew Christien will feel the impact of his passing in different ways. The feelings can vary greatly from day to day. Please trust and allow yourself and others to process this loss in our own unique and varied ways. There is no single correct/appropriate way to feel.
“This is a heartbreaking time for the Queer community and the larger community at UCI. We lost a brother. Please do what you can to support each other and to ask for the support you may need.”
For students who would like to seek solace and support from this incident, there are a number of resources available. The UCI Counseling Center can be reached by calling (949) 824-6457 or visiting www.counseling.uci.edu.
Other resources for students in need include contacting “The Trevor Project” Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386, calling the police at 911 or by visiting the UCI LGBT Resource Center, which is located at G301 in the Student Center and is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
As UCI students and journalists, the New University extends our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.With more and more car makers incorporating advanced tech into their vehicles, the Department of Transportation today released some voluntary guidelines for how manufacturers can help cut down on distracted driving.
The guidelines establish criteria for manufacturers installing in-vehicle features communications, entertainment, and navigation devices that require drivers to take their hands off the wheel or eyes off the road to use.
According to USDOT, motorists should not be performing any task that takes their attention away from the road for more than two seconds at a time, and 12 seconds in total. The Department even suggests that carmakers disable certain operations, like writing text messaging or Internet browsing, video phoning or conferencing, and the display of text messages, Web pages, and social media content unless the vehicle is stopped and in park.
"Distracted driving is a deadly epidemic that has devastating consequences on our nation's roadways," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "These guidelines recognize that today's drivers appreciate technology, while providing automakers with a way to balance the innovation consumers want with the safety we all need."
A recently released study sponsored by the Southwest Region University Transportation Center and conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute revealed that even hands-free texting options can prove dangerous.
In each test case, drivers' reaction times were "significantly delayed" while manually texting or using a hands-free app, which prompted drivers to take their eyes off the road to complete the task.
Citing a new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, NHTSA administrator David Strickland said today that visual-manual tasks can degrade a driver's focus and increase threefold the likelihood of a crash.
"The new guidelines and our ongoing work with our state partners across the country will help us put an end to the dangerous practice of distracted driving by limiting the amount of time drivers take their eyes off the road, hands off the wheel and their attention away from the task of driving," he said.
USDOT's voluntary guidelines are part of LaHood's Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving a comprehensive plan that the Department has been pushing for three years. Earlier this month, NHTSA revealed horrifying statistics about texting and talking while driving, including the fact that at any daytime moment, about 660,000 drivers across America are using a cell phone behind the wheel.
"Combined with good laws, good enforcement and good education, these guidelines can save lives," LaHood said."In 1976, three quarters of the way through the 20th century, New York City, once a thriving metropolis, was destitute. 'Ford to City: Drop Dead' was the headline of the day. The music scene, like New York, was also sorely in need of repair. But in the most unlikely of all places — in the slumping New York City’s infamous Bowery, among the skid row bums on loser’s lane, far away from the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan — a group of like-minded musicians and artists had their sights set on the future. In a small, dingy club, they would rewrite the past and set a template for the last quarter century in music, fashion, art, literature and film.
"CBGB is where I landed when I arrived in New York in the winter of 1976. I was curious about these bands with odd sounding names like Blondie, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Richard Hell and Television, so I went down to the Bowery to find out what was happening. It didn’t take long before I began to photograph what I saw and heard there. Shooting with available light under the Bowery street lamps using a handheld Leica and Tri-X film to give everything a look that felt like you were there, these photographs document those nights between 1976 and 1979. During the pre-MTV, pre-digital era of rock 'n' roll — once upon a time on the Bowery."LG is gearing up to introduce a smaller version of its G6, according to an internal document provided to TechnoBuffalo by a trusted source.
Due to the document’s sensitive nature, we will not publish it online.
The device in question looks to feature a 5.4-inch display and a screen-to-body ratio just under 80 percent. The display will retain the 18:9 aspect ratio first introduced by the G6, according to the document.
For fans of smaller form factors, the arrival of a G6 mini (not the confirmed name) is a welcome one. The G6 certainly has plenty to offer fans who prefer larger screens. But offering a single form factor is limiting for consumers.
Introducing a second G6 will provide LG with more ammo to take on its biggest rivals—Apple and Samsung—both of which offer its flagship phones in different sizes.
It’s unclear if the G6 mini will carry over the specs of its larger sibling, or feature hardware that’s more mid-range. In the past, we’ve seen companies release mini versions of its devices with watered down specs.Varying conventions on the capitalization of the letter 'i' in the word 'Internet' when referring to the global system of interconnected computer networks
Publishers have different conventions regarding the capitalization of Internet versus internet, when referring to the Internet, as distinct from generic internets, or internetworks.
Since the widespread deployment of the Internet protocol suite in the 1980s, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the W3C, and others have consistently spelled the name of the worldwide network, the Internet, with an initial capital letter and treated it as a proper noun in the English language; the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the global network is usually "the Internet", and most of the historical sources it cites use the capitalized form (in one case "the DARPA internet").[1] Before the transformation of the ARPANET into the modern Internet, the term internet in its lower case spelling was a common short form of the term internetwork, and this spelling and use may still be found in discussions of networking.
The spelling "internet" has become commonly used, as the word virtually always refers to the global network; the generic sense of the word has become rare.
In some of the first printed mentions of the Internet, like many other US government projects of the period, it was referred to in all caps as INTERNET, despite not being an acronym.[2]
The Internet versus generic internets [ edit ]
The Internet standards community historically differentiated between the Internet and an internet (or internetwork), treating the former as a proper noun with a capital letter, and the latter as a common noun with lower-case first letter. An internet is any internetwork or set of inter-connected Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The distinction is evident in Request for Comments documents from the early 1980s, when the transition from the ARPANET to the Internet was in progress, although it was not applied with complete uniformity.[3][4]
Another example from that period is IBM's TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview (ISBN 0-7384-2165-0) from 1989, which stated that:
The words internetwork and internet is [sic] simply a contraction of the phrase interconnected network. However, when written with a capital "I," the Internet refers to the worldwide set of interconnected networks. Hence, the Internet is an internet, but the reverse does not apply. The Internet is sometimes called the connected internet.
In the Request for Comments documents that define the evolving Internet Protocol standards, the term was introduced as a noun adjunct, apparently a shortening of "internetworking"[5] and is mostly used in this way.
As the impetus behind IP grew, it became more common to regard the results of internetworking as entities of their own, and internet became a noun, used both in a generic sense (any collection of computer networks connected through internetworking) and in a specific sense (the collection of computer networks that internetworked with ARPANET, and later NSFNET, using the IP standards, and that grew into the connectivity service we know today).
In its generic sense, internet is a common noun, a synonym for internetwork; therefore, it has a plural form (first appearing in the RFC series RFC 870, RFC 871 and RFC 872) and is not capitalized.
In a 1991 court case, Judge Jon O. Newman used it as a mass noun: "Morris released the worm into INTERNET, which is a group of national networks that connect university, governmental, and military computers around the country."[2]
Argument for common noun usage [ edit ]
In 2002 a New York Times column said that Internet has been changing from a proper noun to a generic term.[6] Words for new technologies, such as phonograph in the 19th century, are sometimes capitalized at first, later becoming uncapitalized.[6] In 1999 another column said that Internet might, like some other commonly used proper nouns, lose its capital letter.[7]
Capitalization of the word as an adjective also varies. Some guides specify that the word should be capitalized as a noun but not capitalized as an adjective, e.g., "internet resources".[8]
Usage examples [ edit ]
Examples of media publications and news outlets that capitalize the term include Time, the United States Government Printing Office,[9] and The Times of India. In addition, many peer-reviewed journals and professional publications such as Communications of the ACM capitalize "Internet", and this style guideline is also specified by the American Psychological Association in its electronic media spelling guide. The Modern Language Association's MLA Handbook does not specifically mention capitalization of Internet, but its consistent practice is to capitalize it.[10]
A few of the publications that do not capitalize internet are The Economist, the Financial Times, The Times of London, The Guardian, The Observer,[11] the BBC,[12] and The Sydney Morning Herald. Wired News, an American news source, adopted the lower-case spelling in 2004.[13] Media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox Media avoid capitalizing the "internet" similarly.[14] Around April 2010, CNN shifted its house style to adopt the lowercase spelling. The Associated Press announced that the 2016 AP Stylebook will no longer capitalize "internet".[15] The New York Times announced their decision in May 2016 to decapitalize all instances of "internet" for reasons similar to AP's.[16] As Internet connectivity has expanded, it has started to be seen as a service similar to television, radio, and telephone, and the word has come to be used in this way (e.g. "I have the internet at home" and "I found it on the internet").
Regional differences [ edit ]
According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, as of April 2016 the spelling Internet remains more usual in the US, while internet has become predominant in the UK.[14]
References [ edit ]By his own admission, writer George Plimpton wasn't much of a skater when he attended Boston Bruins training camp in 1977. But that may have been the least of his worries.
The amateur goaltender and father of "participatory journalism" also was almost 50 years old when he attended Bruins camp on assignment for Sports Illustrated. By then, the legendary writer had made a career of being out of his athletic element. Thanks to "Open Net," his classic book documenting the experience, his mark on the sport endures 35 years later.
Plimpton's first foray into pro sports was chronicled in "Out of My League," which details his attempt in 1958 to pitch against a team of National League all-stars that included Willie Mays. But Plimpton is best known for "Paper Lion," in which he documents his experience playing quarterback for the 1963 Detroit Lions.
By the time Plimpton attended Bruins training camp in Fitchburg, Mass., he had written about his experiences boxing against Archie Moore, suiting up for the Boston Celtics, and travelling with the PGA Tour. But blending into a Bruins team that had recently dealt star players Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito would require a new set of skills. Fortunately for him, Plimpton had no trouble getting along.
"He was just an unbelievable person. He and I became very close friends," Hall of Fame goaltender Gerry Cheevers said. "Maybe a year later, my wife and I went to New York to be present while he played in the New York Philharmonic. He played the triangle. It was about an hour [long] and I think he hit the triangle twice."
With a notepad tucked in his pads, Plimpton ultimately narrated what might be one of the most vivid portrayals of life as an NHL goaltender. Thanks in part to guidance from Cheevers and fellow goaltender Jim "Seaweed" Pettie, Plimpton gave a unique perspective on a unique sport.
"All I really did was just brainwash him that you can't fall down. He was a tall guy and gangly," said Cheevers, who tried to channel his inner Plimpton when he wrote his book, "Unmasked," last year. "I said 'George, if you fall down, you're going to stay down.' He did a great job."
When Plimpton got the call between the pipes for an exhibition game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the writer found himself in the thick of a matchup between two of the NHL's toughest teams. By the time the Flyers heard about the opposing goaltender, they agreed that Plimpton should survive his five-minute appearance in the crease.
"We were told not to run him and go crazy and shoot hard pucks at him," Flyers wing Reggie Leach said. "Give him a feel of it and that was about it."
Plimpton did let one long shot sneak behind him, but the true moment of reckoning came when Leach was awarded a penalty shot. After hearing Cheevers' pleas not to embarrass Plimpton, Leach simply shot the puck softly at the Bruins keeper.
"I don't want to embarrass Reggie," Cheevers said. "But let's put it this way, it wasn't sudden death of the Stanley Cup [Final]."
Plimpton's retelling of his experience would help cement his legacy, but perhaps the most interesting moment in that exhibition game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia occurred after he left the crease. While Plimpton conducted interviews away from the ice, the teams engaged in a bench-clearing scrap that extended to the hallways adjoining their locker rooms. Plimpton missed the melee, which would have made an interesting addition to a fascinating piece of literature.While most Americans were hanging out with family and friends celebrating Memorial Day this weekend, people in Chicago were doing their best reenactment of a war zone:
That headline was from an early edition … the number wounded now stands at 69:
CHICAGO: 69 shootings in 76 hours https://t.co/yWcRIb6vcF — Justin Miller (@justinjm1) May 31, 2016
With 6 killed:
Memorial Day Weekend: 69 shot, 6 fatally, in 52 incidents. #chicago pic.twitter.com/qHCtcTkdQl — Peter Nickeas (@PeterNickeas) May 31, 2016
It’s been a bloody year in Chicago, that’s for sure:
There have been more than 1,400 shootings and nearly 300 homicides in Chicago in 2016 already: https://t.co/kziNczx6Nu — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 30, 2016
And Milo Yiannopoulos — who just last week had his speech at DePaul University disrupted by Black Lives Matter protesters — questioned why he’s the target and not the thugs:
36 wounded and 4 dead in Chicago Memorial Day shootings but Black Lives Matter thinks protesting Milo is a priority https://t.co/4xsUvlddjr — Milo Yiannopoulos ✘ (@Nero) May 29, 2016
Planning more events in Chicago — Milo Yiannopoulos ✘ (@Nero) May 30, 2016
Get the popcorn.
***
Related:
Hoax in progress? ‘Noose’ found on DePaul campus after @Nero visit
DePaul drama queens to create ‘space for healing’ after Milo Yiannopoulos causes campus deep harm
Security? Milo Yiannopoulos leads his own campus protest march after activists storm stageA Wakefield, Mass., transmission line developer and the corporate parent of two Maine utilities have become the first companies to publicly acknowledge a desire to compete for anticipated multimillion-dollar transmission line projects through Maine.
Anbaric Transmission LLC said Monday it will submit plans to build its so-called Green Line project from the Canadian border overland to an undisclosed point on the Maine coast, where it would connect with Greater Boston by undersea cable. The high-voltage, direct-current line also would link major wind farms in Aroostook County that are under construction or being proposed.
Additional Photos In this 2008 file photo, transmission lines cross Route 201 in Topsham. Two companies have become the first to publicly acknowledge a desire to compete for anticipated multimillion-dollar transmission line projects through Maine. Jack Milton In this 2008 file photo, transmission lines cross Route 201 in Topsham. Two companies have become the first to publicly acknowledge a desire to compete for anticipated multimillion-dollar transmission line projects through Maine. Jack Milton
One of the partners in the venture would be Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield, the state’s largest heavy construction company.
“It’s really a project that has been waiting for an indication of interest from the states,” Ed Krapels, Anbaric’s chief executive officer, told the Portland Press Herald.
Anbaric also is expected to announce a similar project in Vermont called the Grand Isle Intertie. It would connect Plattsburgh, N.Y., with Burlington, Vt., to relieve bottlenecks in moving power from northern New York into New England.
Also jockeying for position is the Northeast Energy Link, a $2 billion project that aims to carry vast amounts of renewable power from northern and eastern Maine and Atlantic Canada to Massachusetts through underground cables along interstate highways.
The partners in Northeast Energy Link are Emera Inc., the Nova Scotia-based parent of the two largest utilities in eastern and northern Maine, and the American arm of British energy giant National Grid, which owns power companies in New York and New England.
The projects are queuing up in response to an anticipated request-for-proposals from the six New England governors, who announced in December a regional effort to boost natural gas and renewable power resources. The governors want additional pipeline capacity in order to lower the record-high cost of gas-fired electricity in the winter.
They also called for new transmission lines that could deliver between 1,200 megawatts and 3,600 megawatts of clean energy into the region. For practical purposes, that could mean as many as three separate lines hooked up to hydro and wind power plants capable of electrifying hundreds of thousands of homes.
In Maine, building a line that transmits both hydroelectricity from Canada and wind power from northern Maine would be complementary, Krapels said. It would satisfy policy and legal demands in southern New England for renewable power, as well as using Canadian hydro when the wind’s not blowing.
“That to us is a perfect package,” Krapels said. “It fills the line all the time, and that’s a really efficient way to build a transmission line.”
Anbaric and Cianbro have experience building large transmission lines. In 2007, they teamed up with Connecticut-based PowerBridge LLC to develop the Neptune project, a high-voltage, undersea cable that links the power grid in New Jersey with New York’s Long Island. That project cost $650 million and took four years to complete.
Krapels said he couldn’t speculate on how much the Green Line would cost and exactly where it would be built until he saw the proposal request.
The request-for-proposals is expected to be issued by the New England States Committee on Electricity, a nonprofit organization that represents the governors on regional electricity issues. Maine’s representative on the committee, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Thomas Welch, said on Monday that it was too early to know what shape the RFP would take, and when it would be issued.
Gerry Chasse, president and chief operating officer of Emera Maine, said that the governors’ plan and new federal energy regulations for renewable power will create opportunities for several projects. The include some that connect with Hydro Quebec and others focused on northern New England wind and imports from the Canadian Maritimes.
Northeast Energy Link would be built for the latter and is working with Maine officials on routing through Maine.
Chasse also noted that Emera is in the design and construction phase of the Maritime Link project, which will connect Nova Scotia to vast hydro resources in Labrador.
“Should the (RFP) proceed, we expect there will be a number of projects that will respond,” he said. “The states will then have the opportunity to decide which of one or more projects will be best suited to meet their individual (environmental or renewable energy) objectives.”
Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or
[email protected]
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CHICAGO, Illinois, July 26, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The same justification for aborting unborn children with genetic defects should apply to newborns and infanticide, University of Chicago professor Jerry Coyne argued in a recent blog post.
“If you are allowed to abort a fetus that has a severe genetic defect, microcephaly, spina bifida, or so on, then why aren’t you able to euthanize that same fetus just after it’s born?” Coyne wrote. “I see no substantive difference that would make the former act moral and the latter immoral.”
Coyne, who teaches in the university’s ecology and evolution department, said killing a newborn child with an adverse prenatal diagnosis is the same morally to killing it in the womb because the child lacks an awareness of death and the ability to make judgments, and these children are not as conscious as those older than them.
“After all,” he said, “newborn babies aren’t aware of death, aren’t nearly as sentient as an older child or adult, and have no rational faculties to make judgments (and if there’s severe mental disability, would never develop such faculties).”
Killing newborns will be widespread one day, according to Coyne, and this is a good thing.
“It’s time to add to the discussion the euthanasia of newborns,” he stated, “who have no ability or faculties to decide whether to end their lives. Although discussing the topic seems verboten now, I believe someday the practice will be widespread, and it will be for the better.”
Thomas Williams covered Coyne’s column in Breitbart, and he said Coyne’s logic was actually sound and therefore demonstrated the fault in abortion rationale.
“Although some people may find Coyne’s conclusions to be abhorrent, his basic logic is airtight,” Williams wrote. “If we accept the moral justification for abortion, it makes no sense not to allow infanticide as well.”
“Which should lead right-thinking people to ask not whether infanticide might be a morally acceptable procedure,” Williams continued, “but whether abortion itself has any moral justification other than the logic of raw power over those unable to speak or defend themselves.”
There are numerous instances where children have defied the odds of an adverse prenatal diagnosis and gone on to live productive and happy lives. And countless parents who have let their children live through pregnancy knowing they would have to give them up soon after their birth have witnessed to the beauty of the precious time they have with those children.
Coyne lined up his argument with that of controversial bioethicist Peter Singer to say that euthanizing these newborns is actually more merciful than withdrawing care, stating, “It makes little sense to keep alive a suffering child who is doomed to die or suffer life in a vegetative or horribly painful state.”
Singer is known for his euthanasia support and controversial views discounting the value of human life in various circumstances.
Coyne also gave euthanasia a pass based on its current prevalence, advancing the rationale that 50 years ago euthanasia was unthinkable, but it’s now legal in several places throughout the world for terminally ill adults.
“This change in views about euthanasia and assisted suicide are the result of a tide of increasing morality in our world,” he stated.
The prominent evolutionist argued that the same principle of euthanizing dogs and cats “when to prolong their lives would be torture” applies to newborns. He said this because neither can make a decision “and so their caregivers take the responsibility.”
Coyne went on to portray religion as a mere impediment to abortion and euthanasia that would one day disappear.
“The reason we |
workshops to teach and preserve Russian and Slavic peasant techniques for manufacturing furniture, embroidering goods and making other crafts. She also set up an art school, elistist and intellectual but set against the Russian academy (which still favored the merchant-class aesthetic of the Peredvizhniki), that encouraged artists to study and depict Russian history and folklore. The style developed in these schools resembled art nouveau much more closely than any indigenous Russian folk art.
The estate became a meeting ground for a diverse group of artists and intellectuals, all of whom, including Ivan Bilibin, figured into Diaghilev’s theatrical enterprises. Beginning in 1889, Bilibin studied at Talashkino under Ilya Repin, at that time the most famous living Russian Realist, and in 1899, Tenisheva helped underwrite the journal mir iskusstva, co-edited by Diaghilev, which was the first magazine to publish the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley in Russia. In 1908, Bilibin designed the costumes for Diaghilev’s production of Mussorsgy’s Boris Gudonov.
In addition to his stage designs for Diaghilev, Bilibin is best known for illustrating Russian folktales, including famous depictions of Pushkin’s stories. In 1904, Bilibin published an essay in mir iskusstva called “Folk Arts and Crafts in the North of Russia” followed by a monograph on the same subject, based on his personal travels and investigations in the two previous years. During those travels he became interested in architecture, and continued to explore themes of folk art and architecture throughout his career. He died in 1943 during the Siege of Leningrad.
My scans of these drawings come from English translations made in the 1970s of a series of books of folktales commissioned by the Russian Department of State Documents between 1901 and 1903. There’s quite a bit of information about Bilibin online and in books and magazines — he is mentioned at least in passing in all the books I have on Diaghilev and a Google search pulls up many discussions of his art and some biography (see below) — but I haven’t been able to find anything enlightening about my editions: translated and printed in the USSR in 1976-1977, a time of detente, by Moscow-based Progress Publishing. The name of the publisher suggests proto-Glasnost, but for the time being I still have no idea why they were created or to whom they were marketed/distributed. It doesn’t stop me from enjoying them, though!
A excellent essay on Bilibin’s visual technique as well as a biography is available here.
More scans are available here.The FBI is investigating the alleged unauthorized removal of classified documents from a secret CIA facility by Senate Intelligence Committee staff who prepared a study of the agency’s use of harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists in secret overseas detention centers, McClatchy has learned.
The FBI’s involvement takes to a new level an extraordinary behind-the-scenes battle over the report that has plunged relations between the agency and its congressional overseers to their iciest in decades. The dispute also has intensified uncertainty about how much of the committee’s four-year-long study will ever be made public.
The FBI investigation stemmed from a request to the Justice Department by the CIA general counsel’s office for a criminal investigation into the removal last fall of classified documents by committee staff from a high-security electronic reading room that they were required to use to review top-secret emails and other materials, people familiar with issue told McClatchy. The existence of the referral was first reported online Thursday afternoon by Time magazine.
The matter is now with the FBI, said one federal official. Like all of those who spoke to McClatchy, the federal official requested anonymity because the case is highly sensitive, closely guarded and could potentially involve criminal charges.
The investigation request by the CIA general counsel’s office is one of two criminal referrals sent to the Justice Department in connection with the committee’s 6,300-page report, which remains unreleased nearly 15 months after the panel voted to approve its final draft, according to those familiar with the case.
The second was made by CIA Inspector General David Buckley, they said. It relates to the monitoring by the agency of computers that the committee staff used to review millions of classified documents in the electronic reading room set up inside a secret CIA facility in Northern Virginia, they said.
It was unclear when precisely the referrals were made or when the FBI became involved or whether the bureau investigation also includes the computer monitoring.
The FBI and the CIA declined to comment. The committee referred calls to the Justice Department, which also declined to comment.
The committee’s $40 million classified study concluded that little valuable intelligence was obtained by the CIA’s use during the Bush administration of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on suspected terrorists in “black site” prisons in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, according to lawmakers who’ve read it.
The study, the lawmakers have said, also found that the CIA misled the White House, Congress and the public about the usefulness of the information gained from the techniques, which many experts and governments condemn as torture. The CIA and former Bush administration officials said the methods were legal. The program ended in 2006.
The committee approved a final draft of its report in December 2012 and submitted it to the CIA for an official response and recommendations on what portions should be withheld from the public. The agency submitted its response in June 2013 and has resisted its release, citing inaccuracies in some of the committee’s conclusions.
As reported earlier this week by McClatchy, the dispute escalated last fall when committee staff discovered what lawmakers have characterized as a draft of a top-secret internal CIA review ordered by former CIA Director Leon Panetta that broadly corroborated their report’s findings, according to one of the knowledgeable people. They found the draft in a database into which documents were deposited after being vetted by a team of CIA officials and contractors.
The staff then realized that the draft review showed that CIA leadership misled the panel in submitting an official response that disputed some report conclusions, the knowledgeable person said.
The staff printed out the draft, walked the document out of the CIA facility and took it to Capitol Hill, an act that the CIA regarded as the unauthorized removal of classified material and a violation of a user agreement between the sides, according to knowledgeable people.
The CIA confronted the committee in January with details of the unauthorized removal. The staff then determined that the CIA had recorded their use of the computers in the high-security research room that also allegedly violated the user agreement, McClatchy learned.
The CIA has denied that it conducted an internal review, saying that the group assembled at Panetta direction only produced summaries of the documents deposited in the database for use by the committee staff, and that it didn’t compile an analytical report.
Sean Cockerham of the Washington Bureau contributed.
Correction: This article originally misstated the date that the Senate Intelligence Committee approved a final draft of its report.It should be no secret that I like devlogs, and while DevLog Watch might have gone to the column graveyard in the sky (or it might just be resting), I haven’t stopped digging around for videos of fascinating, newly in-development games. Citybound remains one of my favourites; a city-building simulation game that aims to provide the large cities and offline play that SimCity lacked. Its developer has been documenting its progress with weekly videos, and the latest shows new traffic merging behaviour for the simulation’s cars.
It’s the kind of tiny detail that makes devlogs fascinating, and its mesmerising to watch in action. The video is embedded below.
Some of you will think this is boring – it’s just little squares avoiding one another, after all – but I can’t get enough of this kind of detail about the making of games. I like to see sausage is made; the thousands of little things that need to be programmed in order to bring even simple games to life.
Videos like this are obviously great marketing for an unfinished game, purely in the sense of raising awareness, but I also wonder if people would have been more forgiving of SimCity’s obvious deficits if its engine had been publicly talked about as it was created from the ground-up, instead of being revealed and advertised after-the-fact. When Citybound is finally released, there’ll be no illusions about what it can and can’t do, and what it does well will appear all the more impressive to those who saw the effort and care that went into it firsthand via various livestreams and video updates. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure, but look at all the little squares coolly avoiding each other!
Citybound is broadly similar to its obvious inspiration: you’ll place down roads, zones and then manage the urban world that springs up. It has slight differences though in how you place those roads and zones, and the test cities shown so far are truly sprawling metropoli rather than dinky toy towns. There’s a lot more detail at the game’s FAQ, with an alpha build (previously?) planned for next month.I t is an 80-year-old mystery, buried in forgotten FBI files, and played out in faded newspaper headlines pasted long ago into the now-fragile black pages of an old family scrapbook.
On the afternoon of Oct. 10, 1933 — in the days of Chicago gangsters, Busby Berkeley musicals, the waning days of Prohibition and the height of the Great Depression — one of the most advanced and fastest airliners of its time taxied from the United Airlines terminal at Newark Airport in New Jersey, bound ultimately for California.
On board the new, 10-seat plane were two young pilots, a 26-year-old flight attendant from Chicago planning to get married in the fall, and just two passengers. An executive with the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co., who had been booked for the flight, missed it by 20 minutes after his taxi driver got lost coming out of the Holland Tunnel from Manhattan.
Cleared for takeoff, the Boeing 247 roared down Newark’s paved runway, its painted striped propellers a spinning blur of red, white and blue behind the synchronized drone of the twin Wasp radial engines on the wings. Tucking in its wheels as it climbed, it banked into the setting sun and headed west.
After a brief refueling stop in Cleveland, the plane continued on to Chicago with two additional passengers and a new pilot. In the back, Warren Burris, a radio operator for United, was seated as a passenger on the right side toward the rear, admiring the twilight view out the window. Continuing a letter to his parents, he told them he could see the lights of Toledo. “What a ride!” he wrote.
The pilot who had moved into the command seat in Cleveland, 25-year-old Harold “Hal” Tarrant, checked in by radio on schedule at 8:39 p.m. Central Time. By now flying in a light rain over North Liberty, Indiana, at an altitude of 1,500 feet, the ship was cruising at 180 mph. Tarrant said he could see two red navigational beacon lights marking the way ahead, like a white stripe on a dark highway.
“Everything is okay,” he reported.
Twenty minutes later, Tarrant missed his next radio check.
The plane was never heard from again.
In the Indiana farming community of Chesterton, Joe Graf was playing a game of hearts with Marion Arndt and Johnny Licinski that Tuesday evening at about 9 p.m. when they heard a loud boom overhead. Running outside, Graf said he could see a yellow light circling down at a terrific speed. They knew it was a plane.
“She’s in trouble,” one of the farmers said.
Just to the south in Valparaiso, George Caprous, the owner of the Bluebird Gas Station, also heard the blast. He saw a ball of fire shooting from the sky.
An explosion ripped through the plane. Within seconds, the entire tail broke off, just forward of the lavatory. Burris was swept out of the cabin and ejected along with another passenger. Their bodies would be recovered the next day near the mostly intact tail. The crippled aircraft, left uncontrollable, plunged down in a power dive and half loop. Investigators know Tarrant cut the throttles as the doomed ship corkscrewed to earth, unable to do much more than watch the white hands on the black altimeter rapidly unwind in what one witness described as a howling descent that was mercifully short. The plane was inverted when it struck the ground. Its right wing was torn off in one piece, the left one crumpled from the tremendous impact, as the airliner erupted into a huge fireball.
Nobody on board survived.
At first, it appeared to be a terrible accident — at a time when airplane crashes were all too common. A fuel leak, possibly. Structural failure also was suspected. Some believed the plane had been struck by lightning, and there was even a theory it had been hit by a meteorite. Mounting evidence of foul play, however, led to an FBI investigation, headed by Melvin Purvis, the head of the Chicago office who would later gain fame as the G-man who gunned down John Dillinger.
The airline — which had invested heavily in its new fleet of Boeing 247s and was critically interested in finding out if the planes were flawed — brought in a top lawyer from New York, Col. William Donovan, who would go on to become America’s top spy master as head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.
Investigators would ultimately conclude that some kind of explosive device brought down the plane — the first airline bombing in history. But who was responsible, and why?
More than 320 pages of microfilmed FBI reports — filed away in Washington and so old they could not at first be found in response to a Freedom of Information Act request — provide some answers, but also add to the mystery. Witnesses have died and evidence is gone. Newspaper accounts bear witness to the disaster, but offer few clues.
Even today, experts who have examined the reports agree that it was almost certain that a bomb brought down the plane. But they can only speculate as to why.
N ewark Airport in 1933 was bustling. Then the busiest commercial airport in the country, it served as the air gateway to New York, which did not yet have an airport of its own. United Airlines, at the time a subsidiary of Boeing, only recently had launched transcontinental air service from Newark to Oakland, California, and the 247— the Dreamliner of its day — was the cutting-edge backbone of its fleet.
Commercial air service in the early 1930s was still in its infancy. Flying was faster than train, but an incredibly expensive proposition for all but the wealthy and business travelers in a hurry. The Fokker F10, a Dutch-designed aircraft with a fabric-covered fuselage of steel tubing and plywood-skinned wings, was a mainstay of many airlines. But the plane, which could carry up to 12 passengers, fell out of favor in the wake of the 1931 crash of Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 599 in a Kansas cornfield that killed famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. Others flew Curtis Condors, an odd-looking biplane airliner, or the slow, uncomfortable and aging Ford Tri-motor.
The Boeing 247 was a game changer.
“It is often referred to as the first modern airliner,” says John Little, assistant curator for the Museum of Flight in Seattle, which holds in its collection the last airworthy Boeing 247, now undergoing restoration.
Little called it a revolutionary airplane. Setting the pattern for aircraft design for decades to come, the 247 was filled with innovations. All metal with an aluminum alloy skin, retractable landing gear, an autopilot, inflatable boots to remove ice from wings and two-way radio, the new airliner was faster than the best military fighter then being flown by the U.S. Army. The cabin had soundproofing, individual heating controls at each seat and a lavatory in the back for passenger comfort, Little says.
More importantly, the new transcontinental airplane significantly cut the time it took to fly across country by 50 percent. Even with refueling stops, a 247 could fly from Newark to California in less than 20 hours.
Taking to the air for the first time on Feb. 8, 1933, the Boeing 247 gave United an immediate competitive advantage. Several were sent to the Chicago World’s Fair that year for a promotional tour, a historical photo shows an aerial view of one plane flying high over the Century of Progress fairgrounds. On its right wing, in large block lettering, was the registration number NC13304.
And on the afternoon of Oct. 10, 1933, that same showcase airplane was being prepared for a scheduled flight out of Newark.
T he flight was designated as Trip 23, with a 4:30 p.m. departure time. According to FBI investigative reports, mechanic Edmund Kolakowski did his usual pre-flight inspection of the aircraft that afternoon. He checked for loose rivets, the rudder hinge fittings and the tail. Another mechanic, Paul Doan, hooked up a tow bar on the tail wheel and found a nail in the tire. He took it off to replace it and when he returned, saw the cargo compartment door was ajar. Doan told the FBI he looked inside and saw the bags belonging to the flight attendant, Alice Scribner, whose name was on a leather satchel, and latched the door.
Scribner was new to flying. A sepia photograph of her in a family scrapbook, still kept by a niece she never knew, shows a pretty, petite woman in stylish, short-cropped hair. Her father was a former Wisconsin state legislator. After graduating from teacher’s college, Alice had taught school in Portage County for a year, and then became a nurse, graduating from Bellin Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin. Meeting United’s height and weight restrictions — less than 123 pounds and not any taller than 5 feet, 2 inches — she had joined the airline only recently. A newspaper clipping in the family scrapbook noted her assignment to the Newark to Chicago route just a few weeks earlier, on Oct. 1, 1933.
There were only two passengers on the first leg of the outbound flight. Neither had to pass through any kind of airport security, which did not exist at the time. Indeed, just about anyone could walk up to the plane. Dorothy Dwyer, 25, of Arlington, Massachusetts, was flying to Reno in what seemed like a madcap adventure to marry her newly divorced fiancé. She had missed the 4 p.m. flight out of Newark because of a flat tire in Rhode Island, and rushed to make the 4:30 flight.
Also on board was Emil Smith, 44, returning to Chicago after coming to New York to see the first two games of the 1933 World Series between the New York Giants and the Washington Senators. Airport workers told the FBI he had a bottle of liquor that he was forced to surrender before takeoff, and a mysterious package wrapped in paper that he would not relinquish. A blue-eyed army veteran who had been stationed in the Hawaiian Islands until he was honorably discharged in 1920, Smith, friends said, was known to drink, but never to be intoxicated. As far as anyone knew, he did not work. For a time he owned a grocery business. Jobs were scarce as the Depression lingered, but he did not seem to have money problems, living with an aunt back in Chicago, Anna Riedl.
She received a Telegram via Western Union from him that morning: “Leaving New York today by plane. Everything OK. Love-Emil.”
Before he left Newark, he purchased flight insurance, payable to his estate upon his death.
C apt. Robert Dawson was the pilot for the first leg of the trip, a one-time barnstormer who would become a celebrity of sorts in the 1950s as one of United’s top pilots. His co-pilot was 28-year-old A.T. Ruby, who had taken up aviation at the University of Illinois. United that year was beset by labor problems and Ruby had complained to his brother of being pressured to join the fledgling pilots union. On one trip, he complained to his brother that the command pilot, who favored the union, donned a heavy fleece flying suit and turned up the ventilation, letting him shiver silently in the right-hand seat.
Scribner had a thermos of hot coffee stowed in the back to serve to passengers, along with an assortment of sandwiches and magazines kept in a compartment near the rear door. With the cabin all but empty, Dawson stepped out of the cockpit about a half hour before landing to chat with his passengers. With both seated in the second row, across a narrow aisle from each other, Dawson later told investigators he sat on the edge of a seat behind them, leading forward to talk.
“Are you enjoying the trip?” he asked Smith.
“Very much so,” he replied, appearing congenial as he joked with the pilot and Dwyer.
The stop in Ohio was brief. The plane had parked at Gate 3 as the crew filled the empty tanks and took on two additional passengers. The night was cool with a raw wind blowing and Smith did not want to leave the cabin.
“Has he been drinking?” John Halpin, the airline’s passenger agent in Cleveland, asked Scribner. “Why doesn’t he want to get off the plane?”
Told to leave while the plane was refueled, Smith reluctantly reached up to the cargo netting strung overhead where he removed the mysterious wrapped package he had brought on board. He walked away with it tucked under his arm and both hands stuck down inside the pockets of his top coat to keep warm, the FBI was told.
The new passengers were Burris, heading to Chicago for a work assignment, and Frederick Schoendorff, 28, of Chicago, manager of a company that made refrigerators. Friends described him as affable and well-liked by everyone.
Dawson spoke briefly with Hal Tarrant, who would pilot the next leg of the trip, before leaving the airport to go home.
A two-year veteran of United, Tarrant was the son of a well-to-do Chicago North Shore merchant. He experienced a brush with death a few years earlier in a tragic sailing accident on Lake Michigan that killed a friend. Recently married, his wife, Bessie, was waiting for him at the terminal in Chicago.
The plane had been on the ground in Cleveland for no more than 20 minutes when it took off for Chicago. Unlike today’s airliners, there were no black boxes. No cockpit voice recorders or flight data recorders. There was no radar to track the plane. That would not come along until World War II. But investigators concluded that everything had been normal until just before the plane was set to land in Chicago.
Tarrant reported in by radio through several checkpoints. While the weather was not optimal, there was a 7,000-foot ceiling and the plane cruised easily at 1,500 feet, following the red navigational beacons set on the ground every five miles along its route.
As part of Scribner’s duties, the flight attendant passed out a comment card to passengers about 25 minutes before arrival. Schoendorff, riding in seat number 5, just behind Smith and Dwyer, had written that he was “quite satisfied with his ride.”
After missing a final radio check, Trip 23 failed to arrive in Chicago as expected. An hour later, the airline’s station manager received a brief teletype message. Local police were reporting that the missing aircraft had crashed and burned in the vicinity of Chesterton, Ind.
By the time United officials from Chicago reached the scene, it was 11 p.m. and raining. The State Police were deployed around the wreckage and five bodies had already been removed. By daybreak, the tail and the two other bodies were located, along with the thermos bottles Scribner had used to serve coffee.
Souvenir hunters soon descended on the scene of the crash. The propeller of one engine was missing a blade and investigators never found it. Decades later, in a 1999 interview as part of an oral history project conducted by the Westchester Public Library in Chesterton, local resident Howard Johnson finally disclosed what happened to it.
“Donald Slont, who later ran Flannery’s Tavern, was on the local fire department. Of course, the fire truck went out there immediately when the alarm was sent out. When they picked up their stuff from the fire truck to come home after they had done everything that they could, one of the propellers was lying on the ground. It had broken off. Don was one of these guys that just laid his hands on anything that he could see, and he grabbed it,” Johnson recalled. “When they were investigating the thing, they couldn’t find that propeller so they thought the propeller had come off and that’s what made it crash. And here Donald had it all the time. I think it had red, white and blue stripes around it so that when the propeller turned, it looked like a circle of red, white and blue.”
I nvestigators considered every theory from wing flutter, which could have caused metal fatigue similar to bending a paper clip too many times, to the possibility a meteorite had struck the craft. But there was also something curious. There were puncture holes throughout the remains of the rear lavatory. The airline blankets stored in a cubby in back had holes blown through them — like shrapnel. To those on the scene, it was clear what happened — a bomb had gone off. The accident investigation quickly turned criminal and within days, the FBI was put in charge.
Rumors abounded. There was talk of gangland involvement. And questions as to whether the labor strife within the union had sparked some kind of deadly retribution.
The FBI at first zeroed in on Smith and his mysterious package, according to the investigative files. They tracked his calls from room 720 at the Roosevelt Hotel, located at 45th and Madison in New York, including several to Patsy Marshall, who lived at the former Forrest Hotel on 49th Street. She first denied knowing Smith, but finally admitted that she had met Smith on Friday night, Oct. 6, at the corner of 45th Street and Broadway. He had told her he was lonely in New York. He had invited her to his room to have a drink. She said she refused his invitation, telling the FBI it was a “flirtation” and they had simply exchanged telephone numbers.
The investigation files also noted the “difficulties” at the Burris home. And of the troubles the bureau had interviewing the wife of the radio man.
Agents interviewed mechanics in Newark and Cleveland. They questioned Dawson, the pilot who got off in Cleveland, who was angered by the interrogation and the suggestion he might be responsible, recalled Darryl Hicks, a writer who worked with Dawson on his 1990 autobiography, “Born to Fly,” before the pilot’s death in 2001.
“You were the only one who was on the plane that night and lived to tell about it. Everyone else died,” Dawson remembered the FBI agent questioning him.
In the end, though, no suspect was ever identified. One by one, each passenger was crossed off the list. The determination that it was sabotage, however, gave United some breathing space. With the company invested so heavily in the 247, the forced grounding of the plane because of design flaws could have killed the airline.
The story gradually faded from the front page. And the FBI lost interest. On Sept. 7, 1935, the new special agent in charge of the Chicago office, D. M. Ladd, wrote that all leads in connection with the investigation had been “completely exhausted.” He requested permission to consider the case closed.
It was granted on Sept. 27. The letter was signed by J. Edgar Hoover.
T he mystery of United 23 remains unsolved.
Robert Benzon, a former senior investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board who examined the FBI investigative files of the 1933 crash at the request of a reporter, says the evidence as to what happened was pretty clear.
“No question that it was a bomb. They nailed it,” says Benzon, who lives in Virginia. “That type of damage is pretty unique. Everyone thinks when an airplane crashes, everything is destroyed — but the damage is pretty distinctive most of the time.”
Benzon, now retired, is well known for leading the 1996 investigation of TWA Flight 800, which exploded off Long Island shortly after takeoff, along with the “Miracle on the Hudson” crash, after U.S. Airways flight 1549 flew into a flock of geese. He notes that while a plane can sustain a lot of damage and still keep flying, even a small bomb can cause a crash if it goes off in the right place, and that’s what he believes happened 80 years ago this month over Indiana. It would not have taken much more than a stick of dynamite, he says.
“Airplanes are made to fly sleekly. When you start destroying the framework, the aerodynamics are enough to rip it apart,” he says.
When the explosion aboard the United plane went off, the entire tail came off in one piece and the aircraft spun out of control. Yet the FBI files included reports from Underwriters Laboratory and other experts who could find no traces of the actual explosive used, notes Chris Baird, an aviation buff in Arizona who has researched the accident over the years on his website, arizonawrecks.com.
“My feeling is that someone stashed the bomb there to transport it and didn’t retrieve it, or couldn’t retrieve it, perhaps after an earlier flight,” Baird says.
Benzon believes it was taken aboard that afternoon, but thinks it odd no fragments of a detonating timer or device were found — no wires, clock parts. Nothing. Still, the retired NTSB investigator calls it a “solvable event.” He says the FBI gave up early and the Commerce Department — which was in charge of U.S. accident investigations before the NTSB was created — took a backseat.
In a fictional account, Benzon’s chief suspect would have been Burris, the airline radio technician, not Smith, who was the leading suspect for a while. “He’s dead; can’t talk to him. So the FBI tries to interview his unstable wife and gives up with no apparent follow-up,” he says. “An aviation radio technician could build a detonator in his sleep, and would know airplanes inside and out.”
Smith, though, who had been sitting in the front of the plane, was clearly at the back, near the lavatory, when the bomb went off there.
T oday, the crash is little more than a footnote in aviation history.
As advanced as the Boeing 247 was at the time, it was obsolete the day it rolled out of the factory. Designers had wanted to make it bigger and faster, but United pilots resisted, thinking it already too big to land at most airports.
At the same time, TWA wanted to order the new planes. However, Boeing refused to take the order until it first completed all 60 planes earmarked for its own United subsidiary. So TWA went to Douglas Aircraft, which built a plane that evolved into the DC-3, the far superior landmark airliner that can still be seen in the air today. Its military version was flown by Benzon himself during the Vietnam War, converted to perform electronic surveillance.
The year after the crash, Boeing was forced to spin off United Airlines in the wake of a congressional inquiry looking into how the Post Office awarded its lucrative air mail contracts. Today United is the world’s largest airline.
Alice Scribner was the first United Airlines flight attendant to lose her life in a crash. She is buried at Liberty Corners Cemetery in Portage, Wisconsin, not far from where she grew up. Her funeral at St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was presided over by the Rev. R.A. Barnes, who was to have officiated at her upcoming wedding. She is still remembered today by her niece, Mary-Jo Guy of Marietta, Georgia.
“My mother just loved her so much. She never got over it,” says Guy, who still has the scrapbooks begun by her father, filled with newspaper clippings from the crash, photographs of Alice and letters from those who knew her.
In 1940, Alice’s younger sister, Velma Scribner, walked down the aisle in a handmade peasant frock that had been imported from Paris. Described as eggshell in color, with a bodice smocked at the neckline, it was trimmed with embroidery on the sleeves and front.
The dress was not new. It had been intended as Alice’s wedding gown.One feature (bug?) of Google Maps’ Street View mode is that sometimes we’re able to see images of streets at different points in time. This can be annoying, say if you’re looking to see what a particular block looks like today, only to find that the most recent images available are a few years old. But it can be useful too, especially if you’re trying to see where streets have undergone major changes.
Take the Inner Loop in Rochester, New York, where the city is filling in the eastern portion of the formerly-depressed highway (using mud from the bottom of Lake Ontario) and transforming the right of way into a multimodal urban boulevard with some land set aside for development too.
Using Street View, we were able to grab a few screenshots from September of 2014, shortly before the transformation began, along with some shots of what the area looked like as recently as September of this year:Sen. Bernie Sanders began laying off staff members shortly after results came in from five northeastern state primaries.
According to the New York Times, Sanders said the layoffs were done in order to “allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain.” He added: “It will be hundreds of staff members.”
“We have had a very large staff, which was designed to deal with 50 states in this country; 40 of the states are now behind us. So we have had a great staff, great people,” he said.
Politico’s Gabriel Debenedetti writes:
[S]taffers who were working in states that voted Tuesday were told to look elsewhere for work rather than continue onto the next voting states, according to people close to the campaign. “We’re 80 percent of the way through the caucuses and primaries and we make adjustments as we go along. This is a process that we’ve done before of right-sizing the campaign as we move through the calendar,” said Sanders’ campaign communications director Michael Briggs.
Sanders’ campaign indicated that it would “reassess” its strategy pending the results of Tuesday’s primaries — in which Sanders lost four out of five states to Hillary Clinton.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comFormer Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza will get inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday morning in Cooperstown. But while this should be a joyous moment for the franchise, years of acrimony following a tumultuous exit makes this weekend a bittersweet one for Los Angeles.
This is the second straight year an all-time great who was a rookie with the 1993 Dodgers will be enshrined in Cooperstown. Pedro Martinez, inducted in 2015, only pitched one season in Los Angeles and was traded before he reached his age-22 season. He was one that got away, certainly a great loss, but Piazza was different.
Piazza became a star with the Dodgers. He was the Dodgers.
That he was a 62nd-round draft pick, made only as a favor to Tommy Lasorda, a close friend of Piazza's father from Norristown, Pennsylvania, further strengthened Piazza's ties to franchise lore.
The year 1988 was a magical one for the Dodgers and not just because it was their last World Series appearance. The club also signed Martinez and drafted Piazza in June of that year (drafted Eric Karros and signed Raul Mondesi, too). But letting both Hall of Famers get away is one of the reasons why the franchise hasn't been back to the fall classic since.
Piazza hit pretty much from the start. After a September call up in 1992, Piazza took over as the starting catcher as a rookie in 1993, and was immediately the best hitter on the team. Piazza hit.318/.370/.561 and set Dodgers rookie records with 35 home runs and 113 RBI, including two home runs on the season's final day to eliminate the 103-win Giants from playoff contention.
It was a different time in baseball 23 years ago. The offensive explosion was just beginning, but we were close enough the 1980s and 1970s to still have old-school ideals. Reaching 30 home runs and 100 RBI was still a big deal, and at the time something that hadn't been achieved by any Dodgers batter since Pedro Guerrero in 1982 and 1983.
Piazza's 1993 season was just the seventh 30/100 season by a Dodger in the 36 years since the team moved to Los Angeles. And he was a rookie.
He averaged 33 home runs and 105 RBI in his first five full seasons in Los Angeles, which would have likely been five straight 30/100 years had the 1994 (24 homers, 92 RBI) and 1995 (32 homers, 93 RBI) seasons not been cut short by a strike.
Mike Piazza's swing was a thing to behold (Photo: Jason Wise | Getty Images)
Piazza was an All-Star as a reserve in his rookie season in 1993, then was voted as the starting National League catcher for the next nine years and 11 of his next 12 seasons. But only five of those All-Star Games were played in a Dodgers uniform.
With free agency looming after the 1998 season, Piazza and the Dodgers couldn't come to a long-term contract agreement. Complicating matters was the sale of the team from the O'Malley family to the cold, corporate Fox Corporation.
"I think [the Dodgers] had the idea that, 'We gave you your chance, we gave you your opportunity,' and I'm like I don't feel lucky to be here, I feel you're lucky to have me," Piazza said in the MLB Network documentary 'Against the Odds: The Mike Piazza Story,' which aired last week. "I kind of felt like, hey, you need to step up and do the right thing."
"We offered Mike $81 million, the largest contract in major league history," former general manager Fred Claire said in the same documentary.
The two sides never did come to an agreement, and the club traded Piazza to the Marlins on May 15, 1998. Only it wasn't Claire who made the trade. Instead, club president and CEO Bob Graziano and Fox executive Chase Carey and his dastardly mustache completed the deal, which sent Piazza and third baseman Todd Zeile to Florida for outfielder Gary Sheffield, catcher Charles Johnson, "third baseman" Bobby Bonilla, outfielder Jim Eisenrich and minor league pitcher Manuel Barrios.
Claire almost quit after the trade, telling the |
need not have the least
the purity of my motives, when 1 in-
thatj am so counected with your na-
by marriage aud otherwise, that I
by any means act iu a manner disre-
the Mexican nation, 01 more partic-
thc dignity of the State on-r which
Sfllency has the honor to preside.
Ills proposition I hope you nor the citi-
^Sur State will suppose for a moment'
1/ Americans, are of opinion that you are
to protect yourselves against any ene-
vt r, but you are well enough acquain-!
American character to know that we
a desirous of assisting our neighLor in
bl" manner.
let' r vil I be handed you by Mr Ed-
has my
ward Hall who cautive you all the particulars
you may wish to know.
If you wish to employ more than one compa*
ny, Captain Walker also offers his services aod
that of his company. He is a captain that
wonld suit you and well calculated to do good
service.
I am, sir, your Excellency's
Yery obedieut servant,
W. R. HENRY,
Captain C Compauy T. R.
From the State Gazette.
The Indian Territory.
Onr course in regard to the Indian policy <
the United States has been fully stated. ~
time ago we entered into an elaborate
of the merits of Senator Johnson's ( of
sas) bill, and we maintained the
that it was the duty of the United* Stat
prepare the Indian for the pursuits of
tiou. First, by insuring to them, p
homes and the means of support and sul
until they conld be instructed in the arts
bandry an<| mechanics ; Second, by
their offspring in schools of manual
maintaining presses and publications
information ; and Third, in main tai *
government, aud as far as practical
ting them to our own, and giví ^
the same rights* aod remedies for
of their
ourselves under our State govesami
That we can hog, at -thin
jjauch touaffds this objeefcpts
assented to by many Indian
and authority among their
well as the whole corps of Indian
frontier, and the representatives
the frontier States. It is with pleasure we
from Washington city, that a Choctaw
tion is now present there for the _
others,'of aiding in devising a territorial
ization according to the plan of Senator J<
ston. This delegation consists of Col. Peter P.
Pitchlynu, Samuel Garland, Israel Folsom, and
Dickson W. Lewis. These Indians are men of
influence, and we trust that such will be the
course of the government, as to show them our
sincerity in seeking to promote their welfare, by
effecting a full and liberal settlement of all exis-
ting unsettled business and matters of contro-
versy ; and thus placing them in an independent
position to accept, as they undoubtedly will, the
terms of the new territory.
The present predatory warfare carried on by
the Southern Comanches, and fugitive bands of
all other tribes requires the infliction of summary
punishment, yet when the blow is strack which
may put to death many Indians, and strike ter-
ror to the breasts of every tribe on the frontier,
still the work is by no means complete. Hunger
and want are the necessary incidents of the In-
dian's mode of life, aud the temptation to obtain
these at the sacrifice of the property of the
white man will still be presented and always re-
main powerful incentives to aggression. As the
white man advances upon the hunting grounds
of the Indian, the sources of supply of the latter
must be as constantly narrowed down and cut
off; and be, year after year, left to
against the increasing vicisitudes of bis
The work of slaughter must either bo
until we mow down iu one field of
whole race of the red man ; at,
such punishment, at the present tii
outrages ■«« ti
lion the
at oace Dresent the alternatives to
tif MwJjuiii 1 ui LULji
such as we have pointed out, presen
all the comforts aud security of civili;
the entire abandonment of our territory for ever
under penalty of death. The crisis has come to
this for the avoidance of future bloodshed, and
loss among both whites and Indians. The ter-
ritory of the United States, peopled as it may
temporarily be by the Indian, is the property of
civilization—it is the property of the cultivator
of the soil ; and if the Indian refuses to enrol
himself in the army of production for the perma-
nent benefit of the human fam ly, he must give
way to the white man, and he, in turn, must be-
come the possessor of the Indian's hunting
grounds, and iu that possession the white man
must be fully secured and protected by the
strong arm of society. Whether it shall or shall
not, cost the sacrifice of the last man and last
drop of blood of the Indian race, we repeat, that
such are the advances of the white man, snch
the vast increase of population, such the in-
creased wants of commerce, that every acre of
tillable soil is of right sacred to the dominion of
the cultivator, and they who seek to hold it to
the use of the chase and the wild beast of prey,
must as surely expect to be expelled from it,
and as justly be decreed to lose it, as the drones
to be expelled by the working bees from the
hive. The fate of the Indian, left to his aborig-
inal pursuits, to be doomed to utter and bloody
extermination, and is as inevitable as it is cer-
tain that the white man must become the ulti-
mate possessor of the entire Indian domain.
It is the duty of every legislator as a states-
man, the dnty of our government, to seek to
place the Indian in such a position, as shall end
in preparing him for a member of society, capa-
ble of discharging its duties and maintaining its
obligations; and thus, while the Indian rnce
may fritter and dissolve away, it shall be peaoe-
fully, by the mixture of races, aud with dignity
and character as it memorials of existence for
posterity. Such an end will be honorable alike
to the lost riee ao&^he «power; of the
which swallowed it up, and still exists to
forward its conquests and raise still higher the
character of man and government.
to 2(
the folk
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to each
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The vote tras'.to a
although several Democrats
they voted
the discussion of the
lution8 would take
propriated to public
tain, sad that is,
mative are anti M1
The Texan Mercury-
ry in Western Texas
that if varions clas
tared, it might yield a 1
twenty or thirty thoi
should like to impart all •
one interested in entering
State Gazette.
We learn that
by a negro
Fayette
man is D.
Alabama.
at La
murder.
on the]
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or
The Indiana Liquor Law.—The prohibitory
liquor law which has been passed by the Indi-
ana Legislature, is certainly one of the most
stringent in its provisions of any hitherto intro-
duced into the United States. It prohibits the
manufacture of any kind of spirituous liquors,
except such as arc to be sold without the State.
Cider and wine may be manufactured, but can-
not be sold in less quantites than three gallons.
Agents are to be appointed for selling liqours
for medical, chemical and manufacturing pur-
poses, and requires such agents to keep the reg-
ister of the names of persons to whom sold. All
violations of the law are to be puuished as fol-
lows:—For first offence, by a fine of not less
than twenty dollars; second offence fifty dollars;
third, one hundred dollars; and requires, in all
cases after the first offence, imprisonment iu
comity jail thirty days. Imposes the same pen-
alties on clerks and agents as on principals.
1'unishes persons who buy liquor and apply it
to unlawful purposes by a fine of ten dollars.
Liquor found iu other hands than those of
the agents, to be destroyed. Any person found
intoxicated shall be arrested and required to
answer before a magistrate as to where he ob-
tained his liquor, and be imprisoned in case he
refunds to answer.—Habitual drunkards are de-
clared incompetent jurors. The law is to go in-
to effect on the 13th day of June next.
The York Eifress hears that Mr. Soule is
comiug home soon, and will settle down in N«w
York
General
man she i
perfectly
TheNei
scurrilous
Texas Navy,:
the laws for
represented, <
falsehood.
Mr. Durkee, the
from Wisconsin, is a i ^
He was one of the first]
gress from that State.
Eclipses in rat Ycab
this year four eclipses,
of the moon;
The first—A total
1, at 10 o,clock 58
ible.
The second—A
May 1Í, at 9 o'clock 9
invisible here.
Pole, Qreeulaod,
A menea, latitude^ 1
The tbird-
ber 26, at 2 o'clock'
in visible.
Tke fourth—A
vetmer 9 at it o'clock S#
ipmjh, invisible hers
PoleWith just one day to go until May Day, the Occupy-planned general strike remains a largely unknown quantity. How many people will skip work to take to the streets? The Occupy call, which has gained support from numerous labor and immigrant justice groups, reads "No Work, No School, No Housework, No Shopping. Take the Streets!" It's just a matter of hours before we see whether and how it will be answered.
I have written here at some length against judging this May Day by standards of traditional general strikes -- not seen in the U.S. since the 1940s -- or contemporary mass strikes in Europe, where unions have not been politically pummeled into weakness, as they have in this country. And although pundits are looking at May Day as a referendum on Occupy's relevance, it's unclear what success in this case means or would look like. Marches (both permitted and un-permitted), free meals, teach-ins, college student and high-school walkouts and roving dance parties have been scheduled in 115 cities around the country. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and other well-known musicians will be joining a "guitarmy" -- 1,000 guitarists marching (and strumming) from New York City's midtown to Union Square. Clearly, the general strike organizers in New York are less interested in affirming the strength or relevance of a movement than they are in experimenting with new tactics. Still, there's a feeling that somehow, and in some bold way, it's got to be big.
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Eyes will be on New York and the Bay Area when it comes to setting the tone. On the West Coast, a major May Day plan has already changed at the last minute. The plan had been to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in support of bridge unions, which have been without a contract for a year. The Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition renounced its original bridge blockade plans on Saturday, however, asking supporters instead to join its hard picket lines shutting down ferries and buses (the coalition of bridge worker unions will be striking that day). The Port of Oakland Longshoremen have called for a daytime work stoppage and over 4,000 Bay Area nurses also without a contract will be striking, although the majority of May Day activity has been outside of union organizing.
In New York, back-to-back (and overlapping) actions will be taking place across Manhattan and in some outer-borough areas. Numbers in the tens of thousands are expected at a permitted "solidarity march" in the afternoon from Union Square to Wall Street, jointly organized by OWS, the Alliance for Labor Rights, Immigrant Rights, Jobs for All and the May 1st Coalition. Organizers have been keen to stress that different marches and actions carry different levels of risk. Schedules demarcate rallies as permitted or unpermitted, or "green" or "red" (from a color-code for assigning risk dating back to the late '90s anti-globalization movement) -- enabling individuals with, say, precarious immigration statuses, to avoid activities that might put them at risk of deportation.
There will be unpermitted, unpredictable actions a-plenty -- including an autonomously organized Wild Cat march, with the "wild cats" consisting of various anarchists, anti-capitalists, anti-authoritarians and their allies, beginning in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Its call states, "if we wanted to protest we could carry a sign and walk within police barricades, safely cordoned off in a free speech zone. On May 1st, we aren’t working and we aren’t protesting. We are striking."
Much of the activity will depend less on the strikers themselves than on the police response and crackdown. The Village Voice's Nick Pinto noted on Twitter Sunday that according to a "well-sourced" colleague, the NYPD assigned to cover May Day demonstrations "have been ordered to bring 'hats and bats'." Conveniently, New York will see increased security and police vigilance on May 1, following warnings from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security about potential terror risks on the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death (even though the Al Qaida leader was actually killed on May 2. and Police Commissioner Ray Kelley notes there is no known terror threat to the city). At a Sunday press conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, with regards to policing on May Day, "We will do what we normally do and find the right balance." So if we are to go by the normal police response to Occupy mobilizations in New York, we can expect vast police presence, mass arrests, aggressive crowd handling, swinging batons and pepper spray at the very least.
In my view, there is little point in predicting in advance what the May Day General Strike will do. As I argued, writing in the most recent n+1 Occupy! Gazette, Occupy’s zeitgeist-shifting events have never gone according to plan. Even setting up camp at Zuccotti Park -- the unmiraculous corporate plaza, which became the epicenter of a radical political opening -- was a backup plan after the first choice spot in Downtown Manhattan was blocked by police on September 17. And so I'll repeat here what I wrote in Occupy!, I don't know what a success might look like on Tuesday, rather "I hope for a May Day, which— like other Occupy actions have—re-orients how we feel about failure and success altogether."For, I trust, understandable reasons, this column has been so preoccupied with the demons released by the referendum that we have not taken time to refer to the departure from the government of one George Osborne.
His summary dismissal was long overdue, but it took a new prime minister – memorably described by one of Osborne’s predecessors, Kenneth Clarke, as “a bloody difficult woman” – to do the deed.
When one contemplates all the occasions on which Osborne’s ill-conceived economic strategy merited his dismissal, it is strange that a worthy cause he so passionately fought for – namely that we should remain in the European Union – should, when it failed, have been the occasion for his political demise.
But, as both prime minister Theresa May and her chosen chancellor, Philip Hammond, have hinted, the two – Osborne’s austerity programme and the result of the referendum – are not entirely unconnected. May, in particular, has made pointed references to the way savage cuts to local authority budgets undoubtedly, and understandably, contributed to the dissatisfaction and sense of alienation that led to such a large protest vote in northern England.
There is also a sense in which Osborne, while being on what I regarded as the right side during the referendum campaign, in fact contributed to the disastrous result.
The Leave campaign’s propaganda was stuffed with falsehoods, and the Remain campaign was distressingly feeble. But Osborne’s contribution to the latter – precise figures for hits to the standard of living in 2030; laughable threats of an emergency budget – was beyond parody, and seen as such by the general public. As for his warning that house prices might fall after a No vote, this made him a laughing stock among all those people who were already priced out of the property market. At the very least, the former chancellor’s contribution to the campaign did not help.
It was common knowledge in Westminster and Whitehall that Messrs Cameron and Osborne shared what is now known to be Kenneth Clarke’s view of Theresa May. So, what with personal antipathy added to differences over economic policy and its impact, the humiliation of Osborne was no great surprise.
It is, though, I suppose, to Osborne’s credit that, while his chancellorial career was being summarily brought to an end, the man he had gone to such lengths to recruit as governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, was generally perceived to be playing a blinder in propping up the financial system at a time of genuine crisis.
What with his early misadventures with “forward” – and what I termed “backward” – guidance on interest rates, Carney became the object of much derisive laughter in the City. And last month he was at it again, evidently flummoxing that army of highly paid analysts who spend so much time forecasting the course of interest rates, with what one might term “premature” guidance.
Under Carney, the Bank handled the threat from the referendum commendably well. But when it comes to stimulating the economy, as opposed to saving the system, it is now widely recognised that central banks are close to the limits of their powers.
Enter, or re-enter, fiscal policy – the scope for governments to reduce taxes or increase public spending, or both, in order to get the economy moving towards its full potential. And, in the case of an economy that is still suffering from the aftershock of the financial crisis, and may now have to face a structural hit from this Brexit folly, we ought to be thinking of fiscal policy combining with the much-talked-about revival of industrial strategy.
Both the prime minister and her chancellor have been described as “fiscal hawks”, but the indications about the possibility of “resetting” fiscal policy in the autumn are welcome, and appear to be sincere.
Moreover, given the prime minister’s recognition of the neglect of large sections of society that contributed to the EU referendum vote, one trusts that they will also be looking at the kind of regional policies that the Attlee government employed with considerable success after the second world war.
Since the Labour party has gone outside and may be some time, the nation must hope that May means what she says about a return to one-nation policies – unlike Osborne’s savage cuts to local authority spending, which aggravated the social distress of those who feel victimised by globalisation and react against advice from an elite that has prospered from it.
But these are early days, and I am not entirely convinced. The new team at Nos 10 and 11 may have abandoned Osborne’s damaging and economically unnecessary plan for a budget surplus – on current and capital spending by the end of the decade – but there are still a lot of cuts in the pipeline.
Meanwhile people should not forget the gap between Mrs Thatcher’s speech about “harmony” on the steps of 10 Downing Street and what actually followed. Oh, and by the way: as I have pointed out before, that prayer was wrongly attributed to St Francis and was in fact written by a French priest during the first world war.How do painkillers buffer against social rejection?
—Lauren Sippel, State College, Pa.
Jeannine Stamatakis, an instructor at various colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area, answers:
WE OFTEN feel rejected when faced with the popular clique at school or the office bully. Learning to protect yourself against such social assaults can prove quite difficult, but new research shows a common painkiller may reduce the impact of these upsetting interactions.
A recent study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, may buffer against social pain. The lead investigator, psychologist C. Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky, hypothesized that the neural overlap between physical and emotional pain might enable a drug designed to alleviate physical pain to cushion emotional pain.
In one experiment, DeWall and his team examined 62 healthy volunteers who took 1,000 milligrams of either acetaminophen or a placebo daily for three weeks. In the evening the participants described to what extent they experienced social disappointment or felt upset during the day using a version of the Hurt Feelings Scale, a social pain measurement tool. Participants who took acetaminophen reported fewer hurt feelings and more resilience to social pain than the subjects receiving the placebo.
In a second experiment, the investigators looked at 25 healthy volunteers who ingested 2,000 milligrams of either acetaminophen or a placebo every day over the course of three weeks. During the investigation, subjects played a computer game geared to evoke feelings of social rejection while lying in a functional MRI machine. The resulting brain scans revealed that the participants who received the drug exhibited reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions associated with interpreting emotional and physical pain. In contrast, the regions associated with physical pain became more active in the placebo subjects when they were rebuffed in the video game. Overall, these results indicate that acetaminophen may decrease self-reported social pain over time.
Thus, the next time you are taking cold medication, monitor how you feel in social settings and at work. You might be pleasantly surprised by how easily things roll off your back.We reported just a few weeks ago that Avengers: Infinity War wrapped production, just in time for the cast and directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo to head to the D23 Expo and Comic-Con 2017 in back-to-back weeks, where they showcased the first footage from the superhero adventure. While that footage has yet to be released to the public, director Joe Russo teased in a recent interview that both Infinity War and Avengers 4, which starts shooting very soon, will have huge stakes and plenty of surprises for the fans. Here's what the director had to say during a Comic-Con interview from last month.
"You know, with Winter Soldier and with Civil War, my brother and I like stakes. We believe in stakes for these movies, we fight for stakes on these films, and I think people should be prepared for a very intense experience in both Avengers 3 and Avengers 4. And they should be prepared for some pretty big surprises."
The director wouldn't elaborate any further in his interview with io9, but it's no surprise that the stakes are huge this time around. They are, after all, squaring off against the powerful Mad Titan himself, Thanos (Josh Brolin), who will be assembling all of the Infinity Stones, which, when placed in the Infinity Gauntlet, will give him an unimaginable amount of power. It's likely because Thanos is so powerful that practically the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe will unite to stop him.
The directors made headlines last year during an event to promote Captain America: Civil War, when they revealed that Infinity War will have 67 characters, although they later clarified that isn't the exact count. Still, the directors have said in the past that Infinity War will bring together the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, although it still remains to be seen if any of the TV characters from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Marvel Netflix shows such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist will be joining the fight as well. Regardless, the first movie has wrapped, and we found out that the second movie will be starting production quite soon.
Jeremy Renner revealed in a recent interview that production begins in just under two weeks, so hopefully we can expect to see some cryptic photos from the set on social media, courtesy of the Russo Brothers, who kicked off the Avengers: Infinity War shoot in January with a shot of the parking lot in Atlanta. Even the title for Avengers 4 is said to be a sequel for Avengers: Infinity War, so we likely won't find out what that title is until Infinity War hits theaters. Regardless of the title, Avengers 4 has said to be the culmination of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, with some fans expecting major characters to be killed off, especially since many of the longtime stars' contracts with Marvel are expiring, or are about to expire. Hopefully we'll find out more about both movies as we get ready for production on Avengers 4 to begin.This past summer, 35 oceanographers and marine biologists from Europe and Asia trekked to Norway’s Spitsbergen island, about 750 miles from the North Pole. Then they kept going, right into the water, and set up an elaborate system of underwater test tubes. Their mission was to study how the abundant marine life in these frigid waters will bear up under the stress of one of the world’s most daunting, if least publicized, environmental threats: the rising acidity of the oceans.
As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increase, the seas absorb greater amounts of the gas, which reacts with water to form carbonic acid. Surface waters today are 30 percent more acidic, on average, than they were at the start of the Industrial Revolution. And unlike the storms, droughts, and heat waves that might be spawned by climate change—which are difficult to measure and predict—ocean acidification advances with disconcerting regularity. The most conservative models forecast that the ocean will be twice as acidic as in preindustrial times by the end of this century. “In the past 200 years, we have manipulated seawater chemistry at a rate that has not occurred for at least 20 million years,” says oceanographer Jean-Pierre Gattuso, coordinator of the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) and a lead scientist on the Spitsbergen experiments.
Previous episodes of acidification— possibly caused by CO 2 released from huge, sustained volcanic eruptions—had a tremendous ecological impact. “We know that past acidification events played a role in mass extinctions, when lots of animals and plants disappeared from the ocean,” Gattuso says. “Life is flexible, so some organisms were able to adapt and evolve. The worry today is that the change is happening so fast that many may not have time to adjust.”
The science of how soured waters will affect marine life is still young, but the evidence so far suggests that the hardest hit will be organisms that have shells or skeletons built from calcium carbonate, including corals, mollusks, and many plankton. Acids dissolve carbonate, so as pH levels in the world’s oceans drop, these animals may have trouble maintaining their body parts.Todd Fasulo, assistant sheriff with the Metropolitan Police Department, briefs the media about the officer-involved shooting on July 18 in a shopping center parking lot on North Durango Drive and West Deer Springs Way. (Gabriella Benavidez/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo points to a screen as he speaks during a press conference on Friday, July 21, 2017, about an officer involved shooting of a man that occurred on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, at the Kohl's on Durango in Las Vegas. Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo takes the podium to speak at a press conference on Friday, July 21, 2017, about an officer involved shooting of a man that occurred on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, at the Kohl's on Durango in Las Vegas. Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo speaks to the media on Friday, July 21, 2017, about an officer involved shooting of a man that occurred on Tuesday, July, 18, 2017, at the Kohl's on Durango in Las Vegas. Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-Journal @bizutesfaye
The man shot by a Las Vegas officer Tuesday in front of a northwest valley department store may have been involved in two recent burglaries.
Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo told reporters Friday that the gun Giuseppe Russo allegedly held, and a Lexus he was next to when police arrived, were stolen during burglaries at a home on July on 14 and 15.
Fasulo said the burglary investigation is ongoing.
“Obviously, we know know who had the gun and the car, but whether or not they have been tied to actually taking it, that investigation is continuing,” he said.
Police responded about 2 p.m. Tuesday to the parking lot at a Kohl’s store at 6700 N. Durango Drive to a call about people sitting in a gold Lexus, banging their heads against the window and watching customers leave the store.
Russo, 30, allegedly fled soon after the arrival of Officer Jeffrey Burr, an eight-year Metro veteran assigned to the northwest patrol area.
Surveillance and body-worn camera footage shows the suspect sliding over cars and running serpentine through the parking lot. Russo allegedly pulled a gun from his waistband and turned toward the officer, and Burr fired five shots from about three yards away, Fasulo said.
Russo was struck in the arm and hip area. Burr then gave emergency medical treatment to the man and applied a tourniquet to his arm while they waited for an ambulance, Fasulo said. He was taken to University Medical Center, and Fasulo described his condition as “critical but stable” on Friday.
The incident, from Burr’s arrival to the shooting, lasted only 43 seconds. Fasulo said it’s an example of the types of split-second decisions police officers have to make.
“He could have ran right back inside that store,” Fasulo said of Russo.
Russo is accused of assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and possession of a gun by a prohibited person.
Another man, 26-year-old Andrew Verdi, was also arrested in connection to the shooting and faces a drug charge, Metro has said. He was one of the men inside the Lexus when Burr arrived, Fasulo said.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.By Huang Jin Editor: Kate Wu
A Ukrainian girl living in southwest China's Chengdu city helps some local migrant workers buy train tickets home for the Spring Festival online. Netizens called her "the most beautiful foreigner in Chengdu." [People's Daily Online]
A Ukrainian girl living in southwest China's Chengdu city became a hit recently on China's social media. She helped some local migrant workers buy train tickets home for the Spring Festival online. Netizens called her "the most beautiful foreigner in Chengdu."
The girl accidentally got to know that the migrant workers who worked at a construction site had not spent the Chinese New Year without their families for years, because they failed to get train tickets home. She decided to help them. After learning how to buy the tickets via internet, she successfully helped a migrant worker buy the train ticket. Knowing the news, other workers also came to her for help. Till now, she has helped more than 50 migrant workers get train tickets home.
The girl speaks fluent Chinese with a little Sichuan dialect. She has lived in Chengdu for five years. She likes to chat and play mahjong with the people in her community. With approachable character and lovely appearance, she is appreciated by the people around her.
China Railway has recently published the pre-sales timetable for train tickets for this year’s Spring Festival Travel Rush, also known as Chunyun in Chinese. People can book train tickets for Jan. 24, 2016 via internet or telephone calls. This year’s Spring Festival travel rush lasts 40 days, from Jan. 24 to March 3, 2016. In 2014, 295 million people traveled by train during the Spring Festival holiday rush, according to the Ministry of Transport.
(Source: People's Daily Online)At Microsoft's shareholders' meeting today, Steve Ballmer said Windows Phone 8 sales were off to a "great start." The combination of new software and more powerful hardware had resulted in four times as many sales as this time last year, the Microsoft CEO said.
The two high-end devices, the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC Windows Phone 8X, have both been selling out in a number of markets.
How many units that actually translates into is left conveniently unspoken. Shanghai Securities News reports that Nokia has already taken orders for 2.5 million Lumia 920s in the 20 days the phone has been on the market. This isn't far off the 2.76 million Windows Phone handsets that Gartner estimates were sold in the fourth quarter of 2011. The Lumia 920 is on track to sell more devices this quarter than all Windows Phone OEMs managed a year ago.
Microsoft also talked about Windows Phone 7.8 for the first time since June. Windows Phone 7 devices won't be upgradable to Windows Phone 8. Instead, they'll receive a small update branded Windows Phone 7.8. Previously, Microsoft confirmed this update would include the new Start screen with its variable Live Tile sizes. The company now says it will include a little more than that, though not much more: 7.8 will carry more colors, the option to use Bing images on the lock screen, and protection against having your phone wiped due to too many failed PIN attempts.
The update will be delivered to "as many devices as possible" in early 2013. This language implies that not all devices from all carriers are likely to receive the update. If true, this continues the haphazard update support plaguing the platform.
Windows Phone 7.8 won't be limited to existing devices, though. New models are due to debut in emerging markets that will run this new version of Microsoft's old smartphone operating system. Though these won't run apps designed for Windows Phone 8, both the old operating system and the new one will run apps built for Windows Phone 7.5.The maxim that no good deed goes unpunished has never been more true than exhibited in the attacks against Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He, with other church leaders, held a series of media events to promulgate guiding principles in an effort to mediate the intensely emotional clash between religious and sexual rights. For his efforts, he has been castigated locally and nationally, both in traditional and social media.
Elder Oaks has been accused of promoting religious freedom over non-discrimination protections. Claims have been made against him and the other church leaders that the guiding principles being promoted are a camouflaged strategy to legalize discrimination. Many have publicly criticized him for not apologizing for social expectations that encouraged gays and lesbians to overcome their homosexuality by marrying heterosexually. He has been called a bigot and much worse.
Neither Elder Oaks nor any other church leader needs me to come to their defense. However, it would be wrong if I did not speak up as a witness on behalf of Elder Oaks and the other apostles who are being accused of duplicitous motives, when I know better. I know firsthand that they earnestly want to find the “right way” to provide non-discrimination protections for gays and lesbians while securing certain rights for religion and its adherents.
While serving in the Utah State Senate, I prepared religious freedom legislation with the intent to protect religion and individual religious conscience, absent non-discrimination protections. The public was never made aware of my religious freedom legislation for one reason alone: Elder Oaks personally asked me not to advance it. He felt that if I introduced my legislation, it would disrupt efforts to discover common ground for each party to obtain rights without trampling on the rights of the other. Solely, because of his request, I “protected” my legislation from public access and withheld it for two successive legislative sessions from being introduced in the Senate.
In addition, last spring, Elder Oaks gave a seminal speech at Utah Valley University on the appropriate balance between religious freedom and non-discrimination protections. He boldly declared that certain protections and rights for the LGBT community should be accommodated. He humbly admonished that we all are obligated to care for our fellow beings with love and respect.
Frankly, I wondered how I was going to follow this counsel and accommodate that which I believed to be wrong. I contacted Elder Oaks to better understand. Suffice it to say, after our dialogue, I knew he was very sincere regarding his call for accommodation, but more than that, he was inspired in his admonition to that end.
Shortly thereafter, on May 4, 2014, the Deseret News published a commentary I wrote wherein I admitted I was wrong in my publicly expressed belief that religious and LGBT rights could not co-exist. Because of Elder Oaks, I publicly admitted I was wrong after speaking from one end of the state to the other in support of religious freedom and in opposition to non-discrimination legislation.
The sad irony in all of this is that Elder Oaks and other church leaders are now being attacked for the expressed principles and objectives that caused me to first withhold my religious freedom legislation that purposely would not have accommodated LGBT rights, and then to publicly admit I was wrong for my zero-sum approach in defense of religious freedom.
In my view, rather than being besmirched, Elder Oaks, along with his colleagues, should be applauded and honored for his extraordinary efforts to create a consensus and harmony among the various interests fighting over rights.Construction of tram tracks across intersections on Northbourne Avenue could be completed in single weekends as |
Kadokawa published the 12th compiled volume in Japan in March. Owada's Great Magical Gap (Magical Witch Punie-chan) and Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku manga also inspired anime.
The Internet domain name "gundam-san.net" was registered under Sunrise's name in February, the same month that "g-reco.net" was registered for the Gundam G no Reconguista anime. There are currently no website at the "gundam-san.net" address.
[Via silk-0001]President Donald Trump will have a speaking role in the Magic Kingdom's Hall of Presidents after all, Disney VP of Communications Jacquee Wahler confirmed on Sunday.
Since Bill Clinton, every sitting president has recited a speech during the attraction. A report in May from Vice's Motherboard suggested that the Trump animatronic would be silent. However, Disney says it plans for Trump to speak. "The same thing that we've done with other presidents, is the same plan we have for President Trump," said Jacquee Wahler, vice president of communications. When asked if Trump would have a speaking role, Wahler said that he would. In May, during the opening of Pandora-The World of Avatar, Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNN that a script had been written for Trump’s team to edit. “We’re hopeful that, at least by the first anniversary of his election, he’ll be there with the 44 other presidents that preceded him,” Iger said.
While the attraction features an animatronic figure of each past president, it was overhauled in 1993 and the script was adjusted to give the sitting president a short speaking role. Prior to the 2016 election, it was announced that the Hall of Presidents would once again undergo an extensive refurbishment with a show overhaul--both to install the new president's animatronic as well as to adjust the show's content.
After Trump was elected, however, a petition asking that Disney silence Trump in the new version of the attraction garnered more than 15,000 signatures. The petition argued that Trump had "tainted the legacy" of the presidency and therefore his animatronic should not be permitted to speak at Walt Disney World.
Further, Disney said that attempts to coordinate a recording session with the White House had gone unanswered, which added more questions as to what exactly the 45th president would be doing in the show.
The Hall of Presidents was scheduled to re-open on June 30, but this has been delayed until "late 2017" due to technical difficulties.Dota 2's official forums were reportedly hacked on July 10, with nearly 2 million records accessed. These include email addresses, usernames and passwords, and IP addresses, according to leak notification site Leaked Source.
According to that site, passwords on the vBulletin forum "were stored using MD5 hashing and a salt". MD5 hashing is widely considered an outdated and ineffective form of data protection, and according to Leaked Source, over 80% of the hacked passwords can be converted to their plaintext value.
Leaked Source lists the different email hosts that have been compromised, with Google a huge majority at 1,086,139. "A lot" of those are disposable email addresses, but the report doesn't specify how many. Whatever the case, if you use the forums, it's probably best to change your password, and to then check whether you're listed on the Leaked Source website.
Valve has yet to comment, but we'll reach out. Cheers to ZDnet for the heads up.Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin stormed into office promising to kill off the state's Obamacare Medicaid expansion immediately.
"Absolutely. No question about it. I would reverse that immediately," Bevin said in February.
But since getting sworn in this past December, his tune has changed — a lot. The Republican governor won't undo his Democratic predecessor's work expanding Medicaid to cover half a million of the state's low-income residents.
"It would be damaging to low-income adults in Kentucky to go from expansion to no expansion"
Instead, he quietly announced (right between Christmas and New Year's) that he would instead look at ways to "transform the way Medicaid is delivered." Changing delivery of the program is a whole lot different from eliminating it.
Kentucky was the first state in the country where a Republican governor won on a platform of undoing his Democratic predecessor's Medicaid expansion. The fact that Bevin has decided to drop the issue suggests something important about the politics of Obamacare: Once a state uses the health law to expand its Medicaid coverage, it's incredibly difficult to shrink the benefit back down.
Kentucky was one of the first states to expand Medicaid
Democratic governors were quick to embrace the Medicaid expansion in 2014, after a Supreme Court decision made the coverage optional.
Republican governors moved slower but over the past two years have begun to warm up to the idea of using federal money to buy public health coverage for their lowest-income residents.
Under the leadership of Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, Kentucky was among the first wave of states to expand Medicaid.
Kentucky ended up having one of the most successful Obamacare launches. The state won great praise for its marketplace, Kynect, which actually worked when open enrollment started (unlike the federal marketplace, Healthcare.gov).
The state also expanded Medicaid from day one. Those two actions, taken together, have helped Kentucky quickly drive down the rate of uninsured people. The state's uninsured rate has declined 55 percent over the past two years — the sixth-fastest drop in the country.
The Medicaid expansion is going well for enrollees — way better than getting nothing at all
Since 2013, Kentucky's Medicaid program has nearly doubled its enrollment.
The best available data suggests that the program is helping low-income Kentuckians fare much better than they would in a world that Bevin initially suggested — one in which Medicaid expansion was wiped off the books.
On Tuesday, Ben Sommers, a public health professor at Harvard University, published a study comparing the low-income residents of Kentucky with those of Texas, which has not expanded Medicaid. His research in the journal Health Affairs estimates that Kentucky's Medicaid expansion was responsible for a 16.6 percent decline in the uninsured rate for low-income residents.
And that insurance seemed to help Kentuckians. Sommers and his co-authors surveyed hundreds of Kentucky and Texas's low-income residents before and after the expansion. The percentage of Kentuckians who said they had skipped medicines due to cost or had trouble paying their health care bills dropped. Their access to care improved, too, particularly for the management of chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension.
"It's pretty clear from our study that it would be damaging to low-income adults in Kentucky to go from expansion to no expansion," Sommers says. "It would introduce huge affordability issues."
Reversing course on Medicaid expansion is hard
It's one thing to decline the Medicaid expansion. There are 20 Republican governors in office who have made this decision and aren't facing any serious political blowback.
But the Bevin situation shows that reversing course on Medicaid expansion has a completely different dynamic: There are half a million Kentuckians who rely on the program, who have an easier time paying their health care bills, and who would face difficulty accessing doctors if the expansion disappeared. Those people don't exist in Texas, which never expanded the program. But they exist in Kentucky, and that matters.
This underscores how crucial the first decision to expand Medicaid becomes and the legacy it creates. That's powerful for Obamacare supporters, who are pushing more states to expand. They most likely won't have to lobby, over and over again, for states to continue their Medicaid expansion.
This was, in part, Democrats' political theory of Obamacare: The more the law becomes a system that Americans rely on, the harder it will become for future politicians to dismantle it. In Kentucky, that theory is playing out in real time — and it's working to Obamacare supporters' advantage.In recent times AdWords has faced criticism for becoming too expensive for small businesses to use. Whilst there’s no denying that the cost of AdWords has increased, and will continue to increase, I believe that if you run your account well, there is no reason why AdWords can’t be successful for small and local businesses.
This post will cover my top tips and tricks for getting the most out of your AdWords spend as a small or local business.
Decide On The Services You Are Going To Advertise On
Don’t just advertise on all of your services! Decide which products or services it is effective to advertise on. For example, if a product has a very small profit margin then it might not be suitable to use AdWords unless the conversion rate is very high, because the cost may not produce an effective ROI.
I’d avoid using AdWords for any products which could be ‘upsell’ products. For example if someone bought a bike from a local bike retailer online, I wouldn’t advertise on bike helmets because this is an item which could easily be upsold with the bike purchase using other cheaper advertising methods such as email marketing.
Similarly with services, if you are an independent travel agent, where your main service is holidays however you also offer travel insurance, I wouldn’t use AdWords to promote the travel insurance service because it’s a highly competitive marketing and you can upsell customers much more cost effectively than if you sold that product on its own.
Pick Your Keywords Effectively
Now that you know which of your services you will be advertising, you need to pick your keywords effectively to avoid bidding on high cost keywords which may not actually convert as effectively.
Tools you should use to do your keyword research:
Google Analytics: Although organic keyword data is becoming more limited, it is still valuable. Look over the last 6 months and see which organic keyword terms have resulted in conversions on your website. Keep a note of these so that you can use them as keywords, or at least use them as a guide for structuring your ad groups effectively.
Google Autocomplete gives you keyword ideas which are fresh, current and definitely have search demand. because these terms are often new, it means that they have lower levels of competition and so will be cheaper for you to advertise on. A tool called Ubersuggest scrapes the Google Autocomplete data so is a great tool for getting these ideas quickly or on a larger scale.
If you have an existing AdWords account, then your AdWords Search Query Report might just be home of some of the best keyword ideas you can get your hands on. Export to CSV and snap up the search terms which have converted to add them as keywords
Because the tools listed above aren’t considered traditional keyword research tools, you may find that these terms you end up with are slightly long tail, which is not surprising because 15% of searches performed on Google every day are completely unique.
This is great because these terms will be cheaper than terms you’d find on tools such as the AdWords Keyword Tool. If you add these to your campaigns and receive a message saying ‘low search volume’, you should leave them in the account anyway for a little while as they may eventually be triggered and the cost when they do will be minimal.
Sometimes if a keyword has a really low search demand, AdWords automatically deem it as ineligible to run for auction. If this happens, or if a lot of your keywords say ‘low search volume’, I would recommend adding them using modified broad match. To do this place them on broad match and then add a + before each important term in the keyword and it will act as a way to narrow down broad match targeting. The ‘+’ tells AdWords that that part of the keyword must feature in the search query, however the words can be in a different order, or spelt differently.
For example if the term ‘activity centres for disabled children in Hampshire’ was deemed as having too much of a low search demand to go to auction, then I would make it a modified broad match keyword; ‘+activity +centres for +disabled +children in +Hampshire’. In my experience, this usually allows the term to become eligible for auction.
It’s also vital you use negative keywords to cut down on wastage. Graeme has put together a video on this:
Transcript
Account Structure And Daily Budgets
In an ideal world, you should be as granular as possible with your account structure, and set up individual campaigns for each product or service category. As a small business, you might find that this means having a very low daily budget for each campaigns, which might mean some campaigns run out of budget quickly whilst some never use their allocated spend.
My advice would be to avoid having any campaign budget lower than £7 per day, depending on what your average cost per click is. The reason I recommend this is because if your budget is too small, AdWords will estimate the maximum number of clicks you can get based on your maximum CPC bid, even though often your max CPC bid is much higher than what you actually pay. It will then determine that you aren’t always eligible for every auction because your max CPC is high and your budget might only allow you to get two clicks if it was set at a bid of £3. In actual fact you only usually pay £2 per click but because your bids are high and your budgets are low, you won’t be entered to every auction. By having a higher daily budget on a campaign you will be eligible to show more often.
If you have a set amount per month that you are able to spend, you might find that some days don’t use all the spend that they could. The bid strategy section of this post will help you optimise using this, but don’t forget that you could also work out what your total spend has been to date for the month in your campaigns, and then work out what you have left to spend for that month and increase your daily budgets accordingly until the end of the month when you will have a new lump sum of money to spend.
Although Google have changed AdWords so that you can layer bid adjustments within any one campaign for different locations, I would still recommend having separate campaigns for separate locations. Having them separate allows you to keep control over the spend for each location, and you can still use their bid adjustment features for becoming even more granular with your geographical targeting.
For example if you were a Tailor on Savile Row, you would benefit from a campaign which targets only London with term such as ‘men’s custom wedding suits’. You could then have a second campaign which targets the whole of the UK excluding London, with terms such as ‘men’s custom suits London’. You could use bid adjustments on the London campaign by increasing your bids by 4% for any users within 5 miles of Savile Row because these may be most likely to convert. You can also ensure that if the campaign which geographically targets London converts better, then you can increase your daily spend for that area and reduce it for the other campaign. If you have all locations within one campaign, all you can do is adjust bids rather than actually controlling daily spend.
Don’t waste your budget by bidding on competitors if your budget is limited. You will have a low CTR, it often doesn’t convert that well and it can be expensive. Instead, make sure you have a separate campaign for your own brand, where you can bid on your brand name and variations of it. If you rank number one organically but don’t have PPC on your name, someone else could take up that ad space! Research has shown that you are likely to lose conversions as a result. Branding campaigns in AdWords have a very low Cost per Click and convert the best in many instances.
There are also lots of regular checks you can make:
Transcript
Bidding Strategies For Small Or Local Businesses
Bids are one of the most influential factors on the success of an AdWords account, and are a great way to be resourceful with your ad spend as a small business.
Bids and Average Position
Try to ensure your keywords have an average position between one and two if possible, because this increases the likelihood of a good CTR which results in a strong Quality Score and means you may pay less per click because Google deems your ads as more relevant. There are lots of ways to get a strong average position and your bids play a big part in this. Make sure you review your average position and bids at keyword level, so that you only increase bids on keywords which need it and don’t waste ad spend on keywords which are performing well. Although this is more time consuming, it will see your ad spend become more effective. Balance increasing your bids with other optimisation techniques to ensure your average position is strong. If you are a service or product where people do a lot of comparison / research (for example designer sunglasses retailer), then you might actually get more cost effective conversions from positions slightly lower down the page (although I wouldn’t go too far down the page). Try experimenting to see which works for your business.
Review lost impression share
Review Lost Search Impression Share due to Rank at keyword level, so you only increase keyword bids where they are required, and where there is potential to gain ownership of a larger share of the search demand.
Time of Day Bid Adjustments
In the settings tab, you can schedule your ads and set bid adjustments for certain times of the day.
Use the scheduling feature to make sure your ads are only running when they need to be. For example if you are a recruitment consultant who is always busy on Monday mornings, you could schedule your ads so they don’t run during that time because you already know you will have enough enquiries to deal with on that day and don’t need additional AdWords enquiries. This ensures you are only spending money on advertising when it’s needed.
Bid adjustments allow you to keep some visibility but also chose when you want your ads to be most visible based on when enquiries are most valuable to you. For example if you are a local bakery, you might know people will be researching places to get lunch from 12pm to 1pm, so you could increase your bids by X% during these times because you know that those clicks are most likely to result in footfall to your store.
Location Bid Adjustments
In the same way as time bid adjustments, you can also be very granular with your location targeting and set bid adjustments by location.
If you have several different locations in the local area, you can now target them all within one campaign by layering your location targeting and bid adjustments. For example if you were an estate agent with offices in Southampton, Winchester and Basingstoke, you could target ads to users in all three locations via just one campaign. Because AdWords location targeting is based on the users IP address (unless they include a location within the text of their search query), I would recommend targeting the whole of Hampshire and then using bid adjustments to increase bids by 5% in important locations. This is because IP addresses are not always accurate for judging users locations and you don’t want to miss out on potential customers. Your campaign would target the whole of Hampshire but you would set bid adjustments in the settings tab so that users in Winchester, Basingstoke and Southampton have an increased bid.
Device Bid Adjustments
The device someone is using is also an important factor of the context of their search and can tell you what the intentions of their search is. Using the bakery example, mobile traffic would be really valuable as you know users often search on their phones when they are out and about, so a strong mobile bid adjustment which keeps you in a good average position on mobiles is important.
If your objective is to drive traffic to your website, rather than footfall to your physical business location, then mobile bid adjustments might be lower because they are of less value to you. For example a travel agent might find that users don’t really convert over their mobile website because they can’t see all the details of holidays as easily, so they might chose to have lower mobile bid adjustments.
As a rule, mobile bid adjustments should always be lower than desktop bid adjustments because mobile traffic has less competition and so is cheaper. As Enhanced Campaigns roll out on the 22nd of July, you may find that mobile bids need to increase as more advertisers will be using mobile advertising.
Bids Stack on top of each other: Bid layering
Bid adjustments are a fantastic way of making your ad spend more cost effective and using it most when you most need it, but beware that all bid adjustments stack on top of each other.
For example, if you bid £1 as your standard bid, then if you increase bids for users in Winchester by another 10% it would be £1.10, and then if you also have a bid adjustment of +10% between 1pm and 2pm it would increase by 10% of £1.10, so your final bid would be £1.21 between 1 and 2pm.
Ad Extensions – Getting More For Your Money
Ad extensions allow you to gain more ad space on the page, for the same price as a regular click! This is a must-have way to make your ad spend go further and it also increases your CTR massively, which in turn increases your Quality Score and may actually result in a lower actual Cost per Click.
I recommend setting them at campaign level at minimum for every campaign, and at ad group level if you have more ad group specific extensions. For example if you have an ecommerce site and one ad group covers a particular product that comes in several colour variations, the sitelinks could be placed at ad group level in this instance and link to each colour variation.
Your ads must be in the top positions (one to three) to be eligible for ad extensions, so make sure you keep your bids up.
You can learn more about ad extensions here, but the ones I recommend in priority order are as follows:
Location extensions Sitelinks Call extensions (especially if you target mobile devices – make sure you schedule them & try out a Google forwarding number with conversion tracking) Offer extensions Image extensions (Beta – apply for them here) Seller rating extensions Social extensions App extensions (if you have an app) Email extensions (contact your Google rep)
AdWords Is More Than Search
AdWords search advertising is the most established form of AdWords advertising, and as a result it’s the one which most businesses use. This means that it can be very expensive for some industries. There are many other AdWords formats which might be much more cost effective for your business;
Remarketing
Remarketing is a clever use of targeting because it works for branding and is a form of display advertising but it also converts extremely well if done correctly.
My top advice for Remarketing is to make sure your ads have synergy with your website and are branded well. Remember to use the frequency capping functionality in the settings tab of every remarketing campaign you create, so you don’t stalk your visitors too much.
Product Listing Ads (these are replacing product extensions)
If your site is an ecommerce site, Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are a great way to get extra ad exposure alongside your standard text ads. Set your PLAs up in a separate campaign and remember to optimise these campaigns with lots of negative keywords. If you have products which don’t tend to convert often or have a very high cost per conversion then you can exclude the product. PLAs are created in Google AdWords although you will need to have linked your Google Merchant Centre account and AdWords account for them to work.
YouTube Advertising
There are lots of interesting BETA’s for YouTube advertising around at the moment, and many more soon to be announced. This makes it a great platform for trialling new ad formats which not everyone will be using, and as a result will be less costly.
It’s a well-known fact that videos are a huge catalyst for encouraging conversions, whether they are testimonials or ‘how to’ videos. YouTube advertising can be done in so many ways, from remarketing to your YouTube channel subscribers and audience, to TrueView ads
I have seen very competitive industries where a click on the search network can cost around £17,yet convert just as well (if not better) on the display network, at just a fraction of that Cost per Click.
If you haven’t given YouTube advertising a try yet, I’d recommend at least trailing it in its own separate campaign. If you aren’t sure about setting it up, ring the AdWords helpline and often they are happy to set it up for you or provide you with detailed instructions as video ads are an area Google are keen to push at the moment.
Time Is Money
I appreciate that as a small business, your time is extremely valuable and not only are you overseeing the business AdWords campaign but you’re probably skilfully juggling a plethora of other tasks too. Automated rules probably sound more scary than they are, but they can be a great way to keep on top of optimisation without having to spend as much time on the account.
Rules can be scheduled to run daily, weekly or simply each time a certain criteria is met. If you set them up with care and read any email alerts which are sent to you when the rules run, they can work really well and save you lots of valuable time.
One simple automated rule you could set up to keep on top of the average position of your keywords is to increase bids by 4% on a weekly basis on keywords where the average position is below 2 based on data from the last 14 days. You can set a maximum CPC limit so the bids will never get higher than you are comfortable with and Google will send you an email each time this rule runs so you can review the changes.
If you are really pushed for time, and would prefer to let your AdWords account ‘optimise itself’ you should be aware that nothing is going to be more effective than human optimisation, but Google’s Automated Bidding Strategies can help.
Don’ts
Google are trying to get more small and local businesses on board with features such as “AdWords Express” where they set up your AdWords account for you and make the process seem effortless. The set up process is effortless, but from looking at a number of these kind of ‘express accounts’ I would highly recommend that you do not use them. You cannot access or change the account through any of Google’s normal AdWords tools or even the AdWords interface. This means you can’t even perform basic optimisation such as increasing bids or adding negative keywords. From the accounts I have seen using this feature, they tend to have a poor Click through Rate and low average positions which means they probably pay more than they need to per click. In short; avoid AdWords Express like the plague.
I hope you have found this guide helpful and that it has helped you get started with AdWords for your small business. If you have any questions or experiences you want to share please leave them below.
Image credit
Key Local by Bigstock Photo
Share this postA few years ago, Mark Bent and his wife lived in Africa. They would bring hot meals to children who scavaged dump sites all hours of the day. Recently, the couple went back to that African village and and were compelled to make a real difference. There was no light for those villagers. Sure, during the day, but at night – only the light afforded by a rare hunter’s moon.
So, Mark quit his job and designed a solar powered flashlight. How might a flashlight make a real difference? Huge difference! Night light helps keep people safer and gives them opportunities to read, study, and develop their minds at night. For instance, think back to when you were in grade school. Trail walking? Getting home safe on a really dark night? Surely you have memories of reading at night? Mysteries? Comic books? Short stories? How much of your own imagination developed over that time?
Mark now has a great business model to back up delivery of this product around the world. Specifically, if you buy a flashlight for yourself, he’ll give another one to a village without lights or to troops in Iraq. Hence, the name BoGo (buy one, give one). In this way, reading at night no longer has to be an economic decision or burden. You’ll also cut out the need for batteries and will be doing a small part to save the planet from wasteful consumption. So check out that link above, buy one, and help Mark light up the lives of others around the world.Image caption Lee Charie had part of his skull removed after a fall from a balcony
Lee Charie does not remember falling off a balcony in Thailand.
But when he woke up, part of his skull had been removed.
Doctors in Thailand had cut out a portion to relieve the pressure building on his brain.
And Lee carried this piece of skull home in a polystyrene box, hoping surgeons in the UK would be able to use it to help reconstruct his head.
Lee, 32, from Hertfordshire, was on holiday on the island of Koh Tao when the injury happened.
His memories of the event are hazy, but his father flew out soon after the accident took place in December.
Peter Charie was told his son had fallen from a height of 25ft (7.6m) and was unconscious when found.
Sometimes you literally need a kick in the head to sort yourself out and start doing what you really want to do Mr Lee Charie
And Lee spent a month recovering in hospitals in Thailand before a flight home to the UK accompanied by medics.
His father carried the section of skull the doctors had removed.
He had had no trouble getting it past customs and security, he said.
Under pressure
Lee is currently recovering in hospital in the UK, where he is undergoing physiotherapy, medical tests and help for his pain.
When he realised he had had some of his skull taken away, he says he didn't stop crying for two weeks.
But he says he has been overwhelmed by the support of family and friends, some of whom are organising fundraising events to help him and others in similar situations.
Consultant neurosurgeon Colin Shieff says when the he brain is injured, swelling can push it against the protective bony casing of the skull.
"The brain doesn't work well under pressure. It is safer and can guarantee a better recovery if pressure is not allowed to build up," he says.
"It's a bit like if you sprain your ankle, you undo your shoe. It might look worse but it helps."
Sometimes the swelling is mild enough to subside on its own. In other cases, medication can be given to help reduce and control it, Mr Shieff says.
But in some situations unless a part of the skull is removed, the pressure can start to damage the brain.
Mr Shieff, a trustee of Headway, the Brain Injury Association charity, says in terms of everyday function the whole skull isn't essential - there are a lot of people with skull defects who carry on with their everyday lives.
Some are advised to wear a protective helmet to shield against further brain injury, which can be the greatest risk to people with such bony defects.
In fact surgeons have been operating on the skull for many years.
There have been cases from as far back as the Incas, Aztecs and ancient Egyptians of people who have clearly survived for some time with holes deliberately made in their skulls, Mr Shieff says.
Metal template
Many of Mr Shieff's current patients choose to have their skulls reconstructed.
At times the section that has been removed can be put back in place.
Another option is to construct a metal template using scans and computer models, which follows exactly the contour of the natural skull.
Lee says his surgeons are considering using the piece of skull he brought back to help shape a titanium mould for reconstruction.
He is recovering well, apart from a little pain when he uses his facial expressions too much.
And judging distances when walking up and down stairs can be difficult, he says.
Mr Shieff says: "Any fall from more than one's own body height can be very dangerous.
"Some people die following a fall from that height. To survive and survive unscathed from such a fall is an extremely good thing."
Luke Griggs, spokesman for Headway, says: "The effects of brain injury can be devastating. No two brain injuries are the same, so it is impossible to predict what the long-term effects will be when someone sustains a severe brain injury.
"But public perception needs to change. People with brain injuries are already battling with everyday life and yet sadly they are often unfairly judged and treated unkindly.
"With the right care, support and understanding, many people with brain injuries can lead happy and fulfilling lives."
Lee says: "It has made me re-think a lot of things about my life.
"Sometimes you literally need a kick in the head to sort yourself out and to start doing what you really want to do."Natural Grocers has AGAIN removed the book How Not To Die from its shelves, saying that the book’s claims are not based on science and that the author’s opinions “do not support our company’s views on what a healthy diet should include.”
The book, by Michael Greger, MD, contains information on the 15 top causes of death in America and how nutrition and lifestyle factor into preventing them. It also contains 143 pages of references to peer-reviewed scientific evidence.
Natural Grocers has no problem selling books that tell readers to eat for their blood type (Eat Right 4 Your Type); that consuming foods with saturated fat is good for them (Cholesterol Clarity); and that cheese and steak can help reduce obesity, diabetes, and heart disease (The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet).
So why then, does Natural Grocers refuse to sell Dr. Greger’s book? Is it because it will hurt their sales of meat and cheese?
Tell Natural Grocers you want How Not To Die back on shelves now!HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) — A 19-year-old woman was in critical condition and 10 people were in serious condition after intoxication-related injuries during the annual Independence Day “floatilla” off Waikiki, a lifeguard spokeswoman said.
Lifeguards estimate 8,000 to 10,000 people attended the party and hundreds had to be rescued from the water.
Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright said lifeguards were extremely busy and stayed overtime until 7:30 p.m. because of the event. She said the woman was in critical condition due to intoxication. All the 10 others who were in serious condition had alcohol-related injuries, and the victims ranged from age 17-26, Enright said.
Hundreds of people in various motorized boats and inflatable water toys were in relatively shallow waters about a half-mile offshore as part of the event, the Department of Land and Natural Resources said earlier in the afternoon.
DLNR assigned 14 Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officers to the area, using a boat and seven jet skis, DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison said, in a release. Joining them were city lifeguards and two U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats.
Due to brisk off-shore winds, enforcement officers were asking event-goers to move closer to shore and to moderate alcohol consumption, Dennison said.
©2017 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Visit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leader of the New York State Democratic Party and a rumored 2020 Democratic presidential contender, told reporters today that his party “wasn’t extraordinarily successful” when it wholly controlled Albany— and so he’s doing “the best I can” with the current State Senate, where breakaway Democrats have kept the GOP in power.
Asked whether unified Democratic governance in the state capital would be a net benefit, Cuomo answered in the negative, recalling the period between 2008 and 2010 when his party held the Assembly, State Senate and governor’s mansion—a period characterized by infighting, backbiting, chaos and corruption scandals. After a special election in Harlem this month, registered Democrats will almost certainly enjoy a slim numerical edge in the 63-seat body, but conservative Brooklyn State Senator Simcha Felder caucuses with the Republicans, and the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference has enjoyed a power-sharing arrangement with the GOP leadership for almost five years.
Both New York and national Democrats have urged the governor to step in and pressure Felder and the IDC to return to the party fold, but he has steadfastly refused.
“Look, we’ve had a unified Democratic government in Albany and it’s not a hypothetical,” Cuomo told the Observer today. “We’ve had it. It wasn’t extraordinarily successful, so I work with the Assembly and the Senate that I’ve been given and I do the best I can.”
Asked whether Democratic control would be better for the state, worse or the state or make no difference at all, the governor would only repeat his personal party affiliation.
“Well, I am a Democrat, so I support Democrats,” Cuomo said.
The governor’s office pointed out that he recently endorsed Brian Benjamin, the Democratic candidate for the vacant Harlem seat and virtual sure-bet winner.
A Democratic Senate spokesman would not criticize the governor for his remarks, and only made a plea for progressive unity. Scandals have ripped through both parties in the upper chamber since 2010, replacing much of the leadership on both sides of the aisle.
“In less than three weeks Democrats will comprise a majority of the New York State Senate and have the chance to be a progressive beacon to the rest of the nation,” said Mike Murphy, noting that the party unilaterally controls only six other state governments across the country. “In the dangerous age of Donald Trump, all Democrats should recognize this historic opportunity to unite as a majority and work together to lead this great state forward. “
The governor has had a cozy relationship with State Senate Republicans during most of his tenure in office, particularly the moderate faction from Long Island. In his first term from 2010 until 2014, they enabled him to pass gun control legislation and gay marriage legalization, and supported his pro-business agenda.
In exchange, he did not campaign or raise money for State Senate Democrats until last year. Cuomo had a severe falling out with both GOP Majority Leader John Flanagan and Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie earlier this year over legislative pay raises, leaving State Senator Jeffrey Klein—leader of the IDC—one of his few true allies left in the State Legislature.
State Senator Marisol Alcantara, Brooklyn State Senator Jesse Hamilton and Queens State Senator Jose Peralta all joined the IDC over the past six months. The agreement with the Republicans has allowed IDC members to hold committee chairmanships and receive special salary stipends for those posts.
The IDC has maintained that Klein uses his position to push forward progressive policy items that would not be able to be passed in a Republican-run State Senate. Earlier this month, Heastie was said to be still weighing meeting with the quarreling Democratic factions to try to forge a unification deal.
Sources tell the Observer Cuomo himself has sat down with state senators from the mainline Democratic conference to discuss the possibility of a compromise. But rhetorical clashes between the IDC and the larger caucus have grown increasingly acrimonious.Venus was one of five turtles exposed to mutagen in the sewers. When Splinter gathered up all the turtles, he mistakenly left Venus behind. Somehow making her way to Chinatown, she was discovered by a shinobi magician called Chung I. Chung I took the turtle with him to China where he raised her as a daughter and named her Mei Pieh Chi. He also trained the turtle in the art of Shinobi.
Apparently, Chung I would, on occasion, travel to the realm of dreams and encounter Splinter. Each swapped stories |
!
Once she was made, I had another dilemma – she needed a name! I couldn’t think of a name and a friend of mine suggested – Penny or Penelope as I kept saying she looked like a penguin, I was joking that her name will be – Miss Penny Guin.. so the name kind of stuck and here she is – meet my Penny!
It took me 3 evenings to make her, a lot of swearing, I was almost in tears every night, and ready to throw her out in the bin but I am so glad that I perservered and kept going.. Who would have thought that this lovely little girl would be so hard to make! So every time you see something you think is so easy to make – do it because you will then appreciate how hard making things actually are.. As I say if it was easy – everyone would do it!
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Updated August 2015
Penny won 1st prize in the Royal Manx Agricultural Show 2015 in the Soft Toy category!‘Rape culture’ is a concept in contemporary feminism that states that it’s a culture in which women are taught to avoid situations in which they might be raped, instead of a culture that primarily concerns itself with training men to stop being sexually aggressive.
One reason why this argument has become so popular (other than all the government money dedicated to advancing it) is that this basic position is part of what makes civilization distinct. Civilized men are civilized because they observe a sophisticated etiquette regulating their sexual behavior, usually codified in law. Tribal cultures without written law still have regulations on this behavior, but it’s more informal and enforced by the group.
What’s interesting about this tack is that, like previous legal doctrines that restricted the responsibility of women, this also revokes moral agency from women who put themselves into dangerous situations. If a woman elects to get drunk, and is then seduced by a man, the choice to get drunk is not seen as a moral error within the current system, while the choice to seduce is portrayed as a special category of date rape or ‘gray rape.’
Popular film portrays the sexual party culture as a sort of test of perverse moral fiber for both genders. Men see their ability to seduce women (who would be seen as lower class in the past) as a test of their masculinity. An inability to pull girls at parties and clubs is seen as a moral weakness and a source of shame: it’s the go-to insult whenever someone wants to denigrate a man for insufficient vigor.
It’s perhaps predictable that, in an egalitarian culture, the lowest common cultural frame is the one that dominates. The lower classes have always been criminal, violent, and prone to reckless fornication. That our culture mostly flatters and celebrates violent, fornicating criminals is just the artistic expression of its democratic structure.
For women, the ability to ‘cut loose’ while still ‘following your heart’ is seen as an admirable expression of femininity, especially if it can be maintained while succeeding in a career. Moral success is pursuing Dionysian excess at night, while maintaining Protestant professionalism during the day. No one, not even God, is seen fit to judge a woman: only her heart is fit to judge whether or not her behavior is good. If her heart changes later, the culture supports her condemnation of the past decisions of her heart.
These well-educated women perceive that the law is just only when the law upholds the judgments of her heart in the moment, while discounting the decisions that her heart made in the past. Unfortunately, law does not perform its function all that well when it rests on a cluster of chaotic subjectivity.
In the past, at least in the upright-bourgeois North European cultures, the person who served alcohol to women would be seen as morally at fault, as would the woman’s family, as would the woman herself, as would the man who seduced her. By social convention and law, public saloons didn’t serve alcohol to women, and in general women drinking was perceived as low class.
Further, it wasn’t as if promiscuity didn’t exist: it was just seen as a lower class trait. Neo-Marxist class analysis usually glosses over the moral aspect of the class system, which has differing expectations for different classes.
Feminism as expressed in the university system mostly concerns itself with breaking down whatever vestigial bourgeois moral conditioning still exists in their students. This is an inversion of the previous function of higher education for women, which was once primarily seen as a way to inculcate bourgeois morality specifically into girls to make them more marriageable. There are both spiritual and material reasons as to why this was important: women with low class morals tend to regress to low class material—it’s hard to maintain a family fortune if you either never get married or become divorced.
Few people are satisfied by our current moral and legal system. It is widely criticized, yet no one seems to be capable of doing much of anything about it, because returning to the serviceable moral structure of the past is not as simple as flicking a switch, and is not simple to achieve on the individual or familial levels. Moral entropy is as powerful as the regular kind.
What’s interesting about this is that the people of the middle class, without any superiors to counteract them, destroyed themselves, indeed enthusiastically supported their own destruction, both morally and with lavish donations rewarding institutions to the extent that they promoted the moral dissolution of the old order.
Since the sexual revolution, there have been multiple right-wing attempts to either counteract it or to create alternative cultures to resist it, with varying degrees of success, mostly leaning towards failure.
The failures fall into a couple categories: the first being the idea that the state can support conservative parenting, and the other being that families can effectively resist the dominant moral culture on their own without taking a radically secessionist pose like the Mennonites, Amish, and Hasidic Jews.
The first position, the Tipper Gore-type position, places the state in a situation that runs against its nature, which is to supplant alternative sources of authority to itself. Parents and families are always going to be third banana to a political system that is fundamentally anti-aristocratic, which stands for rule by abstractly determined merit rather than rule by superior families over subordinate families.
If the entire point of the state is to supplant traditional sources of authority, to remove legitimacy from the distributed authority of patriarchal rule, it’s misguided to expect the state to support your patriarchal authority.
The police officer is supposed to supplant Dad, just as Prime Minister displaces King (minister of ministers being more important than first among fathers). The legal theorist is supposed to supplant the backwards mystic traditions that informed old laws.
The second position of resistance is more promising, but the problem is that the resistance is necessarily disconnected and non-networked, whereas the opposition has solidarity, a license to use legal force, and the benefits of networks.
Whereas ‘backwards’ religious cultures that reject modern influences form a coherent, illegible-from-the-outside moral network with the capacity to shame and police immoral behaviors and maintain alternative standards of education, attempts that go halfway tend to meet with halfway success.
I saw two Mennonite girls at the grocery store the other day. While their floor-length dresses and white bonnets took on the character of a costume drama, the fat people in the frozen foods section took on the character of a zombie movie. They had clear skin and a modest demeanor. I don’t know anything about the Mennonites other than that they sell good produce, but at least from the outside, their aesthetics are not as offensive as that of a human whale in a sports team t-shirt with a basket full of jumbo vanilla-creme cookies.
The choice probably doesn’t have to be so stark, but it’s becoming closer to being that clear.Kung fu granny! British former midwife makes Hollywood debut in martial arts movie at the age of 79
At an age when most people might be putting their feet up and enjoying their retirement, British grandmother Kay D'Arcy is proving it's never too late to pursue your dreams.
The 79-year-old former midwife has trained in tai chi and studied Filipino stick fighting in order to land a role in a martial arts show where she will play Agent 88 - 'the world's most deadly assassin'.
She takes the lead role in the Hollywood series which is described as 'an extreme comic book style cinematic romp, full of martial arts action, killer special effects and unforgettable characters.'
Scroll down for video...
Kung fu fighting: Kay D'Arcy, 79, learnt tai chi and Filipino stick fighting in order to land the a role in a martial arts series
Defying her years: The British granny blew producers away with her ability to transform from a frail woman into an action hero
Her role is 'an 88-year-old British woman on the verge of Alzheimers' who'may appear to be a decrepit old lady, but in reality she is a highly skilled warrior assassin'.
The web series, directed by Digger T Mesch has been made possible thanks to money being raised through Kickstarter, a fundraising platform to finance independent art forms including films and plays.
Producer Jan Utstein-O'Neill said D'Arcy 'blew us away' in her audition with her martial arts moves.
'What impressed us is she could go from being really frail, and looking like she could break, to a totally empowered woman,' he told the L.A Times.
Starring role: The grandmother will play Agent 88, 'the world's most deadly assassin'
On set: D'Arcy rehearses a fight scene. The part is her big break after she moved to Hollywood ten years ago to pursue her dream of being an actress following a career as a midwife
Never too old: D'Arcy hopes the series, and her own story, show people it's never too late to enjoy life
D'Arcy's rise to fame is as remarkable as her kung fu abilities.
She was a retired midwife living in London, when ten years ago, at the age of 69 and against the advice of her family, she decided to up sticks and move to L.A. to pursue an acting career.
It's taken ten years for her to make her big break and she hopes her story empowers other people to make a change in their lives by proving you're never too old to enjoy life.
Speaking of her role in Agent 88, she said: 'This project is very special to me as it's showing a senior making the most of the last years of her life.
'She's not just a doddering woman in a nursing home, she's not being passed over and used by her family.
'She's empowered herself, and I suppose I did that when I left England and chose to start all over again. We all have the capacity to do that.'
D'Arcy added that she hopes her role in the martial arts film helps change people's attitudes towards the elderly and their capabilities.
She said: 'You all have old people, give them a dignity in their life, let them see there is something they can do towards the end of their lives.'
Watch video of Kay D'Arcy as Agent 88 below...Bernie Sanders On Cutting Deficit: "Every Major Defense Contractor Has Been Convicted Of Fraud"
In an interview with Bloomberg's “With All Due Respect,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said he would look to the defense budget for spending cuts and try to "make it a much more efficient budget than it is."
First, Sanders tackles unemployment and macroeconomics.
MARK HALPERIN: Would the DOW go up under a Bernie Sanders administration? Does that matter to you?
BERNIE SANDERS: We have -- yeah, it matters. When you have a productive economy with small and medium sized businesses doing well, the DOW will do just fine...
I think what we need -- you can't put a number to it. But what I beleive is if we invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. I've got a $1 trillion dollar bill that would offer 13 million jobs...
If we have a financial system that makes loans available to small and medium sized businesses, we can substantially reduce unemployment today.
We must also focus on youth unemployment, which is just off of the charts...
BERNIE SANDERS: I find it interesting that the only federal agency which has never been audited is the Dept. of Defense. It hasn't been able to audit itself or have an independent audit.
What I can tell you is virtually every major defense contractor has either reached a settlement with the U.S. government because of allegations of fraud or have been convicted of fraud.
You have massive cost overrun. One area we could take a hard look at is the defense budget.
Next, Halperin asks for specifics about cutting the budget deficit...All it takes is a lot of bored males and, more often than not, alcohol.
Once again we're taking time to celebrate the one tradition common to all cultures: gathering in large groups to participate in utterly pointless and often mind-bogglingly dangerous sports.
8 Shin Kicking
Where:
Cotswolds, England
What is it?
Shin Kicking is part of the Cotswold Games, a four hundred year-old tournament that claims to be the oldest Olympiad in the world, and, because of the absence of synchronised swimming, it may also have a valid claim to be the best.
There's rarely a sport more perfectly summed up by its name. Shin Kicking is a contest between two fighters as to who can knock the other down by the simple, honest method of kicking the shit out of one another's shins.
If you cause your opponent to fall, you earn a point. Bouts are won on a best-of-three basis, the winner going through to the next round. Call us unadventurous, but we think we'd probably throw the fight immediately after some hairy, beefy, rosy cheeked English farmer demolished our wizened, malnourished shins with one swing of a sheep-shit covered boot.
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Competitors are allowed to cram hay down their pants to try and protect their shins, but what with hay having the protective qualities of a soggy tissue, we can't picture it doing much good.
Origins:
The Cotswold Games began in the early 1600s when a local attorney called Robert Dover organised the games a protest against the rampant growth of Puritanism. Because if anything is going to make those prudes lighten up it's the horrific breaking of another man's shins.
Interesting Fact:
In the games early days, duelling was an event. In one fight between Sir German Poole and a Mr. Hutchinson, Poole sliced off three of Hutchinson's fingers before Hutchinson even drew his sword. Hutchinson responded by slicing off Poole's nose, and the gruesome turn of events probably short-circuited plans to combine the events by strapping knives to contestant's shoes during the shin-kicking event.SOFIA (Reuters) - Three U.S. government defense contractors caught in a blast at a Bulgarian military range were testing arms for use in a U.S.-led mission to equip Syrian opposition fighters battling Islamic State, a U.S. military source said on Tuesday.
One American contractor was killed and two more were injured when a rocket-propelled grenade malfunctioned at a military range near the central village of Anevo on Saturday. Two Bulgarians were also injured in the explosion.
Bulgarian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident but the authorities declined to say what the Americans were doing in Bulgaria, a NATO member.
According to a U.S. military official who was speaking on condition of anonymity, the U.S. contractors were preparing to obtain arms for the U.S.-led effort to train moderate opposition fighters to battle Islamic State in Syria.
“These guys were out there prepping (arms) for eventual transfer... for the Syria T&E (train and equip) effort,” the official told Reuters.
The official said the arms were being screened by the contractors for their usability. He declined to provide further information.
The Bulgarian government press office was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday. The defense ministry spokesman said he was unaware of the information and could not comment.
The two U.S. Department of Defense contractors who were injured in the blast were taken to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, according to a spokeswoman for the hospital where the injured were initially taken in the city of Plovdiv.
Bulgaria’s economy ministry has said the range was hired by Bulgarian private arms company Alguns, which also owned the grenade, produced in 1984 by a Bulgarian military plant. But the ministry also said it had not issued Alguns with a permit to export or re-export arms such as the grenade that malfunctioned.
No one was immediately available for comment from Alguns. The U.S. embassy in Sofia declined to comment.
(This story corrects to remove reference to arms being purchased)"The students of Oriel should be clear-eyed about Rhodes' faults and failings but proud of his achievements," an email from Mr Abbott was quoted as stating by the newspaper. "The university should remember that its mission is not to reflect fashion but to seek truth and that means striving to understand before rushing to judge." "Racism is a dreadful evil but we all know that now... It's a pity that Rhodes was, in many respects, a man of his times. We can lament that he failed to oppose unjust features of his society while still celebrating the genius that led to the creation of the Rhodes scholarships." "Oxford would damage its standing as a great university if it were to substitute moral vanity for fair-minded enquiry. The university and its students should prefer improving today's orthodoxies to imposing them on our forebears."
Brian Kwoba, a doctoral student, told The Independent that Rhodes was responsible for "stealing land, massacring tens of thousands of black Africans, imposing a regime of unspeakable labour exploitation in the diamond mines and devising pro-apartheid policies." "The significance of taking down the statue is simple," he added, "Cecil Rhodes is the Hitler of southern Africa. Would anyone countenance a statue to Hitler?" RW Johnson, an author who is an emeritus fellow of Magdalen College at Oxford, compared the campaign to remove the monument to what al-Qaida and the Islamic State "are doing in places like Mali when destroying statues." "They are destroying historical artifacts and defacing them," he told The Daily Telegraph. "I think you have got to respect history. In addition, there are many people in history that are far worse than Rhodes." Some British politicians have sought to depict the campaign as a demonstration of political correctness and an effort to erase history, a notion that supporters reject.
Instead, they argue that any commemoration to Rhodes sends out a hostile signal to some modern-day students. To an extent, the debate has also become caught up in a broader discussion about whether the university is attractive to minority students, and is sensitive to them. Britons were already struggling to define their global role and facing other calls to confront the past, including demands from Caribbean countries that Britain pay reparations for its role in slavery. Born in 1853, Rhodes attended Oriel College in the 1870s before founding the De Beers diamond empire in South Africa, where he rose to be premier of the then Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was named after Rhodes, but he is perhaps best remembered for beginning racial segregation in southern Africa and for his belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. The campaign against the monument in Oxford, called Rhodes Must Fall, is modelled on a similar group in South Africa, which succeeded in having a statue pulled down at the University of Cape Town.
In a statement, Oriel College said that it was starting discussions with the local council about the removal of a plaque commemorating Rhodes, erected in 1906 by a private individual on a property it owns. "Its wording is a political tribute, and the College believes its continuing display on Oriel property is inconsistent with our principles," it said. The statement added that the statue raised more complex issues and that "in the absence of any context or explanation, it can be seen as an uncritical celebration of a controversial figure, and the colonialism and the oppression of black communities he represents." The college said that it plans to start a six-month "listening exercise" in February to seek a range of views as it looks for "a positive way forward." AAP and The New York TimesThe bright green water pistol will replace the black and silver revolver emoji
Apple is to replace its controversial handgun emoji with a water pistol amid mounting concern over gun violence in the US and worldwide.
The move follows a series of deadly shootings in America, including the killing of two black men by police and the subsequent slaying of eight officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The country was already reeling after 49 people were shot dead at an Orlando gay nightclub in June.
Image: The emoji updates include a new rainbow flag
Apple's existing black and silver revolver emoji will be replaced by a far more benign-looking bright green water pistol with a white trigger, in September.
The change came as the tech giant unveiled more than 100 new and redesigned emoji characters.
Apple said in a statement: "This exciting update brings more gender options to existing characters, including new female athletes and professionals, adds beautiful redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag and more family options."
It said it had worked closely with the Unicode Consortium that handles the character standard, to "ensure that popular emoji characters reflect the diversity of people everywhere".
Apple had already taken steps to introduce more racially diverse emoticons, but ran into controversy amid claims some of its Asian emoji faces were too yellow.The U.S. Postal Service engaged in widespread violations of federal law by pressuring managers to approve letter carriers’ taking time off last fall to campaign for Hillary Clinton and other union-backed Democrats, investigators said Wednesday.
High-level postal officials had for years granted employees’ requests for unpaid leave, leading last year to an “institutional bias” in favor of Clinton and other Democrats endorsed by the National Association of Letter Carriers, one of the largest postal unions. The Postal Service’s Office of Special Counsel and inspector general found that the agency violated the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees from working for or against a political candidate or party during election season.
“The culture and practice was, ‘It’s mandatory, it’s the directive’ ” to ensure employees got time off, Adam Miles, acting director of the Office of Special Counsel, told Senate lawmakers at a hearing.
The investigation found that 97 letter carriers took time off, sometimes weeks, to take part in the union’s Labor 2016 program, canvassing, making phone calls and working on other get-out-the-vote efforts to help elect Clinton and other pro-labor candidates. The workers were dispatched to battleground states, including Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio. They were reimbursed for their unpaid leave by the union’s political action committee.
Federal employees, including postal workers, are allowed to use their time off to campaign or donate to political candidates. But by directing that time off be granted even over the objections of local post office managers who said they would be understaffed, the Postal Service showed a workplace bias toward Clinton and other Democrats endorsed by the union, Miles said.
(Reuters)
[Largest federal employee union endorsed Clinton]
“USPS... facilitated [the union’s] political activity by directing local supervisors to approve union official [leave without pay] requests to participate in Labor 2016,” a report by the Office of Special Counsel found. “Characterizing this political activity as union business conferred a special status on carriers’ leave requests.”
The practice dates to the 1990s, investigators told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. But the favoritism toward union-backed candidates was not necessarily because the letter carriers union endorsed Democrats.
“The evidence suggests that USPS engaged in this practice to engender good will with the unions,” Miles said. About 92 percent of postal employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
Postmaster General Megan Brennan tried to assure lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing that she took the mistakes seriously and is working to make sure they are not repeated.
“To be labeled as having an institutional bias is pretty damning,” Brennan said. “I will communicate that this is heard throughout this organization.”
The time-off-to-campaign-at-any-cost practice was brought to lawmakers’ attention by a letter carrier in Wisconsin, who testified that the absence on short notice of multiple employees at his post office and those in nearby towns left them short-staffed and paying out overtime to the workers who stayed behind. One letter carrier was gone five weeks.
The local post office manager pushed back and tried to deny the time-off requests, the letter carrier, Timm Kopp, testified Wednesday, but was rebuffed by upper management.
“I know it’s true that historically the Democrat Party has been the party to help the Postal Service,” Kopp told lawmakers, “but these partisan acts will not help, only hinder its efforts.”
[Federal workers push back against President Trump]
Investigators said the union gave a senior labor relations official a list of letter carriers it wanted to be released to campaign. That official emailed the names to local postal managers across the country. They interpreted the missive as a directive to give the carriers the time off, even if their absence would cause havoc and require overtime.
“When supervisors get the message, ‘You have to let these people off,’ that’s a pretty clear political operation, quite frankly,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).
But investigators found that managers did not collude with the union to choose candidates it should support, or ask the union to advocate for Clinton or any other Democrats whose policies would benefit the Postal Service.
The Postal Service, on the recommendation of the Office of Special Counsel, did not take action against the high-level official or others, angering several Republicans on the Senate committee.
“You kind of have to scratch your head when you have such systemic violations of the Hatch Act and nobody’s really held accountable,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the committee chairman.
Brennan noted that because investigators found that the labor-relations official was implementing a long-standing practice and not motivated by a desire to be partisan, no discipline should be taken.
But she said that going forward, postal officials will take a “hands-off” approach to the unions’ political activity — for example, weighing all the similar requests for time off based on the request, the needs of the Postal Service and the cost of any overtime needed to cover the employee’s missing shifts.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said it was impossible to know if the time-off arrangement was a net financial loss for the agency.
The union posted a message on its website saying it would submit a statement to the committee “ to address the legitimacy and accuracy of some of the data and statements from the investigation and the hearing.”Russian President Vladimir Putin has explicitly outlined a deterministic view of his country, as noted by Ingmar Oldberg in “Russia’s Great Power Ambitions and Policy under Putin”:
“Russia was and will remain a great power, preconditioned by the inseparable characteristics of its geopolitical, economic and cultural existence.”
Indeed, thinkers such as Robert Kagan have stated that the contemporary status of Russia is one where “history has most dramatically returned,” referring to the breakdown of the supposed U.S.-backed liberal-democratic world order. Interestingly, Kagan also makes the curious observation that the “recrimination” felt by a Russia that was defeated in the Cold War is akin to the sentiments of a post-Versailles Weimar Germany. That analogy may be questionable, but the issue of revanchism is an important one. However, we must also consider it in terms of culture and public consciousness, which are often ignored within the formulation of policy and national self-perception but can be seen as significant factors underpinning Russian foreign policy.
Even if Russia considered itself a great power before the end of the Cold War, realist thinking would dictate that this bears little to no relevance on the problems it faces in the contemporary world. Nonetheless, analyses of Russia need to focus in particular on the keen historical awareness that continues to be apparent in its foreign policy imperatives. The particular circumstance in which this “historicity” shows itself in certain countries is defined by Henrik Larsen:
“Faced with uncertainty or lack of information or when leadership lacks clearly defined preferences for the outcome of a crisis, historical experience is likely to play a role in the formulation of foreign policy.”
This arises from a “constructivist” understanding of nationalism, in which there is nothing truly innate within a nation that serves to define it as a great power, but instead it is an interplay of “cultural signs and symbols” that operate within a national discourse and are subject to “continuous political redefinition.” Rich’s account of this in “Russia as a Great Power” specifically goes a step further and claims that throughout the Cold War, Russia “postured as a superpower” and that even throughout its Tsarist history, it was seen as operating on a different understanding of power than the West was, being more akin to the Ottoman Empire in its nature. While this does not mean that Russia was necessarily inferior militarily, there has been a certain distinctness to Russian power which has had trouble fitting in with the Western understanding. Indeed, the 2008 Russian-Georgian war has stood out as a notable problem for proponents of the democratic peace theory.
Rich’s view can be seen to be related to the notion of “national messianism” or the “Third Rome” mentality that defines Russian thinking. This messianism can be both religious Slavophilism as well as secular and revolutionary. It is defined by a focus on the fact that Russia has a unique history in being neither fully European nor fully Asian and having a “peculiar historical development” compared to the rest of the world, as noted by Janko Lavrin in “Populists and Slavophiles.” Curiously, there does seem to be a spiritual link between the peasant commune revered by nineteenth-century authors and the post-1918 socialism that can be attributed to some distinctly Russian character, as Vatro Murvar explains in “Messianism in Russia: religious and revolutionary.” Murvar quotes Konstantin Leontiev, who outlined his vision of the Russian historical niche as:
“I believed before and still believe that the Russia which is to head some new Eastern realm will give to the world also a new culture, so that the Slav-Oriental civilization may replace the passing civilization of Latin-Germanic Europe.”
This view stands in stark contrast to the brand of historical exceptionalism rooted in the U.S. Constitution or the French Revolution. Indeed, the peculiar spiritual understanding of the fate of the Russian person is described by that most Russian of Russian authors, Dostoyevsky, as quoted by Nancy Ries in Russian Talk:
“It seems that the narod (people) has been infected with this thirst for suffering since the beginning of time. This stream of suffering runs through all its history, not only summoned by external misfortune and poverty, but welling up like a spring from the very heart of the people.”
It is important to bear this in mind when attempting to contextualize Russia in contemporary international norms. It may seem hardly relevant to cover the intellectual history of Russian exceptionalism, but it is an important facet for understanding how the nation considers itself as partaking in a unique destiny and that its special status is necessarily conjoined with elements of, not necessarily freedom and prosperity, but suffering and power. As such, an analysis that anticipates a fatalistic, economics-based interpretation of a Russia delegated to the historical sidelines misses an important cultural factor that drives the country’s continued insistence on trying to punch above its weight.
Kirill Kovalenko is a Masters of International Relations graduate from the University of Melbourne interning with the Royal United Services Institute of Victoria.Sony SmartWatch (left) and Pebble e-paper watch (right)
Chinese site via Mobilegeeks.de ] that Apple and Intel are currently working together on a Bluetooth-enabled smart watch. According to the report, the watch will include a 1.5-inch OLED display from RITEK subsidiary RiTdisplay and will launch in the first half of next year.Full details on Apple's smart watch are unknown, but the report compares Apple's project to Sony's SmartWatch, although it notes that Apple's Siri voice assistant will provide for greater integration with the iPhone in allowing users to take phone calls directly through the watch.There are of course other smart watches taking advantage of the low-power Bluetooth 4.0 standard hitting the market as well, with one of the most highly anticipated ones being the Pebble e-paper watch that raised over $10 million on Kickstarter. But while the Pebble team has continued to give regular updates on its development progress, the watch has yet to begin shipping.(CNN) Eight of nine children exhibiting symptoms of a mysterious illness have been confirmed to be suffering from acute flaccid myelitis, a highly infectious polio -like disease that primarily strikes children, the Washington State Department of Health announced Friday. However, the ninth case, a 6-year old boy who died last Sunday, did not have the disease.
The department announced the results following an analysis of the blood, stool and respiratory samples by the Centers for Disease Control.
"There has been no confirmed infection or any obvious commonalities among these eight children, said Dr. Scott Lindquist, who serves as state epidemiologist for communicable diseases. "We are in the process of doing an in-depth interview with these children and their families to look at what they ate, any medications...to see if there are any clues to how they got the disease."
Like polio, AFM affects the body's nervous system -- specifically the spinal cord -- and can cause lifelong paralysis. But unlike with polio, there is no vaccine.
Five of the eight children, ranging in age from 3 to 14 years of age, have been released and are home with their families, say officials. Three are still being treated at Seattle Children's Hospital.
Cause of death unknown
The death of 6-year-old Daniel Ramirez on Sunday was thought to be the very first to be linked to the cluster of cases in five Washington counties.
Daniel's parents, Marijo De Guzman and Jose Ramirez, told CNN affiliate KOMO that they first took their son to the hospital because he had symptoms of a cold and was feeling dizzy. Within hours, they said, he was paralyzed, and never recovered.
However, CDC tests show that the child did not have AFM. Officials refused to speculate on what may have caused his death.
On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the national AFM case count from September, which indicates a sharp increase in the confirmed cases this year. From January 1 to September 30, 89 people in 33 states were diagnosed with AFM, 37 of them in September.
AFM cases first spiked in August 2014. By the end of that year, 120 people had been diagnosed in 34 states. In 2015, 21 people were diagnosed in 16 states.
The exact cause of the illness is unknown, though scientists think it is most likely the result of a viral infection. Other potential culprits include environmental toxins, genetic disorders and Guillain-Barré syndrome, according to the CDC. AFM itself is not contagious.
What is acute flaccid myelitis?
"This is a very rare condition, but I think it's important that we take it seriously, because it does have long-term and potentially disabling consequences," said Dr. Kevin Messacar, a pediatric infectious disease physician and researcher at Children's Hospital Colorado
"The key with AFM is that it's sudden onset," said Dr. Manisha Patel, AFM team lead at the CDC and a practicing pediatrician. "Symptoms include limb weakness, facial drooping and difficulty swallowing and talking.
"AFM is an illness that can be seen with a variety of different causes. The most famous one is polio, but there are also enteroviruses, which are circulating very broadly in the US and other countries."
"What we saw... is that the majority of children had a fever and a respiratory illness," said Messacar. "Five days later, they would develop pain in the arms and legs, and weakness followed."
Messacar and his colleagues have followed their hospital's 12 AFM patients since 2014. Most are doing better than when they first came into the emergency room, but the majority continue to have some level of disability.
"It's important to understand that there's a wide spectrum of severity of this disease," Messacar said. On one end, you see mild weakness in one extremity, he said. On the other, you've got children who have lost the ability to breathe on their own and exhibit complete paralysis in their arms and legs.
Patel and Messacar agree: There are no known proven, effective therapies. Both doctors stress the importance of recognizing the early signs of AFM and seeking care as soon as possible.
"A doctor can tell the difference between AFM and other diseases with a careful examination of the nervous system, looking at the location of the weakness, muscle tone and reflexes," according to the CDC's website. "Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be very helpful in diagnosing cases of AFM.
"Finally, by testing the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, the fluid bathing the brain and spinal cord), clinicians can look for findings suggestive of AFM," according to the CDC.
How worried should you be?
"CDC is always concerned when there is a serious illness that is affecting the public, especially when it's affecting children," Patel said. "We're looking closely at what might be causing this and what might put someone at risk for AFM."
In the meantime, Patel encourages practicing "general prevention strategies": washing your hands with soap and water, getting vaccinated and preventing mosquito bites.
Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.
There is some good news, however. "Enteroviruses tend to appear in the late summer and early fall and go away in the winter," Messacar said. "So we expect to see (AFM cases) decrease based on the epidemiology of enteroviruses.
"We understand this condition better than we did in 2014, but there's still a lot to learn," he said. "The process is slow, but progress is being made."Image copyright AFP Image caption Guzman is one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers
The US government is offering a reward of $5m (£3.2m) for information leading to the capture of fugitive Mexican drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Guzman escaped from a Mexican maximum-security jail on 11 July.
He is one of the world's most wanted drug lords whose Sinaloa cartel smuggled huge quantities of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines to the US.
The head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said he believed Guzman was still in Mexico.
Escape artist
DEA acting director Chuck Rosenberg told reporters he believed that Guzman was hiding in his home state of Sinaloa, in north-west Mexico.
But he said that was only "an educated guess".
Shortly after his escape, Mexican authorities announced they were offering a $3.8m reward for information leading to his arrest.
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SearchBox deprecated in favor of AutoSuggestBox
Although SearchBox is implemented in the Universal device family, it is not fully functional on mobile devices. Use AutoSuggestBox for your universal search experience. Here's how you typically implement a search experience with AutoSuggestBox.
Once the user starts typing, the TextChanged event is raised, with a reason of UserInput. You then populate the list of suggestions and set the ItemsSource of the AutoSuggestBox. As the user navigates the list, the SuggestionChosen event is raised (and if you have set TextMemberDisplayPath, the text box is auto-filled with the property specified). When the user submits a choice with the Enter key, the QuerySubmitted event is raised, at which point you can take action on that suggestion (in this case, most likely navigating to another page with more details on the specified content). Note that the LinguisticDetails and Language properties of SearchBoxQuerySubmittedEventArgs are no longer supported (there are equivalent APIs to support that functionality). And KeyModifiers is no longer supported.
AutoSuggestBox also has support for input method editors (IMEs). And, if you want to show a "find" icon, then you can do that too (interacting with the icon will cause the QuerySubmitted event to be raised).
<AutoSuggestBox... > <AutoSuggestBox.QueryIcon> <SymbolIcon Symbol="Find"/> </AutoSuggestBox.QueryIcon> </AutoSuggestBox>
Also, see AutoSuggestBox porting sample.
SemanticZoom changes
The zooming-out gesture for a SemanticZoom has converged on the Windows Phone model, which is to tap or click a group header (so, on desktop computers, the minus button affordance to zoom out is no longer displayed). Now, we get the same, consistent, behavior for free on all devices. One cosmetic difference from the Windows Phone model is that the zoomed-out view (the jump list) replaces the zoomed-in view rather than overlaying it. For this reason, you can remove any semi-opaque backgrounds from zoomed-out views.
In a Windows Phone Store app, the zoomed-out view expands to the size of the screen. In a Windows Runtime 8.x app, and in a Windows 10 app, the size of the zoomed-out view is constrained to the bounds of the SemanticZoom control.
In a Windows Phone Store app, content behind the zoomed-out view (in z-order) shows through if the zoomed-out view has any transparency in its background. In a Windows Runtime 8.x app, and in a Windows 10 app, nothing is visible behind the zoomed out view.
In a Windows Runtime 8.x app, when the app is deactivated and reactivated, the zoomed-out view is dismissed (if it was being shown) and the zoomed-in view is shown instead. In a Windows Phone Store app, and in a Windows 10 app, the zoomed-out view will remain showing if it was being shown.
In a Windows Phone Store app, and in a Windows 10 app, the zoomed-out view is dismissed when the back button is pressed. For a Windows Runtime 8.x app, there is no built-in back button processing, so the question doesn't apply.
Settings
The Windows Runtime 8.x SettingsPane class is not appropriate for Windows 10. Instead, in addition to building a Settings page, you should give your users a way to access it from within your app. We recommend that you expose this app Settings page at the top level, as the last pinned item on your navigation pane, but here are the full set of your options.
Navigation pane. Settings should be the last item in the navigational list of choices, and pinned to the bottom.
Appbar/toolbar (within a tabs view or pivot layout). Settings should be the last item in the appbar or toolbar menu flyout. It is not recommended for Settings to be one of the top-level items within the navigation.
Hub. Settings should be located inside of the menu flyout (could be from the app bar menu or the toolbar menu within the Hub layout).
It's also not recommended to bury Settings within a master-detail pane.
Your Settings page should fill the whole of your app's window, and your Settings page is also where About and Feedback should be. For guidance on the design of your Settings page, see Guidelines for app settings.
Text
Text (or typography) is an important aspect of a UWP app and, while porting, you may want to revisit the visual designs of your views so that they are in harmony with the new design language. Use these illustrations to find the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) TextBlock system styles that are available. Find the ones that correspond to the Windows Phone Silverlight styles you used. Alternatively, you can create your own universal styles and copy the properties from the Windows Phone Silverlight system styles into those.
System TextBlock styles for Windows 10 apps
In Windows Runtime 8.x apps and Windows Phone Store apps, the default font family is Global User Interface. In a Windows 10 app, the default font family is Segoe UI. As a result, font metrics in your app may look different. If you want to reproduce the look of your 8.1 text, you can set your own metrics using properties such as LineHeight and LineStackingStrategy.
In Windows Runtime 8.x apps and Windows Phone Store apps, the default language for text is set to the language of the build, or to en-us. In a Windows 10 app, the default language is set to the top app language (font fallback). You can set FrameworkElement.Language explicitly, but you will enjoy better font fallback behavior if you do not set a value for that property.
For more info, see Guidelines for fonts and Design UWP apps. Also, see the Controls section above for changes to text controls.
Theme changes
For a Universal 8.1 app, the default theme is dark by default. For Windows 10 devices, the default theme has changed, but you can control the theme used by declaring a requested theme in App.xaml. For example, to use a dark theme on all devices, add RequestedTheme="Dark" to the root Application element.
Tiles and toasts
For tiles and toasts, the templates you're currently using will continue to work in your Windows 10 app. But, there are new, adaptive templates available for you to use, and these are described in Notifications, tiles, toasts, and badges.
Previously, on desktop computers, a toast notification was a transitory message. It would disappear, and no longer be retrievable, once it was missed or ignored. On Windows Phone, if a toast notification is ignored or temporarily dismissed, it would go into the Action Center. Now, Action Center is no longer limited to the Mobile device family.
To send a toast notification, there is no longer any need to declare a capability.
Window size
For a Universal 8.1 app, the ApplicationView app manifest element is used to declare a minimum window width. In your UWP app, you can specify a minimum size (both width and height) with imperative code. The default minimum size is 500x320epx, and that's also the smallest minimum size accepted. The largest minimum size accepted is 500x500epx.
Windows.UI.ViewManagement.ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().SetPreferredMinSize (new Size { Width = 500, Height = 500 });
The next topic is Porting for I/O, device, and app model.What's Greek for constructive dismissal? Because that's an apt term to describe how Greece is being treated by the other members of the eurozone. Consider: party leaders in Athens have spent days agonising over how to make €3bn (£2.5bn) of extra spending cuts (or over 1% of Greek GDP), apparently essential to qualify for the next round of loans from the EU and the IMF (these are relatively high interest loans, not a free bailout). After drawing up a list of painful reductions, including a 20% cut to the minimum wage and public sector job losses, the Greeks were told this week to go away and find another €300m. Or consider the insistence by Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker that Greece's politicians must turn these cuts into law, without allowing the public a vote. This is reminiscent of the disclosure last month that Germany wanted to install a European commissar in Athens to oversee Greece's budget-setting process. And here's the clincher: consider the number of briefings in Berlin suggesting that were Greece to leave the euro it would not be such a calamity.
Official or unofficial, on the record or off, the message from all these communications is much the same: Greece does not deserve the full suite of democratic policymaking; nor does it merit the kind of consideration that would be given to any heavyweight economy. At one level, of course, this is simply what happens to bankrupt countries. Countless Asian and Latin American nations have undergone the same torture at the hands of the IMF. The big difference here is that this is happening in Europe, within a single-currency club that was meant to protect its members from such indignity. There are two main problems with this constructive dismissal strategy. First, it is indefensible to the Greeks – and indeed to anyone else who follows the economics. Second, if these tactics don't come off the very existence of the euro will be imperilled – all over again.
It must be obvious by now that the cuts strategy is not working in Greece: not economically, not socially and certainly not politically. To take three numbers from this week, industrial production in Greece dropped over 11% in December from a year ago, while 20.9% of all adults are now out of work – and just about half of all young Greeks are also on the dole. In a corner of the eurozone, one member is going through an under-reported depression – and it is one that has largely been imposed on it by its neighbours. The severe austerity ordered on Greece by the troika of IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank was never going to improve the country's growth prospects; it has also failed in its own terms of reducing the national debt pile. No wonder then that the country is racked by regular protests, or that ministers are quitting the coalition rather than get pushed out of power by their constituents. Four senior Greek MPs resigned from government yesterday and it is a fair bet that more will go before the end of next week. The northern-European strategy of forcing Greece's caretaker government to go faster and harder on spending cuts is meanwhile feeding support for extremist parties.
The gamble for the rest of Europe is this: what if Greece does go? The calculation between the constructive dismissal strategy is that the euro will get back to business as usual. There is every reason to believe it won't. If Greece goes, investors will speculate that Portugal will be next. There will be much testing of the eurozone's famous firewall that's meant to protect Italy and Spain from the contagion. And in any case, companies and banks have abandoned the idea that a euro is a euro, wherever it is kept in the eurozone. Vodafone reportedly takes all spare cash out of Greece every night; and other multinationals are meanwhile preparing contracts accounting for a break-up of the single currency. It would be a brave gambler who wagered that this crisis could be contained.Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade The official logo for the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade used from 2009 to 2013. Also known as Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration Created by Britt Allcroft Written by Merv Griffin Story by Mark Williams Directed by Stephen Collins Presented by Derek Hough and Julianne Hough Narrated by Joe Hursh Country of origin United States Original language(s) English/Spanish Production Production location(s) Walt Disney World Resort Release Original network ABC, Disney Channel Original release 1983
The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade is an American television special that airs on Christmas Day on ABC, taped primarily inside the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, approximately one month prior to Christmas Day. A Spanish simulcast of the parade has aired on Univision under the titles Desfile de Navidad Disney, (Feliz) Navidad Disney, and Navidad Mágica Disney, and typically airs Spanish singers who sing Christmas carols as well as their latest hits. Past shows have included segments featuring other Disney theme parks in Orlando, Florida; Anaheim, California; and around the world (plus in recent editions, the Disney Cruise Line). The program has aired annually since 1983, with the exception of the year 2000 when Disney aired a Christmas Eve "Tracking Santa" special instead. In 1999, a nighttime version of the parade was shown on Christmas Day.
Description [ edit ]
The parade goes down Main Street, U.S.A.. It features appearances of Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Pluto, Scrooge McDuck, and Chip 'n Dale, as well as floats featuring celebrities, musical performances, marching bands from various schools and community groups across the USA, and highlights of events and properties at Disney theme parks and other Disney productions, in addition to, beginning 2011, Star Wars. The parade concludes with the arrival of Santa Claus. Currently, most of the program is taped in November (in the 2000s, even until early December) for broadcast on Christmas Day. However, until the early 1990s, the parade was broadcast live on Christmas Day on CBS, with whom Disney had partnered for Thanksgiving and New Year celebrations as well. In 1996, the program moved to ABC after Disney bought out the station. Today the filming schedule of the parade broadcast is usually in November in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, with additional production done in other Disney resorts, and is open to ticket holders.
Starting in 2016, the Disney/ABC family of networks have aired companion specials in the weeks leading up to the parade. That year, The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration and Disney Parks Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration aired November 24 on ABC and November 25 on Disney Channel respectively, featuring many of the same personalities as the Christmas parade, with the latter heavily tying into the Descendants franchise. Some segments and performances in that year's Christmas parade were even recycled from the two earlier specials. The following year, Freeform announced that they would not only air the second Magical Holiday Celebration after its original airing on ABC, but premiere a new hourlong special entitled Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic, which goes behind the scenes of the Disney parks' holiday festivities. This move coincides with the channel's popular 25 Days of Christmas event expanding to many of the other Disney-owned networks. The Disney Channel special from the parks, now titled Disney Parks Presents a Disney Channel Holiday Celebration, also returned for the 2017 holiday season.[1] To reflect the huge part played in the production of the event, beginning 2017, the prerecorded holiday greetings that air during the broadcast have been made not just by talents from both Walt Disney Pictures and the Disney Channel, but also from:
ABC Network, representing: Reality programming Entertainment programming and scripted series ABC News
Freeform
ESPN (with additional promotion of the National Basketball Association Christmas Day games that follow the parade broadcast)
Optionally, representatives of Marvel and Lucasfilm on behalf of the Star Wars franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which are both part of the Walt Disney group
The parade has been simsubbed in Canada for many years by CBC Television, for personnel of the United States Armed Forces on overseas deployment the program has been aired in a delayed basis on American Forces Network Television.
The 2005 edition of the parade won Harborlight Entertainment and ABC the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special.
History [ edit ]
The parade was first telecast, as Walt Disney World's Very Merry Christmas Parade in 1983; Joan Lunden and Mike Douglas were the hosts.[2] Alan Thicke later replaced Douglas, and Regis Philbin was later added as an on-street interviewer. Eventually Philbin took over as co-host, and Kelly Ripa (his cohost on Live with Regis and Kelly) later joined him.
The parade has been aired every year since 1983 except for in the year 2000.[2]
Over the years, the program has gone through a number of name changes. During the 1980s and 1990s, the program was known as The Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade. The program's name was then changed to Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade. From 2009 through 2013, the program was referred to as the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. For a few years after that, the program's name would change on a yearly basis, being known as Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration in 2014, Disney Parks Unforgettable Christmas Celebration in 2015, Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration in 2016 and 2017, and finally Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade in 2018.[3]
Hosts and entertainers [ edit ]
[3]
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by.
Before Philbin and Ripa, the long-time hosts were Joan Lunden and Alan Thicke, with Philbin on the street interviewing guests. Philbin had been involved with the program continuously from 1991 to 2009.[6]
See also [ edit ]So far in the Celtics-Wizards Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series, home-court has proven the decisive factor. Three games in Boston yielded three Celtics victories. The Wizards’ home record has mirrored their rivals, setting the stage for a decisive Game 7 in Boston.
Climactic clashes such as the one the Celtics and Wizards will be locked in on Monday night are nothing new for Boston fans. The Celtics have played at home in 22 Game 7s, winning 18 of them. The team’s largely successful historical record is predicated on a number of factors that are difficult to define, but are nonetheless obvious.
Al Horford, now an entrenched member of the Celtics, was once a Game 7 opponent. As a member of the Atlanta Hawks in 2008, Horford described the experience in a recent interview:
Al Horford is no stranger to Game 7 in Boston. He’s happy to be on the other side this time around. pic.twitter.com/g5NO3YPINv — Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) May 14, 2017
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Getting “beat down” by an incessant crowd isn’t unique to Boston, of course. But in the old Boston Garden, there were several distinct advantages that legendary Celtics coach and team executive Red Auerbach used to draw on. Or, at least, that’s what he wanted everyone to think.
The original Boston Garden, which was replaced in 1995 by what is now TD Garden, was not the most technologically advanced building. Instead of lamenting the failings of his home court, Auerbach turned its deficiencies into yet another chapter of the Celtics’ mystique.
A recent incident in the new Garden actually brought the subject back into discussion. In the Celtics’ previous 2017 playoff series against the Bulls, a Chicago beat writer noted the following locker room story from Dwyane Wade:
Wade just informed teammates there's no hot water for showers in visiting locker room. — K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) April 27, 2017
It immediately conjured the story of a pervasive rumor that floated around the NBA for decades: Auerbach would turn off the hot water in the visitors’ locker room. The long standing myth was never definitively proven, and accounts differ.
Auerbach was also the central figure in other allegations of Celtics gamesmanship. The Garden had no air conditioning, and the Lakers were suspicious that Auerbach had turned the heat up in their locker room.
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M.L. Carr, who played in Boston from 1979-1985, assured author Jeff Pearlman that Auerbach did, in fact, control the flow of hot water in the Garden, even as he denied some of the other accusations.
“Actually, not everything you hear was right,” Carr told Pearlman. “I don’t think he turned the heat on when it was really hot out. He just turned the cold water off.”
Michael Cooper, a guard on the Lakers during some of their famous clashes with the Celtics in the ’80s, simply referred to the gamesmanship as “all that bullshit Red Auerbach did.”
Auerbach, for his part, denied all of it. In a quote to Bill Simmons in 2002, he put the rumors on an “a-hole writer”:
You’re disillusioned by what you read by some a–hole writer. This is the truth — I had absolutely no control of that Garden over anything. They treated us like s—. If they had cold water, don’t you think we had cold water? The Lakers used to complain how hot it was at the Garden, that it wasn’t air-conditioned. I said to them, ‘Hey, I don’t blame you for complaining, because the half-a-court we play on is air-conditioned.’ I mean, how f—ing stupid can you be? It was the same for us.
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One of the other accusations about gamesmanship revolved around the Celtics’ famous parquet floor (a tradition that was carried over into the new Garden). While other teams moved away from the parquet, Auerbach clung to it.
“It’s unique,” Auerbach told a UPI reporter in 1987. “It’s basically a good floor. It’s better than a lot of the plywood floors.”
The only catch was that it supposedly had a number of prominent dead spots. And the Celtics were thought to be masters of exploiting it. Again, Auerbach denied it. But, as with other denials, they came years after the fact.
“The whole thing was a myth,” Auerbach admitted in the ’90s when the old Garden’s days were numbered. “People thought not only that there were dead spots, but that we knew where every one was and we could play accordingly.”
“Now, did you ever watch a ballplayer go up and down the court at that speed and pick out a dead spot?” Auerbach asked. “If our players worried about that, thinking that’s going to help them win, they’re out of their cotton-picking mind. But if the other team thought that: Hey, good for us.”
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In that quote, the real advantage Auerbach gained in the old Garden can be accurately discerned. While he denied turning up the heat or cutting off hot water years later, he did little to dismiss the rumors at the time. As a result, the perception became reality. Visiting teams were psychologically affected before they even arrived in Boston.
In a Boston Globe article prior to Game 7 of the 1984 finals against the Lakers, then-Celtics beat writer Dan Shaughnessy noted Los Angeles coach Pat Riley admitting the heat “bothered his team more than it did the Celtics.” The Lakers were openly distracted by the prospect of another “97-degree steambath.” A team spokesperson even told Shaughnessy that they were considering giving their players IV’s before the game.
“Dr. Kerlan and our staff are working on it,” Riley said. “We’ll fill the players up with nutrients and minerals. Whatever we can do, we’ll do.” Needless to say, the Lakers lost Game 7 in the Garden, 111-102.AUSTRALIA stands to lose billions of dollars at the expense of tens of thousands of jobs if digital currencies are not widely recognised as legal tender, a peak industry body said.
Bitcoin operators want several hurdles removed and one major bugbear is the tax office classifying digital currencies as an asset instead of money or foreign currency.
ADCCA believes that Australia should follow Britain’s lead in not imposing a goods and services tax to digital currency transactions.
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“I genuinely think there are billions of dollars at stake here,” Australian Digital Currency Commerce Association chairman Ronald Tucker told The Australian.
“We stand to gain that in 10 to 50 years time so it’s not something Australia can afford to miss out on,” he said.
The number of companies operating a digital currency business were on the rise and such innovation should not be stifled, Mr Tucker said.
He cited the example of digitalBTC, one of the world’s first publicly listed bitcoin companies who chose to go public on the ASX.
The use of bitcoins specifically has exploded over the past 18 months — Flinders University has started accepting bitcoins for one of its courses, and Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra have bitcoin ATMs. Many companies accept the currency as a legitimate payment method.
ADCCA is leading the march to legitimise crypto currencies like bitcoins and welcomed news that a senate inquiry would report on a regulatory framework for digital currencies by March 15.
The Senate economics references committee will investigate myriad digital currency issues including tax laws, impact on the economy, and potential illicit activities.
NSW Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who chairs the committee, was successful in the Senate yesterday with his motion to start the inquiry.
Mr Tucker said the industry wants a “level playing field” to ensure this type of “innovative business is encouraged.”
The association has proposed becoming the industry body responsible for self-regulation of Australian digital currency users, traders and merchants.
“Membership in ADCCA will be open to all participants in the digital currency industry
which are willing and able to comply with the regulatory framework set out by ADCCA
and its members,” it said in its submission to the government’s financial services inquiry.
“Different levels of membership may be available, depending on the degree of compliance sought.”
The association believes a regulatory framework for crypto currencies should “encourage and facilitate” the operation of legitimate digital currency businesses, educate customers (on) its use and the risks associated with it, and make it easier for people to recognise legitimate digital currency businesses”.
It says the framework should “remain sufficiently flexible and technologically neutral so as to be able to adapt to developments as required”.
Fran Foo Technology Reporter Sydney
Setting the agenda for Australia's $150BN agribusiness sector The program for Australia's premier agribusiness conference - The Global Food Forum - is set. Hear from more than 30 industry leaders including PepsiCo's CEO, Danny Celoni, Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of A2 Milk Company, Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Cheese and Costco's Managing Director, Patrick Noone. Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park Book NowThese three images, created from radar data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, show the evolution of a strange feature in Ligeia Mare, one of the largest hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's giant moon Titan.
Saturn's huge moon Titan just got a little more mysterious.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted an odd islandlike feature in Ligeia Mare, one of Titan's largest hydrocarbon seas. Scientists don't know what to make of the feature, which has apparently doubled in size over the past year or so, from about 30 square miles to 60 square miles (78 to 155 square kilometers).
"Science loves a mystery, and with this enigmatic feature, we have a thrilling example of ongoing change on Titan," Cassini radar team deputy leader Stephen Wall, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "We're hopeful that we'll be able to continue watching the changes unfold and gain insights about what's going on in that alien sea."
These three images, created from radar data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, show the evolution of a strange feature in Ligeia Mare, one of the largest hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's giant moon Titan. (Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell)
Cassini first detected the feature with its radar gear in July 2013, then saw it again in August of this year. Cassini team members are confident it's real rather than an artifact or data flaw, NASA officials said. And the Ligeia Mare "island" is apparently not the result of evaporation, since the sea's larger shoreline is relatively constant in the two observations.
So what is it? Mission scientists have offered a few possibilities, including waves, bubbles or something solid floating on the surface or suspended just below. The feature's appearance and evolution may be tied to the ongoing arrival of summer to Titan's northern hemisphere, researchers said. (Ligeia Mare, which is larger than Lake Superior, lies near the Saturn moon's north pole.)
At 3,200 miles (5,150 km) in diameter, Titan is about 50 percent wider than Earth's moon. The huge Saturn satellite is the only body other than Earth known to host stable bodies of liquid on its surface. Titan's lakes and seas, however, are composed not of water but of hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane.
The existence of Titan's seas has led some scientists to speculate that life may be able to survive on the moon's surface. But if life exists on Titan, it would be very different than life on Earth, which is intimately tied to liquid water.
The $3.2 billion Cassini mission launched in 1997 and arrived in the Saturn system in 2004. The probe is currently operating on an extended mission that lasts until September 2017, when Cassini will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on an intentional death dive.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.Mike Babcock, head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.
Yes, there's reportedly a very good chance the NHL's most sought-after coach will leave the comfort of the Detroit Red Wings for a big payday in Buffalo.
Babcock will reportedly meet with his family Tuesday night to make his decision, which an NHL coaching source predicts will be a new regime with the Sabres, reports John Vogl of The Buffalo News.
There's a reported extension offer on the table from the Red Wings at $3.25 million annually - which would make him the highest paid coach in the league - but Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula are opening up their wallets in a big way, reportedly offering a deal in the range of $5 million per season.
Babcock appears to be concerned with more than just his own legacy, with an eye on his fellow NHL coaching brethren. From Vogl's report:
Money is merely one factor in Babcock’s decision, but it’s an important one on several levels. In addition to providing for his family, Babcock has talked often of boosting the salaries of NHL coaches. The source inside that fraternity told The News that Babcock doesn’t understand why hockey coaches are paid so much less than their professional sports counterparts, and the Sabres’ offer will significantly raise the bar for hockey’s bench bosses.
Babcock, a Stanley Cup winner and owner of 527 career regular season wins, plus 82 in the postseason, will make his decision by his self-imposed Wednesday deadline.Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, right, talks to reporters as Gov. Jay Inslee, left, looks on, Monday, Jan. 30, 2017, in Seattle. Ferguson announced that he is suing President Donald Trump over an executive order that suspended immigration from seven countries with majority-Muslim populations and sparked nationwide protests. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state’s attorney general declared Monday that he was suing President Donald Trump over his temporary ban on immigration from seven countries with majority-Muslim populations, making it the first state to announce a legal action against the Trump administration over one of its policies.
Trump’s executive order also suspended the United States’ entire refugee program and set off nationwide protests over the weekend, including one that drew 3,000 people to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“If successful it would have the effect of invalidating the president’s unlawful action nationwide,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said at a news conference.
Ferguson was one of 16 state attorneys general who released a statement Sunday calling Trump’s immigration action “un-American and unlawful.”
Trump has repeatedly said Friday’s order suspending immigration for citizens of the seven countries for 90 days is aimed at protecting the nation against extremists looking to attack Americans and U.S. interests.
The lawsuit against Trump, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and high-ranking Trump administration officials was filed in federal court in Seattle.
The complaint seeks to have key provisions of the executive order declared unconstitutional, Ferguson said. The state is also asking for a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the order.
“We are a country based on the rule of law, and in a courtroom it is not the loudest voice that prevails, it’s the Constitution,” Ferguson said. “At the end of the day, either you’re abiding by the Constitution or you are not. And in our view, the president is not adhering to the Constitution when it comes to this executive action.”
Declarations of support from Amazon and Expedia — two Washington state-based businesses — will be filed with the lawsuit, said Ferguson, who was joined at the news conference by Gov. Jay Inslee.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, also supports Ferguson’s efforts, said Dominic Carr, general manager for public affairs. The company will be happy to testify more if needed, Carr said.
The complaint claims that Trump’s actions are separating Washington families, harming thousands of state residents, damaging the state economy, hurting Washington-based companies “and undermining Washington’s sovereign interest in remaining a welcoming place for immigrants and refugees,” Ferguson said.
Inslee said the “inhumanity” of Trump’s order is obvious.
“This is un-American, it is wrong, and it will not stand,” Inslee said. “The clear intent of this executive order is to discriminate against one faith amongst all God’s children.”
Asked if he fears retaliation from the Trump administration, Inslee said “there’s no predicting this president, but we will not yield, we will not be leveraged, we will not be threatened, we will not be intimidated.”
Inslee said he learned the hard way over the years “you do not back down to bullies.”
Ferguson said he has been in contact with other attorneys general but at this point Washington state was acting on its own regarding the legal action.
The Port of Seattle said over the weekend that people who were detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as a result of Trump’s order have been released.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal said Sunday that two individuals were released. One is a citizen of Sudan and the other a citizen of Yemen, both countries named in Trump’s order.
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Follow Martha Bellisle at https://twitter.com/marthabellisleAnti-colonial name bid: Zim to rename Victoria Falls
Cape Town – Zimbabwe’s renowned tourist destination the Victoria Falls could soon be rebranded Mosi-Oa-Tunya after ruling party Zanu-PF unveiled plans to rename it and give it an indigenous name, according to a report.
President Robert Mugabe’s party argued the country could not continue to honour the legacy of colonialism after it gained independence more than 30 years ago.
A leader of an association of ex-fighters for Zimbabwe's independence, Jabulani Sibanda said there was no going back on the resolution, said News Day.
Victoria Falls was named after the British monarch, Queen Victoria by a missionary, David Livingstone, the first white person to set sight on one of the world's seven natural wonders.
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo said it did not make sense for colonial names to remain in place in an independent Zimbabwe.
Chombo said there was need to rename all institutions with colonial names and give them indigenous ones, adding school syllabuses also needed to be changed so that children were taught about the country’s “gallant fighters and our liberation struggle”.Unconfirmed transactions have always been a rather mysterious aspect of Bitcoin that doesn’t seem to get much attention. Although many Bitcoin users believe that they have received money as soon as it shows up in their Bitcoin wallet, that isn’t necessarily true. In reality, sending a message to the Bitcoin network about a transaction does not necessarily mean that the transaction will end up in a block.
There are now Bitcoin payment processors, such as Bitnet, who are willing to take responsibility for any losses caused by an unconfirmed transaction that never gets into the blockchain. These companies are willing go the extra mile in these situations because they have integrated advanced anti-double-spending mechanisms that they claim will |
They feasted upon the Chicago Bears' Jay Cutler when both teams’ starting units were on the field Saturday night. Cutler had zero points, four sacks and two interceptions in five drives. Darnell Dockett and Calais Campbell would feast on the Raiders’ offensive line. It'll happen soon enough. The teams meet in Week 3.
Williamson: Let’s get back to the quarterbacks. No legitimate contender in the NFC West has one better than Campbell. Matt Leinart's career is on life support in Arizona and his replacement, Derek Anderson, is the quintessential stop-gap solution. Alex Smith is as fragile as a porcelain vase. Matt Hasselbeck is very much on the back nine of his career and Sam Bradford is just not ready to carry a team on his back. Not this year, at least.
Campbell is the most reliable of all of the above-mentioned quarterbacks heading into this season. He is a smart game manager who is not going to lose games. He will trust his young receivers and his potentially strong running game.
Sando: Granted, the whole Leinart-Anderson debate isn't helping the NFC West's credibility. But the coaching in Arizona is solid and the team still has good talent throughout its roster. Jason Campbell might be an upgrade for the Raiders, but the Redskins did bench him during an ugly loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last season. Last time I checked, the Chiefs weren’t good, even by AFC West standards.
Alex Smith threw 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 11 games last season. AP Photo/Matt Slocum
Williamson: Campbell might not win games alone, but nine times out of 10, he won’t lose them alone, either. The Kansas City game was an aberration. Campbell posted a passer rating of at least 90 in nine regular-season games last season. Kurt Warner did it eight times despite playing with a far superior supporting cast. Campbell has the potential to lead Oakland to around 20 points a game while throwing 20-25 touchdown passes and limiting his interceptions to under a dozen or so. Can any quarterback in the NFC West say that this season? In a league where quarterbacks reign supreme, Campbell would be the best quarterback in the NFC West. He'd give Oakland a strong chance to be the best team in the division.
Sando: The 49ers had a chance to go after Donovan McNabb and they chose Smith instead. I didn’t think it was the wisest move, but it’s no stretch to think Smith will finish the 2010 season with better numbers than Campbell will post in Oakland. Smith had 18 touchdown passes with 12 interceptions in 10-plus games last season. Campbell was at 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions over a full season. Smith has a clear edge over Campbell in available weaponry, and he's finally getting comfortable. Don’t tell Al Davis this, but Michael Crabtree was a better choice than Darrius Heyward-Bey. Crabtree had more catches in 11 games last season (48) than any wide receiver for Oakland, and his total would have ranked tied for third on Campbell's Redskins. Better yet for Smith, Crabtree isn’t necessarily the best option in his arsenal. Vernon Davis is a first-team Pro Bowl tight end, Josh Morgan is a decent No. 2 and newcomer Ted Ginn Jr. looks like he’ll provide a welcome speed element on the outside. It’s ironic that the 49ers have the pure burners -- Ginn and Davis -- Oakland usually covets.
Williamson: Smith and Campbell have both faced tough circumstances in recent seasons. They've gone through coaching changes, gotten knocked around and faced criticism. Campbell has persevered far more impressively. He’s held up physically and finished with more touchdown passes than interceptions in each of the four seasons he has played. Smith has done it just once -- last season -- and never as a full-time starter. He couldn’t even beat out Shaun Hill heading into last season.
Sando: Drawing the NFC West as part of the NFL's scheduling rotation is going to help Campbell, but it’s not like the Redskins played a tough schedule last season. I heard Mike Shanahan call it soft during a recent radio interview. He's right. With Campbell at quarterback in 2009, the Redskins lost to the Lions, Panthers, Chiefs and Giants (twice). They barely beat the Rams, 9-7. They scored 17 points or fewer in 11 of 16 games. That doesn’t look very good on a quarterback’s résumé.
Williamson: The Raiders are not all about Jason Campbell. Quietly, Oakland has added some very talented pieces throughout its roster. While Oakland has crashed and burned in the first round lately, it has not gotten enough credit for late-round finds. The unheralded results form the makings of a solid roster.
There are legitimate stars on this team.
Start with left cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. If league observers would take their eyes off Revis Island for a minute, they would realize there is dominant cornerback play on the left coast, sans the snazzy nickname and lengthy contract holdout. Asomugha is one of the brightest, most instinctive players in the NFL. Consider that he plays a premium position and you have a highly valuable player.
The linebacking corps has a chance to be very good with McClain and Cleveland refugee Kamerion Wimbley. Wimbley showed his pass-rushing potential with four sacks in a limited role against Chicago in the second preseason game. Three-time Super Bowl champion Richard Seymour is anchoring a new-look and potentially outstanding defensive front.
Offensively, Campbell has some young, intriguing weapons to play with. Tight end Zach Miller is a blossoming star and one Campbell should utilize often. Young receivers Chaz Schilens, Louis Murphy and Heyward-Bey all have a chance to reach their immense potential very soon. Running backs Michael Bush and Darren McFadden could give defensive coordinators fits on a weekly basis because of their varied skills. There’s talent in Oakland that teams in the NFC West simply can’t match.
Sando: Asomugha arguably would be the best player in the NFC West, but Larry Fitzgerald, Patrick Willis and Steven Jackson wouldn't be far behind. Kamerion Wimbley? I'll take Dockett, Adrian Wilson, Gore, Davis, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Justin Smith, Matt Hasselbeck, Marcus Trufant -- the list goes on, and I've probably missed a few.
This debate will be tough to settle, but we can say the scheduling rotation should help one or more teams from each division pump up their records. NFC West teams eagerly can look forward to facing the Chiefs, Denver Broncos and possibly the Raiders. AFC West teams can feel the same way about games against the Rams and Seahawks, at least.
I'll be heading to Oakland in Week 2 for the Raiders' game against the Rams. St. Louis has managed only three victories over the past two seasons, but they're 1-1 against Campbell during that time, losing by two points at Washington in 2008 after suffering a fourth-quarter fumble inside the Washington 10.
If Bradford plays as well as he has recently, I won't be shocked if the Rams make it 2-1 against Campbell over the past three seasons.New frontiers in text editing
Over the last couple of months I’ve watched the unfolding drama of TextMate lovers scrambling to find a replacement after it was open-sourced, and presumed abandoned. The ensuing searching of editors and souls shed some light into what geeks seem to want in an editor these days. And that seems to be (1) good looks (at least on the Mac, because “things are pretty here”) and (2)… some feature and performance soup that nobody can agree upon.
What I don’t understand is: why should you ever care how your editor looks, unless you’re trying to win a screenshot competition? The primary factor in looking good should be the choice of a good font at a comfortable size, and a syntax coloring theme that you like. And that is not something specific to an editor. Editors like Emacs and vi have almost no UI! If Emacs is configured right, the only UI it has is the modeline and the minibuffer.
People talk about getting used to a new editor, but over time, it is precisely the opposite that should happen–the editor should get used to us.
I watched this drama from my perch upon Mt. Emacs. If this makes me sound like an Emacs elitist snob, so be it! Now, I’m typing these words into Byword on a Mac. For me, it serves as the small home kitchen knife compared to the full chef’s knife set that is Emacs.
There are times when I just need to serially dump a large number of words from my head into the digital ether, and that does not require much editor sophistication. There are other times (the majority of my day job) when I need juggling between dozens of files and shells and compiles and regexes and searches and syntax comprehension. That’s when I use Emacs.
Overall, I think text editing is a solved problem. Text editors are like wine. The older the better. You do not want a shiny new text editor. You want the text editor that has been around long enough and used by enough geeks that every conceivable pattern of manipulating symbols on the screen has been thought of, and crystallized into a re-usable pack.
The big unsolved problem in text editing is to do it without a keyboard, whose use I think peaked sometime in 2011. On tablets and phones. On devices where the entry and manipulation of text remains a royal pain, because we haven’t yet figured out a way to do it. The challenge is to never make someone think “damn, I really wish I had a keyboard right now!”Support us! GearJunkie may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn more
A 14,000-foot Colorado mountain was just sold to the highest bidder.
Towering 14,047 feet above the southern Colorado landscape, Culebra Peak is the highest peak in the world—to be privately owned.
At least that’s what real estate firm Mirr Ranch Group claims.
The 14er is part of the $105 million sale of the 83,368-acre Cielo Vista Ranch ranch, announced today. Few details of the buyer and the future of hiking Culebra were available following the sale. Previously, the peak was open to climbers for a fee, by reservation.
Sold: Culebra Peak, Cielo Vista Ranch
Culebra is part of a property that includes 18 peaks over 13,000 feet along 22 miles of the Sangre de Cristo Range ridgeline. It sits in San Luis, Colo., less than 20 miles from the New Mexico border.
The sale closes the listing, which went up in 2015. And, according to The Land Report editor Eric O’Keefe, it is “without question…the largest U.S. ranch sale” this year.
While Mirr Ranch Group didn’t release the identity of the new ranch owner, listing broker Jeff Hubbard said the buyer was “absolutely ideal.”
“He is one who is a true conservationist and is deeply committed to preserving this national treasure and extraordinary resource,” Hubbard went on in a statement. “He truly appreciates and embraces the responsibility of ensuring this property remains a reflection of our state’s beautiful landscapes, diverse wildlife, and heritage for decades to come.”
Previously, hikers could reserve a day to climb Culebra Peak, for a fee. 14ers.com listed the fee at $150, while a reporter for Fox31 in Denver claimed he paid $200. Cielo Vista’s climbing reservation site currently lists no available reservation days.
The 83,000 acres include three four-bedroom homes, a three-bedroom home, an office with two apartments and two bunkhouses, and a barn.
The land is home to thousands of elk, deer, and bighorn sheep, and more than 100 miles of fishable creeks.McCain Seen as Key to Troop-Benefit Bills
As a Veteran, Candidate and Senator, He Faces Pressure From All Sides
By Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is basing his bid for the White House on his credentials as a decorated veteran and leader on defense policy, has become the target of veterans groups pushing hard for more aid and relief for troops returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At issue is a growing slate of legislation to boost veterans' education assistance and to rest troops between combat assignments. Two of the bills were written by Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), both fellow Vietnam veterans, and are expected to see votes in Congress soon. Those bills would substantially boost college assistance for returning war veterans to cover fully tuition at a state university, while mandating that troops spend a month out of the combat zone for every month in it.
A third measure, introduced yesterday by eight Democratic senators and two Republicans, would provide more education aid to National Guard members and reservists, especially those who have served on multiple tours in Iraq.
It is generally agreed that McCain is key to the bills' prospects for passage.
"John McCain's got a lot of things to focus on right now, but this isn't one of them," Webb said. "He needs to get on board."
For McCain, the growing pressure is not the kind of attention he has been seeking. His status as a Vietnam War hero has helped broaden his appeal with independents and some Democrats. His campaign takes as a given his support among veterans.
But on Monday, the group VoteVets.org, backed by the political action committee of retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark and the liberal documentary film production company Brave New Films, delivered petitions with nearly 30,000 signatures to McCain's Senate office, imploring him to back Webb's updated GI bill.
In an Internet ad, viewed more than 104,000 times, Iraq veteran Joshua Drake intones, "If I could talk to John McCain, I would try to appeal to him as a fellow vet." Robert Lopez, a former tank commander, adds: "He should put himself in our shoes."
McCain told reporters on his campaign plane Monday that he is open to boosting educational benefits for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and is working with colleagues on language changes to the Webb-Hagel bills.
"We are working on proposals of our own. I'm a consistent supporter of educational benefits for the men and women in the military," McCain said. "I want to make sure that we have incentives for people to remain in the military as well as for people to join the military."
All three measures could come up for votes this month or early next month, when the House and Senate consider a $108 billion emergency war spending bill. Some Democrats do not want to put Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the position of voting for the GI bill and "dwell time" amendments, only to have them vote against the war funding bill. Democrats worry that such votes would put them in a position similar to that of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004, when he said he supported a war funding bill before he voted against it.
But Democrats may break up the war bills into an Iraq funding measure that will pass largely with Republican votes, and an Afghanistan funding bill on which they will try to attach popular policy measures.
The Post-9/11 Veterans Act would substantially boost the higher-education benefit first approved for returning World War II fighters. It carries a cost of $2.5 billion to $4 billion over 10 years.
But it is not the price tag that gives Defense Department officials pause. It is the fear that a generous education benefit would persuade soldiers and Marines ending their tours to pursue an education rather than reenlist in the overstretched military.
For McCain and his allies, the Webb-Hagel "dwell time" amendment -- which mandates a month off for every month in combat -- has proven to be an easier political target.
"The worst thing you can do is let a bunch of politicians worrying about their reelections mandate troop rotations," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of McCain.
But the GI bill has been far more difficult. The measure already has 55 co-sponsors in the Senate, including former Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.).
"I know my friend John McCain is taking a serious look at this legislation, and he'll do what he thinks is right," Hagel said yesterday. "Our country has found enough money to send our troops to war. There surely is enough money to make education opportunities available to those who have earned it and sacrificed for this country."
While Hagel took the soft sell, veterans groups have been considerably rougher. The group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has begun advertising in Capitol Hill publications. The Veterans of Foreign Wars sent its lobbyists to demand action.
"He's the odd man out," Jon Soltz, chairman of VoteVets and an Iraq war veteran, said of McCain. "You have 55 co-sponsors on this bill, and he's not one of them. He has to lead or follow."
© 2008 The Washington Post CompanySociety
The family told media that their presence was necessary at home during the evidence collection and police enquiry.
The family of a seven-year-old girl who was raped and killed in Kerala's Kollam district, and was forcibly evicted from their village by residents, has been brought back under police protection.
Police and a few activists including Dalit activist Dhanya Raman accompanied them back home in Yeroor of Kollam district.
The family told media that they came back as their presence was necessary at home during the evidence collection and police enquiry.
The girl’s mother said that they would move from the village after the enquiry.
“Police will provide them necessary protection. Those days some unfortunate incidents happened, but now police have ensured that the family will be protected,” Dhanya Raman told media.
Some of the local leaders and police had met the family a few days back and had asked them to return home.
The family was forcibly evicted from their house by villagers alleging that the tragic death of the child was owing to the family’s immoral activities, pointing out that the accused in the case was staying with the victim’s aunt without marrying her. Throwing the family out of the village, residents allegedly abused them stating that they were responsible for what happened to the child and warned them from returning to the village.
The victim’s mother was also allegedly not allowed to see the body of the child during the funeral. Following this, the family had shifted to a relative’s house in Kilimanoor for the time being.
After the issue became a huge controversy, police offered them protection and later an action council was formed by local leaders.
The girl’s body was found dumped in a rubber estate, after she was brutally raped on September 28.
Rajesh, 38, who was living in the girl’s house was arrested by police.Poe (born Anne Decatur Danielewski) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.[2][3][4][5][6] Poe's musical style is a blend of rock, jazz, electronica, folk, and hip hop elements combined with intimate lyrical compositions.[4][5][7][8][9][10] Many of Poe's songs have been featured in films and on television.[11] Poe first hit the modern rock charts in 1995.[12][13]
Some of her early charting singles included "Angry Johnny", "Trigger Happy Jack", "Hello", and "Hey Pretty."[14][15][16] Videos for these singles had heavy rotation on MTV.[4][14][17][18] Poe spent six years with Atlantic Records[19] and is currently on her own label, Repoezessed Music Records."[19]
Noteworthy was Poe's early involvement with her online community of fans. Her web site, and the fan sites that supported her early in her career, predated modern social networking platforms and were among the first of their kind.[20][21] Atlantic Records' Senior Vice President of New Media, Nikki Sleight, referred to Poe's online power and one-on-one communication with thousands attending her concerts as "unheard of and pretty phenomenal" in Sleight's 1997 interview with Web Magazine.[22]
In 2004, she co-founded the digital innovations agency Signature Creative Inc with John Gheur.[23]
In September 2014, Poe received the title of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador due to her invitation by Yoko Ono to participate in a UNICEF campaign and her donated performance. The campaign launched a world version of John Lennon's classic song "Imagine" featuring dozens of musical artists from around the world. Poe joined others singing in the music video that included a video clip of John Lennon that spearheads a global campaign by UNICEF to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[24][25]
Early life [ edit ]
Born in New York City and daughter of Polish film director Tad Z. Danielewski and his wife Priscilla Decatur Machold, Poe and her brother, novelist Mark Z. Danielewski, lived in six different countries before she turned eight.[6][26][27] Her father's film directing took the family to Africa, India, Spain, Switzerland, England, and the United States. When Poe was 12, her father moved his family to Provo, Utah where Poe attended junior high school and some of high school.[6][26][27] When Poe's parents divorced, Poe, then 16, left home and moved to New York City where she lived in a squat on the lower east side of Manhattan while attempting to connect with her estranged mother.[7][10][26][27][28] Poe continued submitting schoolwork to her high school in Utah and eventually graduated. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Princeton University, where she organized her first band.[19][26][29][30]
Early career [ edit ]
Poe began experimenting with musical samplers and sequencers as a teenager. Noteworthy are her early collaborations with J Dilla of Slum Village.[31] Poe's musical influences ranged "from Black Flag to Bob Dylan -- from Billie Holiday to Tribe Called Quest" according to music writer Stephen Grecco.[6][26][32][33]
Poe was signed to Modern/Atlantic Records in 1994 on the strength of the demos she made with J Dilla and RJ Rice in RJ's living room in Detroit.[2][34]
On January 28, 1996, The New York Times Arts and Leisure Section named Poe, along with Alanis Morissette, among the defining voices of the current "movement in music" which featured "angry" female artists who were "...articulate, sexually explicit, both lover and fighter...(women who) reject self-pity and refuse to define themselves purely in terms of their connection to men."[35] In September 1996, Glamour Magazine published a picture of Poe, with a snarl on her face and wearing a tee-shirt on which she'd written the words, "Happy-Well-Adjusted Female." In the accompanying interview, Poe says "I don't think 'Angry' really sums it up at all!"[36] In the November 14, 1996, issue of Rolling Stone, Poe's album, "Hello," attained a position on the Reader's Top Ten Chart.[37] and in August 1997, Esquire Magazine (vol. 128 no. 2) named Poe, along with Gwen Stefani, Lil' Kim, and Sarah McLachlan among the top 5 "Women Who Rock Our World".[38]
Poe began her first major tour in January 1996, as the opening act for Lenny Kravitz.[39] She and her touring band (Daris Adkins on Guitar, Dan Marfisi "Jones" on Drums, Toby Skard on bass/ and Cameron Stone on cello)[40] then continued touring extensively as headliners and at festivals until 1999, when she stopped to begin pre-production on her second album for Atlantic. Pollstar Magazine reported in 1998 that Poe had performed for approximately 600 shows in a two-year time period.[41]
Hello [ edit ]
Poe's first album, Hello, was released in 1995. Musically, the album was described as a sample-rich amalgam of hip-hop, rock, and jazz.[5][42][43] Lyrically, the album was filled with literary allusions, film nods, comic book references, and psychological irony.[44] The CD was critically acclaimed.[3][10][45][46] Hits Magazine called "Hello" an "Over-the-top PoMo Masterpiece."[10]
Not long after the album's release, Poe's debut single, "Trigger Happy Jack (Drive By a Go-Go)," broke into the top 20 on the Billboard's Alternative and Modern Rock Charts.[47][48] "Trigger Happy Jack" was produced by Dave Jerden (Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains) and featured Matt Sorum (of Guns N' Roses) on drums.[49] It featured the lyric "You can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being".[50] The song's video went into high rotation on MTV and introduced Poe to the mainstream.[5][17][18][28][51] Also in 1997, Atlantic released a Maxi CD and 12-inch vinyl single of "Trigger Happy Jack" which included, "The Drive By Remix" by Steve Lyon, "The Psycho Demolition Mix" by Steve Lyon, an instrumental version of the song, and a "Poe Only" Mix.[52] Poe's second single, "Angry Johnny", broke into the top 10 on Billboard's Alternative and Modern rock charts, and also enjoyed heavy rotation at radio. The song's video received high rotation on MTV.[53][54][55] The song featured the line, "I wanna blow you...(pause) away."[56] A promotional Maxi single of the song was released to radio but was never available commercially. This Maxi Single included a "Band Mix" produced by Poe and Matt Sorum (of Guns N' Roses) that received heavy rotation at radio.[57]
In August 1997, Atlantic released a Maxi single of the song, "Hello," that included six remixes of the song ("Hello: E-Smoove Funk Mix" by E-Smoove/ "Hello: Modern Mix" by Edge Factor/ "Hello: Nevins Electronica Mix" by Jason Nevins/ "Hello: The Generator Mix by E-Smoove/ "Hello: The Edge Factor Mix" by, Edge Factor, and "Hello: Trial Dub Mix" by Edge Factor.)[58]
On September 13, 1997, "Hello" hit number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Chart.[59] The video for this song also enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV.[51][60][61][62]
On November 20, 1997, the RIAA awarded "Hello" gold certification.[63]
Haunted [ edit ]
Poe's second album, Haunted, was released in October 2000.[64][65][66][67] The album, produced by Poe and Olle Romo[68] was inspired by Poe's discovery of a box of audio tapes that contained recordings of her late father's voice.[65][69] Listening to those tapes for the first time proved so difficult for Poe that she was hesitant to use them in her music. She was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, "I took these tapes home, and I couldn't listen to them. It was too hard, so I kept finding ways to avoid it. They were sitting on my coffee table next to a boombox for quite some time."[69] Poe was quoted in The New York Daily News about when she finally listened to the tapes, "It was clear how the next few years of my life would be spent."[70][71]
Haunted was embraced by the press. The Los Angeles Times wrote that "The wait for Poe's follow up to her debut album has paid off with rich, sophisticated, songs of depth and emotional intensity." They instructed audiences to "Think of Haunted as the equivalent of Pink Floyd's The Wall." They added that "Poe's version is more succinct, darker in parts, but just as accessible."[69] The New York Daily News wrote, "Samples of Poe's late father's voice and heartfelt musings weave in and out of the songs on Haunted, providing a narrative structure inside which Poe attempts to put her father's ghost to rest."[70] All Music Guide wrote that "(Poe's) original compositions have the makings for a new music revolution alongside the likes of Radiohead's "Kid A"[72] Elle Magazine credited Poe with "...defining the future of pop".[73] Maxim Magazine called Haunted, "The best mindf**k you'll get all year."[67] The publication Indiana Statesman described Haunted as "one of the most influential and innovative albums of this decade," further claiming that "...this digitally produced album far outshines any studio album produced thus far."[74]
The first single from Haunted, "Hey Pretty", hit the top 20 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart at a time when female musicians and singers in the format rarely got airtime.[75] At the end of 2000, the only two women in the Billboard top 100 year-end Modern Rock Chart were Gwen Stefani and Poe.[75][76] MTV put the "Hey Pretty" video into heavy rotation, and in July 2001, Poe was invited to be the opening act for Depeche Mode's Exciter arena tour.[77]
Haunted was also referenced in the 2002 film Panic Room. In a conversation between Jodie Foster's character, Meg Altman, and the agent selling the home containing the Panic Room, Sarah Altman (Meg's daughter, played by Kristen Stewart) asks "Ever read any Poe?", to which the response given is "No, but I loved her last album!"
Also in 2000, Atlantic released a promotional CD single of the song, "Haunted", which included a remix by Grammy-winning producer/musician Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson).[78]
With Mark Danielewski [ edit ]
Poe's brother, Mark Z. Danielewski, is a best-selling novelist, and as young children Mark and Poe formed a creative relationship wherein Poe would read and edit the pages her brother wrote.[79][80] In 1997, Poe sent a manuscript of her brother's first novel House of Leaves to Warren Frazier, who was a college friend of hers and who had become an agent at John Hawkins Literary Agency in New York.[81][82] Warren agreed to represent Mark and eventually secured a publishing deal for Mark at Pantheon Books.[83] In 2000, Pantheon published House of Leaves, releasing it to coincide with the release of Poe's second album Haunted. Poe invited Mark to do a spoken word passage in her "Drive By 2001" remix of the song "Hey Pretty"[84] and also invited him to perform this passage in both her video and live show opening for Depeche Mode.[85] Of his sister's support, Mark recounts how he once in a moment of rage tore the handwritten manuscript of a story called "Redwood" into tiny pieces and threw it into a dumpster. Poe rescued the pieces from the dumpster and taped the entire manuscript back together. It took her two weeks.[86][87]
In November 2000, Poe performed a tour of Borders Bookstores with her brother.[88] Their set included Mark reading passages from House of Leaves and Poe singing songs that share themes with the book.[89] House of Leaves made the New York Times Best Seller list in April 2000.[71][90]
Effect of AOL–Time Warner merger [ edit ]
With Haunted climbing the charts,[91][76] Atlantic Records announced that it had renewed Poe's contract for three more albums.[92][93] It renewed its agreement with the boutique label, Modern/FEI Records (Fishkin Entertainment, Inc.) through which Poe was signed to Atlantic.[68][92][93] Atlantic also committed to releasing and distributing Haunted internationally and serviced the album globally.[92][93] Shortly thereafter, it printed promo copies of "Wild", the second single from Haunted, which included a remix by Static Revenger. Copies of that single were never sent to radio.
A merger of Time Warner, the parent company of Atlantic, and AOL was approved by the FCC in January 2001. AOL Time Warner was under close scrutiny to show positive results almost immediately after the merger. With a softening of the economy after the FCC approval, it began close review of all relationships with third-party production houses, such as Modern Records[94]
In November 2001, six weeks after renewing Poe's contract, Billboard Magazine announced that Atlantic was severing ties with Modern/FEI records.[68][95]
The result was that Poe was dropped from Atlantic's roster of artists. Poe's manager and Modern/FEI label head Paul Fishkin stated that "Poe was stunned to be let go as Atlantic had just picked up its option on her next three albums and had already printed promo CDs of her next single 'Wild' and sent them to radio."[95][96][97] Val Azzoli, then President of Atlantic, said to Billboard Magazine of dropping Poe, "Poe must be feeling pretty bruised right about now," adding that Atlantic had simply made a business decision.[98] The article points out that it was a strange decision in light of the fact that, "according to SoundScan, Haunted had sold 250,000 copies and the album's first single, 'Hey Pretty', had only come out two months prior."[71] Spinner reflected ten years later on the business decision and its impact stating, "With a gold record under her belt, a critically-acclaimed second album, a new hit single, strong sales, and an arena tour opening for Depeche Mode, Poe was well-established as an important influence. And then, poof—she disappeared."[99]
In 2002, a story in the August issue of LA Weekly shed some light on the action of Atlantic to drop their rapidly rising artist with commitments and creative work underway. Poe had been signed to Atlantic in 1995 through a boutique label called Modern Records/Fishkin Entertainment Inc. (FEI). Amid the complex merger of Time Warner with AOL in 2000, it came to light that, in spite of the fact that Atlantic was responsible for providing all funding, marketing, publicity, radio promotion, tour support and distribution for the Poe project, Modern/FEI (not Atlantic) in its 1982 distribution deal with Atlantic, was awarded ownership of the masters of all Poe recordings. What this meant for Atlantic was that, by renewing Poe's contract, Atlantic had committed sizable resources to a project in which it would have a financial participation, but not an equity stake in Poe's past, present or future catalogue.[100]Suspicious source, needs verification
In November 2000, Atlantic/AOL Time Warner first chose to drop Modern/FEI, and as a result were contractually obligated to pay Modern/FEI an undisclosed amount of money, and effectively release themselves from any further fiduciary responsibilities to Modern/ FEI and/or Poe. This resulted in a pay-off for Modern/FEI and prematurely ended all printing, distribution, marketing, and promotion of Poe's second album Haunted.[100] In exchange for these monies, Modern/FEI's agreed to give Atlantic a two-year grace period during which Modern/FEI agreed not to do anything commercially with any of Poe's master recordings, enabling Atlantic to sell off their stock of already produced copies of Haunted. As a result, Haunted received no further promotional support and the album faded from the market place.[101][102][103]
In 2004, Modern/ FEI sold the Poe Masters for Hello and Haunted to Sheridan Square Music who merged in 2005 with V2 Records, which cataloged the Poe masters under a sub-label called IndieBlu.[104] IndieBlu and Sheridan Square Music were acquired by Entertainment One in 2009.[68][105]
In 2001 as Haunted was climbing the charts, Poe turned to a friend of her fiance's father, Robert M. Edsel for legal advice. He advised her to retain the services of his firm's legal counsel, David Helfant on a professional basis. Edsel and Helfant told Poe that she could expect a settlement from FEI or Atlantic within a few months, and advised her to sever her relationship with her management firm and her accounting firm in order to avoid sharing a portion of her settlement. Poe understood that Edsel took over her business management, and over a year lent Poe $200,000, with a signed promissory note which indicated that if there was a default her current and future works would be eligible to be used for repayment. After defaulting, Edsel kept Poe tied up in court, unable to release new music or perform professionally for a few years.[106] What music Poe did release during that time was generally done under the pseudonym "Jane."[107][108] The contract eventually ended years of legal wrangling in 2005, when the Labor Commission of California ruled in favor of Poe.[106]
Poe was able to perform for charitable events during this period, and she collaborated on film soundtracks and continued to compose and write.[109][110][111] Also, her songs were licensed for use in films and commercials.[11][112][113][114]
On September 12, 2012, Poe posted a one-minute song and video on a new mobile platform called PTCH; however, no announcement was made about an official release date. The video features a split narrative told across different frames on a single screen. The song, which repeats the line "And some say that it loops forever this road that I lose you on every time", is currently titled "September 30, 1955".[115][116]
Poe returned to the stage in 2014 after more than a decade for five shows at The Sayers Club in Los Angeles.[117][118]
Fashion designer Tom Ford showcased his 2015 Autumn/Winter womenswear collection to the beat of Poe's "Hey Pretty".[119]
Charitable work [ edit ]
Poe is a supporter of the David Lynch Foundation, a charity which teaches Transcendental Meditation to children in underprivileged school districts.[120] Poe has played at numerous fundraisers for the foundation, including a show with Donovan at the El Rey Theatre.[92][110][111] She performed again for the foundation, along with Ellen DeGeneres and Russell Brand, at their Gala Fundraiser at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on December 3, 2011.[121]
To benefit UNICEF, Poe joined with a group of other notable music artists and celebrities recording their versions of |
Review she’d offered her opinion that the journal had gotten stodgy and that it was too Old South and too male. One of the first things this woman from Detroit did after she got the job was to lower the portraits of her predecessors – all men – because she thought they were hung too high.
Don Piper (1948 – ) – Don Piper might be the most intriguing person on this list. He died in a car crash – then came back from the other side to write a best-seller about the experience.
On Jan. 18, 1989, Piper, a Baptist minister, was driving his Ford Escort home to Houston after attending a church conference. It was a cold, rainy day. As he drove across a narrow, two-lane bridge, an oncoming semi-truck driven by a trusty from a nearby prison crossed the center line and crushed Piper’s car. When paramedics arrived at the scene, Piper had no pulse and they covered his corpse with a tarp. Since I can’t possibly improve on Piper’s telling of what happened next, I’ll give it to you straight from his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven:
Immediately after I died, I went straight to heaven… Simultaneous with my last recollection of seeing the bridge and the rain, a light enveloped me, with a brilliance beyond earthly comprehension or description. Only that. In my next moment of awareness, I was standing in heaven. Joy pulsated through me as I looked around, and at that moment I became aware of a large crowd of people. They stood in front of a brilliant, ornate gate… As the crowd rushed toward me, I didn’t see Jesus, but did see people I had known… and every person was smiling, shouting, and praising God. Although no one said so, I intuitively knew that they were my celestial welcoming committee.
Piper recognized many people who had preceded him to the grave, including a grandfather, a great-grandfather, a childhood friend, a high school classmate, two teachers and many relatives. His story continues:
The best way to explain it is to say that I felt as if I were in another dimension… everything was brilliantly intense… (and) we began to move toward that light… Then I heard the music… The most amazing sound, however, was the angels’ wings… Hundreds of songs were being sung at the same time… my heart filled with the deepest joy I’ve ever experienced… I saw colors I would never have believed existed. I’ve never, ever felt more alive than I did then… and I felt perfect.
Alas, perfection was not destined to last. A fellow preacher had stopped at the scene of the accident to pray. Just as Piper was getting ready to walk through the “pearlescent” gates and meet God face-to-face, the other minister’s prayers were answered and Piper, miraculously, rejoined the living. This, surely, ranks as one of the greatest anti-climaxes in all of Western literature. Nonethless, 90 Minutes in Heaven, published in 2004, has sold more than 4 million copies and it has been on the New York Times paperback best-seller list for the past 196 weeks, and counting.
(Image: Orange Car Crash – 14 Times from eyeliam’s photostream)OTTAWA — Journalistically speaking, it isn’t much fun to cover a parade. Parades are noisy and crowded and when you come right down to it, nothing really happens. It’s just a lot of people putting one foot in front of the other and some floats passing by.
The media coverage of Justin Trudeau’s campaign for the Liberal leadership is the closest thing we have to a parade right now in Canadian politics. ( CHRISTINNE MUSCHI / REUTERS )
I note this only to open the conversation about the media coverage of Justin Trudeau’s campaign for the Liberal leadership — the closest thing we have to a parade right now in Canadian politics. People who aren’t crazy about Trudeau — yes, there are some — are accusing journalists of inventing this buzz around the 40-year-old son of the former prime minister. “A media-fabricated sensation,” one commenter suggested this week, reacting to yet another column on Trudeau’s mass appeal. I won’t speak for other political reporters but if I was inventing a story that was fun to cover, it wouldn’t be a parade. I tend to like constitutional conferences and the ongoing Scottish independence story, but that’s just me.
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Many of us who made the trek to that out-of-the-way, crowded auditorium in Montreal on Tuesday night were there to watch Trudeau launch his campaign for one main reason: readers demanded it. Every time we put anything about Trudeau on our web pages or Twitter feeds, our readership numbers go through the roof. Can we explain this? Not really. In my nearly 30 years in the print-journalism business, it’s only very recently that we’ve been able to accurately track what people want to read. That innovation came to us, of course, through the magic of the web. Everything in print journalism got a lot faster when the Internet came along — the news cycle, deadlines, readers’ reactions. Where once you had to type a letter to the editor and put it in the mail, now you need only click on a web page to register your approval or outrage. All those clicks gave us something else we didn’t have before the Internet — instant ratings. Readership used to be measured by periodic, old-fashioned surveys of circulation. The more sophisticated ones would look at individual stories or columns but, by and large, we only learned generally and infrequently what people were actually reading.
Web clicks changed all that. Now we learn, minute by minute, what is attracting readers. To my immense disappointment, it seems readers prefer parades to constitutional conferences. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are also measuring tools. They track “friends” and “followers” in the big picture, but they also can tell us which posts generate the most interest.
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There’s a little gadget on Twitter, for instance, called bitly. It shortens weblinks to fit more tidily in the 140-character limits, which is handy. Even handier, though, is the “stats page.” It shows you which of those shortened links is getting the most web traffic, and where the clicks are coming from. I guess I don’t need to tell you that on my stats page this week, the links I posted about Trudeau were generating hundreds and hundreds of clicks, while non-Trudeau links attracted a few dozen here and there. Journalism, ideally, should be a balance of giving people what they want and what they need. We now have the tools to measure what readers want, but we still have to rely on old-fashioned things like news judgment, education and experience to assess what people need to be informed citizens. That’s still more art than science, in other words. And all those columns musing on Trudeau’s chances in the Liberal leadership race, when you think about it, are reflections on the same theme. Sure, everyone wants Trudeau to run, but is he what Liberals need? Is popularity the same thing as leadership? Those are the hard questions that political journalists prefer to cover, as far as I can tell. Given the choice between making readers think and making readers happy (or angry), I bet most of us would choose the former. It’s difficult to tell right now whether all this interest in Trudeau’s Liberal leadership campaign will remain as intense over the six long months leading to the end of the race on April 14. Trudeau himself, in a casual chat a while back, predicted that people would be bored with the whole race by Christmas. If the interest does endure, however, it will be largely a result of all those continued clicks and instant ratings. The Trudeau “sensation,” such as it is, boils down to a case of supply and demand. As long as you, the readers, keep creating that demand, we in the media will continue to supply the coverage you keep telling us you want. Do feel free to tell us what you need, too, though. Susan Delacourt is a member of the Star’s Ottawa bureau.
Read more about:A Shell terminal in Nigeria in 2005
Pius Utomi Ekpei/Getty Images.
In 1796, pirates who committed heinous crimes against individuals could be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute, which permits civil suits by foreigners in federal courts for violations of “the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The law was passed by the first Congress in 1789. In 2002, 12 Nigerian nationals sued Royal Dutch Shell under the ATS, alleging that the oil company had colluded with the Nigerian military from 1992 to 1995 to suppress a grass-roots protest movement against oil exploration in the Niger delta. Specifically, members of the Ogoni people contend that Royal Dutch Shell aided and abetted the Nigerian government in torturing, executing, and arbitrarily detaining Ogoni activists. Esther Kiobel, the named plaintiff, is the widow of a victim.
The question for the court is whether Shell is immune from this suit because it is a corporation, not a person. Or—as Justice Stephen Breyer puts it this morning at oral argument—what would happen if the Pirates were a corporation. A corporation called, say, “Pirates Inc.”
Arrrrrr.
The ATS was almost never invoked between the 18th century and the 1980s, at which time human rights organizations dusted it off and deployed it to bring justice to victims of human rights atrocities abroad. In the only Supreme Court pronouncement on the scope of the right to sue under the ATS, the court in 2004 found that ATS could be used to redress violations of a small number of well-established customary international norms. The court was not clear about whether the well-established customary norms would determine who was liable, or merely the actions for which they could be sued. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals determined in 2010 that there is no customary international norm of corporate liability and decided in favor of Shell. Three other courts of appeals have found that there is corporate liability under the ATS, not just for pirates but for corporations as well.
In brief, the looming question for the court today is whether, after Citizens United, corporations enjoy not only free speech rights but also the right to say “I’m immune from suit.”
Paul Hoffman represents the 12 Nigerian plaintiffs and opens by pointing out that in Shell’s view of the case, “even if these corporations had jointly operated torture centers with the military dictatorship in Nigeria to detain, torture, and kill all opponents of Shell’s operations in Ogoni, the victims would have no claim.”
Justice Anthony Kennedy stops him, pointing out that the briefs say that “international law does not recognize corporate responsibility for the alleged offenses here.” Hoffman replies that the international law norms at issue in this case are “torture, prolonged arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions,” which are “defined by actions” and not by whether the “perpetrator is a human being or a corporation.”
Justice Samuel Alito notes that “there’s no particular connection between the events here and the United States.” He wonders “whether there’s any other country in the world where these plaintiffs could have brought these claims against the Respondents.” Chief Justice John Roberts doubles down: “If there is no other country where this suit could have been brought … isn’t it a legitimate concern that allowing the suit itself contravenes international law?”
Alito adds that the first sentence in the petitioners’ brief reads, “This case was filed by 12 Nigerian Plaintiffs who alleged that Respondents aided and abetted the human rights violations committed against them by the Abacha dictatorship in Nigeria between 1992 and 1995.” Alito looks up, puzzled. “What business does a case like that have in the courts of the United States?” He goes on, “The Alien Tort Statute was enacted to prevent international tension, and this kind of a lawsuit only creates international tension.”
Hoffman replies that that ATS was also passed “as an expression of the nation’s commitment to international law.” He notes that there are other legal doctrines that can be used to determine whether federal courts are the wrong forum to decide a case.
Edwin Kneedler represents the U.S. Justice Department, which sides with the Nigerian plaintiffs in this case. He spends most of his time close reading an ambiguous footnote in that 2004 case, which starts to look like one of those judicial Rorschach tests onto which everyone in the court maps their own personal preferences.
The chief justice wants to focus on the actor, not the actions, as he explains: “Under international law, it is critically pertinent who’s undertaking the conduct that is alleged to violate international norms. If an individual private group seizes a ship, it’s piracy. If the Navy does it, it’s not.”
Kennedy warns Kneedler of the foreign policy implications of corporate tort liability: “Under your view, the U.S. corporation could be sued in any country in the world, and that would have no international consequences. We don’t look to the international consequences at all.”
Justice Breyer tries to tug the court away from these discussions of what the court is calling extra-territoriality. He says “The question is, is a corporation a private actor? And is there any reason why, just like any other private actor, a corporation couldn’t be sued for genocide?”
Kathleen Sullivan, the former dean of Stanford Law School, has 30 minutes to defend Royal Dutch Petroleum. (Disclosure: She taught me constitutional law and may still have the power to change my grade.) And here’s where you’ll want to cue the parrots and the rum. Breyer asks her about what happens in the case of Pirates Inc: “Do you think in the 18th century if they’d brought Pirates Inc., and we get all their gold, and Blackbeard gets up and he says, ‘Oh, it isn’t me; it’s the corporation.’ Do you think that they would have said: ‘Oh, I see, it’s a corporation. Good-bye. Go home?’ ”
Sullivan says that the corporation would not be liable. “You could seize the ship with which the piracy was committed, as you could later slave trading ships. But you could not seize another ship, and you could not seize the assets of the corporation.” In other words, Pirates Inc. keeps its booty; Blackbeard walks the plank.
Justice Elena Kagan jumps in to observe that “all of these [laws] are written to prohibit certain acts, and they don’t talk about the actors. So, it’s as if somebody came and said this norm of international law does not apply to Norwegians. And you [say] well, there’s no case about Norwegians. It doesn’t specifically say “Norwegians.” But, of course, it applies to Norwegians because it prevents everybody from committing a certain kind of act.”
Sullivan replies that the other conventions talk about natural persons, not corporations. Alito wonders what happens if you take away the fact that the human rights violations happened overseas. “Let’s assume that the French ambassador is assaulted or attacked in some way in the United States, and that that attack is by a 10 corporate agents. Would we say that the corporation cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Statute?” he asks. Sullivan says “yes, because there is no assaulting ambassador norm that applies to corporations.”
Sullivan explains that under international law corporations and people are treated differently, in part because, “Nuremberg, if it established nothing else, established that it is individuals who are liable for human rights offenses.” Then she and Kagan do that thing where they step all over each others’ words for a while. Justice Breyer swings in from the topsail, armed with a case from 1666. He notes that the court wrote, “The taking of the ship on the high seas was “odious and punishable by all laws of God and man.” Possibly setting up a “laws of God and man” exception to corporate immunity.
In his rebuttal, Hoffman reminds the court that “ ‘tort’ meant to the founders “tort remedies.” It meant that the means of enforcement would be done by the common law. That’s all that was available then, it’s all that’s available now.”
The skepticism of the court’s conservative bloc notwithstanding, this is a case that may not be resolved on the usual 5-4 party lines. That’s because a decision giving Shell and the many folks who filed amicus briefs supporting Shell (Coca-Cola, Chevron, BP, KBR … you get the idea) what appears to be the right to commit human rights abuses abroad is about the only way they could make the corporate monster they built in Citizens United look any worse.Roy Moore has reportedly begun fundraising for an “election integrity fund” to investigate reports of voter fraud in Alabama’s Senate election. Refusing to concede even after President Trump urged him to acknowledge Democrat Doug Jones’ win in the race, Moore told supporters the “battle is not over” in a message sent out Friday, according to the Associated Press. Moore, whose campaign was largely overshadowed by numerous sexual misconduct allegations against him, said the election was “close” and noted that some military and provisional ballots have yet to be counted. He also cited “numerous reported cases of voter fraud” that would be sent to the secretary of state’s office. The results of the race will officially be certified between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3, though Secretary of State John Merrill has already said it’s unlikely any last-minute ballots will change the outcome.When Harry meets Mocha, can the blogger, who has been criticized for spreading fake news, learn from the law professor about the role of mainstream media?
Hopefully, she does.
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Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday said that he wanted to put Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) under his “tutelage” and teach her one subject — the importance of mainstream media.
Vital role
Roque said he wanted to convince Uson and other supporters of President Duterte about the mainstream media’s vital role in exposing the failures of the previous Aquino administration.
“You know, I like her; she likes me. I will forever be a law professor and I will forever consider individuals under my tutelage on important matters,” he told reporters in Malacañang.
“So, I hope Asec Mocha will accept being a student of the spokesperson,” he added.
Uson, who handles social media for the PCOO, has been critical of mainstream media. Her Facebook page has more than 5 million followers.
Presence in briefing
Roque said he had wanted Uson to be at Monday’s media briefing but he forgot to invite her.
“Too bad. I was hoping Mocha was here so I could address Mocha and her audience but I forgot to invite her. I intended to directly talk to the DDS (Die-hard Duterte Supporters),” said Roque, who distributed “pan de sal” (salted bread) to reporters.
“I guess, in due course, we will explain in a manner that everyone will understand why the right to freedom of expression and a free press are important,” he added.
Roque said Mr. Duterte would not have won last year’s election if the mainstream media did not expose the failures of the Aquino presidency.
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Hollow blocks
“For me, one reason why the President came to power — and I’m explaining this to the DDS — is because the media also exposed the failures of the previous administration,” he said.
“So now, let us give bread to the media,” he added.
Roque earlier said that he would throw hollow blocks at the President’s critics but he later explained that the statement was meant for Mr. Duterte’s supporters to emphasize that he had “the President’s back covered.”
‘Nothing to fear’
“Now, [the] media has nothing to fear because while there are a lot of criticisms, these are being answered, and I think it is one of my responsibilities to answer those criticisms,” he said.
“Before we forget, the [indecisiveness] of the previous administration, the corruption of the pork barrel which was evidence that [the Aquino administration] had many failures, we would not have known that if not for the legitimate media,” he added.
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MOST READKeith Hernandez at a Mets-Cubs game in New York, October 17, 2015. (Getty Images)
The Trump rebellion has been a nightmare for Republicans, but it could have an upside.
For NR readers and conservatives everywhere, it’s been a rough primary week. Maybe Rubio will still pull it out. Maybe he’ll fall on his sword and endorse Cruz. Maybe we’ll all learn to love Trump. Whatever happens, there are sleepless nights and heartburn ahead.
But there is one upside at least to the Trump rebellion: He’s attracting a lot of blue-collar Democrats. So many that serious people are seriously discussing the possibility of Democratic “blue wall” states breaking for the GOP in November — industrial states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, maybe even Massachusetts. Even better: Last week, the New York Post reported that “confidential polling data” showed that, against Hillary, Trump could win New York.
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Imagine for a moment that, this November, New York and its 29 electoral votes are in play for the first time since ’88. Imagine, then, Republicans seriously fighting for one of New York’s Senate seats for the first time since Hillary beat Rick Lazio in 2000. Republican bête noire Chuck Schumer is up for re-election in 2016, and if everything breaks right, there’s an outside chance a Republican could beat him.
Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn’t it?
Chuck Schumer won his last Senate race with 65 percent of the vote. For beating him to be in the realm of possibility, two things would have to happen: There would have to be a surge of working-class Democratic support for the GOP’s presidential nominee, and the GOP would have to find someone to run against Schumer who had comparable cross-aisle appeal.
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Happily, New York Republicans have the very man: beloved former Met, current Mets broadcaster, and Seinfeld cultural icon Keith Hernandez.
Now, I have no idea if Mr. Hernandez has any interest in public office. But he is interested in politics — enough to have endorsed “Thatcheresque” Carly Fiorina to the New York Times, and to have joked during a Mets game last season that a tongue-tied colleague sounded like “Hillary Clinton on the stump.” And he’s conservative enough for the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett to have called him an “idiot” with “dinosaur politics” for not knowing that April 22 was Earth Day (a holiday that’s “celebrated by nearly a billion people across the globe,” don’t you know).
In fact, Nixon was a big Keith Hernandez fan, and on occasion the two met for lunch and chatted about Russia and China and baseball.
And if you watch the Mets — for whom Mr. Hernandez does color commentary — you know that he’s very sharp. I imagine he’s the only sports broadcaster ever to have joked on-air that a long coat made someone look like Hamid Karzai. During a slow game, after a discussion of Hall of Fame pitcher Zack Wheat turned to wheat, the grain, Hernandez casually mentioned that Rome’s desire to control Egypt’s wheat fields had been the catalyst for the creation of the Roman province Aegyptus. During a digression into college basketball, Hernandez’s fellow Mets color guy, former Mets pitcher Ron Darling, said he knew nothing about Indiana. Hernandez said, “It’s in the Midwest.”
Hernandez was an MVP, a five-time All-Star, and a two-time world champion. Between his Mets career and his Seinfeld episodes, I reckon that he’s the most popular sports alumnus in New York after Derek Jeter. He’s well spoken but notably free of political correctness (as the Village Voice pointed out, he once made a joke about “union labor” when the Mets’ cameras picked out a construction worker eating a sandwich). And, to boot: Spring training has begun. The Mets are the favorite to win their division and might, God willing, make it back to the World Series. Imagine the groundswell of Mets enthusiasm if they win the fall classic in the first week of November, just as New Yorkers are warming up to choose a new senator on November 8. Kismet.
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Convincing any red-blooded American to give up a career as a professional baseball-talker to run against Chuck Schumer would be a hard sell. But if the Republicans could pull it off, it might mean the best Senate result since John Thune knocked off Tom Daschle.
Anyway, it’s a thought to keep the spirits up.[12/8 @RogueAles Twitter Update: moving from ceramic bottles to glass bottles. Depending on prices set by stores and distribs price will be pretty similar per oz.]
(Newport, OR) – As I alluded to in my piece on Rogue Double Mocha Porter and John John Ale, Rogue Ales is moving the XS Series to 7 oz. bottles. These bottles will begin to see shelves nationwide around February 1st when the brewery releases Russian Imperial Stout (which will also be available on tap).
Last week, the brewery got label for two such bottles: Imperial Younger’s Special Bitter and Imperial Red Ale. According to President, Brett Joyce, the brewery will also package Imperial IPA, Old Crustacean Barley Wine, and the new McRogue Scotch Ale in 7oz bottles.
With Nogne O also moving its Dark Horizon beers to 8.5 oz. bottles, could this be the start of a new trend?Launched at the end of the late 1970s oil crisis, Ford’s “Fox Body” Mustang (underpinned by Ford’s Fox rear-drive platform) was meant to signal a return to the car’s muscle-bound 1960s roots. Instead, the third-generation Mustang started out as a wheezy attempt to revive the fortunes of the Blue Oval’s once great ponycar.
Fox Mustang production began in 1979, and the initial, underwhelming engine range included a version of Ford’s 2.3-liter inline-four cylinder making 88 horsepower carried over from the Mustang II. (Ford later added a more powerful turbo version of the 2.3.) A 3.3-liter straight-six with about as much juice as the 2.3 quickly replaced the old 2.8-liter V-6, while a 302-cubic-inch Windsor V-8 — also a carryover from the previous model and designated as a 5.0 by Ford despite a capacity of 4.9 liters — was the car’s most powerful engine, producing just 140 hp.
By the mid-’80s, sales slumped considerably despite multiple refreshes, and Ford execs hatched a plan to turn the car into a front-drive model (which would eventually become the Probe). When loyalists learned of Dearborn’s intentions, they sent thousands of letters to company executives, leading the Mustang to receive a stay of execution. In the midst of all the turmoil, Ford launched a significant Mustang refresh for the 1987 model year that featured a massaged version of the 5.0 V-8 with 225 hp, as well as suspension upgrades and styling changes inside and out.
“Drifting along with the traffic after two days of driving, it began to occur to me that, as the Mustang name goes into its 24th year, the 1987 GT is probably the best of the breed,” Mel Nichols wrote in the April 1987 issue of Automobile. But while it was a vast improvement over the car that launched in 1979, the ’87 model still struggled to shake off the long shadow cast by golden-era Mustangs of the ’60s and early ’70s.
In recent years, however, Fox-era cars have emerged from those shadows and gained a healthy dose of respect — for good reason. They offer a solid foundation for a multitude of projects thanks to a large under-hood compartment ready to accept any number of engine configurations, a short wheelbase that works well for drag or road racing, a roomy interior, and a robust chassis and suspension. Brush strokes can be broad and sweeping or precise and singular, taking the car from mild to wild like the Mustang featured here.
This 1988 Mustang cost owner Matt Farah almost $50,000 and several years to build, and it’s an impressive project car. It began life as a California Highway Patrol undercover pursuit vehicle in the LX 5.0 Special Service Package (SSP) specification. The lightest of all Fox Body Mustangs, SSP cars weighed less than 3,000 pounds. There are no power windows or door locks, no sunroof, no fog lights, and no air-conditioning. (CHP officers probably weren’t thrilled about that.) In other words, it’s a proper, stealthy police vehicle.
The original engine was swapped out for a 350-hp Ford Racing 302 crate engine with aluminum heads, mated to a Tremec T5 five-speed manual transmission. Unlike many Mustang projects of this ilk, Farah didn’t focus on brute force. Instead, his Mustang was built to handle. Maximum Motorsports in San Luis Obispo, California, built the suspension. The rear received an independent setup and a differential from a 2004 Mustang Cobra, modified with new bushings, Maximum’s in-house coil-over kit, new subframe connectors, and other goodies. Up front, it uses Maximum’s tubular K-member (suspension cross-member) to improve strength and stiffness.
On the road, you immediately feel the Mustang’s myriad improvements even when trundling along in a middling rain shower. Tugging the compact Momo Prototipo steering wheel to the right, the enormous 295/30R-18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s at all four corners pull me toward the road’s edge with an immediacy I didn’t expect. Farah says he wanted a car that brings him back to his teenage years but handles like a modern supercar. This Mustang delivers.
“I just wanted something like Mad Max or a DTM race car,” he explains. “A little rough around the edges. It’s actually a little too shiny.” I push the Hurst shifter into third and put my foot down, and the 302 bellows loudly. At speed the suspension transmits the road’s nuances without feeling overbearing.
Although a project car such as Farah’s probably won’t fetch big dollars on the auction market, he doesn’t much care what others think about its worth or how much he’s spent on it. This project is all about his personal relationship with the car. “There’s no value in preserving it in its current state,” he says. “There’s only value in the smiles I get.”
The Specs Engine 4.9L SOHC V-8/350 hp, 350 lb-ft Transmission 5-speed manual Drive Rear-wheel Front Suspension Struts, coil springs Rear Suspension Control arms, coil springs Brakes F/R Disc Weight 3,110 lb The Info Years Produced 1987-1993 Number Sold 790,804 Original Price $12,106 Value Today $3,500*
*Hagerty insurance average value (www.hagerty.com)
Why Buy
Clean, straight Fox-era Mustangs are becoming increasingly rare because most were neglected as they became inexpensive used cars, but it also means enthusiasts looking to create a project car can usually pick one up for peanuts. For those looking at a Fox Body Mustang to transform into their own unique creation, aftermarket support is immense, and Mustang parts have always been cheap. However, the temptation to go overboard with modifications can be a strong one, potentially turning a cheap project into something costing many multiples of what was budgeted originally.Artificial intelligence, once the preserve of science fiction, has gone mainstream. Whether it’s Elon Musk feuding with Mark Zuckerburg, or Amazon Alexa fighting crime, scarcely a week passes without the media scaremongering about AI’s effects or speculating on its future.
Venture, corporate and seed investors aren’t immune to the hype. There’s been something of a gold rush to fund AI and machine learning solutions (already to the tune of $3.6 billion), and you don’t have to look far to find examples of industries likely to get swept away by the nascent technology.
Artificial Intelligence is predicted to eliminate 6% of US jobs by the year 2021. The question now for many commentators is which industries face the chopping block, and how soon we should start worrying.
It’s not just low level or menial jobs threatened by AI. Start-ups such as Oxford University spin-out DiffBlue have made headlines for using AI to revolutionise the way software developers work. DiffBlue recently raised £17 million for its AI solution that automates coding tasks considered an inefficient use of a human developer’s time.
In the coding community, attention has turned to AI’s ability to disrupt the ‘testing’ industry entirely. Are the days of manual testing soon coming to an end?
We think it’s unlikely. Although AI is already revolutionising the way software developers having to test complex chunks of code (and rightly so), it has a long way to go before it can accurately replicate aspects of user-based testing. The number of different scenarios associated with a human interacting with an app or website are close to limitless. AI doesn’t currently have the capacity to successfully tackle the multifaceted and unpredictable variables associated with how, where and when humans use a particular app or online service.
[easy-tweet tweet=”An initially poor mobile experience will discourage 85% of customers from further use” hashtags=”AI, MachineLearning”]
This is particularly true on mobile. An initially poor mobile experience will discourage 85% of customers from further use, studies have shown. Perfect user experience is more important than ever to consumers, and human-based testing remains the most assured route to securing it.
The human shopping experience
Consider using a taxi app to order a car to arrive at your home on a rainy day, only to find that your driver has driven to the café 500m down the road instead. Noticing this, you walk to your car, getting soaked in the process. The app’s system registers a successful pickup. You, on the other hand, are far from happy.
Or imagine you go to an electrical store, to pick up a new laptop pre-ordered on the website. When you arrive at the store it takes ages to find the right one, and there aren’t enough staff members on hand to assist you. At this point, some people would have given up and gone to a competitor.
The detection of user frustration and its contributing factors is difficult unless you have resources on the ground to test for real-life scenarios like this. Also, companies have traditionally focused on small sample sizes of testers due to financial constraints.
The crowd testing solution
Crowd testing puts digital properties (such as mobile apps, websites, IoT and connected devices) into the hands of people that are representative of your customer demographic. With crowd testing, you can expand the sample sizes of testers while simultaneously focusing on the most relevant consumer demographics for the product. For example, if you require men aged between 18 – 34 years old in the South West of England, a crowd testing company can use its community of testers to get your product tested by the core demographic.
This pool of testers is then further refined as it can be split into two groups: the vetted quality assurance (QA) professionals and the ordinary user with no QA background. The former allows experts to effectively identify any bugs or problems that might have been missed by your internal team, while the latter will allow you to explore how intuitive your product is. Being able to accurately test how your website or mobile app will function ahead of its release in a specific market gives you an invaluable opportunity to ‘get it right’ before your customers start to engage.
So is AI going to replace humans?
AI can identify errors and bugs in software with unparalleled precision. AI doesn’t rely on food, water or sleep and, unlike a human tester, can undertake repetitive tasks 24/7. As the technology continues to develop it will increasingly become an integral part of the troubleshooting process.
But this is not to say human testing will ever become obsolete, and therefore businesses must not treat it as a panacea for all potential problems.
While AI might be ideally suited to spot errors in code, it still lacks the sophistication required to adequately reproduce a human’s user experience. Crowdtesting platforms allow real users to engage with digital products under real world conditions in a way that artificial intelligence can’t.
By using AI, companies have the best chance to perfect their code and UX, removing any potentially harmful bugs. But in an increasingly competitive digital market where first impressions can make or break a product, companies must take a holistic approach to software testing, and I think we’re going to see more and more companies using AI in conjunction with human-based testing. What’s most clear is that first impressions are everything for the consumer, and no company can afford to skip on the user experience.Sagamore may be the biggest (by at least a few furlongs) spirit-only distiller to enter Maryland’s once-thriving market, but it’s not the first. That title goes to Blackwater Distilling, which bottled its first batch of Sloop Betty vodka in Stevensville in 2011. Next came Lyon Distilling, a two-person, grain-to-glass craft distillery that’s making rum and whiskey in a charming old St. Michaels mill. Last year, father-daughter duo Len and Kelsey Louthan started their own nano-distillery using a homemade still in a 400-square-foot corner of a Lauraville warehouse. Jars of corn whiskey, which they age with shaved local oak chips, sit on shelves until they’re bottled by hand using a funnel. They’re on track to produce 700 proof gallons (standard industry measurement) this year.
“The industry is just fascinating as a whole,” Kelsey says. “We’re drinking the stuff we make. How much more can you ask for from a job?”
Obviously, Lauraville isn’t Lexington, but this bender of booze-making might just one day return Maryland to its pre-Prohibition glory days, when, between 1865 and 1917, it stood third nationally in whiskey manufacturing and sales, behind only Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
“I think it’s a product that can employ a lot of people and bring a great sense of pride back to Baltimore,” Plank says. “We’re lucky enough to have a lot of resources, but there’s nothing God-given or guaranteed for us either. Those who have the best products, who do the best job telling their story, are going to win. That’s an incredibly American idea, and that’s what I love about bourbon and rye and dark whiskeys as a whole.”
It’s the kind of perfect-for-anything April Saturday in St. Michaels that inspires everyone who’s visiting town to describe it as “idyllic.” Streams of people flow into Lyon Distilling for a tour and a taste.
Wearing blue jeans and a broken-in baseball cap, Ben Lyon looks overworked. (And he is—he |
the boundary overhead, the primary weather concern will be thick clouds.”
Winds will be from the north-northeast at 8 to 12 mph and the temperature will be around 66 degrees Fahrenheit at launch time Tuesday.
Officials expect good visibility and low solar activity.
If the launch is delayed to Friday, there is a 30 percent chance that weather will prohibit launch, mainly due to a concern about flight through precipitation.
The unmanned Dragon supply ship is due to rendezvous with the space station Thursday if the mission takes off on schedule Tuesday.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that police officials from two different police stations tortured a young man to gain bribe money. He was tortured with screwdrivers in front of his mother in the first police station, and was allowed to be removed from remand in jail by another police station for further acts of torture. Though he was admitted to hospital on the orders of a civil magistrate court, police interfered in his hospitalization. He succumbed to his injuries shortly after. His mother has filed a case against the police for murder but no signs of a credible investigation are yet evident.
CASE DETAILS:
According to information received by the Star Welfare Organisation, an NGO in Sargodha, and the victims family, on February 26, plain-clothed police officials of Satellite Town Police Station raided the house of Mr. Muddasar Iqbal, 24, for his arrest in the case of a motorcycle theft. He was not at home, so his elder brother was illegally arrested instead by the Sub-Inspector of Satellite Town Police Station, Mr. Azmat Joya and his staff: Head Constable Babar Cheema and Constable Amir Abdullah.
Later that day the mother Ms. Zarina Bibi, an uncle Mr. Sher Mohammad and his son Manzoor Illahi went to the police station to enquire about the arrest of her elder son. Inspector Azmat Joya told them that he was a hostage: if she was to bring her younger son, Muddasar Iqbal, to the station, then her elder son would be released. He did not reveal the specific charges. She was told to bring Muddasar to police chowki (kiosk), a sub-police station of Satellite Police Station, and when she did so later that day, Inspector Azmat Joya started to beat the young man, and ordered her to leave.
On February 27 Ms. Zarina Bibi went to the police chowki to find Muddasar fastened to a charpai, a wooden cart, being tortured with a heavy rolling device, on his legs and the soles of his feet. Constable Amir Abdullah reportedly charged her Rs. 50,000 for his release; when she replied that this would be impossible the officers allegedly started to stab the soles of the man’s feet with screwdrivers, drawing blood. Ms. Zarina promised to pay the amount.
According to our information she had arranged Rs. 20,000 by the following day and promised police the remainder in a week. However the victim was tortured again. The police officially declared his arrest on March 1 and produced him before the civil magistrate for remand. The magistrate granted judicial custody till March 9 and he was sent to Sargodha District Prison; he was not asked about the possibility of torture, though he was unable to walk. He complained about problems with his urine.
In the meantime the Satellite Police Station continued to harass Zarina, and threatened that her older son could suffer the same fate if she did not produce more bribe money.
Instead we are told that associates of SI Joya arranged for Muddasar to be reclaimed into police custody and further tortured. Assistant Sub-Inspector Ijaz Hussain of Jhal Jhakian Police Station (in the same district, and known to be a close associate of SI Joya) filed an application before the court of Mr. Owais Ahmed, Civil Judge of Sargodha, claiming that Muddasar Iqbal was wanted in another motorcycle theft case under the jurisdiction of his police station. On March 18 the victim was sent into police remand by a civil judge for three days. On his return through the courts the victim was able to tell the judge that he had been severely tortured and was unable to eat properly or walk. The judge ordered him to be sent to civil hospital in Sargodha for two days of treatment.
On March 20 the judge ordered Muddasar to be admitted to Allied Hospital in Faisalabad district. However we are told that Sub-Inspector Azmat and Assistant Sub-Inspector Ijaz forged his papers and sent him back to the civil hospital in Sargodha. He died there at around 2am on March 22. The news has sparked civil protests in the district and media coverage, and a First Investigation Report (FIR) was filed on March 22 by Zarina Bibi.
Although high officials have announced that the officers responsible have been suspended and that an inquiry has been set in motion, we are told that no suspensions have been seen to have taken place, and there have been no signs of an inquiry. District Police Officer, Dr. Usman Anwar has claimed that police are working on the case. The AHRC is concerned that the investigation, should it take place, will be neither thorough nor impartial.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities below urging them to conduct a proper inquiry, bringing all actors in this case to account, including the law enforcement officers and relevant members of the judiciary.
The AHRC has written to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture calling for his intervention into this case.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTERPress release no. 129/2013 from 2013-05-15 | print view | zur deutschen Fassung Captured in silken netting and sticky hairs
The great ecological success of spiders is often substantiated by the evolution of silk and webs. Biologists of the Kiel University and the University of Bern now found an alternative adaptation to hunting prey: hairy adhesive pads, so called scopulae. The scientists published their results in the May issue of the scientific journal PLoS One.
“More than half of all described spider species have abandoned building webs. They seize their prey directly and have to be able to hold and control the struggling prey without getting hurt themselves, explains Jonas Wolff, PhD student in the working group Functional Morphology and Biomechanics. But how do these spiders manage to capture their prey, Wolff and his coworkers Professor Stanislav Gorb, Kiel, and Professor Wolfgang Nentwig, Bern, wondered. In order to find out, they turned their attention to the hairy pads, that grow on the legs of hunting spiders. These pads consist of specialized hairs (setae), which split into numerous branches. With these the setae can cling to surfaces very closely, which is necessary to exploit intermolecular adhesive forces.
„Until now, scientists assumed that the spiders mainly use those sticky pads for climbing on smooth surfaces. The earlier hypothesis that the adhesive pads are important for prey retention received scant attention. Our results show, that abandon web building occurred independently for several times. Interestingly, it was often accompanied by the evolution of similar adhesive pads. Specialized foot pads, which enable the spider to climb steep smooth surfaces such as window panes, are further developments derived from the prey capture apparatus, Wolff explains. “These results give us entirely new insights on the evolution of spiders.
Original publication:
Wolff, J. O., Nentwig, W. and Gorb, S. N. The great silk alternative: Multiple co-evolution of web loss and sticky hairs in spiders. PLoS ONE, In Press.
The great ecological success of spiders is often substantiated by the evolution of silk and webs. Biologists of the Kiel University and the University of Bern now found an alternative adaptation to hunting prey: hairy adhesive pads, so called scopulae. The scientists published their results in the May issue of the scientific journal PLoS One.“More than half of all described spider species have abandoned building webs. They seize their prey directly and have to be able to hold and control the struggling prey without getting hurt themselves, explains Jonas Wolff, PhD student in the working group Functional Morphology and Biomechanics. But how do these spiders manage to capture their prey, Wolff and his coworkers Professor Stanislav Gorb, Kiel, and Professor Wolfgang Nentwig, Bern, wondered. In order to find out, they turned their attention to the hairy pads, that grow on the legs of hunting spiders. These pads consist of specialized hairs (setae), which split into numerous branches. With these the setae can cling to surfaces very closely, which is necessary to exploit intermolecular adhesive forces.„Until now, scientists assumed that the spiders mainly use those sticky pads for climbing on smooth surfaces. The earlier hypothesis that the adhesive pads are important for prey retention received scant attention. Our results show, that abandon web building occurred independently for several times. Interestingly, it was often accompanied by the evolution of similar adhesive pads. Specialized foot pads, which enable the spider to climb steep smooth surfaces such as window panes, are further developments derived from the prey capture apparatus, Wolff explains. “These results give us entirely new insights on the evolution of spiders.Wolff, J. O., Nentwig, W. and Gorb, S. N. The great silk alternative: Multiple co-evolution of web loss and sticky hairs in spiders. PLoS ONE, In Press. http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062682 (Publication date: 1st May 2013). Click to enlarge The foot of the jumping spider Euophrys frontalis, showing the paired claws and adhesive pads.
image/Copyright: Wolff
Image to download:
www.uni-kiel.de/download/pm/2013/2013-129-1.jpg Contact:
Jonas Wolff
phone: +49 (0)431 880-4505
email:
Jonas Wolffphone: +49 (0)431 880-4505email: jwolff@zoologie.uni-kiel.de
Kiel University
Press, Communication and Marketing, Dr. Boris Pawlowski, Editor: Claudia Eulitz
Address: D-24098 Kiel, phone: +49 (0431) 880-2104, fax: +49 (0431) 880-1355
e-mail: presse@uv.uni-kiel.dePassing of Rev Dr Iain D Campbell
January 28, 2017
It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of Rev Dr Iain D Campbell, minister of Point/Knock Free Church. Last Sunday Dr Campbell was transferred from the Western Isles Hospital to Glasgow where he passed away early this morning. He was 53.
Dr Campbell was born in 1963 and grew up in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. He studied at Glasgow University before proceeding to the Free Church College where he trained for the pastoral ministry. He was ordained as minister at Snizort Free Church, Skye in 1988 and spent seven years there before moving to Back Free Church in 1995. A further transfer took him to Point Free Church in 2009. He was Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 2012.
We extend our deepest and prayerful sympathies to Iain’s wife, Anne, their children: Iain, Stephen and Emily, his mother, Lily, together with the wider family.There are certain things you don't do because of bad karma in the NHL. I mean, you never do.
If you are a player and you've never won the Stanley Cup, you don't touch it. Don't put your paws on it if you've never won it. Teams don't release the route for your championship parade before winning the damn thing. Well, unless you live in Vancouver. Many times, players don't touch the conference championship trophy. Some teams do it. Most don't. It's not worth it.
Oh, and if you've never won the Stanley Cup, don't put your damn logo on a picture of the Stanley Cup. Dammit, how simple is that? It's like taking your logo to the champagne room. You keep your logo off the girls. The girls may choose to touch you, but keep your damn hands off. In this weird and totally not good analogy, the Stanley Cup is a stripper (putting herself through school, so don't judge). And you keep your damn logo off her.
The picture at the top of this post came from my phone. They had a couple racks of these things at the team store on Wednesday night. I stood staring at them, amazed that they exist. Either I scared prospective buyers away with the dumbfounded look on my face or everyone else thought these were a bad idea too.
Being superstitious is stupid. I know this. I'm an educated man. I am not wearing the same jersey tonight as I did on Wednesday because the Blues did not win the game. I'm starting a playoff beard (more on that to come). When the regular season ends, I'm probably not going to mention the name of the trophy.
This team had its most important player awarded to the most powerful GM in the league in an arbitration hearing. The team's only No. 1 overall draft pick tore his knee ligaments in a golf cart incident. The only way to get your number retired for a couple decades was to die. The Blues made the Stanley Cup Finals for three straight years and never won a game.
In other words, DO NOT MOCK THE HOCKEY GODS. If the building is struck by lightning during the first playoff home game, don't pass it off to coincidence. It's a sign.
Agree?Florida’s updated “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law is unconstitutional, a Miami judge ruled on Monday.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch ruled that lawmakers overstepped their authority in modifying the law this year to force prosecutors to disprove a defendant’s self-defense claim at a pre-trial hearing.
The judge ruled that under Florida’s constitution, that change should have been crafted by the Florida Supreme Court, not the Legislature.
“As a matter of constitutional separation of powers, that procedure cannot be legislatively modified,” Hirsch wrote in a 14-page order.
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The ruling is a victory for prosecutors who have firmly opposed a law they believe makes it easier for defendants to get away with murder and other violent crime.
Hirsch’s ruling isn’t binding – other trial courts across Florida can follow the law if they choose. But it does get the ball rolling on the appeals process, and possibly getting the law reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court.
Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told the Miami Herald he believes the Legislature acted lawfully.
“I would be surprised if this decision were upheld at the appellate level,” said Bradley, a former prosecutor who championed the modification of the already controversial “Stand Your Ground” statute passed over a decade ago. The change was pushed by the politically powerful National Rifle Association. Gov. Rick Scott signed the new law into effect in last month.
First passed in 2005, Florida’s controversial self-defense law has been criticized for fostering a shoot-first mentality – and giving killers a pass at justice. The law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter an apparent threat.
SHARE COPY LINK Crowds gathered at the Friendship Torch in front of Bayfront Park for a Trayvon Martin vigil on July 14, 2013. Crowds demanded changes to laws and made a social call to arms after George Zimmerman was acquitted from the murder of Martin.
More problematic for prosecutors, the law made it easier for judges — before ever getting to a jury — to dismiss criminal charges if they deem someone acted in self-defense.
The Florida Supreme Court later ruled that defendants, in asking for immunity from criminal prosecution, must be the ones to prove they were acting in self-defense.
In Miami-Dade, judges have thrown several high-profile murder cases after pre-trial immunity hearings, but have also allowed many more to go to a jury.
But the NRA-backed bill, passed in May despite fierce opposition by prosecutors and gun-control advocates, upended the legal framework.
Now, at those pre-trial hearings, prosecutors shoulder the burden of disproving a defendant’s self-defense claim. State Attorneys contended that it essentially forces them to unfairly to try the case twice, making it easier for criminals to skate on violent charges. Under the law, prosecutors must prove by “clear and convincing” evidence that a defendant was not acting in self-defense.
Hirsch found that the changes to the law were “procedural,” meaning only the Florida Supreme Court has the right to make them.
Hirsch ruled on the case of Liletha Rutherford, who is accused of aggravated assault for pulling a gun on a couple during an argument, and Omar Rodriguez, the so-called ‘Neighbor from Hell” who shot and killed a man after an confrontation over dog poop.
The separate immunity hearings will still be held in the coming weeks — but it will be up to Rutherford and Rodriguez to prove their self-defense claims. If either were to lose their bid at immunity, they could appeal to the Third District Court of Appeal, and ultimately, the Florida Supreme Court.
It was not surprising that Hirsch was the first to weigh in on the new law. Since becoming a judge in 2010, he’s often ruled on broader legal issues that sometimes upend conventional norms.
Earlier this year, the judge ruled that Miami-Dade County’s inmate detention policy, spurred by President Donald Trump’s threats to withhold funding, violated the constitution.
Last year, Hirsch also ruled that the a new death-penalty sentencing structure was unconstitutional, a decision that later proved prescient — the Florida Supreme Court ruled the same months later.
In 2012, Hirsch ruled that prosecutors could not say a fingerprint found at a crime scene was a controversial match, a decision later overturned by an appeals court.
When a Tampa federal judge ruled in 2011 that Florida's drug law was unconstitutional, Hirsch was the only local state judge to follow suit. He tossed out more than two dozen cases, but Miami's appeals court later reversed Hirsch's decision.The notion of “centrism” aims to stake out ideological ground between the extremes of contemporary left and right. But the centrism-extremism distinction fails to get at essential differences. Finding those means going deeper into Western intellectual history.
Ideologies are like organisms, and tracing their origins back to common ancestors starts with a system of classification based on careful observation and comparison. Our goal is ultimately to unravel the DNA of ideological movements. However before DNA, you need Darwin and Linnaeus.
So let’s start with some actual specimens of “centrism.” Here I mean ‘neo-Enlightenment’ thinkers like Sam Harris, Steven Pinker, George Will, Maajid Nawaz, Scott Alexander, Christina Hoff Sommers, Christopher Hitchens, Bret Stephens. And their ideas have a clear line of descent from core Enlightenment values, which are under attack from factions on the left and right today.
Anti-Enlightenment ideas are springing up from the left in: attempts to shut down speech in the academy, increasing toleration of violence in “anti-fascist” and “anti-racist” protests, and rhetorical strategies aimed at opponents’ racial or sexual attributes rather than the content of their ideas.
Likewise, from the right: economic protectionism, scapegoating of foreigners, conspiracy theories, and explicit neo-Nazism.
What’s wrong with the centrism-extremism lens on these three camps (e.g., as ably outlined here)? Centrism is said to be a “consistent philosophical system” based on the idea that “progress is best achieved by caution, temperance, and compromise, not extremism, radicalism, or violence.” Centrism is for constitutionalism over identity politics and absolutism. And it eschews “grand theories” whether of the altruistic-authoritarian or extreme-libertarian variety, in favor of a more “pragmatic” issue-by-issue analysis, rooted in science and evidence.
How are any of these propositions justified by a core principle of moderation? There is no fundamental account of what moderation means here. There is just a vague sense that whatever the mainstream views of our culture happen to be, centrism is somewhere around there, sufficiently far away from what crazy people with crude posters or frog memes think. But why our culture? Indeed, why the particular sub-culture of smart cosmopolitans rather than that of fly-over radio stations or intersectional poetry jams?
The American founders were in fact radicals not moderates — just ask George III. Of course so was Mao. The point is that we need a clear ideological criterion for distinguishing good revolutions from bad ones, which centrism fails to provide. Or good absolutisms (like free speech) from bad ones (like papal infallibility or the dogma that the sexes are psychologically indistinguishable).
Also, about the idea of defining a philosophical system on the simple, pragmatic basis of science and evidence, because that’s what works, not grand theories — it’s already been tried. Indeed it was called “pragmatism,” and it crashed at the epistemological dead-end of denying the very concept of “truth” (insofar as “truth” refers to mental objects having some kind of correspondence with external reality). Pragmatism is what produced Richard Rorty. But let us turn back down that road in a bit.
If centrism-extremism doesn’t provide a good taxonomy, how do we find one? Biology gives us a model. Richard Dawkins’ famous insight here is to think of ideas — “memes” as he coined the term, in its broader sense — as the genetic units of our constantly evolving belief systems, mutating and replicating like genes do.
Once biologists identified the biochemical mechanism of inheritance and mutation through DNA, a whole world of analysis opened up. They could sequence (partial) genomes from thousands of subjects and then perform detailed, quantitative studies on genetic similarities and differences using the mathematical technique of Principal Components Analysis (PCA). An example of the results of applying PCA in a study of 3000 European subjects is shown below. It identifies two main axes (PC’s) of genetic variation among these subjects, which allows you to visually depict them all on a two-dimensional map.
What’s amazing is how closely this map, generated purely by looking at people’s genes not their addresses, corresponds to the actual map of Europe. Your genes alone are giving up the deep truths about where your ancestors were from in the world.
Sequencing genetic codes is a rigorous, scientific process. How does one sequence a memetic code? We are in the position here of biologists before the structure of DNA had been elucidated. They knew some such heredity mechanism had to exist, but they couldn’t yet measure it quantitatively in individuals.
Sequencing the Memome
While genetic codes are just linear streams of information, memetic codes have a complex hierarchical structure and are more dynamic in mutation. This will prove critical.
Essentially all heritable genetic mutation occurs in a single shot at the moment that sperm meets egg. Your genetic code is basically fixed after that point, through the rest of your life. Your memetic code, however, is constantly changing over your life, because you are constantly analyzing and updating your own ideas in intricate non-linear ways. (This essay, like any other, is trying to make you do just that!)
In other words, the key difference between biological and cultural evolution is the power of human reason as a means of reshaping the complex structure of people’s ideas in real-time. This is what explains the vastly higher rate of cultural vs. biological evolution. And here we have a big clue about which ideas are most important for cultural evolution: ideas that regulate the operation of reason itself — ideas about ideas as such.
The hard left has embedded within it certain deep views about reason. So does the hard right. And so does the nascent neo-Enlightenment movement. How do they all differ?
On the left we see the rise of micro-aggression and triggering theories founded on the idea that language is a game not a quest for truth. So if your team plays mean don’t try to justify it by saying your game is “true.” Campus speech codes: needed to rebalance power relations, which is what matters — not “truth” as filtered through your white consciousness. Oh now you are being oppressed by leftist authoritarianism, which violates your Enlightenment values? Stop logic-splaining to us! That’s just a meta-narrative you have constructed to deflect what we’re trying to tell you. Listen! Stop gesturing! So what if we roughed up that racist speaker while he was trying to escape our mob? He was here spewing white supremacist eugenics from his book on rural, white drug addicts and their dangerous cognitive deficits. “Free speech”!? Thomas Jefferson raped his slaves!
These slogans and intellectual norms did not spring spontaneously from the minds of twenty year-old college students. There is a clear and by now well known link between their professors’ ideas and the mid-20th century philosophical movement of postmodernism. Some key figures and theses:
Michel Foucault reduces what the West had regarded as rationally derived knowledge to a means of power over the oppressed.
Jacques Derrida gives us the deconstructionist language game, in which no objective meaning need be sought in a text. It’s all oppressor-speak.
Jean-Francois Lyotard tells us to discard Enlightenment “meta-narratives” about human progress, which are just masks for the exercise of power.
Thomas Kuhn turns the long arc of scientific progress into a geeky popularity contest. Paul Feyerabend adds that, epistemically, it might just as well have been a contentious game of D&D.
Herbert Marcuse edifies us that ideas like “free speech” are merely a ruse performed by rich oppressors to trick the working class into subservience.
Perhaps the best single, compact resource here is Stephen Hicks’ Explaining Postmodernism. The present account is patterned on his essentialized dive into the deep origins of postmodernist ideas.
So where did these ideas come from? That perpetual focus on the oppressed goes back to Marx. And postmodernists were almost all committed socialists left holding the bag as the Soviet Union began to be exposed in the 1950’s. Their relativism was a convenient way out of this predicament.
But nearly the whole postmodernist brood was fathered by one early 20th century German philosopher. Martin Heidegger viewed man as wracked by the impotence of reason to deal with deep paradoxes like: Why does the universe itself exist? Why not just nothingness? Since reason cannot even comprehend such questions, our only recourse is to accept feelings of fear, guilt, dread as our natural state in the face of inscrutable Being.
Heidegger was reacting to his teacher Edmund Husserl and the phenomenological tradition. Phenomenology had sheepishly avoided metaphysical questions by studying only the pure actions of consciousness, not worrying about their relation to some hypothesized external world.
Another important influence on Heidegger and the postmodernists was, unsurprisingly, the explicit irrationalism of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Kierkegaard. They shared the phenomenological premise that there is no objective way to connect rational thought with external objects. But they sought a supposed deeper access to reality via pure acts of will — i.e., via feelings, not reason.
And here we arrive at some common ancestors of the contemporary left and right. The alt-right, gaining steam today, is a younger movement, with more volatile foundations. But one central idea here is a racialist power-struggle metaphysics of the sort prominent in early 20th century German-socialist thinkers who cast Aryans into the Marxian role of the oppressed. Heidegger himself was notoriously sympathetic to National Socialism (Nazism). And one can trace other lines of influence from Nazism back to thinkers like Spengler and Moeller van den Bruck, who were themselves products of Nietzsche and the other irrationalists.
Tracing back even further leads to Georg Hegel, who influenced both Marx and the irrationalists. Hegel’s metaphysical idealism dealt with the objectivity problem (the severed link between mental representations and external reality) by simply denying that such a mind-independent reality even exists. Problem solved!
Looking over all these strands of thought, the objectivity problem stands out as a shared premise underlying all the factions — from Hegel to Heidegger and beyond. One can observe the objectivity problem already starting to surface mid-Enlightenment with George Berkeley and David Hume. But their main influence was just to raise questions. The hands shaping the West’s ultimate answers, according to Hicks, were those of Immanuel Kant. I have illustrated this grand narrative in the below diagram.
Kant’s critical innovation was the idea that rational consciousness is by nature distortive — cut off from “things-in-themselves,” the true, undistorted objects of reality that constitute a separate “noumenal” realm. Man can only access the “phenomenal” realm in which he, as a mortal being, is incapable of distinguishing between what comes from the true nature of things and what comes from the distortive lens of his reason. Kant explicitly named the motivation for his system: to save the innocent claims of religion from Enlightenment predators. Nevertheless, he formulated it as a secular, logical critique of reason from within, aimed to subvert the predators by their own claws.
There is scholarly disagreement about characterizing Kant as a fundamentally anti-rational force. What’s important here is not an evaluation of Kant’s thought in its entirety, but the inner logic of his key philosophical innovation (reason-as-distortive) and its explosive replication over the 19th century.
This punctuated the Enlightenment equilibrium that existed prior to Kant. Surrounding ideas needed to be adapted, and different adaptive schemes emerged: idealism, phenomenology, irrationalism. As we have seen, these all spawned their own intellectual lineages that later incestualized into postmodernism.
Principal Components of the Mind
Consider the above as our sequenced memome data. Now it’s time for PCA. Hicks gives us a lead by defining five essential aspects of reason — principal components, if you will:
Objectivity: reason is not inherently distortive
Competence: it is capable of comprehending reality
Autonomy: it’s not subordinate to other means of knowing
Universality: it applies to all areas of inquiry and all inquirers
Individuality: it is an attribute of a single mind, not a tribe
To which let’s add:
Emergence: it can be coordinated between minds without a central plan
(This is meant in the broad Hayekian sense of spontaneous orders arising under certain systems of economic and/or memetic exchange). Hicks also splits post-ancient Western history into three major intellectual eras: the premodern, modern, and postmodern — roughly corresponding to the Middle Ages, Enlightenment, and recent continental scene. I would isolate the aspects of reason strongly affirmed in each era as follows:
Premodern: (O C U)
Modern: (O C A U I E)
Postmodern: ( )
Indeed any particular ideology, of man or movement, may be broken down according to our six PC’s and then compared to these three clusters. Observe that this fine-grained picture does have not have any place for a centrism-extremism axis. (Mathematically, such an axis can be understood as lying roughly perpendicular to the plane defined by our three cluster points —i.e., centrism-extremism is just not informative in describing ideological variation over these eras.)
Here’s how I break down three movements of present-day interest:
Pomo-Left: Purely postmodern
Neo-Enlightenment: Mostly modern, but weaker (E) due to origins on the center-left
Alt-Right: Strongly postmodern (with white men cast in the role of the oppressed) but with certain smaller premodern (O C) and Nietzschean (A I) contributions
See the below cluster-plane diagram of these classifications, also including my estimates for the positions occupied by a sample of thinkers who could easily be misclassified under the centrism-extremism lens.
This analysis puts universality as the strongest differentiator of the Neo-Enlightenment (high U) from the Pomo-Left and Alt-Right (both low U). Fundamentally, the last two are both identitarianisms, far closer to each other than either cares to understand. The most obvious difference between them doesn’t even rise to the level of this analysis. It is merely which groups are taken as the truly oppressed ones — intersectional hierarchies for the Pomo-Left, whites and men for the Alt-Right. (Think of these oppressed-category variables again as additional axes roughly perpendicular to our cluster-plane, as it would be embedded in a high-dimensional total-memome space.) One can imagine memeticists of the far future, equipped with hard, neurological measurements analogous to sequenced genomes. What we have here is a toy model of that vision, crafted by the iron tools of intellectual history available today. But iron tools far surpass the broken stones of our occultist ancestors or the loose twigs of our pomo-monkey cousins who haven’t yet died out.Alwaght-Iraqi military has body of a top ISIS commander, known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, has been found in east of Ramadi.
Iraq’s satellite TV network Alsumaria cited Iraqi military sources as saying the body of the commander who was nicknamed as ‘ISIS Minister of War’ was positively identified.
Georgian-born Abu Omar al-Shishani, who was also an ISIS recruiter in the Caucasus region, is thought to have been killed in an air raid in Syria almost two weeks ago.
His killing would have a negative impact on the ability of ISIS to recruit foreign militants, particularly those from Chechnya and the Caucasus. His death also means that the terror group would be stripped of the ability to coordinate attacks and defend its strongholds in Raqqah, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq.
Al-Shishani – real name Tarkhan Batirashvili – was born to a Georgian-Chechen family in the Pankisi Gorge region of Georgia.
Before becoming known to the West as one of the bloodiest terrorist commanders, he lived a quiet life in the tiny village of Birkiani and worked as a shepherd. In 2007, he joined the Georgian Army and quickly progressed through the ranks. Several media reports say he was in a special reconnaissance group and stood out due to his proficiency with firearms and maps.
As an army sergeant and forward artillery observer, he took part in the Georgian Army’s offensive on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinval in 2008, which claimed hundreds of civilian lives. Al-Shishani allegedly became a terrorist after his failure to get promoted as an officer, followed by a 16-month prison term for illegal weapons possession.A Brief Introduction to Graphical Models and Bayesian Networks
"Graphical models are a marriage between probability theory and graph theory. They provide a natural tool for dealing with two problems that occur throughout applied mathematics and engineering -- uncertainty and complexity -- and in particular they are playing an increasingly important role in the design and analysis of machine learning algorithms. Fundamental to the idea of a graphical model is the notion of modularity -- a complex system is built by combining simpler parts. Probability theory provides the glue whereby the parts are combined, ensuring that the system as a whole is consistent, and providing ways to interface models to data. The graph theoretic side of graphical models provides both an intuitively appealing interface by which humans can model highly-interacting sets of variables as well as a data structure that lends itself naturally to the design of efficient general-purpose algorithms. Many of the classical multivariate probabalistic systems studied in fields such as statistics, systems engineering, information theory, pattern recognition and statistical mechanics are special cases of the general graphical model formalism -- examples include mixture models, factor analysis, hidden Markov models, Kalman filters and Ising models. The graphical model framework provides a way to view all of these systems as instances of a common underlying formalism. This view has many advantages -- in particular, specialized techniques that have been developed in one field can be transferred between research communities and exploited more widely. Moreover, the graphical model formalism provides a natural framework for the design of new systems." --- Michael Jordan, 1998.
This tutorial
Representation, or, what exactly is a graphical model?
Inference, or, how can we use these models to efficiently answer probabilistic queries?
Learning, or, what do we do if we don't know what the model is?
Decision theory, or, what happens when it is time to convert beliefs into actions?
Applications, or, what's this all good for, anyway?
Note: (a version of) this page is available in pdf format here. Also, Marie Stefanova has made a Swedish translation here.
Articles in the popular press
LA times article (10/28/96) about Bayes nets.
Economist article (3/22/01) about Microsoft's application of BNs.
Other sources of technical information
Undirected graphical models are more popular with the physics and vision communities, and directed models are more popular with the AI and statistics communities. (It is possible to have a model with both directed and undirected arcs, which is called a chain graph.) For a careful study of the relationship between directed and undirected graphical models, see the books by Pearl88, Whittaker90, and Lauritzen96.
Although directed models have a more complicated notion of independence than undirected models, they do have several advantages. The most important is that one can regard an arc from A to B as indicating that A ``causes'' B. (See the discussion on causality.) This can be used as a guide to construct the graph structure. In addition, directed models can encode deterministic relationships, and are easier to learn (fit to data). In the rest of this tutorial, we will only discuss directed graphical models, i.e., Bayesian networks.
In addition to the graph structure, it is necessary to specify the parameters of the model. For a directed model, we must specify the Conditional Probability Distribution (CPD) at each node. If the variables are discrete, this can be represented as a table (CPT), which lists the probability that the child node takes on each of its different values for each combination of values of its parents. Consider the following example, in which all nodes are binary, i.e., have two possible values, which we will denote by T (true) and F (false).
We see that the event "grass is wet" (W=true) has two possible causes: either the water sprinker is on (S=true) or it is raining (R=true). The strength of this relationship is shown in the table. For example, we see that Pr(W=true | S=true, R=false) = 0.9 (second row |
himself as the best receiver in football. The proof’s all there; all you have to do is watch him run routes, fight for the ball, and make plays after the catch.Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
With 7:30 left in the second quarter of an otherwise forgettable October game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, Cris Collinsworth said the name that had been on Fred Gaudelli's mind for at least five days.
The Steelers were trailing 14-3 at that point, and the game was threatening to go slack. At least that's how it felt to Gaudelli, the producer of NBC's Sunday Night Football and one of the most highly regarded talents in sports television. The Bengals had just scored a touchdown after forcing and recovering a Ben Roethlisberger fumble. In response, Pittsburgh, one of the worst running teams in the league, had decided to keep it on the ground. Jonathan Dwyer for 11 yards. Jonathan Dwyer for five yards.
And that's when Collinsworth noticed something happening along the Steelers' offensive line that casual viewers probably missed.
"Willie Colon inside," the color analyst said, "doing a nice job." Gaudelli, working the dials in a truck parked outside Paul Brown Stadium, had been waiting for this.
Last year, Sunday Night Football became the No. 1 show in America, the first time a sports program had reached the top ratings spot. Even in its heyday, Monday Night Football didn't touch the year-end No. 1 slot. This year, Sunday Night Football is still No. 1, with an average of 21 million people watching per week.
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How'd NBC do it? I met with Gaudelli a few weeks ago at the network's home in Rockefeller Center to ask him that very question. Gaudelli is 52 and looks and sounds like a guy who has spent the better part of 30 years inside the "truck"—the production space outside a stadium where all these live games get packaged and prettied up. He has the solid build of a suburban dad, and he is a quick, lively talker with more than a little of his native Westchester in his accent.
There are a few obvious explanations for NBC's success. Sunday Night Football benefits from a deliriously good schedule (far stronger than ESPN's Monday night slate, which delivers 13 million viewers a week, eight million fewer than the NBC games). The NBC package—which features 17 Sunday-night games, the season opener, a Thanksgiving game, a wild-card playoff, and a Super Bowl once every three years—is loaded with ratings catnip: The Giants, the Patriots, the Steelers, the Packers, the 49ers and the Cowboys each appear three times this season. "The marquee has to have stars," said Gaudelli. "The schedule is a huge part of our success. You'd be foolish to think otherwise."
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Author Jim Miller: "Losing Fred Gaudelli was absolutely one of the biggest personnel mistakes in ESPN history."
There's also the booth team of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, the best in the business, according to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch, and while your mileage may vary on Bob Costas, Tony Dungy, and the rest of the on-air talent, there is no denying the overall crispness of the production, the way everything looks and sounds sharper, the way it seems to see more than the other broadcasts. NBC has taken a time slot and turned it into something else—a big, noisy event, draped in bunting and heralded by trumpets, that takes great pains to illuminate all the small, complicated things that happen on the football field. How the network did that has a lot to do with what happened with 7:30 remaining in the first half on that night in October.
* * *
Each week before NBC's weekly game, Collinsworth sends a tape to Gaudelli. The tape serves as a sort of mini-scouting report that helps Gaudelli's production staff tease out storylines, prepare graphics, and determine where around the stadium the crew's cameras should go. In the run-up to Steelers-Bengals, Collinsworth zeroed in on Colon, an offensive lineman for the Steelers who was making the transition from right tackle to left guard.
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"We had Pittsburgh in pre-season," Gaudelli told me, "and you could tell he was struggling. We had Pittsburgh on opening night in Denver, and he still wasn't there."
But by the time Collinsworth sat down to make his video for Gaudelli, Colon had begun to adapt. "Hey, Willie Colon looks like he's making this transition really nicely here," Collinsworth said on the tape, according to Gaudelli. "Look at this block, look at this block, look at how he sets his hip on this block."
It's Gaudelli's job to figure out how to arrange roughly 20 replay cameras, the ones that aren't focused on the snap. Those cameras are Gaudelli's means for expressing his broadcast philosophy, which centers on one question: What happened off the ball?
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"The problem with football is people watch the ball," Gaudelli told me. "But there are so many things happening off the ball that determines where the ball goes-or doesn't go-and that's the biggest part of football. We really try to show off the ball so you can understand why certain things are happening."
For Steelers-Bengals, the interior offensive line seemed like a pretty good spot on which to train some of those 20 cameras. "Having done a million Steelers games and two Steelers Super Bowls, you know what their run play is. It's a guard trap," Gaudelli said. "There are only about four or five run plays in football and theirs is this one. And when Cris does the tape and points out, 'Hey this guy is blocking pretty well,' and Cincinnati's got a great defensive tackle no one knows about in Geno Atkins, then you say, 'OK, this week we're putting the camera here.'"
It was a smart decision. After Dwyer's five-yard run and after Collinsworth had mentioned Colon, Gaudelli cut to a replay shot from a cable cam behind the huddle. There, a viewer could see Colon sealing off a lane for Dwyer.
On the next play, Dwyer busted through the line for a 22-yard gain. A replay showed Colon throwing Bengals defensive lineman Robert Geathers out of the way. NBC had yet another camera angle that showed off Colon's block.
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"This left guard is creating crevices in the Cincinnati defense," Gaudelli said. "So you do three or four replays in a row on the left guard, showing him knocking people into the secondary—that's off the ball. Madden was big on that. People can see the ball. Let's show them what they can't see."
Now Gaudelli and Collinsworth and Al Michaels had found a storyline. The Steelers were newly alive. As they approached the Bengals' red zone, they put the ball on the ground for a seventh consecutive play. They picked up two yards on the carry and—voila—two more replays of Colon, one showing the guard dragging Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict to the ground (a play that seems to have cost Colon a few dreadlocks).
Collinsworth seized on this as an opportunity to broaden out the story. Here was an effective drive that unfolded largely behind a stalwart offensive lineman still learning a new position but willing to sacrifice his hair for the sake of his team.
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"That's Pittsburgh Steelers stuff right there," Collinsworth said after that last replay of Colon, taking at last the only flight of fancy in an otherwise smartly prosaic sequence. "That is what defined this organization and all those world championships."
It was also the drive that changed the game: The Steelers would win 24-17, and Gaudelli and Collinsworth and Michaels had their throughline in Colon, a narrative that went beyond the generalities that litter Sunday-afternoon broadcasts—"Well, Thom, they're really running the ball well"—to explain why what was happening was happening.
* * *
Gaudelli started his career at ESPN in 1983, working his way up to becoming the lead producer for corporate brother ABC's Monday Night Football in 2001. In the sports-broadcast firmament, he is a superstar. In 2005, as NBC was preparing to take over the primetime package on Sunday night, Gaudelli's agent, Sandy Montag, invited Dick Ebersol into ABC's production truck to watch Gaudelli at work. Within a few minutes, as the ESPN history Those Guys Have All the Fun tells it, Ebersol turned to Montag and said, "This is like watching the frickin' ballet." Gaudelli was hired that night. Ebersol would declare Gaudelli and his battery mate, Sunday Night Football director Drew Esocoff, the "two best hires I've ever had in my sporting life as a producer and director."
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"Gaudelli's production is regarded as the best of its kind—it's the crown jewel of the NFL," Those Guys Have All the Fun co-author Jim Miller told me. "And the fact that ESPN had him and lost him? Losing Fred Gaudelli was absolutely one of the biggest personnel mistakes in ESPN history."
In my conversation with Gaudelli he focused a lot on the announcers—"There is no production that can overcome mediocre announcers. None. Zero. None."—but we kept coming back to that off-the-ball stuff that set up the Colon replays so perfectly. "Do we do that more than other people?" said Gaudelli. "Probably."
Once upon a time, he recalled, a marquee football broadcast was supposed to be "more than the game." That was certainly the perception at Monday Night Football, dating back to the 1970s, Gaudelli said, "and I think that was a true perception probably the first 20 years of its existence. But as things changed and the television landscape changed and technology changed and football changed that was going to be a lot harder to do. The game became much more sophisticated."
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"I mean, look, we're at a point where there won't be huddles in about two years," he continued. "When I started doing football, they'd huddle for a punt. Can you believe that? There's no huddle for a punt anymore. The game was slower. You could do more, there was more time in between plays. All of that was true 20 years ago. That's not true anymore. The game is happening—snap, snap—like this. There's a lot of nuance to the game and the game is more sophisticated and If you're not plugged into the game you're going to miss things."
Football is getting more nuanced, and fans are getting smarter. This is the broadcast that follows both trends. Gaudelli pointed to a Week 6 game he produced between the Texans and Packers, a game Green Bay won on the road.
"Green Bay is having real trouble running the ball" before the game, said Gaudelli. "So, [Aaron] Rodgers tells us in the production meeting. 'Hey you know what? We're going to run out of our spread package because we can run at this safety who wants no part of tackling anybody.' So, game's on, they get in their spread package and in comes Houston's dime package and bam, they're running right at this guy. So you could say: 'Hey, they're having great success running the ball!' Well hey! Actually, here's why they're having great success running the ball. They're running at this 200-pound safety, and they've got an offensive tackle on him. You want to make sure you're at that level of detail of why something's happening instead of saying 'They're doing a great job running the ball! Hey their line is great! Hey, this back is great!' Yes, these things are true but here's why they're true."
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Gaudelli didn't always think this way. In 1997, he worked a game that he now calls the turning point in his career. At the time, Gaudelli was producing Sunday-night games for ESPN. The Lions were in Miami for a December game against the Dolphins, and both teams were playoff-bound. The Dolphins had a 36-year-old Dan Marino, and the Lions had Barry Sanders, who was in the midst of his 2,000-yard co-MVP season, not to mention a streak of 11 games—soon to be 12—in which he rushed for at least 100 yards.
"So we get to the fourth quarter, and it's a tight game," Gaudelli said. "Detroit has the ball with five minutes to go. They basically run Barry Sanders down the field, and they scored a go-ahead. In this whole drive I'm doing all these Barry Sanders things."
An edited clip of the 1997 Lions-Dolphins game that Gaudelli calls the turning point in his career. Video provided by Curt Rosenstein.
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Graphics lit up the screen. "Some are stats, some are historical—hey, he breaks the record for most consecutive 100-yard games," Gaudelli said. "We had this graphic with Sanders where his rushing attempts were like an EKG that would be like two yards, one yard, two yards, 50 yards, two yards, minus two, minus three, 80 yards."
He continued: "Now Marino gets it. He comes back down. They score with like 10 seconds to go to win the game. And during this drive I'm doing all these Marino things."
He thought at the time that this was all pretty great. The game was exciting; his production was exciting; this was compelling TV, he thought. But then he reviewed the tape.
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"I'm like: I remember how exciting this was watching it in the truck and now I'm watching it at home and I sucked the excitement out of it because I'm everywhere except where I needed to be," Gaudelli said. "The light bulb went off. If we just stayed with the game—and as the producer you're dictating flow—it would have been just better. Just to stay with the game! You had two great players. It doesn't get better than Barry Sanders and Dan Marino. And we cluttered it up."
From there, Gaudelli learned a valuable lesson: Don't clutter it up.
"I think at the end of the day your broadcast is judged on how well you covered what we just saw," Gaudelli said. "Well-covered is better than well-planned when covering live events. We could spend hours building this three-dimensional graphic that people in TV will think is cool, but the average person at home isn't going to differentiate that from some flat graphic that I could put on the screen as well. It's the cumulative effect of all those different things that maybe distinguishes Sunday-night game from any other game."
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* * *
In the past, Gaudelli and his crew would spend the two hours before the game checking some cameras and otherwise sitting around and doing nothing. Then he started working with John Madden on Monday Night Football. Madden would pick up "crazy things" that were useful for a broadcast.
"He had you shooting every player,"Gaudelli said. "He'd be saying, 'Hey, look at this guy! Hey, look at how that guy's got his shoe tied—he's a fat guy so he can't tie them in the middle, he's got to tie them to the side!'"
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Now, when teams come out, Gaudelli said, "we're just shooting people, and we're looking and looking."
In the pre-game to Steelers-Bengals, Ben Roethlisberger gathered his offensive line and a couple of tight ends around him. Esocoff, the Sunday Night Football director, told his crew to zoom in on Roethlisberger.
"And Ben's saying, 'We gotta win one game, we gotta win one game, all you guys gotta focus on tonight is winning one game.' You can't hear it but you can read his lips," said Gaudelli. "Then, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp—he head butts all these guys."
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The moment was filmed, saved, and stowed away.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Steelers had the ball and a 24-17 lead. Collinsworth mentioned that Steelers had blown some games in the fourth quarter this season. "Ben Roethlisberger had a team meeting this week," he continued, "and basically said, 'Hey guys, listen, quit relying on the defense to win games in this situation.'" In the truck, Gaudelli perked up. He mentioned something to Michaels and Collinsworth, and a play later—with the Steelers facing third-and-4 in their own end, there was Roethlisberger's moment on screen: "One game!" Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp.
"It's perfect for the moment," Gaudelli said.
On the third down after they showed the clip, Roethlisberger didn't throw a heroic, chain-moving pass. Instead, he handed off to Jonathan Dwyer, who burst through a hole, straight down the right hash marks, for 15 yards. First down. This was another Willie Colon production. After the snap, Colon had bounced up from his left-guard slot, sprinted across the developing play, and walled off Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict. How do we know this? You could see it on the replay. A camera had been squared on the interior offensive line, where the difference was made.The idea crystallised in his mind one morning as Sonam Wangchuk was crossing a bridge in the Indian Himalayas.
The engineer from Ladakh, in the Jammu region of north India, was already a famous problem solver: a Bollywood film loosely based on his life had grossed a billion rupees in its first four days.
But addressing the water shortages that threatened life in his mountainous home had started to feel like an intractable problem until he saw the chunk of ice: still hanging, improbably, beneath the bridge, long after the shards around it had melted.
In that moment, he says, “I understood that it was not the warmth of the sun that was melting the ice on the ground. It was direct sunlight.”
What Wangchuck saw reflected in the ice that day was realised four years ago, when he unveiled his first “ice stupa”, an artificial glacier that towered surreally over the otherwise arid landscape, and for which in December he received a prestigious £80,000 innovation prize.
It is the latest solution to an old problem in the Himalayan foothills. Despite its breathtaking scenery, life in Ladakh has always been hard. It is a desert at 10,000 feet, receiving on average just 50mm of rainfall each year. “The only reason people can live there is the glaciers,” Wangchuk says.
Each winter, titanic shelves of ice form at high altitudes and melt throughout the spring, flowing downwards into the streams that are the veins of civilisation on the mountain. Lately, that cycle has faltered.
Unnaturally high global temperatures threaten ice shelves everywhere – but researchers believe Himalayan glaciers are shrinking more quickly than any on earth. Less water is reaching Ladakh’s farms and villages, and when it does, the volume of water from the faster-melting glaciers can break the banks of streams, causing floods.
Wangchuk is not the first to try to wring a more sustainable water supply from the mountains. For centuries, inhabitants of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges have practiced “glacier grafting”, chipping away at existing ice and pooling the pieces at higher altitudes, hoping to create new glaciers that can supply streams throughout the growing season. Apocryphally, villagers in the 13th century “grew” such glaciers across mountain passes to stop the advance of Genghis Khan.
More than a decade ago, another Indian engineer devised an update. Chewang Norphel earned the nickname the “iceman of Ladakh” by using a network of pipes to divert meltwater into artificial lakes on shaded sides of the mountain. The water would freeze at night, creating glaciers that grew each day as new water flowed into the basin. Norphel created 11 reservoirs that supplied water to 10,000 people.
“The problem was that it couldn’t be done in lower altitudes, where people actually live,” says Wangchuk. The lakes were also restricted to heavily shaded areas, and simply melted too quickly to make up for the shortfall in water wrought by increasing temperatures. Adapting the concept became Wangchuck’s obsession. The auspicious chunk of ice on the bridge showed him how that could be done.
“The ice needed to be shaded – but how?” he says. “We couldn’t have it under a bridge, or use reflectors, which aren’t practical at scale. So we thought of this conical shape: making ice shade itself.”
It was a kind of biomimicry: artificial innovation based on natural phenomena, such as velcro – modelled on the way plant burrs attach to dogs, or new skin grafts that stick to bodies by piercing the tissue and expanding, the same way parasitic worms fix to the intestines of their hosts.
The conical shape hit a sweet spot, maximising the volume of ice that can be “grown”, while minimising the surface area exposed to direct sunlight. That means it keeps melting well into the spring, releasing up to 5,000 litres of water each day by “storing it in the sky”, Wangchuk says.
It also has the benefit of resembling the Buddhist stupas – religious sites used for meditation and worship – that dot the landscape, a crucial point for 50-year-old. “Because it resembles something we have in our tradition, it is made more close to the population, to their hearts,” he says.
Synchronising his work with nature and tradition are key to the inventor’s practice. “Generally I like things to be simple and self-acting,” he says. “For me, simplicity is beauty, simplicity is the ultimate satisfaction.”
And the stupas are simple. They are formed by running pipes below the frost line, at which temperature the water hovers between a liquid and solid state. Then the pipes turn skywards, spraying the water into -20C air, using the bitter cold to freeze it as it falls to earth.
The first prototype, stretching 20 feet high, was built in October 2013, and expected to melt by the beginning of May. It lasted eighteen days longer. A second much larger stupa was grown near a forest of 5,000 trees, and kept them watered throughout the driest months until 6 July.
Those two stupas were funded by crowdsourcing donations. Last year, Wangchuk was awarded a Rolex innovation grant, money he will use to create the next generation of ice towers. 20 more, each 100 feet high, are in the works.
He will also use the money to fund an “alternative university” in Ladakh to train young people to see in their surroundings answers to the region’s problems. “Solutions for the mountains, by the mountain people,” he says.
Like this: Like Loading...CONFIGURATION
Configured for optimum performance in conventional and asymmetric warfare, counter terrorism and peacekeeping missions. There is ample space for the driver, commander, gunner and 8 fully equipped infantrymen together with tools, ammunition and equipment. The Mbombe 6 can easily be configured as a highly effective armoured fighting vehicle by mounting a heavy machine gun or automatic canon/remote weapon station.
PROTECTION
The Mbombe 6 model provides unrivalled protection against landmines, IEDs, side blasts and RPG attacks. This is achieved by revolutionary new technology that provides outstanding mine protection without resorting to the traditional V-shape design. The low silhouette also offers a reduced target, while the armoured hull provides excellent stopping power against ballistic attack (STANAG 4569 level 3 as standard) and anti-tank land mine explosions (STANAG level 4a and 4b).
MOBILITY 6
Mbombe 6 is designed to retain its outstanding mobility characteristics even when combat laden. Equipped with independent suspension all-round, the 6x6 vehicle is able to carry considerable payloads over all types of terrain without loss of mobility and the three axles provide excellent cross-country performance, delivering a highly versatile platform.A very happy birthday to horror legend Vincent Price! Had he not sadly passed away in 1993, Vincent would have been 104 years old tomorrow. To celebrate, we’ve attempted to gather the largest collection of Vincent tributes from around the world. We present to you, 104 portraits of the most famous voice in horror from a selection of independent horror artists.
Cowboy-Lucas
tainted-orchid
gpr117
MonsterbatoryWorld
Serial Thriller
melissakojima
EmilyHitchcock
Montygog
Basil Gogos
anderpeich
mightytiki
face-in-the-sky
Lampert
patriotsofmars
PsycoJimi
greggorysshocktheater
Fable & Fury
CreateYourArt
KurtMAndersen
marcoskapo
JeffStahl
sueworld
SharksDen
bogdancovaciu
croonstreet
mikelechandi
nelsonsantos
numbthumbs
cartooncave
boysandghouls
James Peter McDermott
bloodedemon
seizuredemon
Cecil Porter
Ghoulish Gary
MARTYNAS JUCHNEVICIUS
skinnydevil
JayFosgitt
Fiendish Art
Themrock
greenhorn1923
NoSafeHaven
CHAINSAW-ZOMBIE
ChibiSofa
Dabull04
thehorribleman
The Sound of Vincent Price
The Devils Playground
Pat006
ghastlydelights
Darrel Bevan
Murphy Elliott
fright-rags
Uli Meyer
Joey McInnis
BeckyTylerArt
Monsters4Ever
Chuck Hodi
toonpool
Paul Cemmick
Marian Avramescu
ragzdandelion
Britzombiegirl
muzski
Bob Lizarraga
fieldtoonz
Garvals
Dunlap-Shohl
Ian Baker
Kikelin
Paul Hanley
Martin D
Walter Foreno
Carlos Rubio
RodneyPike
mister-bones
thesinisterimage
tygerbug
wicked-draws
Stan Yan
Robin Cave
zombiebe10u
stephenburger
asamamoru
Jagoba
Parpa
smjblessing
jasonedmiston
MR-BARLOW
MalevolentNate
bombcatdesignco
Caricature80
noverflow
hdtimmons
M-Infernum
Loneanimator
MarjorieCarmona
ricketychives
AshcanAllstars
evilinsomniac6
Grimbro
JoJo-Seames
monstermangraphics
monstercola
Magallanez
TheVortexOfPete
From Exile Grown Man
fancylights
JacquelineRaeCharacter, story, and art © NuisanceBearEull
This is a tabletop game character of mine. GMhandmade an updated Factotum class just for him. (I'm super spoiled!)There are a few things about August that you should probably know:1. He is one of the smartest people in the world.2. He's captive to his family legacy... mostly by choice.3. He's one of a small handful of people in the world who can use firearms appropriately.4. Do what you like with him... just leave his hair alone!!5. Do what you like with his hair... just leave his sister alone!!For someone so smart, he really does have a lot to learn... about himself and everything else.(Yes, he's read all those books. And then some.)You may remember some of his family from earlier art.Great-great-grandparents Doges and Maria Dorian:Great grandparents August I and Giselle Dorian:Sister Andrea:I have been in a slump and have needed some help to learn and get good, so....Photo reference for bookshelf used.Pose from a sheet provided by kibbitzer's patreon Go throw money at them!An inmate who killed himself at London’s jail had complained about being assaulted and having his medication stolen and denied, The Free Press has learned.
Family members declined to talk Friday, but several sources confirmed the identity of the inmate at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) who died after being found hanging in his segregation cell Monday.
The Free Press has decided not to publish the man’s name at this time.
According to his Facebook profile, the 30-year-old man graduated from a London high school and was the father of a young child with a woman with whom he’d had a steady relationship for several years.
He was known as a regular at EMDC, and served at least four sentences the past five years.
But he never got comfortable with the conditions in jail, complaining about the overcrowding, assaults from inmates and staff, having medication stolen by inmates, and being denied medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sources said.
It’s not clear if those complaints were made to officials at the jail.
A friend told The Free Press the man had been struggling with addiction for years and another stint at EMDC, in segregation, might have been too much.
“You are in jail and you feel like a loser and you can’t ever get it together,” said the friend, a recovering addict. “You can’t help but get to that place (suicide) sometimes.”
Correctional sources said the man was in segregation for “acting out.”
Inmates are supposed to be screened at admission about their mental health and potential for suicide.
Inquests in Ontario have exposed flaws in the system in the past, from improper screening for mental illness to staff not sharing health information.
No one has suggested that happened in this case, and correctional sources said the man expressed no thoughts about suicide. Details will surface during a coroner’s investigation, called in Ontario when an inmate dies of unnatural causes.
The suicide cast EMDC, long a flashpoint for troubles in Ontario’s corrections system, back into the spotlight last week.
A few days before the suicide, inmates on one range began protesting conditions by banging and kicking their cells doors just as NDP corrections critic Lisa Gretzky toured the centre.
For the past month, inmates said, they’ve been locked in their cells from Friday afternoon to Monday morning as the province sends people from Chatham and Windsor serving weekends to EMDC.
Inmates on one range banded together to request “blue letters,” the forms used to complain to the Ontario ombudsman.
The ombudsman is looking into reports an entire range sent in letters at once, spokesperson Linda Williamson said.
In September alone, the office received 33 complaints about EMDC, with 22 from the blue letters, compared with 82 the previous five months, she said.
randy.richmond@sunmedia.caWith his contract running down and expiring this summer, Nemanja Vidić has confirmed that he will leave Manchester United at the end of the season.
The Serbian defender has been a mainstay in the Old Trafford side for eight years, winning 15 trophies along the way.
Vidić has proven himself as one of the most able and uncompromising central defenders that English football has seen in the last decade, and his departure will be the cause of sadness for the club’s fans.
But, what does it mean for United?
The truth is that it is probably the right moment for the talismanic skipper to call time on his time in Manchester. The club has been going through a well-documented transitional period since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, and this will involve significant change in the playing personnel also.
Under the legendary Scot, a central defensive pairing of Vidić and Rio Ferdinand was the core to which the team was based around. However, the sad truth is that both are getting older and with the future in mind new incumbents are needed.
There is no doubt that if Vidić had been handed a 12-month contract extension in Manchester he has all the attributes to continue holding down a spot in the United first team.
However, with David Moyes eager to make his own mark on the squad, it needs to be out with the old and in with the new – with Ferdinand more than likely set to leave in the summer also.
United have a number of options at centre-half already, with Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones able to slot in. Although all three have comprehensive Premier League experience and are international players, at the moment none have the presence and stature of a Vidić or Ferdinand in their pomp.
As such Moyes will need to add centre-half to the long list of positions that he needs reinforcements, with the Old Trafford side looking likely to be very busy in the transfer market this summer.
Plenty of central defenders have been linked with a switch to Manchester over the last year, and it would seem that a big-money addition is in the offing to compensate for the loss of the club’s captain.
Although Vidić’s departure will rob United of a top-drawer central defender, it will also remove a leader from a side that is in dire need of direction. Just whom Moyes opts to select as his captain next season will be captivating viewing in itself.
United have struggled this season in the face of other teams strengthening over the summer, and it will need some strong character and resolve at the Old Trafford club to get them back into contention.
Vidić will move back to the continent, with a switch to Italy seemingly the preferred option. Filling his boots will be one of the main tasks for Moyes ahead of what will be a definitive campaign for manager and club in 2014-15.A documentary about Turkish cats led all films in nominations for the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, with docs about Syria, the environment, typewriters and buried silent films following close behind.
Ceyda Torun’s “Kedi,” a playful examination of the many cats that run free in Istanbul, landed four nominations, including Best Documentary and Best Director. In addition, its feline subjects were one of seven winners in the Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary category. (The others were all human.)
Films that received three nominations were Doug Nichol’s “California Typewriter,” Jeff Orlowski’s “Chasing Coral,” Matthew Heineman’s “City of Ghosts,” Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Cries From Syria” and Bill Morrison’s “Dawson City: Frozen Time.”
Also Read: 'Faces Places,' 'Abacus,' 'Risk' Get Oscar Boost From DOC NYC's Short List
All were nominated in the Best Documentary category, which also included Steve James’ “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” Frederick Wiseman’s “Ex Libris: New York Public Library,” Agnes Varda and JR’s “Faces Places,” Brett Morgen’s “Jane” and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “One of Us.”
Also in the category: Irene Taylor Brodsky’s “Beward the Slenderman,” Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens’ “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds,” Colin Hanks’ “Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis,” Jeff Malmberg and Chris Shellen’s “Spettacolo” and Yance Ford’s “Strong Island.”
Because of the increasingly blurry lines in nonfiction filmmaking, the CCDA combined what had been separate categories for film and television docs into single categories, which resulted in the top category sporting a supersized 16 nominees.
Nominations were also made for directing, as well as for political docs, sports docs, music docs, songs in docs and both limited and ongoing documentary series on television.
Also Read: 'Faces Places' Review: Agnès Varda Takes a Joyful Artist's Journey Into Rural France
The nominations were made by nominating committees made up of members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association. (Full disclosure: I was a member of two of those committees.)
The second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards will be held on November 2 at BRIC in Brooklyn, New York, and will be hosted for the second year by comedian and magician Penn Teller.
At that ceremony, director Joe Berlinger will be given the Critics’ Choice Impact Award.
The Critics’ Choice Awards for non-documentary film and television work will take place on December 10 in Santa Monica, California.
Also Read: Oscars Documentary Race Breaks a Record: Here's the List of All 159 Entries
The Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominees:
Best Documentary
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“Beware the Slenderman”
“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”
“California Typewriter”
“Chasing Coral”
“City of Ghosts”
“Cries From Syria”
“Dawson City: Frozen in Time”
“Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis”
“Ex Libris: New York Public Library”
“Faces Places”
“Jane”
“Kedi”
“One of Us”
“Spettacolo”
“Strong Island”
Best Director
Evgeny Afineevsky, “Cries From Syria”
Amir Bar-Lev, “Long Strange Trip”
Matthew Heineman, “City of Ghosts”
Bill Morrison, “Dawson City: Frozen in Time”
Doug Nichol, “California Typewriter”
Jeff Orlowski, “Chasing Coral”
Irene Taylor Brodsky, “Beware the Slenderman”
Ceyda Torun, “Kedi”
Agnes Varda & JR, “Faces, Places”
Frederick Wiseman, “Ex Libris”
Best First Documentary
“California Typewriter”
“Kedi”
“Nowhere to Hide”
“Step”
“Strong Island”
“Whose Streets”
Best Political Documentary
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“City of Ghosts”
“Dolores”
“11/8/16”
“An Inconvenient Sequel”
“The Reagan Show”
Best Sports Documentary
“AlphaGo”
“Disgraced”
“Icarus”
“Speed Sisters”
“Take Every Wave”
“Trophy”
Best Music Documentary
“Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives”
“Contemporary Color”
“Eagles of Death Metal”
“I Called Him Morgan”
“Long Strange Trip”
“Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World”
Most Innovative Documentary
“Casting JonBenet”
“Dawson City: Frozen Time”
“Karl Marx City”
“Kedi”
“Last Men in Aleppo”
“78/52”
Best Song in a Documentary
“Tell Me How Long” from |
center similar to those at Mary's Place Family Centers in North Seattle and White Center where more than 40 local nonprofits and teams of community and corporate volunteers join Mary's Place staff on site to provide services and work with families to help them secure permanent housing and employment.
Amazon employees are frequent visitors and volunteers at the existing shelter – bringing meals, organizing arts and crafts projects, throwing parties for the families, and more. By sharing permanent space with Mary's Place, Amazon employees will now have even more opportunities to volunteer and support the organization and the families they serve.Former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro did not apologize for breaking spending rules in his 2008 campaign, instead telling a court on Tuesday how difficult the prosecution and trial had been on his family.
Speaking at the end of the sentencing hearing, Del Mastro, 44, described a two-and-a-half-year ordeal since he learned of the Elections Canada investigation into his campaign finances.
The investigation and trial, Del Mastro said, has taken a financial, physical and emotional toll.
He was found guilty in October of overspending on the campaign, breaking his personal campaign contribution limit and filing a false return with Elections Canada to conceal the overspending. His campaign official agent, Richard McCarthy, was also found guilty.
With his voice quivering, Del Mastro recounted a life that had taken him from a childhood in a “poor but hardworking and closely-knit farm family,” to becoming MP and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.
“Everything I have worked for, or achieved in my life, I have lost, or is at risk, from these proceedings,” he told the court.
The only regret he expressed in his statement was that he had ever met Frank Hall, co-owner of the voter-contact firm at the centre of the case and key witness against him, and the impact of the charges on his immediate and extended family.
“I never realized I was placing them in harm’s way simply by entering public life,” he said. He told the court he “deeply regretted” that effect of the case on them.
Many of his family members, including his wife Kelly, were in the courtroom to hear his statement.
The closest he came to contrition for the offences was a reference to the many sleepless nights he suffered since Cameron’s guilty verdict.
“My thought and prayers were dominated by questions, research, and discussions about things we could have done differently,” he said.
The former MP’s apparent lack of remorse was cited in sentencing arguments from Crown prosecutor Tom Lemon earlier in the case.
After he was found guilty in October, Del Mastro told reporters the verdict was simply Judge Lisa Cameron’s “opinion.”
That was “another demonstration of Mr. Del Mastro’s failure to recognize the seriousness of his actions,” Lemon told the court.
Cameron will sentence Del Mastro on June 26.
The Crown wants Del Mastro to serve between nine and 12 months in jail.
“In my submission, the only sufficient punishment is imprisonment,” Lemon said. “Obviously he suffered, but he suffered as direct result of his own conduct.”
Defence lawyer Leo Adler argued that Del Mastro should receive a discharge and, at most, a fine.
Del Mastro is a first-time offender who was “publicly humiliated and disgraced, publicly excoriated,” Adler said.
He noted that Del Mastro resigned as the MP for Peterborough voluntarily in November 2014 — costing him more than $100,000 in lost salary and benefits — after he was found guilty, even though he didn’t have to quit until a conviction had been entered.
Although Del Mastro has been found guilty, he has not yet been convicted, as Cameron could grant him a conditional or absolute discharge that would not see a conviction recorded.
The Crown dismissed Del Mastro’s resignation as a factor in sentencing, noting that he was about to be suspended from the House of Commons.
Adler argued that the overspending was unlikely to have made a difference to the 2008 election result in the riding. He said the offences were substantially different than the “robocalls” case for which former Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona was sentenced to nine months in jail last year.
It is for voters decide how serious an issue the overspending really was, Adler said.
“The real judges in that sense will be people of Peterborough.
“The Crown, he told the court, is “not giving credit to the people of Canada when they say this offence and this offender ought to be incarcerated.”
McCarthy will also be sentenced on June 26.
gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/glen_mcgregorI’ve long been on record as saying that a field watch may be the most accessible watch design for most guys. Typically less bulky than a dive watch, more simple than a chronograph and more fitting for daily use than most dress watches, field watches have a lot to offer. While I’ll admit this is a simplification, when someone is asking for help picking a new watch and has no idea of the thousands of options at their disposal, such simplifications are quite handy. More to the point of this review, the Hamilton Khaki Field is a line I frequently recommend to friends who are looking for their first “good” watch. With strong legibility, classic styling and a range of case size and movement options, the Khaki Field has earned its place among the best entry-level Swiss watches. We even gave one away last month.
This specific Khaki Field may be familiar to those of you who have an eye for spotting watches in movies and television shows. This Khaki Field, the Titanium Auto (ref: H70575733), can be seen in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the latest in the Tom Clancy-inspired movie franchise. Worn by analyst-turned-field operative and all around good guy Jack Ryan, the Khaki Field Titanium Auto is a solid choice for this character and certainly looks the part next to the parade of tactical gear that is seen in the film.
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The Titanium Auto’s case is 42 mm wide and made, predictably, of lightweight titanium. Measuring 52 mm lug to lug and just 11.75 mm thick at the crest of its slightly-domed sapphire crystal, this Khaki Field iteration may be the most wearable in the line, weighing only 66g with the strap.
Treated to a matte black PVD coating, the Titanium Auto has the look of a piece of military equipment and the finish is remarkable and better than most PVD treatments we commonly see. As a finishing touch, Hamilton has fitted the Titanium Auto with a matching black crown, a welcome addition that is not always seen on cheaper watches.
The dial design is typical field watch but with a few small flares that serve to remind you of why you spent a bit more on a Hamilton. The text is clean, crisp and super legible with the main arabic hour markers and hands offering a luminous treatment that is accented by luminous pips at every five minute increment on the outer minute scale. The hour markers sit in their own ring within the dial design, which has a slightly shinier finish than the rest of the dial. This adds a bit of visual flare to a dial design that is typically pretty simple.
The inner dial is host to the branding and model text, which is rendered in a well-proportioned font size and balances nicely with the rest of the dial. Also fitting for a field watch, the Khaki Field Titanium Auto has a 24 hour scale on the inner dial segment. While Hamilton regrettably does not offer a GMT version of this watch, the 24 hour scale aids the military appeal of the Titanium Auto.
The date display is my only problem with this otherwise excellent watch. It looks like a bit of an afterthought, fitted at three in a manner that cuts into the three marker, likely due to the width of the movement vs the width of the dial. Along with the somewhat awkward placement on the dial, the date display is black text on a white background and on an otherwise entirely black watch, I feel a white on black wheel might have been a more balanced choice.Genetically Engineered Trees Conference Met with Protest in Chile
5 June 2017
Concepción, Chile – People from Chile representing social movements, Indigenous organizations and environmental justice groups marched to the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) 2017 Tree Biotechnology Conference on its opening day here. They were stopped outside of the conference by the Carabinero police forces. There were no arrests.
The protests occurred simultaneous to the first session of the IUFRO conference, “Chilean Forestry and Adoption of New Technologies,” hosted by the Chilean Forest Association (CORMA) and Arauco, one of the two largest forestry companies in the country.
The Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees [1] is in Concepción to monitor the conference sessions and to be in solidarity with groups organizing a week of counter-conference activities in the city [2]. The Campaign is posting news and photos from the week of events on its Chile Blog.
The IUFRO conference being targeted due to its promotion of genetically engineered (GE) trees [3] and the advancement of the Chilean forestry model, which includes vast monoculture plantations of pine and eucalyptus trees.
(Left) A public declaration against the Chilean forestry model was issued today by social movements of the Chilean and Mapuche peoples, stating that, “Ending the prevailing forest model is a matter of life or death. We must put an end to the harmful effects of monoculture forestry: the ongoing water crisis, degradation of arable land, urban and rural poverty, loss of native forest, wetlands, ecosystems and the proliferation of forest fires.”
Anne Petermann, International Coordinator for the Campaign to STOP GE Trees stated, “Chile’s forestry model, advanced under the Pinochet dictatorship, has already resulted in wide ranging impacts. It has displaced Mapuche communities from their ancestral lands, driving many communities into poverty and depleting their fresh water supply.” Additionally Peterman said, “Monoculture tree plantations devastated by insect infestation are also blamed for the worst wildfire season in the country’s history and many members of communities wiped out by the fires insist that the timber companies set fire to their own insect-damaged plantations to collect the insurance money.”
Notes:
[1] The Campaign to STOP GE Trees is an international coalition of organizations dedicated to protecting forests, biodiversity and forest dependent communities through the demand for a global rejection of all genetically engineered trees. Organizations in the Campaign include Biofuelwatch (US and UK), Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, Field Liberation Movement (Belgium), Friends of the Earth Melbourne (Australia), GE Free New Zealand, Global Justice Ecology Project (US), Indigenous Environmental Network (North America), OLCA: Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales (Chile), and World Rainforest Movement (Brazil and Uruguay).
[2] The week of counter-conference activities is hosted by the Coordination for the Defense of the Territories, and the Movement for Water and the Territories.
[3] The entire day on Wednesday and portions of other days at the conference are devoted to advancements in the commercialization of genetically engineered trees.Looking for news you can trust?
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Update 11/04/14: North Dakota voters roundly rejected Measure 1. At the time of this update, 64 percent had voted against the constitutional amendment.
North Dakota is poised to become the first state in the country to recognize a fertilized egg as a person. At least, that’s what opponents say about a controversial ballot measure to amend state’s constitution. Supporters say that’s total bunk.
The proposal, known as Measure 1, would add a single sentence to the North Dakota constitution: “The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.” But the two camps fiercely disagree over whether this language makes Measure 1 a “personhood” amendment—the latest in a series of state proposals defining life as beginning at the moment of conception and giving legal rights to fertilized eggs.
If there was ever a year when that distinction mattered, it’s 2014. Democrats have slammed Joni Ernst, the Republican pick for Senate in Iowa, for supporting personhood. And they’ve hammered Corey Gardner, the Republican nominee for Senate in Colorado, for his past support of a personhood bill. Personhood amendments were developed with the intention of kicking off a legal fight that would eventually overturn Roe v. Wade. But they have failed all three times they have gone before voters—twice in Colorado, and once in Mississippi. Fans of Measure 1 fully recognize the term’s toxicity: ND Choose Life, the official ballot committee for supporters, released a memo arguing that Measure 1 “is not a personhood amendment.” And Christopher Dodson, director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, says that Measure 1 opponents use the word “personhood” to describe the amendment “because they’re trying to portray it as extreme.”
To reproductive rights advocates and opponents of the amendment, that’s just semantics. “Part of the reason they may have changed some of the messaging is because they’ve been defeated in Colorado and Mississippi,” says Elizabeth Nash, the senior state issues associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. “But the measure is very similar to the personhood amendments you saw in those states.”
The facts seem to back this up. Last year, as legislators debated whether to place Measure 1 on the ballot, North Dakota press and supporters of the bill universally referred to it as a “personhood amendment.” Republican state Sen. Margaret Sitte—who wrote the amendment using a Wikipedia article as her guide—didn’t object to the word “personhood” at the time. And a few days after the statehouse approved Measure 1, in March 2013, Sitte held a celebratory press conference with Personhood USA—the Colorado-based group responsible for kicking off the personhood movement—as well as with its local affiliate, Personhood North Dakota.
National anti-abortion rights groups hailed North Dakota for making history. “This is the first time in United States history that a legislative body has approved a personhood amendment in both the House and the Senate,” LifeSiteNews.com, a conservative anti-abortion website, proclaimed in a statement. “This amendment is intended to present a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade,” Sitte said of her bill to create Measure 1—echoing language used to describe other personhood measures.
Today, ND Choose Life uses the exact same office space that Personhood North Dakota occupied before that organization shut down in May 2013. (ND Choose Life did not reply to a request for comment.)
Mainstream anti-abortion advocates still aren’t clear on whether Measure 1 is a personhood amendment, either. A spokeswoman for Americans United for Life, the legal arm of the anti-abortion rights movement, declined to answer questions from Mother Jones about Measure 1 “as AUL does not handle personhood issues.” (The questions did not include the word “personhood.”)
But James Bopp, a conservative legal heavyweight who has derided personhood measures in the past, says that this ballot amendment is different. “This measure doesn’t confer personhood,” he tells Mother Jones. “It doesn’t make the unborn a person. It doesn’t confer rights on anybody.”
North Dakotans Against Measure 1 and ND Choose Life, the ballot committees that oppose and support the amendment, have raised $829,786 and $588,601 respectively. Planned Parenthood affiliates from across the country have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the measure’s opponents.
If Measure 1 passes, it is scheduled to go into effect in December. Opponents argue that passing the amendment could undermine dying patients’ end-of-life instructions, poke holes in do-not-resuscitate orders, and make in vitro fertilization impossible. (Sitte disputes this. But she wrote an article in 2012 endorsing the idea that IVF is immoral. “Children are begotten, not made,” read title of her piece. “In IVF, children are created in a glass dish, not through an act of love.”) Supporters claim that passing the amendment would protect the status quo in North Dakota, but that failing to pass the amendment would make North Dakota—which has just one abortion clinic—”the most abortion-friendly state in the union.” In reality, it is very likely that Measure 1 will encounter a court challenge and that a judge will temporarily block the amendment before it goes into effect.
Despite the million-dollar-plus campaign fight, a large portion of North Dakota voters remain undecided on Measure 1. The University of North Dakota released a poll in early October showing that 50 percent of voters supported the amendment, 33 percent of voters opposed it, and 17 percent were undecided. A more recent poll, conducted by private polling firm for two local news outlets, found that 45 percent of voters opposed the bill and 39 percent supported it, but 16 percent were still unsure.
Nash says it’s not just a matter of what changes Measure 1 will or won’t make to the law. “It would be a real blow to women’s rights and psychological blow to reproductive health advocates, the idea that we would lose one of these personhood fights,” Nash says. “This is pretty extreme.”Try finding somewhere to park on a Friday night among RiNo’s warehouses, bars and endless rows of cars on its sidewalk-less streets.
Try driving to the River North district on a Friday night. Once you’ve maneuvered around the construction cones and the drunk people on bicycle-powered buses, the real challenge is finding somewhere to park among the warehouses, bars and endless rows of cars on its streets, which often lack sidewalks.
“We realize we’ve kind of reached a critical point on this. The tension’s starting to build with more people, more construction,” said Jamie Licko, president of the River North Art District.
In response, the district is embarking on a study that could result in significant changes to the parking situation along Brighton and the area’s other streets.
“We have very little parking management happening here right now,” Licko said.
“For the most part, RiNo’s still a free-for-all, and that’s pretty odd for a neighborhood … at this point in our evolution, that you can park for the most part free and without time restrictions.”
The study, which the local business improvement district plans to take on with the city, will look at a few options.
First, it’ll ask whether time limits for street-side parking might free up spots more often.
It also will look at whether the area could make better use of existing parking, such as the Rockies overflow parking at Blake and 27th streets; and it will try to lay out a collaborative strategy for the new parking garages being built by private developers and potentially by the city for the National Western Center.
Moreover, RiNo’s looking at the extent to which traditional parking really is the answer. “There’s people on our board who don’t want the word parking at all to be involved in (the name of) our study,” Licko said.
“We’re looking at not just the present, but the future,” she explained.
“We’re really trying to be thoughtful not just as we look at parking alone, but parking into the future: How will driverless cars impact on that? How can we use circulators or transit that alleviates traffic? How do we build parking that can be changed in the future?”
The city and developers already are taking on pedestrian-friendly projects on Brighton Boulevard, over and along the South Platte River, and on Washington Street, not to mention the new rail station at 38th and Blake.
For now, though, Licko acknowledged that automobiles remain one of the main ways people get around the former industrial area, which in many places lacks even basic sidewalks.
“We’re still a car-oriented population here,” she said.
The improvement district, which is funded by an extra local property tax, also is trying to incorporate other groups’ parking concerns.
For example, the Curtis Park neighborhood group intersects with RiNo’s boundaries and recently worked with the city on new parking restrictions for areas, including Larimer Street, Licko said.
“Our neighborhood (businesses) got pretty upset about that, and I think rightfully so, because you’re starting to put restrictions on one of our streets without looking at how the commercial corridor works together,” she said. “It’s just going to create problems at other parts.”
RiNo’s supportive of the new restrictions on Larimer and of Curtis Park’s work on the issue, but wants to tackle the issue as part of the more holistic look at traffic around River North.
“We think the recommendations for Larimer are wise, and time restrictions are critical, but we need to do it in a way that won’t have a domino effect of negative impacts in other commercial areas,” she wrote later in an email.
Licko is preparing to issue a request for proposals to find the company that will conduct the parking study and hopes to have it underway soon. Meanwhile, if you have some comments to share on the RiNo parking situation, email me.
This story was updated with further comments from Licko about the Curtis Park study.The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Union Square district of San Francisco, California, and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County.[2] Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of journalists, artists and musicians, it soon began to accept businessmen and entrepreneurs as permanent members, as well as offering temporary membership to university presidents and military commanders who were serving in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, the club has a diverse membership of many local and global leaders, ranging from artists and musicians to businessmen.[citation needed]
Clubhouse [ edit ]
The Bohemian Club's City Clubhouse, viewed from the corner of Taylor Street and Post Street.
The City Club is located in a six-story masonry building at the corner of Post Street and Taylor Street, two blocks west of Union Square, and on the same block as both the Olympic Club and the Marines Memorial Club. The clubhouse contains dining rooms, meeting rooms, a bar, a library, an art gallery, a theater, and guestrooms.
Bohemian Grove [ edit ]
B and C and surrounded by words of the club's motto The club's mascot owl cast in masonry perched over the main entrance at 624 Taylor. The owl is flanked by the lettersandand surrounded by words of the club's motto
Every year the club hosts a two-week-long (three weekends) camp at Bohemian Grove, which is notable for its illustrious guest list and its eclectic Cremation of Care ceremony which mockingly burns "Care"[3] (the normal woes of life) with grand pageantry, pyrotechnics and brilliant costumes, all done at the edge of a lake and at the base of a forty-foot'stone' owl statue.[4] In addition to that ceremony, devised by co-founder James F. Bowman in 1881, there are also two outdoor performances (dramatic and comedic plays), often with elaborate set design and orchestral accompaniment. The more elaborate of the two is the Grove Play, or High Jinks; the more ribald is called Low Jinks.[5] More often than not, the productions are original creations of the Associate members but active participation of hundreds of members of all backgrounds is traditional.[6]
History [ edit ]
Bohemianism [ edit ]
In New York City and other American metropolises in the late 1850s, groups of young, cultured journalists flourished as self-described "bohemians" until the American Civil War broke them up and sent them out as war correspondents.[7] During the war, reporters began to assume the title "bohemian," and newspapermen in general took up the moniker. "Bohemian" became synonymous with "newspaper writer".[7] California journalist Bret Harte first wrote as "The Bohemian" in The Golden Era in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings. Harte described San Francisco as a sort of Bohemia of the West.[8] Mark Twain called himself and poet Charles Warren Stoddard bohemians in 1867.[7]
Founding [ edit ]
The Bohemian Club was originally formed in April 1872 by and for journalists who wished to promote a fraternal connection among men who enjoyed the arts. Michael Henry de Young, proprietor of the San Francisco Chronicle, provided this description of its formation in a 1915 interview:
The Bohemian Club was organized in the Chronicle office by Tommy Newcombe, Sutherland, Dan O'Connell, Harry Dam, J.Limon and others who were members of the staff. The boys wanted a place where they could get together after work, and they took a room on Sacramento street below Kearny. That was the start of the Bohemian Club, and it was not an unmixed blessing for the Chronicle because the boys would go there sometimes when they should have reported at the office. Very often when Dan O'Connell sat down to a good dinner there he would forget that he had a pocketful of notes for an important story.[9]
Journalists were to be regular members; artists and musicians were to be honorary members.[10] The group quickly relaxed its rules for membership to permit some people to join who had little artistic talent, but enjoyed the arts and had greater financial resources. Eventually, the original "bohemian" members were in the minority and the wealthy and powerful controlled the club.[11][12] Club members who were established and successful, respectable family men, defined for themselves their own form of bohemianism which included men who were bons vivants, sometime outdoorsmen, and appreciators of the arts.[8] Club member and poet George Sterling responded to this redefinition:
Any good mixer of convivial habits considers he has a right to be called a Bohemian. But that is not a valid claim. There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism. The first is devotion or addiction to one or more of the Seven Arts; the other is poverty. Other factors suggest themselves: for instance, I like to think of my Bohemians as young, as radical in their outlook on art and life; as unconventional, and, though this is debatable, as dwellers in a city large enough to have the somewhat cruel atmosphere of all great cities.[13]
Despite his purist views, Sterling associated very closely with the Bohemian Club, and caroused with artist and industrialist alike at the Bohemian Grove.[13]
Oscar Wilde, upon visiting the club in 1882, is reported to have said "I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-looking Bohemians in my life."[14]
Membership [ edit ]
A number of past membership lists are in public domain,[10] but modern club membership lists are private. Some prominent figures have been given honorary membership, such as Richard Nixon and William Randolph Hearst. Members have included some U.S. presidents (usually before they are elected to office), many cabinet officials, and CEOs of large corporations, including major financial institutions. Major military contractors, oil companies, banks (including the Federal Reserve), utilities, and national media have high-ranking officials as club members or guests. Many members are, or have been, on the board of directors of several of these corporations; however, artists and lovers of art are among the most active members. The club's bylaws require ten percent of the membership be accomplished artists of all types (composers, musicians, singers, actors, lighting artists, painters, authors, etc.). During the first half of the 20th century membership in the club was especially valued by painters and sculptors, who exhibited their work on the premises, in both permanent displays and special exhibitions, and did not pay any commissions on sales to members.[15] Many of the club's artists were nationally recognized figures, such as William Keith, Arthur Frank Mathews, Xavier Martinez, Jules Eugene Pages, Edwin Deakin, William Ritschel, Jo Mora, and Arthur Putnam.
The club motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", a line taken from Act 2, Scene 2, of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The club motto implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. When gathered in groups, Bohemians usually adhere to the injunction, though discussion of business often occurs between pairs of members.[16]
Bret Harte Memorial [ edit ]
The Bret Harte Memorial by Jo Mora.
A bronze relief by Jo Mora is installed on the exterior of the building. It serves as a memorial to author and poet Bret Harte. The relief, which is approximately 3 ft. 3 7/8 in. x 7 ft. 11 5/8 in. x 2 1/2 in. (101 cm x 243 cm x 6 cm), was first dedicated in on August 15, 1919, as a tribute by Mora, who was a member, to fellow Bohemian Club member Harte. The relief shows fifteen characters from books by Harte. It is inscribed:
Proper left, upper corner:
J J MORA AUGUST 15, 1919
Proper left, lower edge:
L. DE ROME BRONZE FOUNDRY
Top center wreath:
IN MEMORIAM BRET HARTE 1836–1902 AD
followed by the founder's mark for L. De Rome. When the original building was torn down, the relief was removed. In 1934, it was reinstalled on the building that stands today.[17]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes
Bibliography
Coordinates:VR and nausea is akin to drinking and a hangover. Drinking is fun but drink too much and a hangover ensues.
Too much VR, and the nausea will likely kick in too.
Valve boss Gabe Newell claims that their new HTC Vive device has solved the nausea problem. Gabe claims Zero percent of people experience nausea with the Vive.
"zero percent of people get motion sick"
What causes nausea in VR? Generally if you move in a different fashion compared to real-life, it may cause nausea. The extent of which is dependent on the person. The two primary causes are:
If you turn your head and the image is a little delayed
Your controller moves your view point whilst your head remains stationary
The HTC Vive features its own controllers and their lighthouse motion-tracking devices track your movement very accurately. The key is tricking your brain into feeling like it is there, aka VR presence.
Michael Abrash gave a talk on VR at Steam Dev Days in 2014. According to the VR research team at Valve, all of the following are needed to establish presence.
A wide field of view (80 degrees or better)
Adequate resolution (1080p or better)
Low pixel persistence (3 ms or less)
A high enough refresh rate (>60 Hz, 95 Hz is enough but less may be adequate)
Global display where all pixels are illuminated simultaneously (rolling display may work with eye tracking.)
Optics (at most two lenses per eye with trade-offs, ideal optics not practical using current technology)
Optical calibration
Rock-solid tracking - translation with millimeter accuracy or better, orientation with quarter degree accuracy or better, and volume of 1.5 meter or more on a side
Low latency (20 ms motion to last photon, 25 ms may be good enough)
The HTC Vive meets or beats these specifications. Are the days of VR nausea coming to an end?
We may find out in November.WWE STAR OFF TV DUE TO CONTRACT DISPUTE
Ryback, who lost to WWE United States champion Kalisto last night during the WWE Payback Kickoff Show, is not at Raw in St. Louis tonight.
The word making the rounds, according to multiple sources, is that Ryback was sent home and will be, as of this writing, off TV indefinitely. One version of the story is that Ryback himself asked to be pulled from TV.
Ryack's contract with the company expires this summer and the two sides have been, according to several sources, at odds over negotiations for a new contract.
Ryback first worked for WWE in 2004 as part of The Million Dollar Tough Enough season that was integrated into Smackdown. He was signed to WWE developmental in 2006 and debuted on the first season of WWE NXT. After extended time off TV due to a badly broken ankle, he returned as the current incarnation of Ryback and has been a regular on the main roster, and at times a PPV main eventer, since.
More as we get it.
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If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more, right now for THREE DAYS free by clicking here!Views on what constitutes humane treatment of animals vary widely from country to country, and it is perhaps fair to say that Japan’s stance on animal welfare may differ from what is considered acceptable in many Western countries.
This week’s query comes from R.M., an overseas tourist who was concerned at the condition of some horses she saw on a recent visit to Mount Fuji. R.M. also sent the photos reprinted here.
I am writing to you about incidences my group witnessed at the fifth and sixth stations of Mount Fuji in August. Tourists can travel on horseback between these two stations. During our ascent and descent, I witnessed what I would consider animal cruelty towards these horses:
• Horses tied up in a restricted fashion (some facing the wall, unable to see anything around them or interact with humans and other horses alike).
• Many horses with white foam around their mouths, possibly from dehydration, as I did not see any horse being given water/tied up near an accessible water source
• Horses tied up in direct sunlight.
R.M. also says that some of the horses seemed too thin, and that she saw a staff member hitting one.
The horses are managed by the Fuji-Yoshida Riding Association, and the staff that work there are not the owners. It seems that the horses are owned by various individuals, who allow them to be used for the tourists.
The Fuji-Tobu Public Health Center handles animal welfare issues in this area of Yamanashi Prefecture. Lifelines spoke to a helpful official from the health center, who also happens to be a vet. He went to investigate matters and reported back. He was willing to be interviewed for this article but asked not to be named.
According to the vet, there are currently 19 horses at the site on Mount Fuji. Sixteen of them are working horses, taking tourists on their backs or pulling carts. These horses are rotated on a regular basis, with some waiting for tourists while others rest at a stable some distance away, out of the public eye.
The remaining three are elderly “retired” horses that are no longer used to carry people. They are there primarily for socialization, as their owners want them to spend time with other horses for companionship. The vet checked with the manager of the association, and it seems that the animals in the photos supplied by R.M. were these elderly horses.
“They are rather gaunt in appearance but this is due to advanced age and is normal for elderly horses,” says the vet. He was unsure why the three retired horses would be with the working horses rather than relaxing down at the stables. “As they are older animals, perhaps the owners instructed the staff to keep an eye on them.”
On the issue of not appearing to have access to water at the station, the vet said there is ample water down at the stable for the horses that are off-duty. I asked why there didn’t seem to be any for the horses at the station, and he said they are probably offered water from buckets as needed, and that perhaps having a large water trough was not considered aesthetically pleasing, with the tourists being there.
The vet said that the foam around the horses’ mouths was likely to be spittle, which is common and not an issue for concern. He also spoke to the staff about the hitting incident and warned them to be careful.
“In my opinion, I didn’t see anything that constitutes inhumane treatment with relation to the horses at Mount Fuji,” he says. “Since Mount Fuji is now a World Heritage site and more tourists are visiting from overseas, we certainly need to consider various opinions about the treatment of animals in the tourist industry. If visitors have any questions about the horses, the chairperson of the Riding Association invites them to speak to the staff.”
I was unable to find a publicly listed phone number for the Fuji-Yoshida Horse Riding Association. After I contacted the local city office, the chairman of the association allowed them to share his cellphone number with Lifelines, but despite repeated attempts, I was unable to connect with him.
We’ll wrap up with one final thought from the vet at the Fuji-Tobu Public Health Center.
“Some foreign tourists may be unaware of this, but the Fuji-Yoshida area has a culinary tradition of eating horse meat,” he said. “It might sound cruel, but some owners view horses as a source of income, and when the animal reaches the end of its useful working life it may be eaten. With this in mind, the elderly horses on Mount Fuji might be considered lucky to be enjoying their retirement.”
Thank you to animal rescue volunteer Maho Cavalier for her help with the research for this article. Kiwi Louise George Kittaka has been based in Japan since she was 20. In the ensuing years she has survived PTA duty for three kids in the Japanese education system and singing live on national TV for the NHK Nodo Jiman show, among other things. Your comments and questions: lifelines@japantimes.co.jpAssailants attacked the hundreds of protesters who marched on Egypt's High Judiciary Court in downtown Cairo to protest against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's recent decree granting himself near-absolute powers, including freeing his decisions from judicial review and ordering retrials for former top officials, including his predecessor, the deposed Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptian protesters gather outside the country's high court in Cairo on Nov. 24. (Mohammed Asad/Associated Press)
Ahram Online reporters said the demonstrators were attacked with fireworks, which stirred panic among them as everyone ran aimlessly to escape violence.
The protesters gathered in front of the High Court as members of the Judiciary General Assembly mulled measures to oppose Morsi’s highly-controversial decree.
They chanted "the people demand the downfall of the regime" and "Freedom, Bread, the dissolution of constituent assembly," in reference to the embattled Islamist-dominated constitution writing body.
Scene at Egypt's High Court, as clashes continue between the attendees and unknown assailants - Photo by @ghazalairshad lockerz.com/s/263927594 — Bassem Sabry باسم (@Bassem_Sabry) November 24, 2012
A few hardcore activists hurling rocks also clashed with riot police in the streets near Tahrir Square, and other protesters |
, it is not fully chewed. The partly masticated food (called cud) goes into the stomach and later is brought back up for further chewing.
Bactrian camels belong to a fairly small group of animals that regularly eat snow to provide their water needs. Animals living above the snowline may have to do this, as snow and ice can be the only forms of water during winter, and by doing so, their range is greatly enlarged. The latent heat of snow and ice is big compared with the heat capacity of water, forcing animals to eat only small amounts at a time.[20]
Reproduction [ edit ]
Bactrian camels are induced ovulators — they ovulate after insemination (insertion of semen into the vagina); the seminal plasma, not the spermatozoa, induces ovulation. Ovulation occurs in 87% of females after insemination: 66% ovulate within 36 h and the rest by 48 h (the same as natural mating). The least amount of semen required to elicit ovulation is about 1.0 ml.[21]
Males during mating time are often quite violent and may bite, spit, or attempt to sit on other male camels. The age of sexual maturity varies, but is usually reached at 3 to 5 years. Gestation lasts around 13 months. One or occasionally two calves are produced, and the female can give birth to a new calf every other year. Young Bactrian camels are precocial, being able to stand and run shortly after birth, and are fairly large at an average birth weight of 36 kg (79 lb). They are nursed for about 1.5 years. The young calf stays with its mother for three to five years, until it reaches sexual maturity, and often serves to help raise subsequent generations for those years. Wild camels sometimes breed with domesticated or feral camels.
Relationship to humans [ edit ]
Two Bactrian camels
The Bactrian camel is thought to have been domesticated (independent of the dromedary) sometime before 2500 BC in Northeast Afghanistan[22] or southwestern Turkestan.[23] The dromedary camel is believed to have been domesticated between 4000 BC and 2000 BC in Arabia. As pack animals, these ungulates are virtually unsurpassed, able to carry 170–250 kg (370–550 lb) at a rate of 47 km (30 miles) per day, or 4 km/h (2 mph) over a period of four days. Furthermore, Bactrian camels are frequently ridden, especially in desertified areas. In ancient Sindh, for example, Bactrian camels of two humps were initially used by the rich for riding. The camel was later brought to other areas such as Balochistan and Iran for the same purpose.[24]
Bactrian camels have been the focus of artwork throughout history. For example, western foreigners from the Tarim Basin and elsewhere were depicted in numerous ceramic figurines of the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907).
United States imports [ edit ]
Bactrian camels were imported to the US several times in the mid- to late 1800s, both by the US military and by merchants and miners, looking for pack animals sturdier and hardier than horses and mules. Although the camels met these needs, the United States Camel Corps was never considered much of a success. Having brought two shipments of fewer than 100 camels to the US, plans were made to import another 1,000, but the US Civil War interrupted this. Most surviving camels of these endeavors, both military and private, were merely turned loose to survive in the wild. As a result, small feral herds of Bactrian camels existed during the late 19th century in the southwest deserts of the United States.[25]
Documentaries [ edit ]
The Story of the Weeping Camel is a 2003 Mongolian documentary/story about a family of nomadic shepherds trying to get a white calf accepted by his mother, which rejected him after a difficult birth.
Population [ edit ]
Country Population Mongolia 430,000 China 270,000 Kazakhstan 200,000 Kyrgyzstan 50 Uzbekistan 10,000 Iran >100 Afghanistan Unknown Pakistan 200 Turkey 1,500 Turkmenistan 2,500 India 150 Azerbaijan Unknown Russia 100,000 Total 844,450
Gallery [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]You have ordinary memory, the 'currentpos' reference and the Point object and its fields behind it, shared between 2 threads, without synchronisation. Thus, there is no defined ordering between the writes that happen to this memory in the main thread and the reads in the created thread (call it T).
Main thread is doing the following writes (ignoring the initial setup of point, will result in p.x and p.y having default values):
to p.x
to p.y
to currentpos
Because there is nothing special about these writes in terms of synchronisation/barriers, the runtime is free to allow the T thread see them occur in any order (the main thread of course always sees writes and reads ordered according to programme order), and occur at any point between the reads in T.
So T is doing:
reads currentpos to p read p.x and p.y (in either order) compare, and take the branch read p.x and p.y (either order) and call System.out.println
Given there's no ordering relationships between the writes in main, and the reads in T, there are clearly several ways this can produce your result, as T may see main's write to currentpos before the writes to currentpos.y or currentpos.x:
It reads currentpos.x first, before the x write has occurred - gets 0, then reads currentpos.y before the y write has occurred - gets 0. Compare evals to true. The writes become visible to T. System.out.println is called. It reads currentpos.x first, after the x write has occurred, then reads currentpos.y before the y write has occurred - gets 0. Compare evals to true. Writes become visible to T... etc. It reads currentpos.y first, before the y write has occurred (0), then reads currentpos.x after the x write, evals to true. etc.
and so on... There are a number of data races here.
I suspect the flawed assumption here is thinking that the writes that result from this line are made visible across all the threads in the programme order of the thread executing it:
currentPos = new Point(currentPos.x+1, currentPos.y+1);
Java makes no such guarantee (it'd be terrible for performance). Something more must be added if your programme needs a guaranteed ordering of the writes relative to reads in other threads. Others have suggested making the x,y fields final, or alternatively making currentpos volatile.
If you make the x,y fields final, then Java guarantees that the writes of their values will be seen to occur before the constructor returns, in all threads. Thus, as the assignment to currentpos is after the constructor, the T thread is guaranteed to see the writes in the correct order.
If you make currentpos volatile, then Java guarantees that that this is a synchronisation point which will be total-ordered wrt other synchronisation points. As in main the writes to x and y must happen before the write to currentpos, then any read of currentpos in another thread must see also the writes of x, y that happened before.
Using final has the advantage that it makes the fields immutable, and thus allows the values to be cached. Using volatile leads to synchronisation on every write and read of currentpos, which might hurt performance.
See chapter 17 of the Java Language Spec for the gory details:http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-17.html
(Initial answer assumed a weaker memory model, as I was not sure the JLS guaranteed volatile was sufficient. Answer edited to reflect comment from assylias, pointing out the Java model is stronger - happens-before is transitive - and so volatile on currentpos also suffices).Clover Moore has cruised to victory and a record fourth term as Sydney's lord mayor in a landslide, picking up a swing of nearly 10 per cent in her primary vote, as the Liberal party lost a key source of support in Sydney's west in an election night Labor said had "blown up" in Premier Mike Baird's face.
Cr Moore declared victory shortly after 9pm before jubilant supporters on Castlereagh Street. "This is a real win for grass roots democracy," she said.
With more than a quarter of votes in the Mayoral contest counted, Cr Moore was streaking ahead with nearly four times the vote of her nearest rival, Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster.
Despite fears the addition of more than 20,000 businesses to council rolls could weaken her chances, Cr Moore was on track for a primary swing toward her of nearly 10 per cent in her fourth term.WASHINGTON — Just days after retired Marine Gen. James Mattis was officially tapped as Trump’s nomination for defense secretary, he vowed to reporters that if approved by Congress he would “make killing great again.”
“The first time we blow an enemy nation completely off the map will not be an insignificant event,” Mattis said. “The survivors of the globe will write about what we do for the next 10,000 years.”
There has been unprecedented bipartisan support for “Mad Dog” Mattis’ nomination, as many lawmakers are fearful of receiving a vigorous ass kicking from the retired Marine general.
“He testified on Capitol Hill once, pushed me on the ground, and then took my lunch money,” said Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. “I’m all about him being SecDef if he stops calling me girl’s names.”
Meanwhile, Pentagon brass are scrambling to figure out how they are going to brief the incoming Defense Secretary without PowerPoint.
“I once gave a short but exciting PowerPoint brief to General Mattis,” said a Marine officer who wished to remain anonymous. “I was on light duty for three weeks after that.”
Confident in his approval by Congress, Mattis has already ordered all military maps to be changed from having a label of “Middle East” to “Free Parking.”
At press time, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a former Marine officer, was seen pleading — with tears in his eyes — that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) not try and cross Mattis, for fear he’ll kill them all.Designer Abhinav Dapke has come up with a green lighting concept that appears to be modeled on the easy old-school chore of taking out the laundry to be dried by the sun.
His Go Rack design centers around a combo cloth that is layered with flexible OLED displays, solar cells, and a textured, safety plastic. A person simply takes out the light 'ironing board/clothes rack' body outside, unspools the legs, and places the backside of the cloth (the solar cells) in an optimal angle to receive sunlight. In order to let a user know the power charge level, a small time indicator is also embedded on the side of this cloth.
Once the panel is full, the body is once again erected, the cloth is folded in (exposing only the plastic) and the aluminum legs are used to conduct energy, once connected to a base inside a home. Presumably, you can then use the regulator switch to modulate the level of illumination. The brightness of the light, if and when this concept is ever brought to light, will depend on the materials chosen for the plastic.
I like this idea mainly because it's a simple, probably cheap way to bring solar light into the home without re-building the whole structure of a house. But there are potential problems. The single Go Rack won't be enough to provide enough lighting for a whole house. Also, the body of the rack needs to be engineered with enough safety features that transferring the aluminum legs after days left out in the sun can't lead to scalding injuries, and the OLED layers need to be durable enough to withstand the constant folding.
Still, it's a quality concept that we'd love to check in action in the next few years.A religious sister who has taken charge of two Catholic parishes in the south of England has been "warmly welcomed" by her parishioners, according to the priest who says Sunday Mass there.
Fr Paul Hardy said Sr Yvonne Pilarski, whose official title is “pastoral administrator” of Christ the King Church in Milton Keynes, had been universally accepted by the people.
“I’ve seen the congregation treating her exactly as if she was their parish priest,” he said. “They’ve taken it very well – she is obviously their resident person and that’s how she’s treated. If she wants something to happen, it happens.”
Sr Yvonne, who also administers the parish of St Bede’s in Newport Pagnall, does all the administration work connected with her parishes, as well as any pastoral care that does not require a priest, such as taking Communion to the sick or visiting the elderly. “She is very much the boss,” said Fr Hardy. “She’s a very good parish priest – she has that feminine quality that parish priests don’t have.”
Fr Hardy said he thought Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, who appointed Sr Yvonne to her new role in the autumn, had been very courageous, adding: “We can’t replace priests who die or retire any more, and this is a way forward.”
Sr Yvonne, who lives in the presbytery at Christ the King with fellow nun, Sr Eileen McElhone, was born in Glasgow to a Corsican mother and a Polish father. She became a teacher before entering the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and from 1991-2013 she worked at Cardinal Newman School in Luton, eventually becoming its chaplain and head of Religious Education.
It is the first time that a religious sister has been put in charge of a parish in the diocese of Northampton.
Above: Sr Yvonne PilarskiHeavy metal and hardcore label group Century Media has pulled all its labels from Spotify, according to the company, "to protect the interests of their artists". Labels include Century Media and associated labels InsideOutMusic, Superballmusic, Ain't no Grave Records, Hollywood Waste and People Like You. "Spotify in its present shape and form isn't the way forward," the company said in a statement siting potential loss of income. "Physical sales are dropping drastically in all countries where Spotify is active."
"The income streams to the artists are affected massively and therefore that accelerates the downward spiral, which eventually will lead to artists not being able to record music the way it should be recorded," according to the music group. "Ultimately, in some cases, it will completely kill a lot of smaller bands that are already struggling to make ends meet.
But Century does acknowledge that Spotify "is a great tool to discover new music" and is "reintroducing their bands to Spotify by way of putting up samplers of the artists. This way, fans can still discover the great music released by the label."
How Fans Consume Music Matters
"This is about survival, nothing less and it is time that fans and consumers realize that for artists it is essential to sell music to keep their heads above water," according to Century. "There needs to be awareness...that how you will consume your music has direct consequences for the artists, who we are all trying to support."News in Science
Pterosaur features defy comparison
A well-preserved pterosaur with soft tissues reveals this flying reptile had hair, claws and wings that were unlike anything seen on today's living animals, suggests a new paper.
Analysis of the remains, which date to around 140 to 130 million years ago, indicate pterosaurs were warm-blooded insect eaters that may have lived in trees and possessed sophisticated flying skills.
"Pterosaurs are unique in their bone construction and our study also shows that some of the soft tissues of these creatures differ from anything known today," says study author Dr Alexander Kellner.
Kellner, a paleontologist at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, and colleagues made the determinations after studying the remains of the adult pterosaur Jeholopterus ningchengensis, found in Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous layers of the Daohugou Bed in China.
Wing tissues show the pterosaur had a nearly one metre wingspan with a complex flying membrane located between the animal's body and each of its large fingers. The membrane consisted of up to three layers containing structural fibres, with fibres in each layer oriented in a different direction, forming a reticular pattern.
"We conclude that this pterosaur might have been able to adjust the wing membrane during flight in order to enhance flight capability," explains Kellner, who says the construction might have also permitted pterosaurs to position the wings as desired when not flying. The fibres also gave strength to the wings, preventing tears.
The study, published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, further describes hair-like structures that covered the pterosaur's body, including part of the wing membrane.
Unique features
The hairs, previously theorised to have been feathers or protofeathers, consisted of "comparatively thick filaments, differing in structure from mammalian hair."
"Now, what were they?" asks Kellner. "This is the point: (They were) a completely different structure that is not known in any living organism today."
The researchers additionally found a "horny covering" on the pterosaur's claws, "showing that the claws were much longer in life."
"This corroborates with the hypothesis that these animals were good climbers and could have been living in trees," says Kellner.
Italian paleontologist Dr Fabio Dalla Vecchia, one of the world's leading experts on pterosaurs says, "The presence of up to three layers with differently oriented actinofibrils (in the wing membrane) is the most surprising thing in this study."
"They were not observed in other well-preserved specimens and could mean that not all the pterosaur actinopatagia (wing structures) were built the same way," says Dalla Vecchia.
He also says it's important that the new paper has better defined the pterosaur hair-like structures, and their distribution on the body, since this too wasn't known before.
"This is a remarkably well-preserved specimen, showing the importance of the Chinese deposits to understand different aspects of extinct organisms," says Kellner.
"Hopefully more such specimens will come to light to enable us to understand a little more about how such strange animals, the pterosaurs, were functioning."Rock Band 4 will run at 1080p/60fps and release this October, according to a report in UK games industry magazine MCV.
Speaking in the latest issue, product manager Eric Pope told the mag that Harmonix had "built a brand new engine for Rock Band 4 to make the most of the new hardware. It's going to look 'next-gen' with more realistic lighting, character models, and animation.
"It'll be 1080p and will run at 60fps," he said. "I know there's a vocal group of players that want to hear that. But what to me is more exciting is the online infrastructure of the consoles. It will open a lot [of] opportunities for us to support the game in more reactive, timely ways".
A release date was also teased in a separate article, in which MCV stated that "Rock Band 4 is now set to return this October, and widespread reports claim that Guitar Hero is also braced for return."
Harmonix has yet to formally confirm a release date beyond a 2015 window on PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: mcvuk.comLast Updated: Saturday, 6:13 p.m. Apparently unaware of the unwritten rules of both ethical journalism and satire, an Iranian news agency published an edited copy of a report from The Onion on Friday, without crediting the original or acknowledging that it was fiction.
The Fars News Agency, which is close to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, posted its version of the report on its English-language Web site under the same headline used by The Onion for the original four days earlier: “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama.”
Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama //t.co/snzZBomZ — Fars News Agency (@FNA_Iran) 28 Sep 12
Although the dateline for the news brief says that the reporting was done in Tehran by Fars, the first sentence is identical to the earlier Onion parody: “According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. president Barack Obama.”
The second sentence of the Fars report, however, changed “have a beer with Ahmadinejad,” to “have a drink with Ahmadinejad,” and entirely omitted The Onion’s description of the Iranian president as “a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed.”
The final two sentences of the original Onion report, quoting a fictional voter in West Virginia who prefers Iran’s president, were published unchanged by Fars:
“He takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.” According to the same Gallup poll, 60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s Muslim.
The only other difference between the two versions of the fake report is that The Onion used a more flattering photograph of Mr. Ahmadinejad, showing him with a broad smile.
For more than an hour after the error was noticed, and mocked, by bloggers including David Kenner, an editor for Foreign Policy in Cairo, the report remained on the home page of the Fars English-language site, where it was promoted as the day’s third most important story. Although the article was eventually removed, after The Times approached the press office of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations for comment, The Lede saved a screenshot of the complete text.
The news agency has in the past copied an entire blog post from The Lede without attribution.
The Onion responded by upping the satirical ante, referring to Fars as “our Iranian subsidiary,” in an update to the original article, and providing its readers with a link to a copy of the copied article.
Iran’s Finest News Source, FARS (@fna_iran), is a subsidiary of The Onion. Thus, we freely share any and all content. //t.co/eiBVf15R — The Onion (@TheOnion) 28 Sep 12
While it is unclear how Fars came across the fictional report, Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, who blogs about the Iranian press, first noticed on Wednesday that the main, Persian-language version of Fars Web site had mistaken the Onion report for real news. Mr. Sadeghi-Boroujerdi notes that report has now been removed by Fars, but was picked up by at least two other Iranian news sites, Hayat and Mehr.
The episode might also reflect how it is increasingly easy to come across information online that has been intentionally or accidentally denatured through copying as it is passed along from one site to another, or one social media user to another.
The Onion has been criticized in the past for posting fake news updates on Twitter — where the text is divorced from contextual clues that make it easier to identify the reports as satire. As the Guardian editor Matt Wells wrote last year, when The Onion used Twitter to post fictional live updates on a hostage crisis that was also fictional, as information is passed from user to user on social networks, fiction can easily be mistaken for fact.
BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building. — The Onion (@TheOnion) 29 Sep 11
The viral way that information spreads online also makes it easy for errors to proliferate. To take a recent example, before a violent protest against an anti-Islam film took place in Cairo on Sept. 11, the United States Embassy released a statement condemning the makers of the film for abusing their right to free speech by promoting religious bigotry. After the protest turned violent, however, a version of that statement posted on Twitter was passed around by opponents of the Obama administration who mistakenly described it as an apology to the protesters, released after attack on the embassy. Within hours, Mitt Romney joined the chorus in repeating the false accusation that the statement was posted online after rather than before the protest.
Then too, Fars might have been more easily confused by The Onion’s satirical report because competition from satirists and Internet news sites seems to have encouraged traditional news organizations to allow their journalists to lace their reports with comic elements.
A remarkable example of the dangers of the new laughter-based news economy can be found in the great difficulty Reuters has had in correcting a flawed video report produced in Iran in February, on the popularity of the martial art of ninjutsu among Iranian women.
As my colleague David Goodman reported in March, Iran’s government imposed a harsh sanction on Reuters journalists in Tehran, rescinding their press cards, in retaliation for errors in what was apparently intended to be a lighthearted video report distributed by the news agency under the headline, “Thousands of Female Ninjas Train as Iran’s Assassins.”
Although Reuters issued a correction once the government pointed out that the women featured in the report were not studying the martial art of ninjutsu in a dojo outside Tehran with the intention of killing anyone, but simply to keep in shape, the agency has no control over what news organizations do with the material it provides to them, so several versions of the story remain on the Web sites and YouTube channels of its clients.
While the corrected item is no longer available on the Reuters Web site, video reports repeating the false premise — that Iranian women who practice the sport primarily for exercise are a squad of trained killers — produced by the American networks CBS and MSNBC, the Saudi channel Al Arabiya, Britain’s Channel 4 News, Japan’s state broadcaster NHK and The Telegraph in London, can all still be viewed online.
Similarly, there is no correction attached to a version of the report, headlined “Iran Trains 3,000 Female Ninja Assassins,” which has been viewed more than 160,000 times on the YouTube channel of Britain’s ITN since February.
The narration for that version seems to retain the jokey tone of the original Reuters script, mocking the women’s efforts to appear fierce even as the narrator makes the ominous-sounding claim that “these are Iran’s ninja assassins and they are deadly serious. Some 3,000 women are being trained to defend the Islamic Republic to the death, with hand-to-hand combat, and evasion skills.” Interestingly, the ITN journalist who narrates that report, Sam Datta-Paulin, explains on his personal Web site that he is “also a performing comedian.”
As Max Fisher explained in a post on The Atlantic’s Web site in March, the Reuters report followed an initial report on the female ninjas broadcast on Jan. 29 by Press TV, an Iranian government satellite channel that exists to put Tehran’s spin on the news. Four days after that broadcast, the Press TV report was posted on YouTube, where it quickly went viral. Thanks in large part to attention from Internet news outlets like The Daily, which detected some inadvertent comedy in the notion of Iranian female ninjas, the Press TV report has been viewed nearly a million times on YouTube.
Beyond the mocking tone of the Reuters report, Iranian officials seem to have been most angered by the fact that the initial script cast the efforts of the women to learn the martial art in terms of a potential conflict with Israel, despite the fact that the dojo has been in operation for more than two decades.
First on Twitter and then in a careful reconstruction of how the Press TV story spread and was then picked up by Reuters, Shiva Balaghi, an Iranian-American cultural historian who has lived in both countries, argued that journalists working in the era of The Daily Show had perhaps lost focus on what mattered about the story.
Suspension of Reuters from Iran is no laughing matter. Shame on all who’ve chuckled over it on blogs, twitter, & FB. (1of3) — Shiva Balaghi (@SBalaghi) 30 Mar 12
Story mocked the gendered politics that restrain Iranian women’s bodies & what the practice of martial arts means in this context. (2of3) — Shiva Balaghi (@SBalaghi) 30 Mar 12
The Iranian govt’s reaction is another attack on press freedoms. Where’s the humor in this situation? (3of3) #Reuters — Shiva Balaghi (@SBalaghi) 30 Mar 12
Ms. Balaghi suggested that something about the images of the young Iranian women wielding swords and running up walls struck journalists used to thinking of ninja moves as the stuff of action movies and video games as inherently funny. The drive to maximize that comedy then seemed to overwhelm more sober journalistic instincts, like factual accuracy and the need to place the images in context.
“Academics are often rightly accused of being too insular,” Ms. Balaghi wrote in the online journal Jadaliyya. “The same could be said of some journalists, especially those who work for social media sites. One wonders if there isn’t too much pressure to get more ‘likes,’ retweets, mentions, and followers. Brevity and witticism have become valued tools of the trade.”
At the end of her essay, she observed that a far more serious issue, the restrictions placed on women in Iran, was ignored in reports that sought to hype the comedic potential of the story:
Iran’s women athletes remain caught in a web of government control within Iran while their modest Islamic attire makes them subject to prohibition by international sporting bodies. And now some careless or unethical journalists made the women athletes in the Karaj dojo the butt of jokes or props in their jingoistic drum beating for war on Iran. More power to them for speaking out for themselves. Unfortunately, the whole sordid affair provided the Islamic Republic a handy excuse to withdraw Reuters’ credentials, making it even harder for us to get accurate reporting from Iran at a critical time. Above all else, the story of Iranian women martial artists turns out to be a cautionary tale.
When the Reuters bureau in Tehran was first shut down, after the women featured in the report took the news agency to court, The National in Abu Dhabi explained that part of the context for the story was that state-owned Press TV has an ax to grind with Britain:
Press TV, which has spearheaded the blowback against Reuters, is viewed as Iran’s propaganda mouthpiece in the West. Ofcom, Britain’s independent media watchdog, revoked the channel’s license in January for failing to pay a record £100,000 fine for broadcasting an interview with a prisoner obtained under duress. Unlike Press TV, Reuters enjoys an excellent reputation for accuracy and impartiality. It had managed to maintain its bureau in Tehran after Iran’s disputed presidential elections in June 2009 which was followed by a crackdown on Iranian journalists. Visas for western reporters have since been very hard to come by. The activities of those allowed in on rare visits are strictly monitored and curtailed.
In late July, Iran’s official news agency reported comments from an Iranian official who said that after the lawsuit against Reuters takes its course in Iranian courts, the wire service’s office in Tehran “is likely to be shut down for good.”When Heath Ledger's family stepped onstage at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood to accept his posthumous Oscar, it was billed as both a moving and triumphant end to the late actor's tragically short-lived career.
There is, however, a final chapter still to be written in the Heath Ledger story. For at the time of his death, the tortured genius whose Joker lifted The Dark Knight into the premier league of modern blockbusters was working on another eerily complex film role.
That movie, which will represent Ledger's true swansong, is called The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus. It was directed by the British former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam, and has been billed as a "fantastic" tale about a travelling circus magician who makes a series of Faustian pacts with the devil.
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Gilliam was a third of the way through the production process when Ledger was killed by an overdose of prescription painkillers. He decided to dramatically rejig his script – and invited a selection of prominent actors to perform what remained of his role.
The resulting Dr Parnassus stars Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law in Ledger's place. It was independently financed, cost $20m (£14m) to make, and was finished in August last year.
Yet there remains a pressing problem. Despite its stellar cast and alluring back-story, not to mention Ledger's enduring box office appeal (The Dark Knight last week surpassed $1bn in ticket sales), America at present has no prospect of seeing Dr Parnassus in cinemas.
For reasons which are not fully clear, Gilliam's film has so far failed to secure a US distribution deal. Though negotiations with several prospective commercial partners are ongoing, it has yet to be awarded a release date.
Unless it finds a theatrical distributor willing to pay the going rate for rights to screen it in cinemas, Dr Parnassus will face the fate of the hundreds of other independent films which fail to secure a deal: it will go straight to DVD.
That would be an extraordinary fate for a movie that is already the subject of a strong buzz, and which received a glowing reference by Ledger's sister, Kate, at the Oscars.
"We've seen a little bit of footage, and I think it's going to be amazing," she insisted to a backstage press conference. "Terry Gilliam is amazing and Heath always had such enthusiasm and interest in whatever Terry was doing."
The Hollywood Reporter last week published an investigation which concluded that negotiations between the movie's production company, Davis Films, and major US buyers Lionsgate and Overture during the summer had proved fruitless.
"That has fuelled all sorts of rumours in indie circles, ranging from dissent over finances on the producers' side to outsized expectations on the part of filmmakers," the Reporter noted.
At present, Dr Parnassus has effectively been "on sale" for six months. Potential buyers may be wary of its eccentric subject matter and fantasy-driven plot, which traditionally prevent a film securing mass-market approval.
Publicity photos show a white-faced Ledger in a clown's outfit. The movie's synopsis meanwhile requires a significant suspension of disbelief: it involves a surreal contest between the 1,000-year-old Dr Parnassus (played by Christopher Plummer) and the devil (known as Mr Nick, and played by Tom Waits).
Ledger's character, Tony, is a mysterious outsider who apparently travels through a dream world. In what could be either a stroke of genius on Gilliam's part or an elaborate folly, Farrell, Law and Depp play different "transformations" of Tony's personality.
"Even with the Ledger hook, a distributor would have a hard time with marketing," mooted The Hollywood Reporter. "Gilliam has grown more experimental in recent years with such fare as Tideland and The Brothers Grimm... [and] retailing Dr Parnassus as a Ledger film risks running a word-of-mouth problem with general audiences who are not accustomed to that kind of material."
In the UK, where Gilliam has a strong following, Mandate International was able to justify splashing out for distribution rights, and is scheduled to release the film in June. Its relatively large budget means Dr Parnassus would have to reach a wide audience in order to turn a profit.
Most experts still expect the film to get a release – and rumours suggest a deal, of sorts, may be announced imminently. But unless a major buyer makes an offer, the film could be limited to a relatively small number of screens in major US cities.
Ledger's former agent, Steve Alexander, didn't respond to requests for a comment about the film's future yesterday. The British screenwriter and film producer Allan Schiach, a former friend of the late actor who was due to work with him on an adaptation of the novel The Queen's Gambit, said he thought it "inconceivable" that Ledger's swansong would never see the light of day.
"You just don't know what's going on. The producers could be asking for too much money; the distributors could want to market the film, or structure a deal in a particular way. There's all sorts of reasons a sale could take so long.
"Terry Gilliam has done this brilliant job of replacing him with these amazing stars. Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp are an incredible line-up, and I simply do not believe the film is unreleasable."
Bad timing: Actors who died during production
*James Dean (died 30 September 1955) Giant. The first actor nominated for a posthumous Academy Award for best actor and the only person to be nominated after death twice in acting categories, one of which was for Giant. Died in a head-on collision driving to a sports car race. The last scene he filmed of Giant was re-recorded because he died before the editing process began.
*Richard Harris (died 25 October 2002) Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets. Won a Golden Globe in 1968 for his performance as King Arthur in Camelot. He died of Hodgkin's disease two-and-a-half weeks before Chamber Of Secrets premiered in the US. The year before, he said he feared his part in the Harry Potter films would outshine the rest of his long career. Michael Gambon took on his role.
*Oliver Reed (died 2 May 1999) Gladiator.
Reed died aged 61 from a sudden heart attack during a filming break from Gladiator, in which he played Proximo. It was almost exactly a year before the film's release. Due to the timing, some scenes had to be completed using computer-generated images.
Miranda BryantTAMPA, Fla. – The United Soccer League announced on Wednesday Reno 1868 FC’s Dane Kelly had been voted the 2017 USL Most Valuable Player, as the Jamaican international led the league with 18 goals in a record-setting season for the 2017 USL expansion club.
Kelly received 55 percent of the vote to earn the award, with the Charlotte Independence’s Enzo Martinez finishing second on 30 percent and Real Monarchs SLC’s Chandler Hoffman third with 15 percent.
The 2017 USL Awards were voted on by team management and a league-wide media panel that included representation |
(especially where the letters get even larger and the voice more sarcastic — the right-side page here containing only seven words). If Netanyahu, as he scribbled away at the rhetorical edges, was feeling a sense of urgency about the opportunity for peace, its seems more motivated out of fear that the Palestinians had scored a coup with their statehood application than anything else.
PHOTOGRAPHS by Mario Tama/Getty Images.
(Transcript of final speech via Jerusalem Post. Netanyahu and Abbas speeches viewable here.)
(caption: Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, delivers an address to the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on September 23, 2011 in New York City. This is the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly including heads of state from over 120 countries.)Sarah Nyberg’s @srhbutts page on Twitter:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts shares her Ravishly piece on Twitter:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts piece on Ravishly with her image:
December 2014 snapshot of Sarah Nyberg’s HotorNot account under retrogradesnowcone handle:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts using handle retrogradesnowcone on deviantart:
Sarah Nyberg’s website ffshrine.org:
Sarah Nyberg’s website ffshrine.org registered under email retrogradesnowcone@gmail.com:
Sarah Nyberg makes thread on her site ffshrine.org about her Ravishly article:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts posting on thepriceislol forum about pedophilia – supporting Netherlands age of consent at 14 & defending 12 or younger. At end of post she promotes her ffshrine.org website:
Sarah Nyberg says she runs ffshrine.org website on Venus Envy Comic’s forum under handle retrogradesnowcone:
Sarah Nyberg shares her pictures on Venus Envy Comic’s forum under handle retrogradesnowcone:
Sarah Nyberg identifies as a pedophile on Venus Envy Comic’s forum under handle retrogradesnowcone:
Venus Envy Comic forum user shares chat log on site with Sarah Nyberg retrogradesnowcone where Sarah says she likes children aged 4-12 and misses her “little girlfriend” (lgf).
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts on her site ffshrine.org’s chat sharing that the “little girlfriend” she’s attracted to and wants to kiss is her younger cousin that was eight years old; also repeating that she’s a pedophile:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts on her site ffshrine.org’s chat saying she doesn’t have child porn but she does have stories, non-nude model pictures and lolicon:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts on her site ffshrine.org’s chat saying opiumprincess is her livejournal handle:
Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts posting in a transgender community on livejournal about her being a self-identified pedophile:
Now, the hypocrisy and lying of Sarah Nyberg @srhbutts retrogradesnowcone’s – tweets denying being a pedophile and condemning pedophilia:
Resources/Help for pedophiles:
The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) – tel.: (503) 643-1023: A national professional association of specialists in the field of sexual abuser treatment. Although the therapists primarily treat pedophiles who have had sex with children, we are told that many of the therapists who are listed have the skill and desire to treat child-celibate pedophiles as well. For a referral contact them by phone or email. No identifying information required.
Stop It Now – tel.: (888) PRE-VENT: An organization dedicated to prevention of child sexual abuse. Includes helpful resources for pedophiles who wish to avoid offending.
Abel Sexual Abuse Prevention – tel.: (541) 891-6168: Provides referrals to mental health professionals as well as counseling services via Skype.
Prevention Project Dunkelfeld tel.: +49/30/450 529 450: Located in Germany. The Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) provides confidential treatment free of charge for individuals who have a partial or exclusive sexual preference in terms of pedophilia or hebephilia and seek therapeutic help. The goal of the therapy is to cope with problems in dealing with the particular sexual preference. From a patient’s point of view, focus is on controlling one’s own behaviour in order to prevent child sexual abuse and child pornography offending. The therapeutic procedure integrates behavioural therapy and sexological approaches and also includes the option for pharmaceutical support.
Circles of Support and Accountability: Located in Canada. Groups of volunteers who provide assistance and social support and who, in turn, receive support and supervision from professionals.
AASECT: A professional organization of sex educators, therapists and counsellors. The web site includes a ‘Locate a Professional’ function, some of whom have expertise with pedophilia.
SSTAR: A community of professionals who have clinical interests in human sexual concerns, including pedophilia. The web site includes a therapist directory.
AdvertisementsDRIVERS’ DEMAND
Accuse it of cheating them on several frontsFrom earning incentives of Rs 3,000-5,000 per day to haggling over a few hundred rupees, drivers of taxi aggregator Ola claim to be going through a rough phase.Miffed with the aggregator for snipping their incentives, Ola drivers continued their protest at the company’s office in Murugeshpalya for the second day on Tuesday.Ganesh M, a driver, said there were instances in the past of drivers earning incentives between Rs 3,000 to 5,000 for over 10 trips, but now drivers are struggling to get Rs 75 per trip for driving during peak hours.“It is not only a few drivers, but a majority are facing the same problem,” he said.The drivers also accused the aggregator of not crediting incentives as promised for peak hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.They also alleged that Ola was collecting Rs 300 per week for providing the mobile phone and internet services without prior consent.“When we got the mobile, they told us that it is for free and we need not pay any money. But now, they have started deducting money in the adjustable amount. In addition to this, if we face some technical snags in the mobile, Ola expects us to pay Rs 6,000 to get a new one,” said another driver Raghu Kumar.Another driver said the problems started almost two months back.“Till Ola managed to pick up business, it was treating drivers very well. Now, it has got a majority of the taxis in the city and is doing all sorts of tricks to exploit drivers as well as passengers,” he said.Attempts to get in touch with Ola authorities till late evening were unsuccesful.Names of drivers have been changed.* The drivers have been demanding repayment of dues (especially incentives) for driving cars during peak hours, * Deduction of Rs 300 for providing mobiles and other penalty fees for not reporting to duty even for a day. * The drivers alleged that Ola is collecting the amount without prior consent.In a landmark civil rights case coinciding with the 2015 “Tel Aviv Loves All Genders” themed Tel Aviv Pride Week, the National Labor Court determined employees may not be discriminated against based on their gender identity.
The historic recognition of a community vastly marginalized within Israeli society came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the LGBT movement’s struggles for equality.
“The struggle for every person to be recognized as equal before the law is a long struggle, and there is still a long way to go,” Netanyahu wrote Wednesday in a Facebook post in honor of Pride Week, noting that he is proud Israel is “among the most open countries in the world.”
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According to the June 2 court ruling, protection from gender identity discrimination was inferred by the Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law’s prohibition of discrimination due to gender and sexual orientation.
The precedent was reached during the appeal of Marina Meshel, a transgender woman who sued the Center for Educational Technology (CET), claiming she had been fired on account of her gender identity. The court ruled in favor of Meshel, ordering the CET compensate her with NIS 21,000 in damages.
Meshel had appealed to the national court after the Tel Aviv district labor court had ruled against her, claiming she had not been fired because she was transgender, but rather because she had crossed “boundaries” in conversations she held with female school students at the center, regarding sexuality and gender identity.
Transgenders are the most discriminated group within the LGBT community, according to a recent report drafted by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) at the Ministry of Economy.
An overwhelming 86 percent of transgenders said they earn less than the average market wage. The report also found that the employment rate among transgenders reached 68%, far lower than other LGBT groups.
Following up on the court precedent, Meretz MK Michal Rozin said on Wednesday that she plans to submit an amendment to the employment law.
“It is fitting that the legislator anchor into law the protection of those discriminated against due to their gender identity,” Rozin stated in her amendment proposal.
“Such legislation would convey a definitive message both to employers and employees regarding the right of every worker not to face discrimination and harassment.”
Also on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin welcomed to his residence members of the Israeli Gay Youth (IGY) organization, as part of the pride celebrations.
In the first visit of its kind to the President’s Office, Rivlin said he felt honored to welcome the group to his home.
“Twenty-two years ago I had the honor of welcoming the first delegation of the gay community to the Knesset. Today I have the honor of receiving you for the first time at the President’s Residence,” Rivlin said.
Tel Aviv has emerged as one of the world’s most gay-friendly travel destinations, and its gay pride events draw thousands of participants each year. This year, the celebration will emphasize the transgender community.28-Inch 4K Ultra HD Professional Monitor for Rich Details AOC's 4K Ultra HD display is here. U2868PQU is a 28-inch professional monitor with 3840 x 2160 Ultra HD Resolution - four times the resolution of a Full HD display - that takes delivering clear crisp images to the next level. The professional display also boasts 1ms (gray-to-gray) response time and 70,000,000:1 mega-dynamic contrast ratio. This 4K professional display also boasts flexibility in viewing and connections. So whether you are a designer, gamer, photographer, or someone who needs rich detail, AOC's U2868PQU will deliver exactly that.
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U2868PQU "10-bit" panel (8-bit + FRC) boasts 1.07 billion colors. The Frame-Rate-Control (FRC) technology is used to enhance the color depth of the 8-bit panel and boosting the normal 16.7 million colors found in most displays, to 1.07 billion colors. More colors means the panel can present more depth and richer color, producing more colorful and vivid images.
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For designers, the high definition, high pixel density provides great details for precision work such as architecture design. With the UHD resolution and large screen, CAD designers can see the big picture, spend less time scrolling in and out, and accomplish more. If you are a gamer looking to dominate or to enjoy ultimate gaming experience, the 4K resolution and 1ms fast response time will deliver.
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Detail and attention was placed on the design of the 68 Series. This series is designed for professional-grade usage, built to be very stable yet visually appealing. The display comes with black hairline texture in the front and matte in the back. The extra narrow bezel gives it a widescreen look, while the touch buttons are printed at the bottom-right for easy access. The two 3-watt speakers are located on the underside of the bottom bezel and nicely concealed. U2868PQU has 130mm height adjustment, 90-degree pivot, tilt, and swivel functions. The 4K display is also VESA 100mm wall-mount compatible.
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U2868PQU features VGA, DVI with HDCP, HDMI (MHL), Display Port connections, with two USB 2.0 ports on the back and two USB 3.0 ports on the side. With MHL-enabled HDMI connection, you can connect your smart device to your monitor to simultaneously charge and stream your mobile multimedia on to the bigger 28" 4K display with two 3-watt speakers. With PIP (Picture in Picture) and PBP (Picture by Picture) capability, you can view multiple input sources on one screen at a time.
Design ConceptBengaluru/Mumbai: Online marketplace Amazon has agreed to acquire the remaining 74% stake in Westland, the publishing unit of the Tata group retail company Trent Ltd, indicating its interest in expanding its presence in India books market.
The terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
In February, Amazon bought a 26% stake in Westland for about Rs9.5 crore. Trent had said at the time that Amazon had the option to acquire the remaining 74% stake later.
Following the investment made by Amazon.com NV Investment Holding, Inc., Amazon will get right to name one member to the Westland board.
Amazon said the acquisition would help Westland’s authors to grow their physical and digital book businesses in India as well as expand their reach to customers globally. Westland’s current roster of authors include Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar, Preeti Shenoy and Devdutt Pattanaik.
“In just three years we have built India’s largest online store that customers can trust to find, discover and buy anything online. Our acquisition of Westland continues our commitment to India—enabling Amazon to bring Westland’s highly talented authors and their books to even more customers in India and around the world," said Amit Agarwal, vice-president and country manager at Amazon India.
“Since investing in Westland earlier this year, we have built a great relationship with the company and its authors. With this acquisition, we are very excited to take our relationship with Westland to the next level," Agarwal said.
“This is a great day for our authors and their readers across the globe," said Gautam Padmanabhan, CEO of Westland. “Amazon’s roots are in books and we are excited to be part of that team in the next phase of our journey."
Amazon, which is the world’s largest Internet-based retailer, started out as an online bookstore in 1994. From selling books by third-party publishers on its platform, Amazon has since started its own publishing unit, Amazon Publishing. Since its founding in 2009, Amazon Publishing has published in different genres from romance and thrillers to spirituality, comics, and science fiction.
Chennai-based Westland began as a book distributor but ventured into publishing in 2007. Today, it is one of the top five English language trade publishers in the country and its imprints include Tranquebar Press (for literary fiction and non-fiction), EastWest (focusing on South Indian heritage) and Westland (for trade books, both fiction and non-fiction).
The present company was formed from the merger of two companies, Westland Books Pvt. Ltd and EastWest Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd in April 2008.
In February, Reuters reported that Amazon.com had planned to open up to 400 physical bookstores worldwide, after the opening of a bookstore in its home city of Seattle in November last year.
Tatas had acquired the book publishing business from Chennai-based entrepreneurs Hemu and Nataraj Ramaiah Rs100 crore in 2005 as they looked at getting into the book publication and distribution business. It was the country’s largest book retail chain at its peak in 2010. Today, there are hardly a handful of stand-alone Landmark stores and some that exist are within Westside.
Even its website landmarkonthenet.com has been integrated with Tata Group’s new online shopping venture - TataCLiQ.com. However TataCLiQ, does not offer books as a category and is focused on electronics, mobiles, apparel and footwear.
Overall, in fiscal 2016 Trent reported a net profit of Rs100.03 crore, an increase of 84% from Rs54.24 crore a year-ago. Revenue grew by 9.65% to Rs1,432.47 crore, from Rs1,306.36 crore a year-ago.
For Amazon the acquisition will give it entry in the booming India authors publishing business in India. However Westland lacks breadth and it will be interesting to see how Amazon grows the business, said Ananth Padmanabhan, chief executive officer, Harper Collins India.For the past three months, players around the world have gone head-to-head online in the first ever global motion-sports competition, the “Kinect Sports Rivals World Championship.” Now, 11 skilled semi-finalists have played their way to the top, and will be flown to California for a live, in-person championship during San Diego Comic-Con to battle for their country’s glory and the grand prize. The final championship will take place in the Xbox Gamers Lounge at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego on Saturday, July 26 between 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. PDT.
The grand prize winner at San Diego Comic-Con will be awarded $10,000 in cash, plus the trip of a lifetime for two to one of four amazing destinations: a water sports adventure in Bora Bora, walking the Great Wall of China, trekking to Machu Picchu or skiing the Swiss Alps. Additional prizes include:
2nd Place: USD $5,000
3rd Place: USD $2,500
4th Place: USD $1,000
5th – 11th Place: USD $500 each
The 11 “Kinect Sports Rivals World Championship” semi-finalists include:
Alex Vlas
Country: Australia
Gamertag: AlexVlas
How long have you been gaming? I started playing games when I was six. The first day I started playing computer games, I actually forgot to go home and my mom had to pick me up later that night. I can still remember the walk back home, all I could think is that I wanted more. I wanted to be the best.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” “Kinect Sports Rivals” is my first complete motion game and I am amazed by the accuracy it has in capturing every movement. I love Wake Racing and enjoy playing it for hours.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? Bowling. I tried to get the perfect 300 for a very long while and was not able to get it. Hopefully, I will be able to get it at the San Diego finals.
What drives you to win this competition? Well, as mentioned before, I have been a gamer all my life and tried winning all sorts of tournaments, but never made it out of the national qualifiers, always got 2nd place. This is my first, and probably last, try at winning an international championship. I will give it everything I have and more. I did not sleep at all the last night of the qualifiers and I will continue with this level of dedication until the end.
André Sander Ferreira Pinheiro
Country: Brazil
Gamertag: TiziuSheik
How long have you been gaming? Since I was a child, I was always fanatical about video games.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” “Kinect Sports Rivals” is a fun game, in which you can have fun alone, with family or with friends of all ages.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? It was difficult because all the competitors were good, but with grapple and determination I managed to defend the first place in Brazil.
What drives you to win this competition? What drives me is to be recognized in this sport because I’ve always loved video games. I would like to win the grand prize also to help my family.
Christian Lagunas Peñaloza
Country: Mexico
Gamertag: Wing L Halcon L
How long have you been gaming? About 17 years. I started with the N64.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” I get to exercise.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? I really wasn’t so sure that I would win the competition, but I played harder on the last day.
What drives you to win this competition? That I can play with players from other countries.
David Schiebort
Country: Germany
Gamertag: Lucktose
How long have you been gaming? I’ve been gaming since I was 9 years old in 1999. My first console was the PS1, followed by the PS2. Then I switched to Xbox 360 and Xbox One until now.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” I really like the way I play it. It’s a unique feeling and so much fun to control the game so precisely with my own motions, without any controller.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? Bowling, definitely Bowling. Almost daily I tried for a whole month to get 299. There’s nothing more to say.
What drives you to win this competition? The thrill to win an E-Sport event live on stage.
Edward Vasquez
Country: United States of America
Gamertag: NinjaXinfinity
How long have you been gaming? I’ve been gaming since I was a little boy, when my father walked in to me and my brother’s room with a little device called Nintendo. Before then, I never knew what gaming was. “Super Mario Bros.” was my very first game.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” The ability to play using my body as the controller. Sheesh, you really get a work out going during Rock Climbing.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? It was definitely bowling a 300. Wow, was that agonizing. Technically, you didn’t have to bowl a 300, but if your competition bowled a 300, well you had no choice but to bowl a 300. After about 3 weeks of bowling games, where I’ll get nine strikes in a row just to bowl the tenth time and have one pin wobble for 3 seconds and decide “I’m not going to fall today,” is enough to drive anybody strait into an insane asylum – haha. But I have an unflinching desire to win, so the day finally arrived when I bit down and bowled all afternoon, and amazingly bowled a perfect game. It was an unbelievable feeling of joy and disbelief. My wife and I were literally jumping up and down, as if I had scored the winning goal in the World Cup.
What drives you to win this competition? I want to be the first ever world champion in motion control gaming history… That’s a pretty neat title, don’t you think?
Keith Gobel
Country: United States of America
Gamertag: FusedDaelin
How long have you been gaming? Started back around 1995.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” Rock Climbing, had the most fun playing that.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? Trying to find the time to play.
What drives you to win this competition? It’s just fun. I’m competitive by nature. I simply want to win.
Joshua Barrionuevo
Country: United States of America
Gamertag: TRU3 CHOSEN ONE
How long have you been gaming? Since Atari 2600.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” The “Kinect Sports Rivals World Championship.”
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? The most challenging part about securing my spot in the competition would have to be work and family. I love spending time with my family, and this has taken some of that time. Since I work full time, it was challenging to find the time to play. After work, I would go home and do family time first and then play. Let’s just say that I feel asleep in one too many meetings at work.
What drives you to win this competition? My son is my motivation to win. I want to show him that hard work and dedication does pay off and when you set your mind you can accomplish anything.
Kevin Weiler
Country: Canada
Gamertag: AestheticaL
How long have you been gaming? I’ve been gaming all of my life.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” I love the community that this championship has brought together, but Rock Climbing is my favorite sport!
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? Getting the perfect game in Bowling was the hardest achievement, as it secured my win for Canada.
What drives you to win this competition? This tournament is a big opportunity for me to get my name out there and put my website on the map, and hopefully help me land a career in this field!
Lilian Trochon
Country: France
Gamertag: II Lilian 31 II
How long have you been gaming? Since I’ve been four years old.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” Wake Racing and Football.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? Achieve the perfect-bowling score.
What drives you to win this competition? Play and perseverance.
Michael Griffiths
Country: United Kingdom
Gamertag: Mikey G85
How long have you been gaming? All my life. My parents bought me a Sega Mega Drive back in 1991.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” I love how it gets everyone up on their feet. It’s got loads of replay value, especially when you’re trying to beat the times of players from around the world.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? For me, it had to be getting below 40 seconds in the Rock Climbing event.
What drives you to win this competition? The prizes are incredible, and representing the UK is an amazing feeling that really makes me want to bring home the win.
Thomas Fortman
Country: United States of America
Gamertag: tomfortman2009
How long have you been gaming? 10 years.
What do you like most about “Kinect Sports Rivals?” The tournament.
What was the hardest thing about securing your winning spot in the competition? Staying determined.
What drives you to win this competition? Prizes.
Follow Major Nelson on Twitter for updates from San Diego Comic-Con and the “Kinect Sports Rivals World Championship.”OLYMPIA — The Washington State Patrol is seeing its ranks depleted faster than can be replenished.
It can’t recruit enough new troopers to fill existing vacancies and newer hires aren’t staying as long as many leave for jobs with local law enforcement agencies that pay better and offer more action.
On top of this, 80 department veterans will be eligible for retirement by year’s end. They could make a difficult situation worse if they all decided to hang up their shields.
So what can be done about this? That’s what lawmakers and state patrol leaders are counting on a consultant to tell them in a study due in December.
“It’s a huge challenge,” said Capt. Monica Alexander. “We’re trying to evaluate how to get people in the door and keep them. We can’t have people going out the back door as soon as one enters the front door.”
The state patrol had 147 vacancies in its commissioned ranks as of Oct. 23, of which 105 were for troopers in the Field Operations Bureau, according to Alexander. An estimated 20 slots are in District 7, which covers Snohomish County, she said.
This year, 33 troopers had resigned by mid-October with many signing on with city police or county sheriff’s departments that have been stepping up their hiring since the end of the recession.
Meanwhile, the state patrol will close some of the gap Nov. 19 when it will graduate its next class of troopers. There are roughly 25 people graduating.
Public Financial Management Inc. is being paid $240,000 to analyze what is causing the recruitment and retention problem, and to recommend solutions. Russ Branson, who is directing the study, presented early findings to House and Senate members at a recent legislative committee hearing.
In the meeting, former Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel, a member of the consulting team, described the situation by equating the condition of the state patrol with that of an emergency room patient.
“You’ve got a lot of bleeding going on and it does no good if we’re just looking at pumping in more blood,” he said. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding first and at the same time figure out how we get more fluids in because the rest of the system will start to shut down.”
Consultants have surveyed current and former state patrol employees to try to pinpoint the reasons troopers aren’t sticking around.
Preliminary results show those who’ve left mostly blamed low pay, Branson said. Other big reasons were work load, dissatisfaction with the job and issues with management.
“You need to be paid well and you need to be happy about what you do,” he said, declining to elaborate on the specific management-related concerns.
The study will also compare pay and benefits offered by the state patrol with those of local law enforcement agencies in Washington and other state police operations.
In Washington, the base starting pay for a trooper of $51,480 is lower than deputies of the largest counties, including Snohomish, and cops in the largest cities like Seattle. And after 25 years on the job, the base salary is still lower, according to charts prepared by the consulting firm.
In other places, like California, pay does not appear to be a major issue for recruiting to the California Highway Patrol, yet officers are still hard to find. Salaries of CHP officers are tied to the average annual pay earned by officers in the state’s largest local law enforcement agencies, such as the police departments of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cadets, for example, can earn as much as $68,000 in their first year.
Still, the CHP, like Washington, is trying to fill its ranks with new recruits. Thousands of fewer people are applying for jobs since the economy heated up, creating plenty of well- paying opportunities in other fields.
“We are all competing for a similar pool of candidates,” said CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader. “Our challenge is finding the qualified candidates.”
Capt. Rodney Ellison, who oversees recruitment statewide for the CHP, said the agency has revised its approach in recent years to speed up the process for applicants. And they are working to better connect with a new generation of potential hires, the Millennials. “When it comes to recruitment (of Millennials) you’re going to have to be innovative,” he said. “Things are different. The way they think is different. You have to be ready to explain why something is important and why it is important to them.”
Ellison, a University of Washington graduate, empathized with the Washington State Patrol’s dilemma.
“That agency is tradition rich. It is very professional. To lose personnel to another agency after you’ve invested so much in them really hurts,” he said. “They’ve got an uphill battle there.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.An Introduction to Techwear by Rocky Li May 25, 2016 An Introduction to Techwear Words Rocky Li
Date May 25, 2016
Share The influence of techwear within the greater fashion industry is growing each year. The appeal of forward-thinking clothes that provide both utility and comfort is obvious, but the term techwear and all it entails can be intimidating to understand. A good place to start is to define the term itself. Techwear is clothing for everyday life with special fabric, construction and properties that allow for breathability, movement, water-resistance and comfort. There's way too much to unpack about techwear in this space alone, so consider this an introduction to the essentials.
Technical Aspects The main appeal of techwear clothing and gear is that it can make life easier, whether it's being able to carry more stuff on a weekend trip or to stay dry in a downpour. Below are some of the major benefits that techwear items provide. Water Resistance and Other Enhanced Properties One of the main advantages that techwear provides is its water repellency. Everyone hates getting caught in the rain and techwear offers a comfortable and practical solution to this problem. The modern wave of technical garments owe a lot to the development of GORE-TEX. In 1969, co-inventors Wilbert L.Gore and Gore's Son Robert W.Gore discovered a method of stretching Teflon into a thin, porous membrane that was able to repel liquid water while allowing water vapor to pass through. The material is designed to be a lightweight, waterproof fabric for all-weather use particularly on outerwear. Gore-Tex remains the standard in water repellency and has the most brand recognition amongst the major waterproof textiles. Some notable competitors to Gore-Tex include eVent, HyVent (Developed by North Face) and H2No (Proprietary to Patagonia). Gore-Tex has further diversified its brand by releasing variants of it's popular textile, including Paclite, and Wind Stopper (which is an insulating wind-breaking layer for colder temperatures). Outside of water repellency there are dozens of synthetic fabrics which can offer differing properties including, but not limited to: stretch, odor resistance, abrasion resistance, and reflectiveness.
Range of Motion and Comfort While most pants and garments are cut to standard patterns, techwear challenges convention by designing patterns with the movement of the human body in mind. Anatomical design takes these factors in mind and a common construction method to achieve this is by using articulated joints, usually through darting at the knee or inner elbow. These allow the wearer to move freely without the fabric fraying or pulling at key points. Acronym has gone to the extent of showing martial arts movements performed in their garments in some of the their product videos. Of course another aspect of comfort beyond movement is breathability. In techwear terms this means letting sweat and heat escape so the wearer doesn't feel clammy in the garments. It isn't enough for a jacket to keep the wearer dry on the outside, it should allow the wearer to stay at a comfortable temperature while wearing it. Carrying Capacity Now that we often carry multiple devices and their respective chargers with us, techwear items are often well-considered with the storage they supply. Whether through simple designs such as zippered pockets or more elaborate solutions such as removable modular attachments. The combination of the waterproof fabrics and well-designed carrying capacity mean that you can carry more and worry less. Bags and backpacks often benefit from useful details such as laptop sleeves and inner pockets/compartments.
Key Categories Within techwear, there are key categories of items that every brand will produce. Outerwear Jackets are probably what come to mind first when you think of techwear. These are split into two types - hardshell and softshell. Hardshells provides the most weather protection and are fully windproof, waterproof and breathable. They provide a versatile outer layer that wearers can layer underneath. In heavier downpours and snowy conditions, hardshells are the way to go. Softshells have a DWR (durable waterproof coating) that repels light precipitation, like snow or drizzle, and for winter sports. Softshell jackets often emphasize comfort, breathability and movement (compared to the crunchy texture of hardshells) but don't provide the level of environmental protection that hardshells do. Mid-Layers Mid-layers generally serve the function of keeping the wearer warm underneath a shell. These can take many different forms from down vests to hoodies to insulating shirts and fleeces. Some pieces will have removable mid-layers and liners that can be swapped in and out of shells, usually through some type of zipper or buttoning system. Base Layer Base layers are all about moisture wicking. They are intended to be right against your skin and keep you dry. You are probably familiar with these layers from their athletic wear equivalents - Nike DriFit and Adidas Climacool come to mind. Pants While techwear pants haven't caught on as much as shells have, they are a growing segment of the market. Even denim giants Levi's put out a moisture wicking 'commuter' pant for biking that allow free and easy movement while on the go. Pants in this segment usually bring about a mix of water repellency, breathability, stretch and extra/deep pockets. ACRONYM has brought some interesting features to their pants including a modular system allowing wearers to add and remove pouches for even more carrying capacity. Footwear and Accessories Nike and Adidas have both been pushing the envelope when it comes to innovative forward thinking designs. All the major sneaker companies have experimented now with everything from knit materials to sock liners and water resistant materials. The Nike ACG line has designed sneakers and boots with outdoors activities and function in mind. Techwear accessories have also evolved to help a person carry their everyday items. Bags will have compartments for smartphones, laptops and ipads |
level by watching an artificial horizon on the instrument panel. The artificial horizon is a gyroscopically steadied line, which stays level with the earth's surface. The airplane pitches and banks in relation to this steady line, which in spatial terms never moves. Of course, in airplane terms it does move -- which presents a problem, because pilots are part of the airplane: they fly it from within, strapped to their seats. In clear skies they would never misjudge a bank as the tilting of the earth, but with their view restricted to the abstractions of the instrument panel they sometimes do just that: when the airplane banks, they perceive the motion as a movement of the artificial horizon line across the face of the instrument. This causes them to "fly" the wrong thing -- the moving horizon line, rather than the fixed symbolic airplane. For example, as turbulence tilts the airplane to the left, the pilots, tilting with it, notice the artificial horizon line dropping to the right. Reacting instinctively to the indication of motion, they sometimes try to raise the line as if it were a wing. The result of such a reversal in such cases is murderous. Pilots steer to the left just when they should steer to the right, and then in confusion they steer harder. While cruising calmly inside clouds, I have had student pilots suddenly try to flip the airplane upside down. These were perfectly rational people, confronted by the turn.
A IRPLANES did not shrink the world overnight. The Wrights flew straight and level at Kitty Hawk in December of 1903, and nobody paid much attention. They went home to Dayton, rented a cow pasture, and spent the following year stretching their flights and learning to turn. The first detailed account of their flights appeared in Gleanings in Bee Culture, a journal for beekeepers published in nearby Medina. The editor, A. I. Root, traveled to the pasture and on September 20, 1904, saw Wilbur fly the first full circle. Bees, of course, are the great specialists in full-circle flying; they spend their days on round-trip missions, and construct whole worlds out of their ability to turn. I do not know if Root was influenced by these thoughts, but he understood the significance of the Wrights' achievement. The U.S. Army was slower to catch on. Five years later, after much persuading by the Wrights, it reluctantly took delivery of its first airplane. In 1909 horses still seemed more glorious.
The war in Europe changed that. Unsullied by the carnage in the trenches, pilots chased across the sky, turning hard on each other's tails. The war taught them to fly with confidence, and encouraged the myth of instinct. Those who survived made the dangerous discovery that they could feel at home in the sky. They learned to accept the strangeness of a steep ban -- the G load and the tilted horizon -- and the magic of a full roll. Nonetheless, they still believed in instinctive balance: when they ducked through small clouds and emerged with their wings slightly tilted, they did not appreciate the significance of this small clue -- did not suspect the importance of the unfelt bank. Although scientific thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic had, by the end of the war, come to understand the intricacies of the banked turn, pilots, trapped by vanity, paid little heed. And because pilots at the time rarely flew in bad weather or on black nights, they did not expose themselves to the conditions that would have fostered deeper insight.
At the end of the war regular airmail service started in Europe and the United States. It made airplanes useful to the public for the first time, gave birth to the airlines, and placed pressure on the pilots to operate on schedules. They followed rivers and railroads in open-cockpit biplanes, flying under the weather, sometimes at extremely low altitude, dodging steeples and oil derricks. Many pilots were killed.
In December of 1925 a young Army pilot named Carl Crane got caught in the clouds at 8,000 feet directly over Detroit while trying to fly a congressman's son to Washington, D.C., in a biplane. Crane later became a famous master of the turn. Recalling this particular flight, he said, "In a short time I was losing altitude, completely out of control. I could not fly the airplane at all -- it had gotten into a spiral dive. Halfway down I looked around at my boy in the back, and he was enjoying the flight no end. He was shaking his hands and grinning, and I was slowly dying because I knew we were going to crash."
The boy in the rear cockpit was just unaware. Crane had an altimeter and an airspeed indicator. He thought he was dying "slowly" only because of the way experience is compressed when an airplane goes wild. People's minds can work extraordinarily fast. Pilots tend to think not about God or their lives but about solutions. Crane searched his training and remembered only vague admonitions to stay out of bad weather. Of course, he was in it now, and couldn't see a thing. He knew he was turning but could make no sense of the compass. It is a notorious problem: because the earth's magnetic field does not lie parallel to the globe's surface but dips down toward the magnetic poles, the compass responds to banks by spinning erratically, jamming, and sometimes showing turns in reverse. Crane did not know which wing was down, let alone by how much. If he tried to level the wings, he was just as likely to roll upside down as right side up. If he tried to raise the nose, the effect would be exactly the opposite: the turn would quicken, steepening the descent. For a pilot these are the central issues of the spiral dive. Crane understood none of it at the time, but he sensed that his situation was hopeless.
In modern times air-traffic control recorded the radio transmissions of an unskilled pilot who, with his family on board, tried to descend through overcast. After he lost control, he began to sob into the microphone, begging the radar controllers to tell him which side was up. But radar shows air traffic as wingless blips on a map, and is incapable of distinguishing banks. Controllers are in the business of keeping airplanes from colliding. Pilots are in the business of flight control. This one had instruments on board by which he could have kept his wings level, but in the milkiness of the clouds he became confused. The controllers listened helplessly to his panic and, in the background, to the screams of his children. The transmissions ended when the airplane broke apart.
Crane's biplane was stronger. "Finally it got down to under a thousand feet, and I said, 'Well, here we go. I'm going to look at my boy once more.' And as I turned around to look at him, a sign went by my wing. It said 'Statler Hotel.' I had just missed the top of the Statler Hotel. In all the mist and rain, I could see the buildings and the streets. I flew down the street and got over the Detroit River, and flew about ten feet high all the way to Toledo, shaking all the way."
Shocked by the way intuition had abandoned him, Crane began to ask questions. For years he got no intelligent answers. Veterans of the military and the airmail service still insisted they could fly "by the seat of the pants," and they thought less of those who could not. Their self-deception now seems all the more profound because the solution to the problem of flying in clouds and darkness -- a gyroscope adapted to flying -- was already widely available.
T HE gyroscope is a spinning wheel, like a child's top, mounted in gimbals that allow it freedom of movement. It has two important traits: left alone, it maintains a fixed orientation in space (in relation to the stars); and when tilted, it reacts in an odd but predictable way. Elmer Sperry, the great American inventor, started playing with these traits in the early 1900s. As a curiosity, he designed a gyrostabilized "trained wheelbarrow," and he tried, without success, to interest a circus in it. Undiscouraged, Sperry turned to the U.S. Navy instead, and interested it in gyro-compasses and ship stabilizers. Competitors in Europe developed similar devices, and during the buildup to war interested their countries' navies, too.
Airplanes were an intriguing sideline. Sperry built a gyroscopic auto pilot in 1910, not to enable blind flight but to stabilize the otherwise unruly early flying machines. In 1915 he began to ponder instrumentation, and with prescient insight into the problems of flight was able after three years to produce the first gyroscopic turn indicator, an instrument still in use today. Its face consisted of a vertical pointer, which indicated turns to the left or right. (Necessarily, it also included a ball like the one in a carpenter's level, an inclinometer that showed not bank but "skid" or "slip" -- conditions of imbalance.) Sperry called the instrument a "crutch for the compass." In his patent application he described it as an instrument that would allow pilots to fly indefinitely through clouds, implying that without it they could not.
One of the earliest cloud flights with a turn indicator was made by William Ocker, an Army pilot, in 1918. Though he, too, spiraled out of overcast, he concluded correctly that his mistake had been to favor sensation over the instrument's indications. During the 1920s a few Post Office pilots began to fly by instruments. When Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, in 1927, a turn indicator kept him from spiraling into the sea when he met fog. Two years later Jimmy Doolittle made a "blind" landing, after flying a complete circuit around an airport in a special biplane modified with a domed cockpit from which he could not see outside. The landing itself was a technical dead end. Once Doolittle was over the field, he reduced the power and waited until the biplane plunked into the grass -- a technique that would not be practical for the airlines. More significant were the special devices that made the precisely flown circuit possible. The airplane was equipped with navigational radios, an airspeed indicator, an improved altimeter, a turn indicator, and two new gyroscopic instruments from Elmer Sperry -- a gyroscopic compass and an artificial horizon. This combination was so effective that it still forms the core of instrument panels today. Doolittle compared the artificial horizon to cutting a porthole through the fog to look at the real horizon. Devising technology was the easy part. The more stubborn problem of belief remained. As late as 1930 one of the airlines wrote to Sperry complaining about a mysterious problem: the instruments worked fine in clear air, but as soon as they were taken into clouds, they began to indicate turns.
Still worried about his near collision with the Statler Hotel, Carl Crane read with fascination the descriptions of Doolittle's flight. He was now, in 1929, an Army instructor at a training base in Texas. Though his superior officers disapproved of instrument flying, Crane was convinced of the need for gyroscopes. He finally got permission to cover over a cockpit and turn one of the biplanes into an instrument trainer. While he was at work on this, William Ocker wandered into the hangar. Ocker didn't look like much of a pilot, with his bifocals and his mournful, puritan face, but he had a powerful mind and the restless soul of a missionary. The truth about instrument flying had come to him in 1926, during a routine medical examination in San Francisco. To demonstrate that the senses could be fooled, a doctor had asked Ocker to close his eyes while being spun in a chair. Ocker felt the chair begin to turn, and guessed the direction correctly -- but when the chair slowed, he felt it had stopped, and when the chair stopped, he felt it was now turning in the opposite direction. For the doctor, it was a trick on the inner ear, an amusing exercise in vertigo. For Ocker, it was a stunning revelation: the sense of accelerating into a turn is the same as that of decelerating from the opposite turn. The chair induced the same false sensations that led pilots to mistrust their turn indicators. Even those who accepted their inability to feel the bank were losing control. Ocker now knew why. He had found here in the spinning chair the proof that instinct is worse than useless in the clouds.
Ocker became so obsessed with the spinning chair that he was hospitalized twice for sanity tests and later banished by the Army to Texas. His preaching had become tiresome. Nonetheless, he had discovered the most disturbing limitation of human flight -- the feelings that cause people to sway dizzily from wings-level flight into spiral dives. Having gyroscopes is not enough. Pilots must learn to believe them, even though their bodies may have invented phantom turns. And fiction can be compelling. I have seen students break into a sweat in the effort not to submit.
Ocker and Crane began a systematic exploration of flying inside clouds. In 1932 they published Blind Flight in Theory and Practice, the first clear analysis of instrument flying. The book had an enormous influence. The authors tried to lay to rest the old faith in flying by instinct. They described the physics of the turn and the confusion experienced by the inner ear, but their most dramatic argument grew out of an experiment with pigeons. From everything pilots had learned, it seemed evident that birds, too, must be unable to fly without a visible horizon. Ocker and Crane blind folded pigeons, took them up in biplanes, and threw them out. Sure enough, the birds dropped into fluttering emergency descents -- they panicked and went down like feathered parachutes. It is possible, of course, that they did not like the blindfolds, which were made of Bull Durham tobacco pouches. But anyway, the experiment was the kind pilots understood. If God had meant birds to fly in the clouds, He would have given them gyroscopes.
B IRDS are not the perfect flyers that you might expect. They cannot fly through heavy rain. They get sucked up by thunderstorms, frozen by altitude, and burned by lightning. They crash into obstacles, wander offshore, run out of fuel, and die by the millions. They would rather not migrate in bad weather, and usually don't. Nonetheless, it now appears that Ocker and Crane may have been wrong: there is evidence that some birds do occasionally fly inside clouds. This is big news. Word of it appeared in 1972, in the proceedings of a NASA symposium on animal navigation. Hidden among reports like "When the Beachhopper Looks at the Moon" and "Anemomenotactic Orientation in Beetles and Scorpions" (that is, "When a Bug Feels the Wind") was a paper titled "Nocturnal Bird Migration in Opaque Clouds." It was written by Donald Griffin, the Harvard zoologist who discovered the use of sonar by bats. Griffin reported that he had bought a military surplus radar and on overcast nights in New York had tracked birds that seemed to be flying inside clouds. There were only a few, and Griffin was able to track them only for a couple of miles, but they appeared to be flying straight. Griffin's biggest problem was uncertainty over the flight conditions at the birds' altitude. Were the clouds really as thick as they looked from below? Were the birds really flying blind? Griffin had good reason to believe so, but as a scientist he had to be cautious. His final report, in 1973, reinforced the earlier findings but was more cautiously titled "Oriented Bird Migration in or Between Opaque Cloud Layers." Ornithologists still cite it from memory. To those interested in bird navigation, the difference between "in" and "between" is just a detail; the point is, the birds seemed to know their way without reference to the stars or to the ground. But to birds, whose first job is keeping their wings level and controlling their turns, the distinction might be crucial. Griffin, a former pilot, understands its importance. I recently mentioned to him my impression that some ornithologists seem stuck on the ground, and he laughed. "I keep telling them, 'Gee, birds fly!'"
Assuming they fly in the clouds, the question is how? Ornithologists have no answer, and they shy away from speculation. It is known that birds navigate by watching the ground and the positions of the sun, the moon, and the stars -- none of which would help them in clouds. But they may also use a host of nonvisual clues, and may use mental "maps" based on sound, smell, air currents, variations in gravitational pull, and other factors. Experiments have shown that some species are extremely sensitive to magnetic forces. In their heads they have magnetite crystals surrounded by nerves, which may give them intuitive knowledge of their direction (and location) in the earth's magnetic field.
Another possibility is that birds have internal gyroscopes of a primitive sort. This is less farfetched than it seems: the rhythmic flapping of wings could have the effect of Foucault's pendulum, allowing a bird to sense turns without any external cue. A pendulum is more than a hanging weight -- it is a hanging weight that has been pushed and is swinging freely. Swinging gives a pendulum its special ability to maintain spatial orientation. Leon Foucault was the French physicist who first used one, in 1851, to demonstrate the rotation of the earth: though the pendulum appeared to change direction as it swung, in fact the plane of its swing remained constant, and the apparent change was caused by the turning of the earth underneath it. If birds rely on the pendulum effect, they are not alone. Flies and mosquitoes (along with more than 85,000 other species of Diptera) use specially adapted vibrating rods to maintain spatial orientation in flight. Not only can they turn sharply, roll upside down, and land on the underside of leaves, but they can do it in fog.
Pilots, too, have relied on pendulums. It is said that an airliner inbound to New York in the 1950s lost all its gyroscopes in heavy weather over Block Island. The captain was a wise old man who had risen with the airlines from the earliest airmail days and was approaching retirement. A lesser pilot might have fallen for the trap of intuition. But the captain simply took out his pocket watch, dangled it from its chain, and began to swing it toward the instrument panel. Flying by the pendulum and the compass, he proceeded the length of Long Island in the clouds. After breaking into the clear near the airport, he landed and wished his passengers a good day.
The story is not impossible. I had it in mind one night when I flew out over the Pacific Ocean in a small airplane. High clouds darkened the sky. The light of a fishing boat drifted close by the coast. Flying a mile above the water, I headed beyond it, into complete blackness.
Nowhere can a person find greater solitude than alone in flight. At night in clouds and over water, the cockpit becomes a world of its own, and the instrument panel another world within it. The instruments glow in a warm light, telling the strange story of the airplane's motion. Enjoying this isolation, I flew on until, behind me, the fishing boat was a distant glimmer. The gyroscopes functioned perfectly. The radios were blissfully silent. I hooked a metal pen to a fishing line and dangled it from a knob on the ceiling. Flying by the artificial horizon, I made a steep turn and watched the pen dangle toward the tilted floor. Then I straightened out, pushed the pen toward the instrument panel, and released it. It swung for almost a minute before requiring another push. Each renewal would, of course, erase the pendulum's spatial memory. Nonetheless, I thought the device might work. After turning parallel to the coast, I covered the gyroscopes with slips of paper.
The night air was smooth. The pen swung rhythmically toward the panel and back. When eventually the airplane banked and therefore turned, the swinging pen, though it continued to swing through a point perpendicular to the floor, maintained a memory of the airplane's original heading, and seemed to have redirected itself to the left. This could only mean that the airplane had banked to the right. I steered left gingerly, hoping to raise the right wing just enough to return to straight flight. The pen seemed to stabilize in its new direction. I renewed the swing, shoving the pen again directly toward the panel. It soon confirmed that the airplane had indeed leveled its wings. After the compass settled, it showed that I had turned twenty degrees to the right. Lowering the left wing cautiously, watching the pen swing to the right, I crept back to my original heading. Later, when I tried to make a large turn, I spiraled and had to peek at the gyroscopes. But with the wings level again I flew on for miles, learning to work with the swinging pen. Trust comes slowly in the indication of turns. It is a peculiar faith that makes the world so small.
Copyright © 1993 by William Langewiesche. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; December 1993; The Turn; Volume 272, No. 6; pages 115-122.Gabe Sapolsky
Extreme Championship Wrestling was both destined to be great and doomed to fail.
Throughout the mid to late ‘90s, the grungy Northeastern promotion set the tone for a wrestling boom period known as “attitude.” ECW was never acclaimed for its production value, but for its realistic characters and storylines, as well as its loyal and bloodthirsty fans.
At the time of its run, ECW became the third most popular promotion in the country, behind Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation (now-WWE) and Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. The overwhelming violence has often been cited as a reason for ECW’s lack of mainstream appeal. In addition, it consistently received little to no advertising. Running as far as it could with what little it had, it was only a matter of time before ECW would face a heap of financial problems that would culminate in its death.HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Lambda Legal on Tuesday filed a motion for summary judgment asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to rule swiftly in a case brought by three same-sex couples seeking the freedom to marry.
In the lawsuit, filed Oct. 1, 2013, Lambda Legal argues that West Virginia’s marriage ban unfairly discriminates against same-sex couples and their children and sends a purposeful message that gay couples and their children are undeserving of the legal sanction, respect, protections, and support that opposite-sex couples and their families are able to enjoy through marriage.
“Since we filed our lawsuit in October, same-sex couples in four more states have secured the ability to marry,” said Beth Littrell, a Senior Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office. “We do not want a country divided by unfairness and discrimination. Same-sex couples are in loving, committed relationships in every state and should be treated the same way.”
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“When same-sex couples in West Virginia are denied the freedom to marry, the government sends a message that they are second class citizens and their families are not worthy of equal dignity and respect,” said Littrell.
Plaintiffs is the case are: Nancy Michael, 45, and Jane Fenton, 43, together for 16 years, and their six-year-old son, Drew; Casie McGee, 30, and Sarah Adkins 32, together for more than three years; and Justin Murdock, 32, and William Glavaris, 31, together for more than two years.
This Story Filed UnderTune in Wednesday at 12:00pm PT/3:00pm ET as we stream live gameplay, take your questions, and more.
It’s been almost three weeks since we launched Lost Treasures, our first multiplayer DLC for Uncharted 4, which introduced a new map, new weapons, more customization items, a revamped ranked system, and more. While the team is hard at work on the next stage of our Multiplayer Roadmap, we wanted to take some time to discuss some of the improvements and changes we’ve made since launching Lost Treasures, check in on the mid-season status of Ranked Team Deathmatch, answer questions from the community, and stream live multiplayer gameplay.
Tune in tomorrow, Wednesday July 20, at 12:00pm PT/3:00pm ET (What Time Is That In My City?) as we broadcast live on Twitch.tv/NaughtyDog and be sure to jump into the comments to ask your burning questions.
For updates, be sure to stay tuned to NaughtyDog.com and follow us by following us on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, and Snapchat.SB 5 was introduced by Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (left), a Republican with a history of proposing to remove women's health programs in the state, sometimes under the guise of fiscal responsibility. Laubenberg is, of course, entitled to her views and is representing the view of her constituents in District 89, deep in the heart of Dallas and Plano. But during last night's debate, which lasted until Laubenberg's final appearance at around 3:20 a.m., a Democrat had proposed that there be an exemption made for women who were victims of rape or incest, as so many abortion bills have over the past year when they seem to pop up in statehouses every few weeks. Laubenberg then explained that there was no need for such an amendment, because Laubenberg erroneously believes that rape kits eliminate the possibility of conception through rape and incest. Laubenberg said:
In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits where a woman can get cleaned out... The woman had five months to make that decision, at this point we are looking at a baby that is very far along in its development.
The Associated Press reports that Laubenberg continued, "comparing the procedure to an abortion." Rape kits, of course, are the set of tools used by medical personnel to determine if a woman has been raped — swabs, combs, evidence-collection sheets, and more. There are stories about how the kits go untested for decades, which is a different kind of outrage on its own. Basically, when the general public refers to rape kits, they're not referring to contraceptives. But Laubenberg implies that a woman who didn't get "cleaned out" by her fictional version of rape kit has waited too long "to make that decision."
"Laubenberg, who has difficulty debating bills, then simply rejected all proposed changes to her bill without speaking until the end of the debate," reads the report from the AP. Huh? Isn't a politician "who has difficulty debating bills" not unlike a doctor "who has difficulty diagnosing diseases?" In 2011, when it was pointed out to her by a budget expert that women's health programs actually save the government money because there would be fewer babies born under the state's Medicaid program, Laubenberg accused the Legislative Budget Board of using "government math."
In 2003, Laubenberg voiced her opinion on an abortion bill that proposed that women wait two hours before obtaining an abortion. That's a relic of the past now that Texas requires a mandatory trans-vaginal sonogram and a 24-hour waiting period for women who want to have abortions, but that 2003 bill would have forced doctors to explain things like the "liability of the father to pay child support, medical assistance for prenatal care, childbirth and neonatal care," the AP reported at the time. Laubenberg said it was an affront to women's intelligence: "A woman in that situation is frightened and confused and not thinking straight," she said. District 89's representative could just as well have been describing herself on Sunday night and Monday morning.
Texas's Senate Democrats have said they will try and stage a filibuster on Tuesday to try and block Laubenberg's bill. Long week down there.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.A new Battlefield Hardline update will be released on July 28. We are committed to making your time on the streets the best experience possible by providing you with game updates and fixes.
The update will be deployed to PC, PS4 and Xbox One at the following times:
PC: Multiplayer will be offline for 1h starting 08.00 UTC / 1.00 AM PDT
Multiplayer will be offline for 1h starting 08.00 UTC / 1.00 AM PDT PS4: Multiplayer will be offline for 1h starting 09.00 UTC / 2.00 AM PDT
Multiplayer will be offline for 1h starting 09.00 UTC / 2.00 AM PDT Xbox One: Multiplayer will be offline for 1h starting 10.00 UTC / 3.00 AM PDT
Patch notes will be posted here once it is live. Be sure to check back once maintenance is complete.
Note: This patch does not affect PS3™ or Xbox 360® players.
Thank you for your patience and see you on the Battlefield!Meet Julia. Julia is a 15-second recording made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on March 1, 1999. Julia is a sound of unknown origin, but was sufficiently loud enough to be heard over the entire Equatorial Pacific Ocean Autonomous Hydrophone Array (that’s very loud… the array consists of 12 hydrophones stretched out over hundreds of miles in the Pacific Ocean). The array was originally designed to detect Soviet submarines during the Cold War, but has since been re-purposed for scientific study (mainly studying seismic movements under the ocean floor). Julia is one of many sounds recorded by the array that have no discernible origin. Her friends include Whistle, Train, Slowdown, Upsweep, and of course, the infamous Bloop. Most of these sounds are thought to be ice calving (when ice breaks away from glaciers or slides off of land), but that does not stop the imagination from running wild. All kinds of theories have been put forth to explain the origins of these unusual sounds, from massive sea creatures to underwater alien civilizations.
All those sounds are fine and dandy, but none quite compare to the Bloop. The Bloop is the name of an unexplained sound, recorded by the array several times during the summer of 1997. It hasn’t been heard since, and no source for the sound was ever discovered (although the general location of the sound was traced to about 3,000 miles away from the array, off of the southern tip of South America). NOAA’s official stance was the same as pretty much all of the unexplained sounds profiled in this article: ice calving. However, after Christopher Fox (a lead oceanographer with NOAA) was paraphrased as “having a hunch” that the Bloop was caused by “some sort of animal” in a 2002 issue of New Scientist (“Calls From The Deep”), all bets were off. The Bloop has since been used as a major plot device in movies, books, and TV shows. Some even speculate that the sound might have been emitted by Cthulu. What is so striking about the sound is that it’s acoustic profile seems to fall in line with other sea creatures, yet the sound was so loud that no known creature (not even the mighty Blue Whale) could possibly have been the source. When you hear the sound, does it call to mind the monstrous nature of the deep that it does for so many others?
Imagine that you’re diving off of the coast of South America, a colorful reef full of fish and eels writhes beneath you. You’re not very deep, maybe 40 feet, but you quickly drift farther from the shore and deeper than you thought. Perhaps you loaded your weight belt with a few too many pounds, perhaps you were breathing too shallowly to maintain buoyancy, but before you know it, the Continental Shelf drops out from beneath you like a trap door under a brightly-lit stage. You suddenly realize that you are completely surrounded by absolute darkness. With nothing but the fading shafts of light coming from the surface to give you any sense of direction, you begin to swim upward, only to be stopped almost immediately by extreme pain in all of your joints. You remember your certification classes, and realize that all of the liquids in your body have been filled with tiny, expanding bubbles, and you’ve been paralyzed by decompression sickness. Just rise slowly, you think. Take a break every few meters, get to the surface and you can find the boa–you’re cut off mid-thought as a deep, thunderous sound vibrates through your bones. You snap your body in all directions, desperately looking for the source of the unearthly sound, only to find yourself in complete darkness. As the sound rises from the depth’s below you again, scattering what few fish you could see around you like windshield glass in a car accident, it dawns on you that during your agonizing ordeal with decompression sickness, you weren’t able to move your legs, and you’d sunken below the point where any light could penetrate the dense ocean. You’ve lost the surface, your tank is quickly running out of air, and you can feel currents of water ripple around you as something very large surges toward you…
For part 2, we’ll get up–and over–sea level.Watch more about the Roma's plight on CNN International World's Untold Stories on June 26 at 1630 GMT, and June 27 at 1100 GMT, 1830 GMT.
Vitkov, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Natalka Kudrikova is a bright-eyed, three-year-old girl recovering from the severe burns she suffered when far-right extremists threw a Molotov cocktail into her home.
Her family and authorities say she was targeted because they are Roma, or gypsies. Natalka lost 80 percent of her skin, two fingers (a third was later amputated) and spent months lying in an induced coma following the attack last year in Vitkov, in the Czech Republic. She is still recuperating after 14 major surgeries.
In May, Natalka returned to Ostrava Hospital for rehabilitation sessions so that one day she may be able to get around without support. "I'd rather not take her back to the hospital," said her mother, Anna Sivakova, "but if she must return, my dream is that she learns how to walk without any help."
The very next day, four young men accused of attacking Natalka, filed into Ostrava District Court to hear the indictment: a racially motivated attempted murder.
According to the prosecutor, the attack was planned for the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. Court experts confirmed swastikas and other Nazi memorabilia were found in the defendants' homes.
In court, Ivo Muller and Vaclav Cojocaru described their coordinated Molotov cocktail attack. Their only excuse -- they said they thought they were attacking an empty storehouse of stolen goods.
Under cross-examination, Muller and Cojocaru admitted attending anti-Roma demonstrations organized by right wing extremists.
The other defendants, Jaromir Lukes and David Vaculik, did not take the stand. Lukes is accused of being the ringleader, a claim his defense counsel strongly denies although he concedes Lukes drove the getaway car. His lawyer also vehemently denies there was any racial motivation to the attack.
An anti-fascist website published a photo of Lukes walking next to the leader of the far-right Workers' Party. Another photo showed Vaculik wearing the armband of the Workers' Party, the public face of the Czech far right.
The leader of the now banned Workers' Party, Tomas Vandas, denied any involvement.
"Yes, we may have used those people as organizers of our public meetings but how could we know they would commit a crime?" said Vandas. "I hope Natalka gets better soon," he added.
Miroslav Mares, from Masaryk University in Brno, is the leading academic specialist on Czech extremist groups.
He thinks it's unlikely that the Workers' Party was directly involved in the arson attack, but he says they were responsible "for inflaming anti-Roma sentiment."
"Maybe some youngsters from the neo-Nazi scene said to themselves, 'If the whole population is against Romas we are justified in carrying out such attacks,'" he said.
And surveys do show anti-Roma sentiment is widespread. The European Union EURoma website says Czech Romas endure extremely high unemployment rates, low educational standards, isolation, and the prejudices of the majority population.
"In regions with high unemployment and poor social conditions, the rise of extremism is popular with unemployed young men but we can see more and more women on the neo-Nazi scene," Marek said.
Lucie Slegrova, 20, is a flag-waving militant of the now renamed Workers' Social Justice Party. She denies her party is inspired by Hitler's Nazi ideology.
Instead, she says, they follow their own nationalist ideas. "The Czech Republic should be for people who know how to behave. If the gypsies don't want to follow the rules, they're free to leave," she said.
Only one percent of Czech voters supported the Workers' Social Justice Party in the last elections, but Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer worries that 7 percent of Czech students voted for the far-right party, according to an unofficial nationwide poll.
"A lot of people are frustrated with politicians, and have troubles due to the crisis and recession. My message to them is please think it over and don't believe these very bad prophets," Fischer said.
The far-right movement has made bigger gains in neighboring Hungary where 17 percent of voters chose the Jobbik party in the last elections.
Violence has been much worse as well. In the last two years, nine Roma have been killed in Hungary in unprovoked night-time attacks, according to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).
Roma bashing also became an issue in the Slovakian election campaign. The far right Slovak National Party commissioned billboards showing a dark-skinned man with tattoos and an inflammatory message: "Vote SNS so we don't feed those who don't want to work."
In eastern Slovakia many Roma live in segregated communities like the village of Ostrovany where municipal authorities spent some $16,000 to build a wall separating the Roma from their white neighbors, because of fears of "alleged Roma crime," said Stanislav Daniel from ERRC.
"To me the wall is a symbol of segregation because public finances were used to target a stereotype, not what's real," Daniel said.
The wall separates a tidy town from a rural slum. Roma, living right next to the wall, have no sewage or garbage collection and there's just one tap with drinking water for dozens of families.
Back in the Czech Republic, Natalka's father, Pavel Kudrik, has chosen to stay in the region |
building, I call the crane operator, and he brings the toilet down for me to clean. If you're doing shoulder work on a 10-lane interstate... you see where this is going.
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If you absolutely have to use one of those toilets on the highway -- and you don't want to, if at all possible -- take my word for it that you want to get in and out as fast as possible. Why? About once a year, I have to come pick one up that a car crashed into.
Dan Moore/iStock/Getty Images
It's like if they replaced Paul Walker with Johnny Knoxville for Fast And Furious 8.
There was one last year that I had to call in because it was so utterly destroyed that I couldn't strap it to the back of my truck. Another thing you want to watch out for is toilets placed along the side of a hill. We've had them fall down hills into bodies of water -- one time, after a windstorm, we had a row of some 20 toilets, and probably 18 had flipped over. As far as I know, nobody's ever been in the toilets when they were smashed into or fell, but I would imagine that after drowning in a shit-filled box, the actual trip to hell would seem almost redundant.
Ryerson Clark/E+/Getty Images
"Your lake of fire shall simply purify me!"
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And winter is as terrible for us as it is for you. When those high winds come through, our toilets can end up anywhere. This means horrible, nasty clean-up. We do have power washers on the trucks, but have you ever used a power washer in closed quarters? Not only do you get soaked, you get soaked with butt mud flying all over you. It's the absolute worst. Except maybe when all that happens, and it's below freezing. That's when the real fun begins.1 of 8 View Caption
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Two transgender Utahns, who have been denied a legal sex designation by a state judg Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Angie Rice, pictured on Friday, June 30, 2017, believes the state laws that allowed h Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Sean Childers-Gray, pictured on Friday, June 30, 2017, realized at age 21 that he wa Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Sean Childers-Gray, pictured on Friday, June 30, 2017, realized at age 21 that he wa Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Sean Childers-Gray, pictured on Friday, June 30, 2017, realized at age 21 that he was Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Two transgender Utahns, who have been denied a legal sex designation by a state judg Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Two transgender Utahns, who have been denied a legal sex designation by a state jud Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Angie Rice, pictured on Friday, June 30, 2017, believes the state laws that allowedBharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra was appointed as non-official director on the board of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved his appointment to the post for a period of three years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.
Other BJP leaders too have been appointed to the board of central public sector undertakings earlier.
BJP leader Syed Zafar Islam was appointed as non-official independent director of Air India in May this year. Islam, a former investment banker, had joined BJP in April 2014.
Shazia Ilmi, former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, was appointed as independent director in Engineers India Ltd (EIL) in January. At present, she is the vice-president of the BJP’s Delhi unit.
The saffron party's member from Gujarat, Asifa Khan, had also been made non-official independent director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).
Existing norms by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) mandate companies to have at least 50 percent of directors as non-executive or independent directors with at least one woman director.Former President Jimmy Carter said in a recent interview that he does not believe Russia stole the election from former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE in 2016.
“I don’t think there’s any evidence that what the Russians did changed enough votes, or any votes," Carter told The New York Times in an interview published on Saturday.
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The former president notes in the interview that he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter disagree on the matter.
“Rosie and I have a difference of opinion on that,” he said.
“They [the Russians] obviously did,” the former first lady said.
The comments from the former president and first lady, who say they voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersPush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Sanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' MORE (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary, come as the congressional and federal probes continue to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian election meddling.
The probes have recently zeroed in on social media's role in the election after it was revealed that Russian-based hackers used social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to attempt to influence the race.
President Trump said in a tweet on Saturday that Facebook was on the side of Clinton.by Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, and Jonathan Reynolds, MP for Stalybridge and Hyde.
We stand on different sides of the convulsions the Labour Party is currently going through, but we are united in the belief that our political systems and culture must change. The Brexit referendum showed what happens when the electorate are given a vote that counts – they take it and use it – packing so much frustration into a decision that was nominally about Europe but clearly about so much more, not least the effects of globalisation on their lives. The contrast could not have been greater with general elections in the UK. Because of the First Past the Post voting system only a few swing voters in a few swing seats are listened to and many voices are never heard.
This combined with the increasingly diverse nature of the UK’s political landscape means that a shift to a proportional voting system is now an urgent imperative. The era of just two big parties representing the vast bulk of the country is over and we now see the pent up consequences of pretending that is still the case. We urge the Labour Party to lead the country towards a new politics of the 21st century by embracing proportional representation (PR).
But there is an immediate and obvious consequence of supporting PR, the politics of alliances. The divisions we now see in both main parties and the growing multitude of smaller parties means government even now under First Past The Post will increasingly be through alliances of political parties.
We welcome the formation of a progressive alliance of parties that understand without PR a more equal, democratic and sustainable society is less likely. Not least because the shift to the right we have witnessed over the last few weeks and the possible rise of an even more populist UKIP-style politics across the country demands a united and effective electoral response from all progressives.
Clive Lewis will tonight join Caroline Lucas, Sir Vince Cable, Tommy Sheppard and 1,000 audience members at the sold-out Progressive Alliance event, in Westminster, which has been organised by Compass.M.A.S.H. was one of the best TV series ever, and everybody loved it, but Kraw27 took his passion for M.A.S.H. to a whole other level when he decided to build a replica of the show in his backyard.
Trying to create replicas of the Swamp or Hawkeye’s tent is commendable enough, but he managed to create an almost perfect replica of the 70s series set, complete with an old Jeep and a military ambulance just like the original one. Hawkeye’s tent is exact in every detail, but Kraw27 managed to hide some modern conveniences in the decor, like a TV, mini fridge and CD player, and says it’s the best place to play poker on Thursday nights.
This is simply awesome, and if this guy isn’t already working as a set designer, someone should make him an offer, fast.
Rate My Space and Imgur via NeatoramaCNN's Gloria Borger asserted, "[Sen. John] McCain really believes that he has an opportunity to win over these suburban women who, in recent polls, have shown that they don't like [Sen.] Barack Obama very much." But of the two recent polls identified by Media Matters that reported results for the subcategory of suburban women, one found that Obama led McCain, while the other, providing results specifically for "white suburban women," gave McCain the lead, but reportedly within the margin of error; in neither case were results reported for likability of the two candidates among suburban women.
On the June 16 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger asserted, "[Sen. John] McCain really believes that he has an opportunity to win over these suburban women who, in recent polls, have shown that they don't like [Sen.] Barack Obama very much." Borger did not name any specific polls that found that "suburban women... don't like Barack Obama very much." A Media Matters for America review identified two recent polls reporting results for the subcategory of suburban women, neither of which published results for likability of the two candidates among suburban women.
One of the polls, conducted by the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner from May 29 through June 8, showed Obama leading McCain by seven percentage points in an "initial vote" by "suburban women" in 12 presidential battleground states, 51-44, with no listed margin of error. The poll further indicated that after explaining the respective positions of Obama and McCain on abortion, which the poll labeled "choice positioning," Obama's lead over McCain grew to 55-39 among suburban women. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner concluded that "Choice Moves Key Blocs of Women Toward Obama."
According to a June 11 MSNBC.com article by NBC News deputy political director Mark Murray, a second poll conducted from June 6-9, released by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, found that "McCain leads Obama among white suburban women (44-38), [a] group which makes up about 10 percent of all voters that [Democratic pollster Peter D.] Hart calls 'absolutely critical' for both candidates in the fall." However, neither Murray's report -- which discussed the poll's results among "white suburban women," not simply "suburban women" -- nor the full published results of the poll, provided likability or favorability ratings for Obama and McCain among suburban women. Moreover, the poll's result for white suburban women is reportedly within the margin of error.
From the June 16 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:By Alice S.
The Affordable Care Act makes effective birth control more affordable for millions of women by requiring employer-based health plans to include no-cost coverage for contraceptives. On March 25, the Supreme Court will hear arguments from companies that want to violate this law. Here is a story from one of the many women whose boss has tried to deny her birth control. For fear of losing her job, she requested to remain anonymous. Alice is not her real name.
In my household, like many these days, money is tight.
My husband and I and our two young children are struggling to make ends meet. We’re barely managing to pay our car insurance, the rent on our one-bedroom home, and our child-care provider—never mind my student loans. After all of these expenses, finding money to pay for birth control is a real challenge. But we wouldn’t be in this position at all if the Archdiocese weren’t allowed to interfere with my health care decisions by withholding contraception coverage in my health insurance.
Let me explain. As a teacher at a Catholic primary school, I receive my insurance through the regional Archdiocese, which has refused to allow insurance coverage for birth control or sterilization.
Having to pay out-of-pocket for birth control means that I have to make important health care decisions based on cost rather than on what’s best for me and my family. After my daughter was born two years ago, my husband and I were not ready for another child. My doctor recommended that I take a particular kind of birth control pill that would be safest for me while I breastfed her–but there was no generic version available, and the brand name one cost several hundred dollars per month. I couldn’t afford that, so I went without birth control while breast-feeding and became pregnant again just seven months after my first child was born. I love my son and am so grateful to have him in my life. But the fact is this: My husband and I would not have gotten pregnant at that time, if I had been able to afford the pill that my doctor recommended.
Now that we have two children, I absolutely cannot get pregnant again. We just can’t afford to care for a third child. I desperately want to get my tubes tied or have an intrauterine device inserted, but those options can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. For now, I’ve asked my doctor to prescribe the cheapest birth control pills that work for my body—and it’s still hard to find an extra $25 each month to pay for them.
I was therefore relieved to learn that the contraception rule will require employers to cover birth control without any co-pay. But then I received a letter, signed by the Archdiocese, telling us that the school would “continue to provide coverage consistent with the church’s teachings.” I’m trying to get to the bottom of whether my employer is following the new law, but it has been hard to get answers.
Until I do, my family and I are back to square one. We hope that the Supreme Court does not give employers a green-light to violate the law and put other people in the same difficult position that we’re in.Nicky Hammond spent four years as a player at Reading
New West Brom technical director Nicky Hammond says head coach Tony Pulis will get the final word on transfers this summer.
Hammond, 48, joined the Premier League club at the end of April after ending his 20-year association with Reading.
"I had good relationships with all the managers at Reading and never have I bought a player that the manager didn't want," Hammond told BBC WM 95.6.
"There's no point - from a common-sense perspective, there's no sense to it."
Hammond added: "The challenge is to bring players to the club that will improve the existing squad and that the manager wants.
"The quality of the squad here is very very good and improving on that is not easy.
"There has to be a function that supports it and that's where you have a recruitment process and Tony is part of that.
"He cannot spend weekends watching games in Germany, Spain or France or even the UK - it's impossible.
"The football club purchases the player - that's where the finances come from - but Tony's right at the top of the decision making."
Pulis is 'the leader'
Having worked with the likes of Alan Pardew, Steve Coppell and Brendon Rodgers, former Arsenal goalkeeper Hammond is looking forward to getting to know straight-talking Pulis.
"Anyone who doesn't want a manager with a strong opinion is not a sensible one," Hammond added.
"You need a strong leader and, make no mistake, Tony's the leader.
"We will discuss things but ultimately he is the guy that has to get results and trust the players he has."
Jonathan Leko has played for England at Under-16 and Under-17 level
Kids will keep getting their chance
Seventeen-year-old winger Jonathan Leko created history when he became the first player born in 1999 to play in the Premier League when he made his debut at Sunderland at the start of April.
Leko is the latest from the Baggies' academy to graduate to the first team, while midfielder Tyler Roberts, 18, has been named in three matchday squads this season, including the last two.
Hammond was youth academy director at Reading in 2003 before becoming director of football three years later and he says the club will continue to give the next generation of players the chance to shine.
"Young player development is crucial for this club," he said.
"In my first weekend here, Leko starts and does fantastically well and I've seen the young players integrate with Tony and that's lovely to see.
"It's great source of encouragement going into the summer."Indy Eleven sign 11th player, head for Arizona camp
Children at the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center colored in Indy Eleven logos. (Photo: David Woods)
As the Indy Eleven continue their aggressive approach to capturing the city -- a new stadium proposal, social media, community outreach -- they haven't neglected their first priority: To build a winning team.
The Eleven announced on Thursday the signing of Honduran midfielder Walter Ramirez, 30. He is, coincidentally, the team's 11th signee. Ramirez and Indy defender Erick Norales share the same hometown, La Ceiba.
Players from the Eleven gathered Thursday at the Near Eastside Legacy Center on the Tech High School campus to conduct a clinic for kids and sign autographs. (The attached photo is from a contest of coloring the team logo.) It was the team's first community event and the players' final public appearance before leaving for a 13-day training camp.
About 13 or 14 players trying out will join those already on the team. The Eleven will be in Casa Grande, Ariz., from Saturday until Feb. 10 and then in Tucson until Feb. 13. Scrimmages are set against three MLS clubs: Vancouver Whitecaps (Wednesday), defending MLS Cup champion Sporting Kansas City (Feb. 7) and Portland Timbers (Feb. 12).
The 11th signee, Ramirez, made 51 appearances (44 starts) with San Antonio of the NASL and was chosen to the league's Best XI team in 2012. Ramirez and two other Indy signees, Mike Ambersley and Pedro Mendes, have all played in the NASL.
"Walter Ramirez is a fantastic addition to Indy Eleven, as his dynamic wing play perfectly complements the group we've already assembled," coach Juergen Sommer said in a release from the team. "His service from the flank and willingness to take on defenders should provide great opportunities for our attack, while his entertaining style and personality will certainly endear himself to both his teammates and our fans."
Sommer was at a funeral and could not be at the clinic. Peter Wilt, president and general manager of the Eleven, said the team intends to sign about 20 players for the nine-game spring season.
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Around the pitch:
-- The Near East Soccer Alliance will hold its first-ever spring leagues for boys and girls of ages 4-12. Fee is $40. For information, contact Josh Bowling at joshbowling@jhbcc.org or (317) 423-2000, or register at www.neareastsoccer.com.
-- The Eleven will hold an artist reception Feb. 7 from 6-9 p.m. at the Harrison Center, 1505 N. Delaware St.
-- The Eleven has set March 15 (11 a.m.-1 p.m.) as a Goals For Indy day. The team is encouraging those around the city to play a pickup game in that time slot.
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I want to publicly thank those who have commented on the Soccer Insider blog for their participation. We want Soccer Insider to be a place where those who care about the sport can exchange thoughts and discuss soccer news.
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Contact me at david.woods@indystar.com or call (317) 444-6195. Follow me on Twitter at @DavidWoods007.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1bEmDNTThis past week wrapped up both North America and Europe’s Regional Qualifiers, as eight teams from each region attempted to book their tickets to the Summer Global Championship! While we’ll have to wait for DreamHack Austin to find out the first Summer team from NA, the ESL Heroes of the Storm Regional - Leicester is coming up this weekend. Starting on April 22, England will become the battleground where the eight top European teams face off and one is eventually crowned the first qualifying team for the HGC Summer Finals in Sweden.
Upcoming Events
The Summer Circuit is well underway, and this week is particularly busy for several regions.
You can find the full schedule of upcoming events here.
Games to Watch
Team vs. Team VOD Description Team Liquid vs. Evil Murkies Link Dehaka made his debut in the European DreamHack Qualifiers, played by Team Liquid’s bkbgrnrjefek on Infernal Shrines. As early as two minutes into the first game, bkb showed the strength of Dehaka’s global presence and split pushing prowess. TheStarDream Team vs. Braveheart Link Zerglings and Gryphons and Wolves--oh my! The game one draft brought with it Dehaka and Sgt. Hammer. You’ll have to watch the game to find out how it went--no spoilers here! COGnitive Gaming vs. Team Higher Consciousness Link The reign of spellcasters Li-Ming and Kael’thas in North America continued throughout the qualifiers, and this match-up showed the true potential of these mages when left to their own devices.
Summer Regionals Underway!
In North America, six of the eight teams from the Spring Regional have returned to fight this summer. Previous BlizzCon and North American Champions Cloud9 are again joined by the likes of Tempo Storm, Team Naventic, COGnitive Gaming, and Panda Global, with King of Blades Alpha’s team returning as Gust or Bust.
A similar situation played out in Europe, where five of the eight teams from Spring Circuit qualified for the Summer Regional. Following the reformation of major teams it has been a free agent zoo, and three new teams have decided to stake their claim on the European Championship crown: Polish team Silenced Monkeys; Casual Logic Gaming, replacing Epsilon eSports due to visa issues; and Team Sandwich Monkey, boasting previous members of Na’Vi and Team Dignitas. Here is the full list of qualifying teams:
It’s worth noting that both North America and Europe will have TWO Regional Qualifiers. Details about how teams will qualify for the Summer Global Championship, and what will happen in case of conflicting Regional results, can be found here!
Catch VODs of the first round of EU Qualifiers on Khaldor’s YouTube channel.
The Road Ahead for North America
The North America Summer Qualifiers for Regional #1 have officially concluded! This past week, eight teams fought tooth and nail to qualify for DreamHack Austin: the venue for the first of two Summer Regionals. There’s no rest to be had for North America’s teams, however, as the ESL Burbank Qualifiers for Regional #2 begin on Sunday, April 24. Both Qualifiers sported three separate qualifying days, with two teams emerging from days one and two, and four teams qualifying on day three. The first two Burbank Qualifiers will occur before DreamHack Austin’s Regional begins on Friday, May 6. Here’s the full list of qualifying teams for DreamHack Austin:
For info on the event, check out DreamHack Austin’s official announcement!
Super League Season 2 Teams Have Been Decided!
The excitement and upsets of Super League Season 2 have already put fans on the edge of their seats--and the group stages have yet to begin! From Season 1, MVP Black and Team No Limit were automatically seeded as the first and second place teams. After the online and offline qualifiers, their six competitors have been decided. DsA, a reincarnation of Team AsD, also qualified and contributed to one of the biggest upsets thus far. Team HERO, the third place team in Season 1, fell to DsA in a convincing manner, truly showing the growth of the scene. Unsurprisingly, RAVE HOTS qualified once again but knocked out up-and-coming Team Villain in the process, creating yet another upset in the Korean scene. Tempest, a team comprised of incredibly strong free agents, qualified alongside RoMg, Team Mighty and TAS.
Watch Season 2 of the Heroes of the Storm Super League on OGNGlobal’s channel on Twitch.tv, cast in English.
Dehaka is Unleashed in the Nexus!
The Primal Pack Leader from Zerus has been released into the competitive scene, and we’ve seen a major flare-up in popularity from the North American and European scenes especially. While our essence-collecting warrior has not gained much traction elsewhere, as the global meta shifts to a preference of maps such as Tomb of the Spider Queen and Cursed Hollow, it’s only a matter of time until Dehaka burrows into other regions. See him in action in the Chinese Gold League match-up between TSD and BHeart linked above, or check out Cloud9’s iDream playing him alongside Anub’Arak during the NA Qualifiers here!
Dehaka’s arrival wasn’t the only game-changer this week. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the April 19 patch notes as well as the new MVP Black mount, sales of which will directly support the current global champions.
The first two Regional events are upon us, with more coming our way! Check below to find out when and where the action will happen!
Europe Summer Regional 1
Dates: April 22–24
April 22–24 Location : ESL UK Studio One (Leicester, UK)
: ESL UK Studio One (Leicester, UK) Partner : ESL
: ESL Prize Pool: $100,000 USD
North America Summer Regional 1
Dates : May 6–7
: May 6–7 Location : DreamHack Austin (Austin, TX)
: DreamHack Austin (Austin, TX) Partner : DreamHack
: DreamHack Prize Pool: $100,000 USD
For more info on the Heroes of the Storm Summer Global Championship, including a full schedule of events across all regions, check out our primer.Republican Texas Senator and former presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has finally endorsed GOP nominee Donald Trump for US president, ending a long-running feud with the New York businessman.
“After months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” Cruz said in a Facebook statement on Friday.
The senator, who drew ire at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July for not endorsing Trump, said electing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would be “wholly unacceptable.”
“Our country is in crisis. Hillary Clinton is manifestly unfit to be president, and her policies would harm millions of Americans,” he said. “And Donald Trump is the only thing standing in her way.”
The surprising decision to support Trump marks a dramatic U-turn for Cruz, who had referred to the real estate mogul as a “trainwreck" and a "pathological liar" who was not fit to lead America.
Trump responded to the news by saying he was “greatly honored” to have the endorsement of “a tough and brilliant opponent.”
During the RNC, Cruz received a standing ovation as he took the stage but was booed offstage after he withheld the endorsement and instead advised Americans to “vote your conscience.”
In his Facebook post, however, Cruz tried to make his case by highlighting six key policy differences between Trump and Clinton, namely immigration and energy.
Clinton responded to Cruz’s move by retweeting one of his old tweets, where the senator had blasted Trump for refusing to release his tax record.
Cruz had also called the former reality TV star a “braggadocios, arrogant buffoon” and a “serial philanderer.”
Trump sparked a wave of controversy by posting an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife. He also connected Cruz’s father, Rafael, to former US president John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
The endorsement gives a major boost to Trump’s campaign about 50 days from the November election.
Cruz’s endorsement was denounced by some of his supporters, with his former campaign spokesman, Rick Tyler, saying, “It's mourning in America for conservatives. We lost our leader today.”The game of basketball and Hip Hop’s similarities run so deep, that rap star are being nabbed by the local NBA teams to do a bit of brand ambassadorship; much more than any other professional sports league.
Dime Magazine recently took the concept even further and drew up some redesigns of NBA logos as rappers to literally illustrate said similarities.
Check out some choice selections of the NBA artwork down below.
The Notorious B.I.G. / New York Knicks
The thrill has been gone for Knickerbockers basketball but the Black Frank White always excites when you relive his classic music.
Tupac Shakur / Los Angeles Lakers
To live and die in L.A.
N.W.A / Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers are the best b-ball team currently playing in the Staples Center so they get the nod to align with the Hall of Famers.
E-40 / Golden State Warriors
40 Watta’s Yay Area squad is looking to capitalize on their record-breaking NBA season…
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony / Cleveland Cavaliers
…while LeBron James is still looking to bring that first chip back to East 1999.
Jay Z / Brooklyn Nets
Brooklyn, they go hard. Well, not really but the branding is still on-point.
Kanye West / Chicago Bulls
Perfect timing, seeing that the guy who wore the Benny the Bull suit is retiring.
Trick Daddy / Miami Heat
Don’t expect to see Birdman rocking this on a shirt anytime soon or more like, not never.
Snoop Dogg / Denver Nuggets
Leafs by Snoop has the state of Colorado welcoming Tha Doggfather with open arms.
Lil Wayne / New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans organization should go ahead and set the arrangements to make this one the official banner.
Freddie Gibbs / Indiana Pacers
Gangsta Gibbs is more partial to the Bulls but Pacers Nation can claim him no problem.
Wale / Washington Wizards
DC chillin’, PG chillin’.
KRS-One / San Antonio Spurs
The comparisons between The Blastmaster and Tim Duncan are pretty fitting, given their iconic ironman statuses.
The Roots / Philadelphia 76ers
The team’s front office might as well swap in the LRC for a couple quarters. They did the opposite of the ’96 Bulls by finishing with a 10-72 record.
Big Pun / Phoenix Suns
The late, great rhyme beast is far from being an Arizona native but this one fits perfectly.
Minnesota Timberwolves / Rhymesayers Entertainment
Both are often slept-on but the work ethic is always there.
Drake / Toronto Raptors
When the “Hotline Bling” can successfully replace the dinosaur, you know the shark has been officially jumped.
Visit Dime Mag for the complete list.Rick Dole/Getty Images ESPN has hired Tim Tebow, the network announced this afternoon.
He's going to be a college football analyst on the SEC Network, which launches next summer. He'll make his debut during the BCS National Championship Game.
He has a three-year contract, and will appear on a traveling pregame show that sounds very much like an SEC-specific "College Gameday."
"Tebow's role with ESPN will not preclude him from continuing to pursue playing opportunities in the NFL," ESPN said in a press release. He has been out of the league since getting cut by the Patriots at the end of training camp.
Here's the full press release from the company:
"Former Florida quarterback and Heisman winner, Tim Tebow, has been hired as a college football analyst for the SEC Network launching in August 2014. Through a multi-year agreement, Tebow's primary role will be as an analyst for SEC Nation, the network's traveling pregame show that will originate from a different SEC campus each week beginning August 28, 2014. In the months leading up to launch and after, he will contribute to a variety of ESPN platforms including SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, and the network's Heisman Trophy coverage, offering in-depth perspective as a legendary Southeastern Conference player.
"On Monday, Jan. 6, Tebow will make his first appearance as an ESPN analyst during pregame coverage of the 2013 VIZIO BCS National Championship. He will contribute to the 9 a.m. ET edition of SportsCenter, College Football Live (3 p.m.) and College GameDay Built by The Home Depot (7 p.m.). He will also be part of studio coverage for the new College Football Playoff (semifinals and championship game), which begins next season.
"Tebow is the first college football analyst hired for the SEC Network. He joins a commentating roster that includes Joe Tessitore, host of SEC Nation, and Paul Finebaum, host of The Paul Finebaum radio show.
"'Tim is a SEC icon with a national fan base and broad appeal. He will be a significant contributor to the compelling content we will deliver with the SEC Network,' said Justin Connolly, ESPN senior vice president, programming, college networks. 'Tim brings a wealth of knowledge about the game, the conference and the passion among SEC fans.'
"'I am so excited that ESPN has given me this incredible opportunity,' said Tebow. 'When I was six years old I fell in love with the game of football, and while I continue to pursue my dream of playing quarterback in the NFL, this is an amazing opportunity to be part of the unparalleled passion of college football and the SEC.'
"Tebow and Tessitore's first SEC Nation show will air from Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Aug. 28, for the Texas A&M at South Carolina game. The game will be televised exclusively on the network. The show's two-hour (10 a.m. - noon) Saturday debut will be August 30 from Auburn, Ala., when Arkansas visits Auburn. SEC Nation will air every Saturday throughout the SEC college football season and offer an immersive look at game day around SEC campuses.
"'S EC Nation will be a tent pole program for the network and as a recent SEC star, Tim Tebow was the ideal candidate to deliver first-hand insight into the coaches, players and programs,' said Stephanie Druley, vice president production, college networks.
"Tebow's role with ESPN will not preclude him from continuing to pursue playing opportunities in the NFL."Revellers take part in a gay pride parade in Tel Aviv, Israel June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of rainbow flag-toting revelers attended the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parade in Tel Aviv on Friday, billed as the largest of its kind in the deeply conservative Middle East.
The annual parade featured floats with blaring sound systems and gyrating dancers. Revelers could be seen dancing on the balconies of surrounding building.
“We need to show ourselves and we also need to fight for others who need to feel like they can show themselves too, to empower everyone around us,” Max Kratz, a parade participant from Germany told Reuters.
Same-sex marriage is against the law in Israel, but polls published in the country’s media this week suggested that around three quarters of Israeli Jews supported permitting it.
“We are here to party and to celebrate with them, their freedom in Israel and we are hoping they are going in the right direction and have more privileges in the country,” party-goer Shir Geri told Reuters.
The parade caps a week of pride festivities in the city, which authorities expected to draw 35,000 tourists. The parade is sponsored by the municipality, which said it had invested heavily to promote gay tourism in recent years."IPCC" redirects here. For other uses, see IPCC (disambiguation)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations,[1][2] dedicated to providing the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change, its natural, political and economic impacts and risks, and possible response options.[3]
It was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly. Membership is open to all members of the WMO and UN.[4] The IPCC produces reports that contribute to the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the main international treaty on climate change.[5][6] The objective of the UNFCCC is to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human-induced) interference with the climate system".[5] The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report was a critical scientific input into the UNFCCC's Paris Agreement in 2015.[7]
IPCC reports cover the "scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation."[8] The IPCC does not carry out original research, nor does it monitor climate or related phenomena itself. Rather, it assesses published literature including peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources.[9] However, the IPCC can be said to stimulate research in climate science. Chapters of IPCC reports often close with sections on limitations and knowledge or research gaps, and the announcement of an IPCC special report can catalyse research activity in that area.
Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute on a voluntary basis[10] to writing and reviewing reports, which are then reviewed by governments. IPCC reports contain a "Summary for Policymakers", which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments. Typically, this involves the governments of more than 120 countries.[11]
The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change,[12] producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in equal parts, between the IPCC and Al Gore.[13]
Following the election of a new Bureau in 2015 |
Rick Porcello, and Steven Wright are pretty much rotation locks going forward. Eduardo Rodriguez will be back eventually, and even after the setback, that seems likely to be sooner rather than later. Which leaves one spot for Joe Kelly or Clay Buchholz to earn in the next month or so. The latter seems extraordinarily unlikely at this point, but the former has at least turned some heads with his last start.
But if you're not a believer in Joe Kelly, Starting Pitcher, then this Red Sox team has four starters for five spots, and those four aren't the most certain bunch in the world. Rick Porcello is still not that far removed from struggling mightily in 2015. Steven Wright is a knuckleballer pitching his first full season in the major leagues. And Eduardo Rodriguez still hasn't thrown a major league inning in 2016 as a sophomore. With the minor league arms imploding magnificently, the Red Sox could use some insurance.
I mentioned the upcoming offseason earlier, and the reason for that is because of just how barren the free agent class is. Granted, if the whole Joe Kelly thing works out and the rest of the rotation goes according to plan, that won't matter much to the Red Sox. They'll have their five, and can head into 2017 without concern for how the rest of the league will solve their issues.
The Red Sox could take all this uncertainty out of the equation, though, by just getting a strong starting pitcher. We're not necessarily talking best-of-the-best here, as much because of the cost as because of the difficulty convincing teams to trade their aces. In fact, that market might be more difficult to work with than ever before as so many of the potentially prime targets (Sonny Gray, Dallas Keuchel) are struggling. But there's sure to be some high-quality arms available as more teams slip from that.500 peloton that's formed this season, and when they do hit the market, the Red Sox should be first in line to turn the last seriously questionable area of the team into a strength.
Alternative Option -- A back-end starter or rental
It's not ideal, but in the event Kelly/Buchholz can't solidify a spot, the Red Sox do need to add something to their rotation no matter what. Maybe that means finding a back-end starter, ideally with at least one more year of team control. Maybe that means spending on a rental like Rich Hill (he's certainly a familiar enough face around these parts). But both for purposes of insurance, and just to keep from putting a train wreck on the mound every fifth game, one more arm is necessary.During the Democratic primary in 1992, Hillary Clinton made what could be the most famous gaffe from a would-be first lady of all time: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas. But what I decided to do was pursue my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.”
The quote — meant as Clinton’s defense against accusations that some of her legal work was a conflict of interest while her husband was governor — was widely interpreted as dismissive and insulting to stay-at-home moms. Clinton’s remarks caused an uproar, inspired a cookie-baking contest, and dogged and defined Clinton throughout her husband’s presidency.
By 1996, when Clinton published It Takes a Village, she was still apologizing, explaining that she meant only that she’d chosen to pursue a career rather than take up the traditional role of first lady of the state. She learned instead how quickly the public would be to judge and label her.
But at a Jay Z concert in Cleveland in support of Clinton’s campaign, her campaign reclaimed the statement. As Beyoncé performed, surrounded by backup dancers in pant suits, the “baked cookies” quote was projected onscreen, the New York Times’s Amy Chozick reports:
Major--> Hillary reclaiming her "baked cookies" line from 1992. This on screen at Beyonce concert pic.twitter.com/aYtxKJdOEv — Amy Chozick (@amychozick) November 5, 2016
The tea-and-cookies quote would probably still be controversial if Clinton had said it today — four years ago, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen sparked controversy by saying Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, a mother of five who never held a paying job, had “never worked a day in her life.” But the popularization of feminism, including through performances like Beyoncé’s, has created a context where it can be held up as proof that Clinton is a strong woman and role model who doesn’t back down.
Those same cultural shifts have led Clinton to embrace the historic nature of her candidacy in a way she never did before her nomination concession speech in 2008.
But even as society has evolved to embrace Clinton’s feminism, the concert was a sign that she’s evolved as well. Back in the ’90s, she suggested that rap music was poisoning children’s minds. Today, she and one of the biggest rap power couples are embracing each other.
Make of that evolution what you will, but to some degree, it shows exactly how much times have changed.SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Gunfire erupted inside an elementary school classroom in San Bernardino, Calif., on Monday, leaving two adults and one student dead in what the authorities said was an apparent murder-suicide.
The shooter, whom the police identified as Cedric Anderson, 53, walked into the classroom and without speaking opened fire on his wife, Karen Elaine Smith. Ms. Smith, 53, was the lead teacher in the class of 15 students with special needs, who ranged from first to fourth graders.
Two students were standing behind Ms. Smith, though the police did not say whether they had been directly hit by gunfire or wounded with shrapnel. An 8-year-old student, Jonathan Martinez, was airlifted by helicopter from the school, North Park Elementary, to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived. A 9-year-old student was also wounded and was in stable condition Monday afternoon.
The shooter entered the school through the front office and was checked for his identification, following routine procedures, the police said. There was no sign Mr. Anderson was carrying a weapon.Cristian Stuani celebrates with the fans after putting Middlesbrough into the Premier League.
Middlesbrough have won promotion back to the Premier League seven years after they suffered relegation following a 1-1 draw at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Boro started the day in second place on 88 points, level with Brighton but with a better goal difference. That meant they only needed a point from the clash between the two sides at the Riverside to take the second automatic berth alongside Burnley.
Cristian Stuani put Boro in front after 19 minutes, but Brighton came back strongly after the break and Dale Stephens levelled in the 55th minute.
But, just four minutes after his equaliser, Stephens saw red for a high challenge on Gaston Ramirez, who was forced off on a stretcher with a bad gash to his shin. The Seagulls pushed for a winner with 10 men but Boro held firm.
The red rules Stephens out of the playoffs, where Brighton will now face Sheffield Wednesday. The other match sees Hull City take on Derby County.
Burnley sealed the Championship title with a 3-0 win at relegated Charlton Athletic,
Each goal was greeted with a chant of 'Champeones' from the visiting fans in the Jimmy Steed Stand, and a chorus of 'We want Roland out' by the home supporters.
Sam Vokes scored the opener after 20 minutes as the statuesque Charlton defence failed to deal with a Stephen Ward cross and were duly punished. Burnley doubled their lead four minutes after the break when Andre Gray found George Boyd and he netted with a left-foot shot.
Gray added to his assist with a powerful finish after being picked out by Dean Marney to seal the win.
Hull warmed up for a playoff semifinal meeting with Derby with an emphatic 5-1 win over Rotherham at the KC Stadium.
Lee Frecklington gave Rotherham the lead before Robert Snodgrass, Abel Hernandez, Jake Livermore and Mo Diame hit back as Hull finished the first half in dominant fashion. A second goal from Livermore after the break completed the scoring.
Wolves ended their home hoodoo as they secured a 2-1 win against playoff bound Sheffield Wednesday at Molineux.
Kenny Jackett's side had drawn their previous four home games 0-0 and had gone 360 minutes without scoring in front of their own fans. The goal drought came to an end after seven minutes against Wednesday thanks to an own goal by Michael Turner and Wolves then doubled their advantage through George Saville in the 35th minute.
Lewis McGugan capped an improved second-half display by Wednesday with a last-minute penalty but Wolves held off their late flourish to record their first home win since beating Bristol City 2-1 on March 8.
Derby suffered a worrying blow ahead of next week's playoff semifinal when George Thorne was stretchered off in the 1-0 defeat to Ipswich at the iPro Stadium.
The influential holding midfielder appeared to damage a knee during a Derby attack late in the game which was won by David McGoldrick's first-half penalty.
Scott Hogan continued his stunning return from injury to seal Brentford's seventh win in nine games with a crushing 5-1 victory at Huddersfield.
Hogan struck a second-half double to take his tally to seven goals in four matches. The former Rochdale striker had been sidelined for 18 months with a recurring knee injury but his return to fitness has coincided with Brentford's powerful end to the season.
The Bees claimed one of the quickest goals of the campaign when Sergei Canos scored after just 21 seconds. Jamie Paterson equalised just after half-time but Hogan's quick-fire brace followed by others from his replacement Lasse Vibe and fellow substitute John Swift completed the demolition.
Karl Henry scored a superb winner as QPR ended their season with a 1-0 victory over Bristol City at Loftus Road.
Henry, whose contract expires this summer, struck in the 64th minute, curling a right-footed bshot from near the edge of the penalty area beyond goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell and into the top corner of the net.
Russell Slade's tenure as Cardiff manager ended with a 1-1 draw against Birmingham.
Slade, who will move into a new head of football role over the summer, saw his side fall behind to David Cotterill's low drive in the 11th minute, but Anthony Pilkington's close-range finish ensured a share of the spoils at Cardiff City Stadium.
Fulham ended a disappointing campaign on a high as they disposed of relegated Bolton 1-0 at Craven Cottage.
A Tom Cairney curler was enough to separate the two sides in a game the West Londoners were on top throughout and left the visitors without a win on the road for the season.
Paul Lambert was given a winning send off as Blackburn beat Reading 3-1.
The Rovers manager activated a release clause to bring his short tenure to an end but his team still gave everything for him and Elliott Bennett's eighth-minute volley - his second for the club - and Danny Graham's controlled effort six minutes later set the hosts on their way.
Yann Kermorgant's third of the campaign - an unstoppable free-kick - gave the visitors a lifeline but a quiet second half was ended perfectly for Lambert's men as Simeon Jackson tapped in a third.
Jordan Hugill's stoppage-time equaliser secured Preston a 1-1 draw against Leeds at Deepdale.
Hugill profited from a defensive mistake to fire in the leveller after Chris Wood's 78th-minute penalty appeared to be giving Leeds victory in what could be Steve Evans' final game as head coach.
Britt Assombalonga came off the bench to score his first goal in almost 15 months as Nottingham Forest condemned relegated MK Dons to a 2-1 home defeat.
After Chris Cohen handed Forest the early lead with his first goal since September 2013, Nicky Maynard levelled for the hosts after 20 minutes.Tommy Sheridan, the former leader of the Scottish Socialist party and MSP, has been found guilty of lying under oath when he won a £200,000 libel case against the News of the World.
The 46-year-old politician, who was a member of the Scottish parliament for eight years, was convicted of committing perjury when he convinced a libel jury in August 2006 that the Sunday tabloid had lied about his adultery and visits to a Manchester sex club. He was told he can expect to go to jail.
After a trial at Glasgow high court lasting more than 11 weeks, the jury of 12 women and two men took over a day to reach a majority verdict..He was convicted on five of six elements of the perjury charge.
The judge, Lord Bracadale, told Sheridan: "You have been convicted of the serious offence of perjury and must return on January 26 expecting to begin a prison sentence."
The verdict was met with silence despite the large numbers of Sheridan family and supporters. Afterwards a statement was read on Sheridan's behalf by his solicitor Aamer Anwar. "I make no apology for taking on the might of Rupert Murdoch," it read.
His wife, Gail then made a statement of support and thanked the couple's friends. "I have and will always stand by Tommy," she said. The pair then embraced.
After originally facing 18 separate allegations of perjury contained in two different charges, the prosecutor, Alex Prentice QC, abandoned 12 allegations to "focus" the case for the jury.
He remained accused of lying on oath at the libel case about a Scottish Socialist party meeting where he admitted having an extramarital affair with the former NoW columnist Anvar Khan and visiting the sex club, and of lying about another affair with a former SSP activist, Katrine Trolle.
The jury found him guilty on five of the allegations, but found him not guilty with relation to the allegation concerning Khan.
Last week Sheridan's wife Gail, also 46, was cleared of also committing perjury at the 2006 libel trial after the prosecution decided the case against her was too weak and insubstantial.
The trial, which began on 4 October, has already made legal history as the longest perjury trial in Scotland, hearing more than 60 witnesses. There were several delays after Sheridan sacked his barrister Maggie Scott QC and represented himself in court. He continued to get legal advice from Anwar whose costs had to be paid by the Scottish Court Service.
It is estimated to have cost up to £4m: Lothian and Borders police, which deployed more than 20 detectives and spent 52,000 hours on the case, said its costs had hit £1.4m when the Sheridans were charged in 2008.
Before the jury was sent out to consider its verdict yesterday, Sheridan appeared to have reduced several jurors to tears after claiming they were the only people he was scared of.
During his four-and-a-half hour summing up speech, he said he was not scared of anyone else: not the NoW nor the police, who raided his home and scared his daughter, and pursued a "vendetta" against him.
But in a moment which capped all the drama which this case has seen, he paused, to hold back tears with a choking note on his voice. "I'm frightened of you. I'm frightened of you because you can do something that the NoW will never be able to do. You can separate me from my wife. You can make me break a promise to my daughter that I would spend Christmas with her," he said.
He broke down again as he spoke. There was a cry of "come on Tommy" from the packed court room.
Lord Bracadale ordered the jury to discard Sheridan's emotional appeals and all his references to his daughter, and not to consider any of the consequences of their verdict. He urged the jury to be dispassionate and focus on the facts.
He said: "This is not a political court, you do not judge people on their politics," adding: "It is not your function to judge the sexual morality of anyone involved in this case."
In his closing speech to the jury on Monday, prosecutor Alex Prentice said the charge of perjury was extremely serious. Sheridan was not accused of murder or rape, but deliberately lying on oath was still a crime.
Perjury "is a serious crime for the simple reason that our whole system of justice falls apart if perjury is acceptable behaviour", he said. "It is not acceptable and should never be acceptable in a mature and dignified democracy. If we let perjury pass without action, we let ourselves down."
Sheridan still faces at least one further case: the NoW has an outstanding appeal against the libel jury's verdict in 2006 and is expected to quickly reopen its legal action.
But Sheridan has indicated he could yet sue the NoW and its parent company News International after the discovery that the convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire, who worked exclusively for the NoW, had Sheridan's private mobile details in 2004.School shootings and street violence: How they’re alike and different
The two types of youth gun violence couldn’t be more different, but the ways to prevent them remain largely the same, according to a new report by some of America’s top violence researchers.
School rampage shootings and street shootings by youth differ in dramatic ways: They are done by different types of youth for different reasons, and often have very different risk factors.
“It is amazing how different school shooters are from street shooters,” said Brad Bushman, the lead author of the report and a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.
“But the basic approach to preventing them is very similar. It starts with making the prevention of youth violence a national priority.”
Bushman co-authored the new report with 11 other violence experts from universities across the country. They all co-wrote a report for the National Science Foundation on what is known and not known about youth violence.
This new report, which summarizes and updates the NSF document, appears online in the journal American Psychologist.
Bushman said that the type of youth who become school shooters are nearly opposite of those who commit street shootings.
Nearly all school shooters are white, rural or suburban, and middle class. Street shooters are often black, poor, and live in the inner-city.
Street shooters often have lengthy arrest records and use handguns that they obtained illegally. School shooters usually have multiple weapons, including semi-automatic or automatic rifles, which were purchased legally and often obtained from family members.
“Street shooters don’t want anyone to know what they did – they want to hide,” Bushman said. “Mass shooters want everyone to know.”
And for mass shooters, their violence is often designed to be the end of the line for them: They often kill themselves, whereas street shooters rarely commit suicide.
Given all the differences between street shooters and school shooters, it might appear that the causes are completely different. But that’s not true, Bushman said.
“The causes of gun violence in youth are complex. There are usually multiple factors acting together no matter what kind of shooting is involved,” Bushman said.
Some factors – like social rejection from peers – seem to be more related to school shooters. Other factors, like poverty, appear to play a larger role in street shootings.
But many factors, like family influences, personality traits, exposure to media violence, and access to guns play a role in both types of youth gun violence, Bushman said.
Bushman has extensively studied the role that a steady diet of media violence has on aggression and violence in youth.
Particularly in school shootings, the role of violent video games is often debated, particularly because so many offenders were shown to be obsessed with “first-person shooter” games, where the player is the killer.
“We can never say that playing violent video games is the one cause of a youth going on a shooting rampage,” Bushman said.
“But there is a lot of evidence that exposure to media violence increases aggressive behavior. And evidence suggests such exposure may be a contributing factor to violent behavior, even if it isn’t the main factor. The main factor is probably easy access to guns.”
Because youth violence has so many causes, preventing it also requires a multifaceted approach. Many of the solutions are well-known, if not often implemented, such as strengthening families, minimizing violent media effects, reducing youth access to guns, and improving school climates.
But Bushman said tools that make it possible to search large quantities of online data have opened new doors for predicting youth violence.
“It is possible to sift through Facebook and Twitter posts to determine if individuals are showing signs of violent behavior,” he said.
“There are concerns about privacy. We have to make sure that when we do this kind of data mining that we only use data that is publicly available.”
Bushman said improving school climate may be one of the biggest steps we can take to prevent youth violence.
Often, taking a high-security approach is not the best option. Metal detectors and security guards can make students feel fearful and mistrustful.
“You want students to trust parents and teachers and feel like they can talk about possible threats they hear about without ruining someone’s life,” he said.
“Zero-tolerance policies for speech are not helpful. Many kids won’t report threats they hear if they know a fellow student could be expelled for what could be an idle or non-serious comment.”
Bushman said that both school rampage shootings and everyday street violence need more attention from lawmakers and the public than they currently receive.
“We can’t begin to solve the problem of youth gun violence if we don’t make the issue a major national priority.”On the anniversary of 9/11, Chris McGreal reports from the Tennessee town where Muslims have lived in harmony with Christians for decades – but where they now feel under threat
Safaa Fathy was as surprised to discover that she is at the heart of a plot against America as she was to hear that her small Tennessee town is a focus of hate in the Muslim world.
The diminutive fifty-something physiotherapist, who has lived in Murfreesboro for most of her adult life, happens to be on the board of her town's Islamic centre. Now she finds herself accused of being a front for Islamic Jihad, of planning to impose sharia law on her neighbours, and of threatening the very existence of Christianity in Tennessee.
"There is something around the whole United States, something is different. I was here since 1982. I have three kids here and I never had any trouble. My kids, they go to the girl scouts, they play basketball, they did all the normal activities. It just started this year. It's strange, because after 9/11 there was no problem," said Fathy, who was born in Egypt. "In the past in America other people were the target. We are the target now. We have trouble in California, we have trouble in New York, we have trouble in Florida. It's a shame because Murfreesboro is a very nice town to live in."
As the US prepares to mark the ninth anniversary of the al-Qaida assault on New York and the Pentagon, the country's Muslims say they are enduring a wave of hostility and suspicion from some of their fellow Americans that they rarely encountered in the years immediately following the 9/11 attacks.
The increasingly bitter dispute over plans to build an Islamic centre and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York is part of it, fuelling a debate about whether Muslims in the US put their faith before their country. Opponents of the mosque plan to mark the anniversary with a rally in New York today led by a leading anti-Islamic activist, Pamela Geller, who has the support of prominent Republican politicians given to increasingly strident anti-Muslim rhetoric. Among those expected to speak is Geert Wilders, the virulently anti-Islamic Dutch political leader.
Even the possibly rescinded threat by a publicity-seeking pastor in Florida to burn hundreds of copies of the Qur'an played into the hands of Islam's foes in America, despite the fact it did not garner much popular support, when it drew threats of bloody retribution from some Muslim groups abroad. All this comes against a backdrop of growing numbers of Americans suspecting that their president is secretly a Muslim – nearly one in five say that he is and many more think it likely – and diminishing support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which are still proving a heavy burden in blood and money. The charged atmosphere in which the terrorist attacks will be remembered this weekend has also penetrated deep into the heartland, where hostility has increasingly shifted inward to focus on America's own Islamic communities. "It really started in May," said Fathay. "I keep asking myself, why this year? Why are they suddenly lying about us now?"
Late last year Musfreesboro's Islamic leaders announced plans to build a new mosque because the 250 Muslim families in town had outgrown the existing one. The construction plans were approved. At first, no one in the town of about 100,000 people south of Nashville said much about it.
In February someone spray-painted over the sign: "Not welcome", with the letter t shaped like a Christian cross. Fathay put that down to one hostile individual. But by May protest meetings were organised, politicians were denouncing the plans and the loyalty of Muslims in the town was openly questioned. Critics did not pull their punches at a public meeting. Among those who spoke against construction of the new Islamic centre was Karen Harrell.
"Everybody knows they are trying to kill us. People are really concerned about this. Somebody has to stand up and take this country back," she said.
Speakers accused Muslims in the town of promoting polygamy and indoctrinating the young with hate, and questioned whether they adhered to the US constitution.
George Erdel, running for a seat in the US Congress as a "Tea Party Democrat", feared that the true intent of the mosque was to impose Islamic rule. "Islam is a system of government. Islam is a system of justice. We've got people here who remember September 11 2001. These people are scared," he said. "I'm afraid we'll have a training facility."
It did not go unnoticed by Islamic leaders that some of the fiercest criticism was whipped up by candidates in this year's elections. At the forefront was Lou Ann Zelenik, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress who is a leader of the local Tea Party movement.
"This 'Islamic Centre' is not part of a religious movement; it is a political movement designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee," Zelenik said. "Until the American Muslim community find it in their hearts to separate themselves from their evil, radical counterparts, to condemn those who want to destroy our civilisation and will fight against them, we are not obligated to open our society to any of them."
Alongside Zelenik was Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the founder of a group that rallies Christians in support of Israel. Cardoza-Moore describes herself as "a leader who successfully stewards masses toward her intended outcomes".
She told a Christian television station that the plan to build a new mosque in Murfreesboro was part of a plot to take over Middle Tennessee because it is the heart of the Bible belt:
"You have Bible book publishers. You have Christian book publishers. You have Christian music headquartered here. The radical Islamic extremists have stated that they are still fighting the Crusaders, and they see this as the capital of the Crusaders."
Similar warnings can be heard in other parts of Tennessee and in states from California to New England.
The imam of the Murfreesboro mosque, Ossama Bahloul, says others have been here before. A generation ago in Tennessee black activists were burned out of their homes for agitating against segregation and for civil rights, and Catholics and other Christian minorities were targets for the Ku Klux Klan.
"It's a cycle of life. If we are really dangerous, let them close this [existing] centre too. This community did not do a single act of violence," said Bahloul. "Maybe it has a relationship with the election, maybe with the economic problems we have in the country, maybe it was September 11, but I doubt this, because why did we have a fine time last year and the year before and before that when the memory of September 11 was still fresh in everybody's mind?"
Ron Messier, a professor of Islamic studies who lives in Murfreesboro, says the mood is driven by politics. "It's happened because this is an election year and I think there were some political candidates who thought that here in Middle Tennessee a lot of people have very right leanings and they could gain some political leverage by promoting fear about people who have been here for 20 years or more without ever being an issue," he said. Yet the politicians apparently did not have to drill deep to tap into fears of Muslims, who are subject to language that would not be acceptable when talking about almost any other minority. They are helped by parts of the media. Fox News leads the charge, routinely giving a platform to those who question the loyalty of Muslim Americans and to conspiracy theorists.
This week Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of New Republic, an influential Washington political magazine, wrote that Muslims were unfit for the protections of the US constitution. "Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf [of the proposed New York Islamic centre] there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood," Peretz wrote. "So, yes, I wonder whether I need honour these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse."
Peretz was swiftly denounced by some prominent American bloggers, among them Glenn Greenwald, who writes for Salon.com. "Bigotry against Muslims and Arabs is one of the last acceptable forms of overt bigotry that is tolerated in American political culture. If you look at the things that he said and replace the word Muslim or Arab with Jew or even Christian, those comments would be completely career ending and reputation destroying," he said.
While Peretz was vigorously criticised on blogs, mainstream newspapers that regularly denounce racism and antisemitism stayed silent.
Two weeks ago someone set fire to construction equipment at the site of Murfreesboro's new mosque. Some in the town were outraged, but not Kimberly Kelly. "I think it was a piece of their own medicine. They bombed our country," she told The Tennessean newspaper. Two days later about 150 people turned out for a candlelight vigil in support of the Muslim community on the steps of the local courthouse.
Many in the town say they have no problem with the new mosque. Among them is a woman called Bonnie who works in a local bookshop and lost a stepbrother in one of the World Trade Centre towers.
"I don't have a problem with them opening a mosque in New York, just not two blocks from where my stepbrother died. But here doesn't bother me because everybody has a right to practise their religion. They've been here, they're quiet. They haven't bothered anybody," she said.
Muslim leaders are careful to say that the hostility has come from a vocal minority and has prompted an outpouring of backing from non-Muslims. The Islamic centre has a "wall of support" with messages from people who say they are Christian and have sons fighting in Afghanistan.
The burning question for many Muslims in Murfreesboro is whether, once the political calendar moves on, they will again be left in peace or whether relations have been poisoned for years to come. Perhaps they can draw comfort from August's primary election for Congress. Zelenick was defeated, along with most of the other politicians who made Islam an election issue in Tennessee.Declassified Opinion Shows The NSA Exploited Pen Register Statutes To Collect Internet Metadata On Millions Of Americans
from the the-box-has-no-edges... dept
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has just released a very large set of declassified documents, covering a variety of topics. (Just a friendly reminder: these documents are being released because of a court order, not because the ODNI loves transparency, no matter how it's phrased at I CON THE RECORD.) Of particular interest is one that appears to be the original court opinion that gave the NSA permission to collect bulk internet metadata on Americans, better known as the Stellar Wind program, which ran for a decade before being shut down in 2011.
Orin Kerr, writing for (watch your step) the Lawfare blog, breaks down the questionable arguments the government presented and the leaps the presiding judge (Colleen Kollar-Kotelly) made to grant this request.
To begin with, the government presents this collection as nothing more than a modern-day pen register. As Kerr explains, the privacy bar for pen registers is set incredibly low.
The federal pen register authorities use a mere certification standard. Under the national security version of the pen register statute, the FISC is required to approve an application for pen register surveillance whenever the Attorney General (or an attorney he designates) certifies under oath “that the information likely to be obtained” from the monitoring “is relevant to an ongoing investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities,” 50 U.S.C. 1842(c)(2). As long as the government has issued its certification, and the judge concludes that the government’s application falls within the statute, “the judge shall enter an ex parte order.” 50 U.S.C. 1842(d)(1). The government doesn’t have to say why it thinks the standard has been satisfied; it just certifies under oath that it does. And the judge has no authority to look behind the government’s assertion to see if its factual basis is strong, weak, or completely absurd. See generally In re Application of the United States, 846 F.Supp. 1555 (M.D. Fla. 1994). The judge’s only role is making sure the government checked the box and made the required certification under oath.
The pen register authority permits monitoring of a suspect’s non-content metadata unprotected by the Fourth Amendment for a window of time, investigative steps outside the Fourth Amendment than are akin to tailing a suspect in public or obtaining a mail cover to monitor the outside of their mail.
[I]t wanted an order forcing a provider to record and disclose Internet metadata in real time on an ongoing basis for potentially tens of millions of customers, all with a single order obtained with no judicial review based on a mere certification by the Attorney General.
The statute authorizes the judge to issue an order requiring the installation of “a” pen register to monitor “the person who is the subject of the investigation.” 50 U.S.C. 1842(d)(1)-(2). This is written in the singular, suggesting that each pen register requires a subject.
She then concludes that the bulk collection is reasonable in a Fourth Amendment sense — not that the Fourth Amendment applies, as this is just metadata, but rather in the policy sense that the program represents a sensible balance between security and privacy along the lines of that required under Fourth Amendment reasonableness precedents. The application is thus granted because, all things considered, the program does seem to be a pretty good way to find terrorists. See pages 49-54.
There's a reason why the bar is set so low. It's inherently limited.So, all a judge is looking for is a box ticked by a US Attorney. If that's present, then the pen register collection can proceed. But this is a surveillance method that isat one particular suspect. It's not used to collect data on multiple persons at one time. Certainly multiple pen registers can be obtained in order to collect multiple sets of metadata, but each request is singular. Or was, until the NSA decided to extrapolate the singular pen register into a bulk collections program.The government took this low bar and convinced a judge that there was technically no difference between collecting metadata on ONE person and collecting metadata on. It wasn't just the government doing the rhetorical legwork. Kerr points out that the presiding judge ignored several statutory clues within the pen register law that indicated it was never meant to be used for bulk, untargeted collections.Furthermore, she buys into the government's arguments that the ends justify the means.This argument has been used more than once by the government to defend the NSA's collections. The government extrapolates from the fact that if something isn't a violation of civil liberties forperson (i.e., bulk records collections) than it's not a violation when the program collects records on. The courts have backed this up: rights do not spring into existence ex nihilo.The government used this argument to address Basaaly Moalin's claims that records obtained under the Section 215 program violated his constitutional rights. In the most basic terms, it claimed that if an intelligence (or law enforcement) agency can surveil one person without violating their Fourth Amendment rights (using bulk records, etc.), it can do it to everyone. (Perversely, it then spins around and claims this is why no one has standing to sue the government over these untargeted collections.)So, the expansion of the previously targeted pen register program into a bulk internet metadata collection relied on the same basic argument. Even if the statute is written in a way that specifies singular targeting, the government would argue that the statute is equally applicable to collecting data on millions of people -- all of it needing no more authority than a signature of a United States Attorney.All things considered, it's rather surprising the Stellar Wind program was shut down. The NSA certainly has shown no desire to eliminate a program, even if it produces large amounts of nearly-useless data. More than likely, the program was just supplanted by a better dragnet. Right about the time Stellar Wind shut down, a rules change to the Section 702 collections program gave the NSA "permission" (via a new loophole) to target Americans directly Also of note: while there's no date on this document (redacted, of course), the internal citations [, p. 7;, p. 14] suggest this opinion was the end result of another post facto search for permission by the NSA. The program supposedly began in 2001, but the court doesn't actually address the collection until 2004,. This may be the point that the NSA first sought to collect metadata on, with all previous collections being— but without further documentation (and factoring in the agency's tendency to collect, seek approval), there's no way to tell if the NSA was collecting internet metadata without even theof legal approval previous to this opinion.
Filed Under: colleen kollar-kotelly, email, fisa court, fisc, internet, metadata, pen registerA dirt bike rider in Oregon came just inches from a potentially dangerous run-in with a mountain lion.
The video, seen below, was captured on a camera mounted just behind Drew Terteling’s helmet.
The video below shows the mountain lion just barely missed Terteling while it was in a full sprint.
It does not appear that the mountain lion was moving in to attack Terteling. It looks as if the cougar may have been startled by the noise of the |
, filed 1/23/87.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0010.
170-100-020 Purpose. [WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-020, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-020, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 99-19-176, § 365-170-020, filed 9/22/99, effective 10/23/99; WSR 87-04-007 (Order 87-02), § 365-170-020, filed 1/23/87.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0020.
170-100-030 Definitions. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 16-01-098, § 170-100-030, filed 12/16/15, effective 1/16/16. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 07-20-034, § 170-100-030, filed 9/25/07, effective 10/26/07. WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-030, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-030, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 99-19-176, § 365-170-030, filed 9/22/99, effective 10/23/99. Statutory Authority: RCW 28A.34A.060. WSR 88-18-039 (Order 88-04), § 365-170-030, filed 8/31/88. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 87-04-007 (Order 87-02), § 365-170-030, filed 1/23/87.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0030.
170-100-040 Process for allocating or awarding funds. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 16-01-098, § 170-100-040, filed 12/16/15, effective 1/16/16. WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-040, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-060, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 28A.34A.060. WSR 88-18-039 (Order 88-04), § 365-170-060, filed 8/31/88. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 87-04-007 (Order 87-02), § 365-170-060, filed 1/23/87.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0040.
170-100-050 Use of funds. [WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-050, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-070, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 99-19-176, § 365-170-070, filed 9/22/99, effective 10/23/99. Statutory Authority: RCW 28A.34A.060. WSR 88-18-039 (Order 88-04), § 365-170-070, filed 8/31/88. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 87-04-007 (Order 87-02), § 365-170-070, filed 1/23/87.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0050.
170-100-060 Comprehensive service delivery. [06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-060, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-07005, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0060.
170-100-070 Nondiscrimination. [WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-070, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-07010, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0070.
170-100-080 Eligibility for services. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.060, 43.215.070 and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 14-14-055, § 170-100-080, filed 6/26/14, effective 7/27/14. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.020, 43.215.070, and 2010 c 231. WSR 10-20-059, § 170-100-080, filed 9/27/10, effective 10/28/10. WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-080, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-080, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 99-19-176, § 365-170-080, filed 9/22/99, effective 10/23/99. Statutory Authority: RCW 28A.34A.060. WSR 88-18-039 (Order 88-04), § 365-170-080, filed 8/31/88. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 87-04-007 (Order 87-02), § 365-170-080, filed 1/23/87.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0080.
170-100-090 Staff qualifications. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070 and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 17-01-083, § 170-100-090, filed 12/16/16, effective 1/16/17; WSR 15-24-040, § 170-100-090, filed 11/20/15, effective 1/1/16. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.060, 43.215.070 and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 14-14-055, § 170-100-090, filed 6/26/14, effective 7/27/14. WSR 06-18-085, recodified as § 170-100-090, filed 9/5/06, effective 9/5/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.215 RCW. WSR 06-13-046, § 365-170-095, filed 6/16/06, effective 7/17/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.63A.060. WSR 99-19-176, § 365-170-095, filed 9/22/99, effective 10/23/99.] Decodified by WSR 18-14-078, filed 6/29/18, effective 7/1/18. Recodified as § 110-425-0090.
Chapter 170-151
SCHOOL-AGE CHILD CARE CENTER MINIMUM LICENSING REQUIREMENTS
170-151-010 What definitions are important for the school-age child care center program? [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, 43.43.832(6), and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-060, § 170-151-010, filed 4/17/12, effective 5/18/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW and 2006 c 265. WSR 08-08-012, § 170-151-010, filed 3/19/08, effective 4/19/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-010, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW, RCW 74.08.090. WSR 02-16-062, § 388-151-010, filed 8/2/02, effective 10/1/02. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-010, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 98-24-052, § 388-151-010, filed 11/25/98, effective 12/26/98. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-010, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-020 Who needs to be licensed? [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060 and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-11-025, § 170-151-020, filed 5/8/12, effective 6/8/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW and 2006 c 265. WSR 08-08-012, § 170-151-020, filed 3/19/08, effective 4/19/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-020, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 34.05.395. WSR 02-13-073, § 388-151-020, filed 6/14/02, effective 7/15/02. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-020, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-020, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-040 What local ordinances and codes apply? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-040, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-040, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-040, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-045 What is the basis for the department's issuance or denial of a license? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-045, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-045, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-070 How do I apply or reapply for a license? [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-036, § 170-151-070, filed 4/11/12, effective 5/12/12. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.255, 43.215.070, chapter 43.215 RCW, 2010 c 37 § 614(14) 1st sp. sess. and RCW 43.135.055. WSR 10-24-016, § 170-151-070, filed 11/19/10, effective 12/20/10. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW, RCW 43.43.832, 2006 c 265 and 2007 c 387. WSR 08-10-041,§ 170-151-070, filed 4/30/08, effective 5/31/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-070, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-070, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-070, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-075 How do I get a waiver of the licensing requirements contained in this chapter? [Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW and 2006 c 265. WSR 08-08-012, § 170-151-075, filed 3/19/08, effective 4/19/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-075, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-075, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-080 How does the department determine my licensed capacity? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-080, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-080, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-080, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-085 Initial licenses. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, 43.43.832(6), and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-060, § 170-151-085, filed 4/17/12, effective 5/18/12. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-085, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-085, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-085, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-087 Nonexpiring licenses. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, 43.43.832(6), and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-060, § 170-151-087, filed 4/17/12, effective 5/18/12.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-090 When can my license application be denied and when can my license be suspended or revoked? [Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW, RCW 43.43.832, 2006 c 265 and 2007 c 387. WSR 08-10-041, § 170-151-090, filed 4/30/08, effective 5/31/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-090, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.120 RCW, RCW 74.12.340, and 74.15.030. WSR 02-14-085, § 388-151-090, filed 6/28/02, effective 7/29/02. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-090, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-10-043 (Order 3974), § 388-151-090, filed 4/26/96, effective 5/27/96. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-090, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-092 Under what conditions does the department impose civil penalties against me? [Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW and 2006 c 265. WSR 08-08-012, § 170-151-092, filed 3/19/08, effective 4/19/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-092, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-092, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-092, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-093 What is the amount of the civil penalty the department may impose? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-093, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-093, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-093, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-094 Must I post the department's notice of civil penalty? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-094, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-094, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-094, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-095 May the department assess civil penalties on unlicensed programs? [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-061, § 170-151-095, filed 4/17/12, effective 5/18/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW and 2006 c 265. WSR 08-08-012, § 170-151-095, filed 3/19/08, effective 4/19/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-095, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-095, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-095, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-096 May the department impose civil penalties for separate violations? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-096, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-096, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-096, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-097 Civil penalties—Failure to pay. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, 43.43.832(6), and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-060, § 170-151-097, filed 4/17/12, effective 5/18/12. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-097, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 34.05.395. WSR 02-13-073, § 388-151-097, filed 6/14/02, effective 7/15/02. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-097, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-097, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-098 Probationary licenses. [Statutory Authority: RCW 43.215.070, 43.215.060, 43.43.832(6), and chapter 43.215 RCW. WSR 12-09-060, § 170-151-098, filed 4/17/12, effective 5/18/12. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-098, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-098, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.030. WSR 96-20-095, § 388-151-098, filed 10/1/96, effective 11/1/96.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-100 What must I include in the center's activity program? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-100, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-100, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-100, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-110 What learning and play materials must I provide? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-110, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-110, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-110, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-120 How must my child care center staff interact with the children? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-120, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-120, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-120, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-130 How must I discipline the children and manage the children's behavior? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-130, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-130, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-130, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-150 What does the department require for evening and nighttime care? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-150, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-150, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-150, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-160 What does the department require for offsite trips? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-160, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-160, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-160, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-165 What does the department require for transportation? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-165, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-165, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-165, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-170 What does the department require for parent communication? [WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-170, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-170, filed 12/22/00, effective 1/22/01. Statutory Authority: Chapter 74.15 RCW. WSR 93-02-020 (Order 3493), § 388-151-170, filed 12/30/92, effective 1/30/93.] Repealed by WSR 12-23-057, filed 11/19/12, effective 12/20/12. Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW.
170-151-180 What staff patterns and qualifications does the department require? [Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.215 RCW, RCW 43.43.832, 2006 c 265 and 2007 c 387. WSR 08-10-041, § 170-151-180, filed 4/30/08, effective 5/31/08. WSR 06-15-075, recodified as § 170-151-180, filed 7/13/06, effective 7/13/06. Statutory Authority: RCW 74.15.020. WSR 01-02-031, § 388-151-180, filed |
it every night for the room,” she says. “Some rooms you can turn your reverb way down and it’s fine. Some rooms you can’t get enough.”
We spoke with Kokal and Wayman about their non-guitar influences, unusual chord voicings, and their basic tonal-building blocks—and, although Kokal didn’t say, Wayman revealed her interest in joining a Steely Dan cover band.
Who inspired you to make music?
Theresa Wayman: The music that made me want to start making music was not guitar music—it was Björk, OutKast, and things like that. I remember sitting in my bedroom and thinking, “I want to do this. I want to make beats and something that falls into a pattern like this.” It was really repetitive and satisfying. It was down to the most basic elements and all the best little morsels were tied together to create something so satisfying. I like to incorporate guitar into that kind of music nowadays, but that’s what inspired me to make music. I fell into playing guitar, and in my band playing guitar is what worked.
“I think it’s important to not know the standards. Even if I see a band I think is incredible, if I hear them writing songs that sound derivative of something it puts me off immediately.” —Theresa Wayman
Emily Kokal: When I was in high school, I was listening to a lot of rap, R&B, and a lot of stuff that wasn’t really reflected in my guitar playing, but it was definitely reflected in the mood. But what really changed my life was trip hop. Portishead, Björk, Tricky, Massive Attack—when I first heard all that music, even Radiohead, it graduated me into finding that kind of music I identified with the way my mom identified with the albums [she grew up with]. That became my music. It had a melancholy to it, but it was dark and rhythmic, and I think that also came into my guitar playing. I started playing more repetitive parts and not traditional song structures. I started getting into mantra-ing-out on a riff and darker, more melancholic sounds.
Dark textures and repetitive patterns are such a big part of your music.
Kokal: Totally. Theresa and I grew up together, we started playing guitars around the same time, and we would play songs together, but we were also discovering all this music at the same time. She bought a DJ Shadow album called Preemptive Strike and it had a song on it called “What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2).” There is a guitar riff in that song—the entire song is one guitar riff—and I swear that guitar riff and that song influenced me so much. I still feel like my guitar sound sounds like that one song [laughs]. It’s a sample and I just found out that it’s actually a Foreigner sample [“Girl on the Moon”] slowed down. It’s really slowed down and super sexy. I started going back in time with music and discovering all these guitar players that played dark, moody, melodic stuff. Their guitar parts are like melodic leads. I love that stuff.
Wayman: I would say it’s what gets us off. It’s like you make music that appeals to you or to your sensibilities. That’s what it is for me. I like finding the perfect hook or accent to another hook, piecing it all together, interweaving it, and creating a whole that stays within a pattern, but also morphs and changes with what you take out and put in.
FACTOID: Bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg’s older sister, actress Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight’s Tale), was Warpaint’s original drummer from 2004 to 2008. Current drummer Stella Mozgawa joined in 2009 and played drums on all three of the band’s studio albums.
You both use interesting chord voicings and stay away from bar chords, power chords, and even open chords. Where does that come from?
Kokal: When I got my first guitar when I was little, the chords sounded like shit. I would fingerpick and I got really into that. I wasn’t good at playing power chords because my fingers were so small and I wasn’t strengthening them by barring. I didn’t bar for a really long time. John—I used to date John Frusciante—he used to tell me how I played, because I didn’t know. He is more theory-based and he said, “You are really into double stops.” I would usually play two notes at a time to make harmonies. I had an open string and I’d play an open string with another note. Then I’d play a note on that open string, close it, and play another harmony. I would create shapes. The last song on our new album, “Today Dear,” is an acoustic song. It’s a song I wrote when I was 19, actually, but we put it on the record. If you listen to it, it is all double stops and harmonies.
Wayman: When I was younger, I detested the idea of playing anything like anyone else around me. I didn’t want to write songs that used A minor, G, D minor, E—the chords that many songs are written with. There is no problem with that, but I wanted to find something else. I wasn’t drawn to that and I never wrote songs with those chords. Also, when I was jamming with people, which is basically how I learned how to play, I would have this method of playing along and finding the notes that work along the neck and then putting them together into different chords. I was finding clumps of notes that work and I was probably stumbling upon voicings that were unique, different, or not used often. I never learned it from the outside in, as in, “We’re going to play in D minor now. These are the chords that work. Here are the basic formations of those chords. You can play it as a power chord here or you can play…” I didn’t learn it that way. I knew theory. I could tell you what chords are in a D minor scale if I thought about it, but I didn’t know it translated to the guitar like that. The piano is a little bit easier because it’s all right in front of you, but with guitar I never tried to learn it that way.Now that former South Korean President Park Geun-hye has left office, the pendulum of South Korean politics is set to swing back to an era of liberal governance. If current polls and predictions hold, South Korea's next president Moon Jae-in will push an agenda on the foreign policy front that will look with skepticism at the South Korean alliance with the United States, seek to placate Chinese sensibilities, and, most worryingly, attempt to realize rapprochement with North Korea. In other words, South Korea is about to experience, in Pyongyang propaganda parlance, a "thrice-cursed" period of geopolitical uncertainty and volatility.
The U.S.-South Korean partnership is one of the enduring crown jewels of the United States' post-World War II efforts to establish a new liberal order that would sow the seeds of peace, stability, and democracy around the world. The U.S. and South Korea have mutually benefited from this alliance, with South Korea, in particular, under the protection afforded by the U.S. security umbrella, rising like a phoenix from the devastation of total war to the pinnacle of prosperity in just over a generation — a feat unprecedented in world history.
A new Moon administration appears poised to question some of the most fundamental premises of one of the most successful nation-alliances in existence. From the location of U.S. troops along the DMZ to the in-country presence of THAAD defensive missile batteries, Moon is expected to upset the applecart of an almost 65-year-old security arrangement, a move that risks emboldening a belligerent North Korea and empowering an ascendant China-Russia axis.
Moon seems ready to relinquish South Korea's sovereign prerogative to defend itself to Beijing's China-first worldview, apparently for the dubious privilege of being able to continue selling goods and tour packages to the Chinese market. To allow South Korea's security needs to be subsumed under China's strategic imperatives is not only craven, but a disrespect to the legacy of those South Korean and American soldiers in whose blood South Korea's independence was forged. A country that is prepared to barter its existential priorities for base economic considerations has already begun the process of forfeiting its status as a state and selling its soul.
If the image of Seoul genuflecting at the feet of China's oligarchs doesn't provide food for thought, then picturing the new South Korean president glad-handing the fratricidal despot from North Korea should have one reaching for the sick bag. The reason has nothing to do with whether one considers direct diplomacy with North Korea a good idea. Given Pyongyang's sprint towards an operational ICBM and a reliable nuclear weapons delivery capability, it would be derelict for the U.S. to not employ the full arsenal of diplomatic and coercive options that includes sanctions, deterrence, and, yes, direct engagement. It does, however, have everything to do with the sordid legacy of Seoul's prior foray into Sunshine summitry during the Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations.
Moon seeks to reboot Sunshine diplomacy with Kim Jong Un, with all the one-way, open-checkbook obsequiousness towards North Korea that would entail. One sign of coming events is Moon's call for the re-opening of the shuttered Kaesong venture. A program born under the warm glow of the Sunshine Policy, its purpose was to marry South Korean industrial know-how and North Korean labor in a proto-reunification experiment in economic cooperation that was supposed to lead to cultural openings between the two Koreas. Well, South Korea got cheap labor, while North Korea got all the workers' salaries. It would not be a stretch to suppose what that money may have funded.
Moon came of age during a period of heightened civil unrest fomented by South Korea's repressive military dictatorships. His worldview and skepticism towards American hegemony was greatly influenced by the work of Rhee Young-hee, a dissident journalist, who wrote a scathing critique of the Vietnam War (a wayward, Cold War scrimmage that, ironically, was a failed projection of a U.S. containment policy that, in the light of history, found its greatest success in the example of a free and prosperous South Korea). These experiences turned Moon into the critic of U.S. policy he is today.
The question now for South Korea is how Moon will change the course of a country that has come so far in so short a time, despite being buffeted by the winds of great power struggles. One can only hope that his leadership will be defined by strength in crisis and not servility in search of expedience.
As for the U.S., the paradigm shift a new Moon administration may represent has the potential to upend a decade-long relationship where both U.S. and South Korean engagement and deterrence doctrines toward the Kim regime operated in complement with each other. President Trump may soon have to try and cultivate common ground with a new South Korean president whose history illuminates a worldview that, in key respects, stands in opposition to the foundational premises supporting the White House's nascent North Korea policy. This is certainly not the geopolitical flank the Trump administration expected it would have to reinforce, as it moves to confront an increasingly provocative Pyongyang.
For the sake of their mutual security interests, it will be incumbent on both the U.S. and South Korea to remind themselves of the unique friendship their alliance represents and the hopes and dreams both countries share for a true and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Edward Oh (@EdwardHBOh ) is an attorney and writer in Washington, D.C. He has studied North Korean political history, propaganda, and human rights issues, as well as inter-Korean relations, for more than a decade. He has published articles on the role of North Korea's ideology and propaganda in its nuclear politics.
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Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple (who is my husband) noticed an interesting trend this week: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a snappy new one-liner. Palin has used the same riff repeatedly, and she did it again on Fox News Friday night. Here’s what she said:
“I just pray that Americans will open their eyes between now and November when they know that they’ll have to make that choice between free stuff or freedom. You can’t have both.”
Wemple notes that Palin has been throwing the line around a lot lately, and traces its origin back to a February Washington Times op-ed written by Ted Nugent. But the “free stuff” meme has also been pushed by GOP presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, who has used it repeatedly in response to questions about health care. In Florida earlier this year, in response to a heckler who asked about free contraception under Obamacare, he said, “If you’re looking for free stuff you don’t have to pay for? Vote for the other guy, that’s what he’s all about, okay? That’s not, that’s not what I’m about.” And then shortly after he got booed at the NAACP convention this summer, he told a group of donors in Montana what he told all those black folks in the room:
I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff.
Romney’s association of the “free stuff” meme with Obamacare suggests Republicans are desperately looking for a new way to attack the health care law, which has been the animating force of much conservative rhetoric and tea party activism over the past three years. Despite all the GOP predictions that Obamacare would usher in a new era of socialism and government tyranny, the reform law is finally making people’s lives better. Voters are starting to realize that, and Republicans appear to be freaking out about it, if Palin’s multiple attacks are any indication.
It’s hard to generate angry crowds over a health care plan that, in the past year, has delivered health insurance to millions of additional people. Women voters, a key constituency, are finally starting to get free contraception (a part of the bill that’s on the way to saving my own family at least $600 a year!). Seniors and disabled people have saved upwards of $4 billion in reduced prescription drug costs, and nearly 13 million families this year got more than $1 billion in rebates from insurance companies that were spending too much of their premiums on private jets and not enough on health care.
At a time when median income has totally hit the skids, “free stuff” is probably coming as welcome relief to people who may now be more inclined to re-elect President Obama as a result. Romney has offered no viable alternative health care solutions other than to propose repealing Obamacare. If Palin’s latest offensive is any indication, Republicans are resorting to an attack on the law’s beneficiaries themselves, as if Americans who take the rebate or free birth control pills are morally weak, freedom-hating slackers looking for a handout. It’s hard to see how this is going to win over many voters. You can watch Palin explain all this here:The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, arrived in Poland on Wednesday afternoon for World Youth Days, a visit eagerly awaited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who have flocked to this country from around the world.
Many young pilgrims from various countries cheer in front of the memorial to Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, 26 July 2016. Photo: EPA/ARMIN WEIGEL.
A Mass celebrated by Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz officially launched World Youth Days in Kraków, southern Poland, on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, Polish highlanders have decided to stage a special welcome for the head of the Catholic Church, even though the southern Tatra capital of Zakopane is not included on Pope Francis’s itinerary.
As the papal plane flies over the Tatra mountains on its way to Kraków, the pope will be able to see the flag of the World Youth Days displayed on top of Mount Giewont.
It will be brought there by the well-known Polish explorer Marek Kamiński with a group of highlanders. They will also place on the summit tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
With its silhouette reminiscent of a sleeping knight, Giewont is the most distinctive of the Tatra peaks. The 15-metre-high steel cross, erected by highlanders in 1900, stands at the top of the mountain, at 1,894 metres.
Anna Karpiel-Semberecka from the Zakopane Town Council has told the Polish Press Agency that today’s symbolic welcome to Pope Francis harks back to the visit to the Tatras by Pope John Paul II in June 1997.
In a homily, he referred to the Giewont cross in these words: "I thank God for the people who took that cross to the peak of the mountain. That cross looks out on the whole of Poland, from the Tatras to the Baltic coast. That cross speaks to us saying, 'Lift up your hearts!' I pray that all of Poland will look toward that cross and hear that invitation. Let us lift up our hearts!" (mk/rg)In the United States, no sport dominates the landscape more than football. It's become our new pastime. There's a passion for the game that unites cities and fans alike. Our neighbors across the pond in the United Kingdom have a passion of their own when it comes to soccer, or rather futbol. But how do those soccer players stack up against our own football stars? With the Buffalo Bills set to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday in London, we decided to see how Bills running back LeSean McCoy stacks up against soccer star Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Take a look at some of the key metrics that go into being an elite running back and an elite striker.
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Watch with the world as the Buffalo Bills take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first ever free global NFL live stream on October 25 at 9.30 a.m. ET. The game is available across Yahoo on your phone, tablet, laptop, console or connected TV. For free! Watch with the world as the Buffalo Bills take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first ever free global NFL live stream on October 25 at 9.30 a.m. ET. The game is available across Yahoo on your phone, tablet, laptop, console or connected TV. For free!
LESEAN MCCOY
Age: 27
Weight: 207 lbs (93.9 kg)
Height: 5'11"
Max Speed: 19.58 MPH (31.5 Km/H)
Avg. Distance/Game: 634 yards (0.58 Km)
Weekly Salary: $470,588 per week ($8 Million a year)
HARRY KANE
Age: 22
Weight: 143 lbs (65 kg)
Height: 6'2"
Max Speed: 21.00 MPH (33.8 Km/H)
Avg. Distance/Game: 11.2 Km (12,248 yards)
Weekly Salary: $60,000 per week
Age: Soccer is all about young potential. Some of the highest transfer rates (in soccer there aren't trades, instead a team will sell the player or have the player's contract bought by the team that wishes to sign the player) are almost always players younger than 25 years old. While LeSean McCoy is bound to have at least two more great years as a back, his age dictates that the Eagles traded him around his peak value. If McCoy was playing soccer, from an age standpoint, he would dictate a high transfer fee, but big teams are less likely to go after him because of the fact that he is two years away from being an ideal MLS ("retirement" league) candidate.
Weight & Height: I struggled to believe that Harry Kane is 6-foot-2 and only weighs 143 pounds. FC Barcelona star Neymar, who is a petite soccer player, is listed at 150 lbs., and the thought of a 6-foot-2, 143 pound man trying to play any sport seems crazy. Unlike football, there is a premium put on being light, fast and (ideally) being tall when it comes to finding the perfect scoring machine. When it comes to trying to find an ideal running back, the opposite is true. You want someone who isn't too tall (under 6-foot-1) because it makes it too easy for defenders to spot the player and it's harder to maintain good pad levels. You want a back who is agile like a soccer player to make the short bursts through opening and closing holes, but the running back needs to have weight (185 to 215 pounds) so that he can shed tacklers. Every once in awhile there are outliers to this ideal build (see Chris Johnson's 2,000-yard season), but by and large most running backs fall into this weight spectrum.
Max Speed: I'm not sure that people would have guessed that Kane's on-field speed is ahead of McCoy's (worth noting that LeSean is wearing several pounds worth of equipment). Soccer strikers and football running backs rely on high top-end speed to finish a scoring play. This is the area in which McCoy would do best as a striker: his high top-end speed, low center of gravity and overall body mass would make him a great striker.
Distance Covered: This is always a mind-blowing statistic. Kane manages to cover (on average) 12,000 yards of field during a game. There is no need for a football player to cover this much ground in a game, but it should make your head spin considering the fact that soccer players cover this much ground and don't even get a break until halftime. No huddles, no timeouts and no quarters; no chance for a guy like Jared Lorenzen to make it on the soccer pitch.
Salaries: Soccer players' contracts are not announced as a year-long deal, but instead are listed as how much the player makes per week. The NFL pays players in a similar fashion, but teams list players' contracts as the total he will be paid over the duration of the contract. Again, it is worth mentioning that players are not traded in soccer. Their contracts are sold and loaned. If the Bills wanted to acquire McCoy from the Eagles, they would have to pay the buyout clause in the contract to have the opportunity to try to sign him. That buyout clause is often worth more than the actual contract that the player has.
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You can follow Zach Schwartz on Twitter @ZachisZach.“The day of days!,” wrote 29-year-old Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809–April 19, 1882) in his journal on November 11, 1838, after his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, accepted his marriage proposal. But the legendary naturalist wasn’t always this single-minded about the union. Just a few months earlier, he had scribbled on the back of a letter from a friend a carefully considered list of pros (“constant companion,” “charms of music & female chit-chat”) and cons (“means limited,” “no books,” “terrible loss of time”) regarding marriage and its potential impact on his work. The list, found in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Volume 2: 1837-1843 (public library) and also available online in the excellent Darwin Correspondence Project, was dated April 7, 1838, and bespeaks the timeless, and arguably artificial, cultural tension between family and career, love and work, heart and head.
If not marry Travel. Europe, yes? America???? If I travel it must be exclusively geological United States, Mexico Depend upon health & vigour & how far I become Zoological If I dont travel. — Work at transmission of Species — Microscope simplest forms of life — Geology.?.oldest formations?? Some experiments — physiological observation on lower animals B Live in London for where else possible[6] in small house, near Regents Park –keep horse –take Summer tours Collect specimens some line of Zoolog: Speculations of Geograph. range, & Geological general works. — Systematiz. — Study affinities. If marry — means limited, Feel duty to work for money. London life, nothing but Society, no country, no tours, no large Zoolog. Collect. no books. Cambridge Professorship, either Geolog. or Zoolog. — comply with all above requisites — I could not systematiz zoologically so well. — But better than hybernating in country, & where? Better even than near London country house. — I could not indolently take country house & do nothing — Could I live in London like a prisoner? If I were moderately rich, I would live in London, with pretty big house & do as (B), but could I act thus with children & poor? No — Then where live in country near London; better, but great obstacles to science & poverty. Then Cambridge, better, but fish out of water, not being Professor & poverty. Then Cambridge Professorship, — & make best of it, do duty as such & work at spare times — ¶ My destiny will be Camb. Prof. or poor man; outskirts of London, some small Square &c: — & work as well as I can I have so much more pleasure in direct observation, that I could not go on as Lyell does, correcting & adding up new information to old train & I do not see what line can be followed by man tied down to London. — In country, experiment & observations on lower animals, — more space —
Several weeks later, in July of 1838, he revisited the subject, with another meditation on the value of a life-partner (“better than a dog anyhow”):
This is the Question [circled in pencil] Marry Children — (if it Please God) — Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one, — object to be beloved & played with. — better than a dog anyhow.– Home, & someone to take care of house — Charms of music & female chit-chat. — These things good for one’s health. — but terrible loss of time. — My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, & nothing after all. — No, no won’t do. — Imagine living all one’s day solitarily in smoky dirty London House. — Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps — Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Grt. Marlbro’ St. Not Marry Freedom to go where one liked — choice of Society & little of it. — Conversation of clever men at clubs — Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in every trifle. — to have the expense & anxiety of children — perhaps quarelling — Loss of time. — cannot read in the Evenings — fatness & idleness — Anxiety & responsibility — less money for books &c — if many children forced to gain one’s bread. — (But then it is very bad for ones health[19] to work too much) Perhaps my wife wont like London; then the sentence is banishment & degradation into indolent, idle fool —
He then produces his conclusion:
Marry — Mary — Marry Q.E.D.
…and moves on to the next question:
It being proved necessary to Marry When? Soon or Late The Governor says soon for otherwise bad if one has children — one’s character is more flexible –one’s feelings more lively & if one does not marry soon, one misses so much good pure happiness. — But then if I married tomorrow: there would be an infinity of trouble & expense in getting & furnishing a house, –fighting about no Society –morning calls –awkwardness –loss of time every day. (without one’s wife was an angel, & made one keep industrious). Then how should I manage all my business if I were obliged to go every day walking with my wife. — Eheu!! I never should know French, –or see the Continent –or go to America, or go up in a Balloon, or take solitary trip in Wales –poor slave. –you will be worse than a negro — And then horrid poverty, (without one’s wife was better than an angel & had money) — Never mind my boy — Cheer up — One cannot live this solitary life, with groggy old age, friendless & cold, & childless staring one in ones face, already beginning to wrinkle. — Never mind, trust to chance –keep a sharp look out — There is many a happy slave —
Six months later, the two were married. They had ten children and remained together until Darwin’s death in 1882 — a beautiful antidote to the cultural myth that love and meaningful work can’t coexist. As Maira Kalman wisely put it, “in the end, okay, it’s love and it’s work — what else could there possibly be?”
↬ The Paris ReviewLast week at SXSW, Android and Chrome head Sundar Pichai said we'd be hearing more about Google's foray into wearables in two weeks' time. And it looks like the company's delivering quite early on that promise.
The newly announced Android Wear initiative, which makes a Google-approved SDK available to developers eying the wearable space, will initially focus on smartwatches created by the likes of industry heavyweights like LG, HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Asus. While Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom, Imagination and Mediatek will also be pitching in on the chip side. Fossil's inclusion in this Android Wear partner mix is the most interesting, and will, from the sound of it, mostly be a fashion play for the nascent wearable category. As for when we'll actually see the fruits of these wearable partnerships, Google's only committing to the very vague "later this year." Which means news on these Android Wear smartwatches could land anytime. But for now, at least, LG's giving us a look at what to expect from the project with its recently unveiled G Watch.AFI have unveiled the new video for latest single ‘Hidden Knives’. Watch it first on NME above.
Taken from their self-titled 10th album (known to fans as ‘The Blood Album’), the latest taster of the record comes just before they hit the road with Deftones this week to support them on their UK dates.
A clip of classic and cinematic film-noir, the video makes for the perfect marriage to the dramatic nature of the track; AFI on top of their game.
“It’s very difficult for me to describe musically what’s happening on any record because I’m so close to it,” frontman Davey Havok told NME about ‘The Blood Album’. “It’s a natural expression of who I am and who we are at the time. However in relation to ‘Burials’, I feel ‘The Blood Album’ feels like the aftermath – like waking in the ash that fell from the flames that was the ‘Burials’ record. This record is lyrically less bleak. Albeit dark still, but less bleak.”
Speaking of what has kept the band going after so many so many years, Havok replied: “Our intentions. We’ve continued to make music because we love it.”
As well as performing at Download Festival, AFI’s upcoming UK tour dates with Deftones are below. Tickets are available here.
London, Alexandra Palace (May 5)
Manchester, O2 Apollo (May 6)
Glasgow, SECC (May 7)$64,000 Raised So Far For Homeless Man Who Turned In $42,000
Enlarge this image toggle caption Steven Senne/AP Steven Senne/AP
This week's feel-good story of the homeless man in Boston who found a backpack containing $42,000 in cash and travelers checks and then turned it into authorities is developing into an even better tale.
An online fundraiser to collect money for that Good Samaritan, who we now know is named Glen James, had raised nearly $64,000 as of 9:20 a.m. ET Wednesday.
The "Boston Homeless Man Reward" campaign was launched by Ethan Whittington of Midlothian, Va., who hasn't met James, but felt compelled to see if other Good Samaritans would "help this man change his life."
James was honored this week by the Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis "for his extraordinary show of character and honesty."
According to The Boston Globe:
"James, a slight, bespectacled man in his mid-50s who says he has been homeless for five years, said the thought of keeping the money never crossed his mind. " 'Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a penny of the money found,' he said Monday in a handwritten statement. 'God has always very well looked after me.' "
The Globe adds that "in his statement, James wrote about how he found the money and a bit about himself. He had worked at a courthouse for 13 years as a file clerk, he said, before being fired. On Monday, the courts could not immediately confirm his employment. James could have gotten another job, he said, but he suffers from an inner-ear disorder that causes prolonged vertigo spells."
The money he found last weekend belonged to a student from China who was visiting Boston. It was returned to the student.
(H/T to USA Today.)Please enable Javascript to watch this video
UPDATE: Trump administration officials say the Air Force didn't submit the accused Texas church shooter's criminal history to the FBI, as required by Pentagon rules.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Devin Kelley was convicted of assault in an Air Force court martial in 2012 and given a bad conduct discharge in 2014.
Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel in crimes like assault should be submitted to the FBI's Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division.
Original: DAVENPORT- Investigators are looking into how a man accused in the Texas church massacre was able to buy two firearms after a background check at a sporting goods store in San Antonio.
"Somebody didn't do their job. If you get arrested for domestic violence, it's the only misdemeanor that you can have that keeps you from buying a gun. Somebody didn't turn that into the FBI for the next check," said Jeanelle Westrom, of Davenport Guns store.
Westrom says the National Criminal Instant Background Check System or NICS, should have red-flagged Devin Kelley, because of his conviction while in the Air Force.
Investigators say they are trying to find out why Kelley was allowed to continue with his purchase at the store, Academy Sports and Outdoors.
The company issued this statement on Monday.
"Both sales were approved by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). We are cooperating with law enforcement as they investigate further."*Board of directors: Hal Abelson, Paul Brest, Glenn Brown, Michael Carroll, Catherine Casserly, Caterina Fake, Brian Fitzgerald, Davis Guggenheim, Joi Ito, Lawrence Lessig, Laurie Racine, Eric Saltzman, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, Annette Thomas, Jimmy Wales, and Esther Wojcicki.
Nathan Colquhoun / CC BY-NC-SA
The Creative Commons Board of Directors is seeking recommendations from the Creative Commons community for potential candidates to serve on the board of directors and a new, to-be-formed advisory council. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to Creative Commons and advance our mission of maximizing digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
Why we are doing this
Creative Commons Board of Directors is making structural adjustments and engaging in succession planning. As part of this process, during the April 2013 Creative Commons Board of Directors meeting, the board agreed to form a Creative Commons Advisory Council for which it is also seeking members. The advisory council is distinct from the board. While it will not have decision-making authority, its role is to provide depth of experience and knowledge for the board to tap.
This open call for board and advisory council nominations is designed to engage the entire Creative Commons community in identifying candidates who will ensure Creative Commons continues to have the resources, leadership, and oversight necessary to carry out its vision and mission, and does so in a way that is inclusive of our global community.
What the Creative Commons Board of Directors is looking for
The board seeks candidates who have a passion and enthusiasm for Creative Commons and can act as ambassadors, fundraisers, and experts.
Creative Commons has developed a matrix of key skills needed on the board and advisory council. In making your nomination for board or advisory council please reference this skills matrix and describe the skills you believe your nominee would bring to Creative Commons.
Nomination process
To nominate yourself or someone else, please complete this web form by July 15, 5pm PDT (GMT -7). Please share this form with your networks and anyone you think may be interested in serving. There is no limit to the number of candidates you may nominate.
Nominations will be accepted on a rolling basis through July 15, 5pm PDT (GMT -7) and reviewed by the board of directors Executive Committee. Potential candidates will be contacted in late July to early August.
Contact
For any questions contact meryl@creativecommons.org.So is it a Milly Dowler moment? Will the revelation that GCHQ taps every internet communication that enters or leaves the UK mark the moment when ordinary citizens stop and say: "Oh, now I get it." A moment when people realise that the stuff that nerds and activists had been droning on about might actually affect them?
My hunch is that it isn't such a moment. Most people will just shrug their shoulders and get on with life. They will accept the assurances of those in authority and move on. If they do, then they will have missed something important. It is that our democracies have indeed reached a pivotal point. Ever since it first became clear that the internet was going to become the nervous system of the planet, the 64 billion dollar question was whether it would be "captured" by giant corporations or by governments. Now we know the answer: it's "both".
If anyone is shocked by what's been disclosed in the last fortnight, then they haven't been paying attention to the technology. Computer power has been obeying Moore's Law – doubling every two years – for nigh on four decades. Network bandwidth has been tripling every year. Ditto digital storage capacity.
The result is that what looked like science fiction 20 years ago is now a mundane reality. Back then, we assumed that the scale and pace of growth of the internet would put it beyond the reach of even the most intrusive surveillance. Nobody or nothing could drink from such a firehose – or so we thought. We forgot about Moore's Law. We |
any foreign government; or (4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President Bush, apparently really hates it when government overreach is exposed. We last mentioned him when he attacked Wikileaks in the aftermath of its publishing of various State Department cables. Now, with the new NSA surveillance scandal, he's back (of course) and taking the lovely position that it's perfectly fine to charge journalists who publish information about NSA surveillance with crimes Of course, there's also that fancy First Amendment, which Thiessen would prefer to ignore:It would appear that 18 USC 798 is exactly what is forbidden by the First Amendment. It is a law abridging the freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Defenders of Thiessen and the NSA will point out that there are lots of times the courts have said this is okay, but I'm not sure what kind of defense that is, other than nitpicking why the First Amendment is something to ignore. Personally, I think that the First Amendment is fairly important, and worry aboutlaws that appear to push back on the basic concept of it.
Filed Under: first amendment, free speech, journalism, leaks, marc thiessen, nsa, nsa surveillanceNicole Perlman made her Marvel Comics debut in December with Gamora #1, the first issue of the new series chronicling the untold history of the most dangerous woman in the galaxy.
However, this isn’t the first time Perlman has written for Gamora. She also wrote the character in her script for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Perlman revealed how the change in medium changes the character.
“I am attempting to walk a respectful tightrope between the Marvel Cinematic Universe version and the comic book versions of Gamora, which are close but not carbon copies,” Perlman says. “I don't know that it's possible to have a character from the comics feel exactly the same as the films, or vice versa - or whether we would even want that. The mediums are very different and therefore provide different opportunities to explore theme and character. I'd like to think that my backstory for Gamora, being fairly modular, could be applied to the films and comics alike. “One of the reasons I wanted to write Gamora's backstory is that there hasn't been much written about her young adulthood - yet that is where she underwent the greatest character change,” Perlman explains. “I felt like I had the opportunity to say something about people who have survived emotional abuse and trauma, and how they have a profound ability to change the world for the better.”
Of course, comics is a fundamentally different medium than film, and it requires collaboration between a writer and an artist. Perlman is working with Marco Checetto on Gamora, and she says the collaboration has been a positive and an educational experience. “Marco has been an absolute dream to work with - and he has taught me so much! A big part of the challenge of writing the first five issues has been pacing myself - and making sure I leave enough room on the page for Marco to work his magic. Economy of language and movement have been the two largest lessons for me. But I must say that getting the inks from him has been the best part of my day, every day I receive them in my Inbox.”
OUT OF TIME AND OUT FOR REVENGE! • The story continues as we follow GAMORA to the doomed planet that is UBLIEX. Perched on the brink of a black hole, its inhabitants count down the hours to their planet's imminent demise as it is swallowed up by the approaching Singularity. • Will Gamora find her revenge among the inhabitants of Ubliex before the black hole consumes them all?Syntagma Athena — "Greek anti-austerity protests. All graffiti is real, translated from my trip to Athens. The protester dogs are Loukanikos, Greek's famous riot dog. The main figure has Maalox, a DIY teargas remedy, over her eyes," Crabapple says. (view large) Indignada — "Spanish m15 anti-austerity movement. The woman becomes a building representing the Museo Municipal, and is decked with Spanish republican flags. Toma La Calle was a slogan of m15," Crabapple says. (view large) Debt and her Debtors — "About debt, unsurprisingly, and the false promise and extreme falls it offers," Crabapple says. (view large) A New England — "Protester, foxes, and police dog hounds, with referances to CCTV cams, the phone hacking scandal, UK Uncut, the Fortnam and Mason sit in. The main figure is modeled after my friend and journalist Laurie Penny," Crabapple says. (view large) Degage — "the Tunisian Revolution. The main figure's face is divided in a reference to Nadia Jelassi. The police dog destroys a fruit stand, like that of Mohammad Bouazizi," Crabapple says. (view large) The Business of Illness — "Healthcare crisis in America. The Hippocratic oath is written on the receipt-body of the main figure," Crabapple says. (view large) The Hivemind — "Hacktivists. References to Anonymous, LulzSec, HB Gary, Telecomix, Tor, the Pirate Party, and of course Nyan Cat," Crabapple says. "On hivemind, the binary is real. It says 'we are legion,' 'we do not forgive, we do not forget, expect us,' and 'none of us are as cruel as all of us.' Eleanor Saitta and Quinn Norton both helped me extensively with research on the piece." (view large) The Great American Bubble Machine — "Inspired by the Matt Taibbi article of the same name," Crabapple says. (view large) Our Lady of Liberty Park — "Occupy Wall Street. An anatomy of Zuccotti park, from the free cigarette table to the obnoxious drum circle to the people's library, with appearances by Tim Pool, Shamar Thomas and Tony Bologna. All signage is authentic, especially 'Shit is Fucked up and bullshit,'" Crabapple says. (view large) "A wheel of fortune. It will spin," says Crabapple.
In 2011, artist Molly Crabapple was hosting Occupy Wall Street activists and journalists in her New York apartment and traveling the world to sites of unrest and revolution. In 2012, she was being arrested for returning to Zucotti Park. In 2013 she returns to the scene again with Shell Game, a series of nine 4-foot by 6-foot allegorical paintings to commemorate the chaos of a year of revolution, to be shown at New York's Smart Clothes Gallery starting April 14.
All told, the pieces cover Goldman Sachs, Anonymous, the health insurance crisis, the British anti-cuts protests, the American debt crisis, the Tunisian revolution, the anti-austerity protests in Greece, the M15 movement in Spain and Occupy Wall Street.
Wired and Molly Crabapple sat down for a conversation about how her Occupy experience shaped this latest series.
>Yes, it was awful, but it was also magic.
Wired: You describe Shell Game as a love letter to 2011. When I read that, my first thought was, "wasn't 2011 kind of an awful year?"
Molly Crabapple: I disagree. Yes, it was awful, but it was also magic. It was the magic of people speaking to each other, waking up, helping each other. For every person beaten up, everyone arrested, it was also a year of fierce aliveness.
In 2011 people around the world broke consensus with power. They sat down in the main squares of their cities – Tahrir, Syntagma, Puerta del Sol, Zuccotti – and declared that the old machines were defunct. By 2012, the rebellions were partially crushed, or had mutated in ways their initial participants could never have imagined. It was a ferociously urgent year. Things, for the first time in a long time, felt like they might change – that a new world itself might be at the end of a street demonstration.
Occupy Wall Street happened outside my window. I was initially skeptical, but was quickly won over by the dedication of the occupiers in the face of a brutal, militarized police force. I tried to help however I could. I donated tarps and clothes, sold my prints to raise money, and sketched the occupiers. I turned my loft into a pressroom. Reporters from all over the world charged their laptops and drank my scotch. I'd draw graphics feverishly, give them to an occupier friend, and they'd turn up at street demos two hours later. My May Day General Strike poster ended up wheat-pasted on buildings around the world.
I was involved in Occupy Wall Street as a participant and poster artist. Shell Game is an attempt to do something bigger, to use whatever artistic powers I have to explore the excitements and betrayals of that year. It's art that uses some of the techniques of journalism (I interviewed activists from all over the world), to make giant, subjective, old-school allegorical paintings.
Wired: What was it like to go from the high speed sketching of being in the moment and then returning to it a year later for these larger more contemplative pieces?
Crabapple: Sketching is like dancing. It's process as much as product. You can turn your head off and just sort of dissolve into the now. Doing a giant, super thought-out painting is the opposite of that. When I started Shell Game, I was painting very recent events. Now, I'm making these sort of votives to the past. It's a process that's nostalgic and a bit sad as much as it is joyful.
The problem with doing physically ambitious art is that to view it, you still have to be in your physical body.Wired: As a document or votive, Shell Game's existence as nine large unique paintings – many already sold to collectors – interests me. Your protest art was copied and reproduced and used all over, and your sketches for Discordia were made infinitely copiable in ebook form. But Shell Game will be nine scattered shrines.
Crabapple: No painting is ever not an infinitely reproducible image any more. But you bring up a good point. The Communist party used to consider easel painting bourgeois, and murals the peoples' art, because easel paintings could only have one owner. But now murals are the far more bourgeois thing, since you have to be able to travel to visit them to really "get" them. Diego Rivera doesn't translate well on Tumblr. The problem with doing physically ambitious art is that to view it, you still have to be in your physical body.
Wired: You said that by 2012 the rebellions had been crushed or mutated. Did you already feel like things had gotten that way as Shell Game's process was starting?
Crabapple: I started the Shell Game paintings last February. Zuccotti had already been cleared, but many people, myself included, thought that May Day would bring a magic resurrection of Occupy. It felt like a temporary setback. Greece was seeing the rise of the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. In London, UK Uncut protesters were getting slapped with harsh jail sentences. But the events were far fresher in the world's mind.
Wired: I keep thinking about the passage in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Thompson is eulogizing San Francisco's summer of love. "We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
Many people still agree that the old machine is broken. But it seems like the efforts of 2011 didn't work out. Are these the kinds of things you struggle with in your art?
Crabapple: I'm not sure I agree with you when you say "didn't work out." If one asks "did 2011 destroy the kleptocracy and inaugurate a utopia?" then of course the answer is no. But I think 2011 politicized huge swathes of people. In the US it taught the comfortable classes about the nasty side of the criminal justice system. It revitalized protest.
But, as an artist, I have a sort of privilege that an activist does not. An activist has to plan, to think of what happens next. As an artist, I can just seize things, chronicle, attempt to set bits of the past down, to give them shape and beauty, and see how that affects the present. Shell Game isn't a policy prescription. It's not a manifesto – unless that manifesto is something that says "be engaged in the world."
>Maybe art and action, maybe, possibly, they can justify each other.
Wired: And: "Remember this happened?"
Crabapple: Yes. That. This was important. Once, a member of Anonymous was sitting in my studio. He looked at my painting The Hivemind and said "I look at this and think it might have been worth it." I try not to be grandiose about the purpose of art. But maybe art and action, maybe, possibly, they can justify each other.
Wired: What do you mean when you say you used journalistic techniques to research each painting?
Crabapple: Each piece is immensely researched. I read a lot, of course. I interviewed countless activists, journalists, hackers, and participants. I travelled to Greece, London and Spain for research. It's a hard balance to strike – combining in a piece real events that people have bled and suffered for, and one's own massively subjective experience of those events. Whether or not I got each painting right, I tried.
Wired: Do you feel tensions or conflict between your roles as a protestor, journalist, and artists? Or do they fit together neatly?
Crabapple: Artists are the most lucky little foo-foos in the world. We've spent a century excusing every possible hypocrisy and depravity with "But I'm an artist!" A commitment to tell the truth above all else is often challenged when the truth is that your side is behaving badly. I think the best political art comes not out of movements, but out of individual humans, aligned with movements, that have kept their own sympathies, their irreverence, their curiosity, their critical brains.
The Shell Game opens to the public Sunday, April 14th from 7-10pm. Smart Clothes Gallery, 154 Stanton Street, NYC.
All images courtesy Molly Crabapple except where noted.'The things that worked last year are totally different to what works today,' says Paul Bettner
In November 2008, two brothers released their first iPhone game, Chess With Friends, which enabled people to have multiple games of chess on the go over the network. It was followed in July 2009 by Words With Friends, a game inspired by Scrabble that became a multiplayer phenomenon.
Fast forward to November 2010, when social games giant Zynga paid $53.3m for the developer of those games, NewToy. The brothers stayed on, with David Bettner becoming studio director, and Paul Bettner taking a role as general manager of the renamed Zynga With Friends studio.
"It's been a crazy ride from those very early days on Chess With Friends. We wanted to replicate this whole'sitting round a table playing board games with your family' feeling," says Paul Bettner.
"At the same time, we were focused on creating the table rather than the game itself. We wanted to create this platform that we could put a lot of games on top of, which would work in the same way replicating that feeling of sitting playing a game with a friend, but digitally."
Bettner uses another comparison too, saying that NewToy took inspiration from text messaging, and what it might mean to create "a play version of that".
Since the acquisition, the With Friends studio has shipped two more games – Hanging With Friends and Scramble With Friends – while also launching a Facebook version of Words With Friends. Zynga says players of Scramble With Friends are currently playing 7m rounds a day of the Boggle-inspired hame.
Bettner is very clear on the main appeal of the With Friends games: it's the communication rather than the gameplay itself. "When people tell us what they love about Words With Friends, they don't tell us they love the strategy of the game and how you can make these triple-word whatevers," he says.
"They tell us they love how this game keeps them connected to their mother-in-law in Wisconsin, or the way they get up every morning to see their brother has taken his turn. That's what I expect to hear if we do our jobs well."
Bettner says that the studio has learned over time that it's vital for these kinds of games to be immediately engaging: to let people jump in with the minimum of instructions and start having fun.
He also says that his team spends a lot of time refining the little touches, right down to the sound effects when players pick up virtual pieces in Words With Friends.
"We spent a long time tweaking those, even though it seems like a little thing. Those physical interactions you have with the stuff under the glass of the phone is so important," he says.
"You can see it the first time you turn on an iPhone and slide that Unlock button across. It feels magic, almost like there's something real under the glass. And we try to play that up in Scramble With Friends, so it feels like you're playing with this physical toy underneath the screen."
Bettner says that there is no shortage of ideas for new features and improvements from With Friends players, who tend to be "extremely vocal". Scramble With Friends was swiftly updated after its release, for example, after players of the paid version complained that its virtual tokens system restricted the amount of matches they could play.
How does the studio decide what games to make next? "I start by asking what would my wife want to play," he says. "She's a tough critic with a short attention span, and represents the perfect consumer I'm trying to target. If a game is too complicated or too strategy-focused, she'll move on to something else."
Bettner says that the With Friends studio is also firmly focused on tapping into people's nostalgia for the games of their youth, from board games to pen-and-paper games like hangman. The idea: to make digital toys out of the childlike forms of play that are "prewired into the brains" of today's smartphone owners.
What has Bettner learned about the business models of social mobile gaming over the last three years? Chiefly to never feel smug about what he has learned, seemingly.
"The things that worked last year are totally different to what works today," he says. "The business models are being invented in real-time still. Facebook is a little more established in terms of what works, but mobile is like the Wild West."
When it came out, Chess With Friends cost £2.99 ($4.99 in the US) as a paid download, with no in-game adverts. "We thought we were going to be rich, then only about 10 people bought it," he chuckles.
"We decided to make the game free. We were forced to try new things or die, which taught me an important lesson about staying very agile. I realised we had to keep experimenting, and be as creative with our business models as we were with our game designs."
That would later extend to using in-app purchases in Hanging With Friends, selling in-game currency and virtual items. Bettner admits that the studio has made mistakes, but has also "stumbled into things that work really well" through its willingness to experiment.
"People have expectations in the With Friends games of a certain level of value they get for free, so introducing some of these new mechanics has caused a little bit of friction," he says. "With something like the tokens in Scramble With Friends, we're learning fast and rolling out changes to the economy."
Both Words With Friends and Hanging With Friends are available on Android as well as iOS. Bettner has noticed some differences between the two platforms, but is positive about both.
"Android is growing like a weed, that's obvious, and we see the same trend in the growth of our Android user base," he says, before pinpointing a "different economy" on Google's platform.
"Users on Android tend to favour lower-priced items and expect more free content. I'm not sure what contributes to that, but we definitely see that in the behaviour of users across the two platforms."
However, it's being on both that creates a tangible benefit for Zynga and the With Friends studio, according to Bettner, who says that when Hanging With Friends launched on Android, it spurred increased usage back on iOS.
"When we are able to release a game on both platforms, it actually causes both platforms to grow," he says. "There's a ripple effect, which is testament to the fact that the game is fundamentally social. My gut feeling is that when people can suddenly find more friends to play, it causes a surge in engagement."Trace amounts of E. coli have been found in Portland, Oregon water samples and a boil water alert has been issued for the most of the city, resulting in the emergency closures of several parts of the city’s critical cafe infrastructure. We have contacted several establishments to find out what’s what and figure out how cafes are addressing people’s coffee needs safely.
As of about noon today, Stumptown Coffee Roasters had closed all of its four Portland cafes. Jason Overby, who oversees retail for the company, had this to say:
“The reality of it from our standpoint is we just want to play it as safe as possible. This has happened in the past; we’ve had to do this twice before. We don’t in any way want to run the risk of putting our customers in danger.
“From what it looks like, the city is probably going to say that we’re okay by tomorrow, so most likely we will open tomorrow, but we just want to be safe, and, because the filtration that our machines use and our water filters use are not rated for E. coli, I would be wary of the espresso boilers. Our service department feels like there is at least a slight potential that it wouldn’t be safe.”
Overby added, “We’re fortunate in that our filtration for cold brew is okay–we don’t have to throw out all the batches of cold brew we made in the last two days. We have UV filtration on the cold brew that is rated for E.coli so we’re safe on that.”
As of 1:30pm, Coava Coffee Roasters on Hawthorne was powering down its machines early for the day, while their cafe on Grand remained open for a limited time with suspended espresso service, boiling water for brewed coffee and iced coffee beverages, and ultimately shutting down for the day.
All four BARISTA locations are closed.
Sorry to say folks, we are closed until the boil notice lifts. Hurts. — Billy Wilson (@baristapdx) May 23, 2014
Starbucks Coffee continues to operate its Portland-area locations, serving only hot coffee.
Water Avenue Coffee Roasters remains open. “We are not going to be serving anything with ice or anything that was made with water yesterday, so we don’t have any cold brew, but hot coffee’s good to go.”
Sprudge.com Portland-Area Cafe Hot Tips
Developing…Wayne State Police Sergeant Collin Rose passed away at 5:30pm on Wednesday, November 23rd due to a gunshot wound sustained while on duty.
Sergeant Collin Rose was a 5 year veteran of the Wayne State Police Department, and was an experienced and dedicated K9 officer. Sgt. Rose was engaged to be married, and was very close to completing his master's degree. Sgt. Rose was a impeccably brave and selfless public defender, whose service to the Detroit community will be cherished and appreciated forever.
The funds accumulated through this fund will be used to assist in paying for Sgt. Rose's memorial services, organizational donations, and any outstanding debts or services Sgt. Rose may have been paying. Donated funds will be directly withdrawn by Sgt. Rose's fiancée, Nicole Salgot. Ms. Salgot will be responsible in allocating these funds in a way that honors her memory of Sgt. Rose, as well the Rose family and his fellow officers.
Share now to help this campaign Share Tweet 8.5k shares on Facebook shares on FacebookFREMONT — Larger than usual numbers of threatened steelhead trout swam from the ocean into Alameda Creek after heavy rains this year — and ran into the same concrete barriers that have blocked their migration for decades.
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On Wednesday, the fish got a lift in a decades long campaign to bring back the steelhead, an iconic seagoing trout, to the Bay Area’s largest creek.
Biologists and volunteers netted some of the 2-foot-long adult fish below a concrete barrier in the creek and trucked them two miles upstream for release in lower Niles Canyon.
The rescue teams also attached radio tracking devices to the fish to find out where they try to feed and breed.
In the end, five fish were netted and relocated. That yield might seem low for an ordinary fishing outing. Steelhead, however, are so rare that they are protected as a threatened species. The project to round them up Wednesday took more than 25 workers and volunteers from 10 organizations and the help of a local water agency in temporarily lowering water levels in the creek.
The rain-swelled creek didn’t lower as fast as expected, leaving the crews with about 30 minutes instead of two hours to capture steelhead before rising waters ended the project.
“It was a success to help five wild steelhead in a limited time window,” said Jeff Miller, executive director of the Alameda Creek Alliance. “I’m sure there are more there. We may come out next week and try it again.”
This was the first relocation of steelhead in Alameda Creek since 2008, and the largest in recent memory, organizers said.
Heavy rain and runoff this winter set up conditions for a big year of steelhead trying to move upstream in Bay Area creeks.
“These big pulses of water attract the steelhead and give them something to home in on,” said Joe Sullivan, the East Bay Regional Parks fisheries program manager. “The wet winter is good for the steelhead.”
The rescue team waited for more than two hours for water levels to drop low enough to allow workers to wade into the water and net the fish, which were blocked by a concrete weir built to protect piers supporting BART tracks on the Fremont line.
Plans are being made for a $10 million fish ladder to help steelhead and other migrating fish get past the weir, but that project is years off, Miller said.
After netting the steelhead, rescuers set up an assembly line on a pickup bed to weigh and measure the fish after soaking each one in the turgid, chocolate-colored creek water. A technician added Alka Seltzer to the water to calm the fish from the trauma of being handled through a wet towel.
Sullivan, the park fisheries manager, carefully wired the tracking device to each fish’s dorsal fin as passers-by walking dogs and riding bikes on a creekside trail stopped to check out the excitement.
BART trains zipped by as the biologists tended to the fish belonging to a species that was abundant a century ago before dams, water diversions and flood-control projects damaged or blocked access to spawning areas.
“You’ve got wild steelhead in this creek right next to BART tracks and a fairly industrialized area. What a contrast,” said Ted Shapas, a volunteer with the Diablo Valley Fly Fisherman, one of the groups helping with the project.
Organizers of the project said they believe the steelhead can return to spawn in habitat 20 miles or more inland in the Sunol and Ohlone regional wildernesses.
“There is a lot of good habitat far upstream,” Miller said, “if we can do projects to get them past these barriers.”For some reason, this is what the back of at least one vehicle in the Harper (Kansas) Police Department looked like until last week.
Romans 13:4 is the verse that reads:
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
So… the cops are agents of the Christian God who seek revenge and “execute wrath” upon evildoers? Freaky.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to the Department a couple of weeks ago urging them to take down the decal(s) as soon as possible, since this was an obvious violation of church/state separation.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that the First Amendment ‘mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion… Placing decals referencing biblical quotes on the back of a law enforcement vehicle fails to respect either constitutional mandate of neutrality.
The Harper Police Department has removed the decal “Romans 13:4” from the city-owned vehicle it was on.
It worked!sent back a response that was just one line long:
That’s it. Problem solved without incident.
“This was a particularly obvious violation of the First Amendment for us to draw public attention to,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Once that happened, the Harper Police Department quickly realized the folly of its ways.”
Given that this is Kansas, maybe someone needs to double check their other cop cars… but I’ll count that as a victory. The Bible verse shouldn’t have been there to begin with, but when the Chief realized people were watching them, he did the right thing. Maybe next time, he’ll just follow the law from the beginning.Facts About Oats
Oats–A popular grain grown in the U.S. and cool moist regions of Scotland, Russia, and Canada. The nutritional value of oats remains intact during the processing; the germ and bran are not removed. In addition to its lowering cholesterol properties, oats are a good source of protein, fiber and many essential nutrients including the B-vitamins, vitamin E, calcium and silicon. Oats, in various forms-oat groats, steel-cut oats, rolled oats, quick oats, and oat flour, are used in heart-healthy breakfast cereals, in baking bread, and baby foods.
This quick and easy vegan waffle recipe uses a lot of rolled oats. Here’s some facts about oats from the renown, Ten Talents cookbook:
Our Quick and Easy Vegan Waffle Recipe
Blend:
2 1/2 c. water
3 c. rolled oats
1 ripe banana
1 tsp. salt
Place waffles in a sprayed waffle iron for 7 minutes or until it’s done.
Franklin, one of our staff members, created this recipe, and he said, “I use two waffle irons when I do this, and I can make five square waffles at a time with this recipe. I usually serve this with a fruit topping that I make as well.
When I’ve been using this recipe with rolled oats, I find that it’ll be pretty liquidy for about 1-3 minutes, but then it’ll get thicker as the oats absorb the water.
One time I served these waffles to thirty people, and I received various compliments. I’ve shown a few people how to make it, and they love the quick and easy vegan waffle recipe’s simplicity.”
Updated (September 10, 2017):
Watch Franklin demonstrate his quick and easy vegan waffle recipe
Watch Franklin demonstrate his quick and easy vegan waffle recipe at a August 31, 2017 nutrition class 21 minutes and 30 seconds into this video, and learn how you can make 12 waffles in 30 minutes or less:
Franklin made a YouTube video of his recipe in 2013, and so far it’s gotten over 26,000 views:What The Community Hiatus Says About The Current World Of Television By Eric Eisenberg Random Article Blend
The sad thing is that he’s right. The worse thing is that this approach to television watching has resulted in Community being put on midseason hiatus.
Earlier today NBC sent out
As much as it pains me to say it, the truth is that Community’s ratings really aren’t that impressive. Last week the show had only 3.49 million viewers, the lowest rated show of the night that wasn’t on ABC or the CW. But the show’s numbers aren’t nearly as interesting as the types of shows that received more eyeballs. Though not all of the programs were competing in the same timeslot, The Big Bang Theory, Rules of Engagement and Whitney all had more viewers and share a couple things in common: all three are made using multi-camera setups, laugh tracks and stick to the boiler plate formats and situations that sitcoms have been dealing in for years. So how does a smart comedy like Community, which features none of those things, get constantly overlooked so often?
What’s strange about this whole situation is that it’s not like the show is educational television. You don’t need to do homework before each episode in order understand it and you can’t watch it in place of studying for your math test at school. “Smart comedy” doesn’t mean that it will make you smarter, but rather that it actually took some intelligence to create. What makes the NBC comedy so great is that week after week it features lines, jokes and situations that not only make the audience howl with laughter, but make your jaw drop in awe at the creativity and wit of the writers (not to mention every episode is densely layered, which makes each one infinitely rewatchable). The only explanation for the lack of viewership is that people aren’t watching television to be entertained anymore; they’re simply watching it as a diversion.
While canned laughter actually illustrates the argument quite elegantly – it’s literally a device used to tell the audience when they are supposed to laugh, as though they can’t figure it out for themselves – reality shows also drive the point home clearly. Why do we need The X-Factor (another show that defeated Community last Thursday) when there’s also American Idol, The Sing Off and The Voice? What about So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With The Stars? There’s nothing creative or special about any of these shows; they’re just the same series played on different nights and on different networks. And yet all of them get big numbers and, more than likely, plenty of crossover. Television has essentially turned into FM radio: it’s on in the background, ridiculously repetitive, and really only serves to distract the audience.
Dan Harmon’s show boasts one of the best ensemble casts on television and one of the best writing staffs, yet people intellectually starve themselves with lowest common denominator multicam sitcoms and laugh tracks that the industry has been shoving down peoples’ throats for decades. Community is, without question, my favorite show on television. I have watched it every week since the pilot, own the first two seasons on DVD, been invited to the set twice, talked with the stars on numerous occasions, and even reviewed a couple of episodes. I’ve spent so much time thinking about and watching this show that with today’s news I should be devastated or even angry, but really the only emotion I feel is disappointment. In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Community creator Dan Harmon attempted to explain why his NBC show continues to get low ratings despite outstanding marks from critics. "Well, the average person comes home from work really tired, and just wants to flip through channels until they land on the thing that's the least objectionable to them,” Harmon said. “So they don't regard the television as an appliance that's supposed to spiritually satisfy them, they regard it as a thing that's supposed to comfort them and be a little stupid. It's not because they're stupid, it's because that's what TV has given them all their lives and it's hard to go out and do the work of finding a show.”The sad thing is that he’s right. The worse thing is that this approach to television watching has resulted in Community being put on midseason hiatus.Earlier today NBC sent out a press release announcing their midseason lineup and Harmon’s brilliant comedy was nowhere to be seen. Following the news, our own Kelly West did her best to try and calm the masses by explaining why the break “ isn’t the worst thing ever.” As upset as I am, I do understand that she’s right: the truth is that the show being cancelled would be much, much worse. What I do find interesting, however, is what the move shows us about television watching habits.As much as it pains me to say it, the truth is that Community’s ratings really aren’t that impressive. Last week the show had only 3.49 million viewers, the lowest rated show of the night that wasn’t on ABC or the CW. But the show’s numbers aren’t nearly as interesting as the types of shows that received more eyeballs. Though not all of the programs were competing in the same timeslot, The Big Bang Theory, Rules of Engagement and Whitney all had more viewers and share a couple things in common: all three are made using multi-camera setups, laugh tracks and stick to the boiler plate formats and situations that sitcoms have been dealing in for years. So how does a smart comedy like Community, which features none of those things, get constantly overlooked so often?What’s strange about this whole situation is that it’s not like the show is educational television. You don’t need to do homework before each episode in order understand it and you can’t watch it in place of studying for your math test at school. “Smart comedy” doesn’t mean that it will make you smarter, but rather that it actually took some intelligence to create. What makes the NBC comedy so great is that week after week it features lines, jokes and situations that not only make the audience howl with laughter, but make your jaw drop in awe at the creativity and wit of the writers (not to mention every episode is densely layered, which makes each one infinitely rewatchable). The only explanation for the lack of viewership is that people aren’t watching television to be entertained anymore; they’re simply watching it as a diversion.While canned laughter actually illustrates the argument quite elegantly – it’s literally a device used to tell the audience when they are supposed to laugh, as though they can’t figure it out for themselves – reality shows also drive the point home clearly. Why do we need The X-Factor (another show that defeated Community |
, Pennsylvania, Republican nominee for president Donald J. Trump lambasted his opponent Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton for a secret tape recording of her bashing supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont—and even called for Clinton to be placed in prison and questioned as to whether she has been loyal to her husband former President Bill Clinton.
Trump said in the speech on Saturday night:
A new audio tape that has surfaced just yesterday from another one of Hillary’s high roller fundraisers shows her demeaning and mocking Bernie Sanders and all of his supporters. You know, and I’ll tell you something we have a much bigger movement that Bernie Sanders ever had. We have much bigger crowds than Sanders ever had. And we have a more important movement than Bernie Sanders ever had because we’re going to save our country, okay? We’re going to save our country. But I can tell you Bernie Sanders would have left a great, great legacy had he not made the deal with the devil. He would have really left a great legacy. Now he shows up and 120 people come in to hear him talk. Bernie Sanders would have left a great legacy had he not made the deal, had he held his head high and walked away. Now he’s on the other side perhaps from us and we want to get along with everybody and we will—we’re going to unite the country—but what Bernie Sanders did to his supporters was very, very unfair. And they’re really not his supporters any longer and they’re not going to support Hillary Clinton. I really believe a lot of those people are coming over and largely because of trade, college education, lots of other things—but largely because of trade, they’re coming over to our side—you watch, you watch. Especially after Hillary mocks him and mocks all of those people by attacking him and his supporters as ‘living in their parents’ basements,’ and trapped in dead-end careers. That’s not what they are.
Also in his speech on Saturday night, Trump summed up exactly what came out in the latest Hillary Clinton tapes in which she mocks Sanders supporters:
She describes many of them as ignorant, and [that] they want the United States to be more like Scandinavia but that ‘half the people don’t know what that means’ in a really sarcastic tone because she’s a sarcastic woman. To sum up, and I’ll tell you the other thing—she’s an incompetent woman. She’s an incompetent woman. I’ve seen it. Just take a look at what she touches. It never works out, and you watch: her run for the presidency will never ever work out because we can’t let it work out. To sum up, Hillary Clinton thinks Bernie supporters are hopeless and ignorant basement dwellers. Then, of course, she thinks people who vote for and follow us are deplorable and irredeemable. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. We have the smartest people, we have the sharpest people, we have the most amazing people, and you know in all of the years of this country they say, even the pundits—most of them aren’t worth the ground they’re standing on, some of that ground could be fairly wealthy but ground, but most of these people say they have never seen a phenomenon like is going on. We have crowds like this wherever we go.
WATCH THE FULL SPEECH:
Later in the speech, Trump came back to the tape again and hammered her once more for it.
“Hillary Clinton all but said that most of the country is racist, including the men and women of law enforcement,” Trump said. “She said that the other night. Did anybody like Lester Holt? Did anybody question her when she said that? No, she said it the other night. [If] you’re not a die hard Clinton fan—you’re not a supporter—from Day One, Hillary Clinton thinks you are a defective person. That’s what she’s going around saying.”
In the speech, Trump questioned whether Clinton has the moral authority to lead when she considers the majority of Americans—Trump supporters and Sanders supporters—to be “defective” people. And he went so far as saying that Clinton “should be in prison.” He went on:
How on earth can Hillary Clinton try to lead this country when she has nothing but contempt for the people who live in this country? She’s got contempt. First of all, she’s got so many scandals and she’s been caught cheating so much. One of the worst things I’ve ever witnessed as a citizen of the United States was last week when the FBI director was trying so hard to explain how she away with what she got away with, because she should be in prison. Let me tell you. She should be in prison. She’s being totally protected by the New York Times and the Washington Post and all of the media and CNN—Clinton News Network—which nobody is watching anyway so what difference does it make? Don’t even watch it. But she’s being protected by many of these groups. It’s not like do you think she’s guilty? They’ve actually admitted she’s guilty. And then she lies and lies, 33,000 emails deleted, bleached, acid-washed! And then they take their phones and they hammer the hell out of them. How many people have acid washed or bleached a Tweet? How many?
He returned to the secret Clinton tape a little while later:
Hillary Clinton slanders and attacks anyone who wants to put America First, whether they are Trump Voters or Bernie Voters. What she said about Bernie voters amazing. Like the European Union, she wants to erase our borders and she wants to do it for her donors and she wants people to pour into country without knowing who they are.
Trump later bashed the media as “dishonest as hell” when calling on the reporters at his event to “turn your cameras” to show the crowd that came to see him.
“If they showed the kind of crowds we have—which people can hear, you know it’s interesting: you can hear the crowd when you hear the television but if they showed the crowd it would be better television, but they don’t know much about that. But it would actually be better television,” Trump said.
Trump also questioned whether Hillary Clinton has been loyal to her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton has been known to cheat on Hillary Clinton with a variety of mistresses and has been accused of rape and sexual assault by some women.
“Hillary Clinton’s only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself,” Trump said. “I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth. And really, folks, really: Why should she be, right? Why should she be?”
Throughout the speech, Trump weaved together references to his new campaign theme about Clinton—“Follow The Money”—with details about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. He said:
We’re going to take on the corrupt media, the powerful lobbyists and the special interests that have stolen your jobs, your factories, and your future—that’s exactly what’s happened. We’re going to stop Hillary Clinton from continuing to raid the industry from your state for her profit. Hillary Clinton has collected millions of dollars from the same global corporations shipping your jobs and your dreams to other countries. You know it and everybody else knows it. That’s why Clinton, if she ever got the chance, would 100 percent approve Trans Pacific Partnership—a total disastrous trade deal. She called the deal the ‘gold standard.’ The TPP will bring economic devastation to Pennsylvania and our campaign is the only chance to stop that and other bad things that are happening to our country. She lied about the Gold Standard the other night at the debate. She said she didn’t say it—she said it. We want to stop the Trans Pacific Partnership and if we don’t—remember this, if we don’t stop it, billions and billions [of dollars] in jobs and wealth will be vacuumed right out of Pennsylvania and sent to these other countries. Just like NAFTA was a disaster, this will be a disaster. Frankly I don’t think it’ll be as bad as NAFTA. It can’t get any worse than that—signed by Bill Clinton. All of us here in this massive room here tonight can prevent this from happening. Together we can stop TPP and we can end the theft of American jobs and prosperity.
Trump praised Sanders for being strongly opposed to the TPP:
I knew one man—I’m not a big fan—but one man who knew the dangers of the TPP was Bernie Sanders. Crazy Bernie. He was right about one thing, only one thing, and that was trade. He was right about it because he knew we were getting ripped off, but he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. We’re going to do a lot about it. We’re going to have those highways running the opposite direction. We’re going to have a lot of trade, but it’s going to come into our country. We are going to start benefitting our country because right now it’s one way road to trouble. Our jobs leave us, our money leaves us. With Mexico, we get the drugs—they get the cash—it’s that simple.
Hillary Clinton, Trump noted, is “controlled by global special interests.”
“She’s on the opposite side of Bernie on the trade issue,” Trump said. “She’s totally on the opposite side of Bernie.”
He circled back to trade a bit later in the more-than-hour-long speech, hammering TPP and Clinton cash connections. Trump continued:
Three TPP member countries gave between $6 and $15 million to Clinton. At least four lobbyists who are actively lobbying for TPP passage have raised more than $800,000 for her campaign. I’m just telling you Pennsylvania, we’re going to make it. We’re going to make it. We’re going to make it if we have Pennsylvania for sure. It’ll be easy. But you cannot let this pass. NAFTA passed. It’s been the worst trade deal probably ever passed, not in this country but anywhere in the world. It cleaned out New England. It cleaned out big portions of Pennsylvania. It cleaned out big portions of Ohio and North Carolina and South Carolina—you can’t let it happen.
Trump even called the politicians like Clinton “bloodsuckers” who have let America be drained out of millions upon millions of jobs.
“These bloodsuckers want it to happen,” Trump said. “They’re politicians that are getting taken care of by people that want it to happen. Other countries want it to happen because it’s good for them, but it’s not good for us. So hopefully you’re not going to let it happen. Whatever Hillary’s donors want, they get. They own her. On Nov. 8, we’re going to end Clinton corruption. Hillary Clinton, dishonest person, is an insider fighting for herself and for her friends. I’m an outsider fighting for you. And by the way, just in case you’re not aware, I used to be an insider but I thought this was the right thing to do. This is the right thing to do, believe me.”Screen shot of a Chinese state television report on the visit of Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to Beijing.
China and Turkmenistan have agreed to establish a "strategic partnership" during a visit by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to Beijing. With Turkmenistan, China now has strategic partnerships with all five Central Asian states; it established them last year with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
While talk of strategic partnerships may be cheap, there's no doubt that China takes its relationship with Turkmenistan seriously. Berdymukhammedov got a pretty impressive welcome in Beijing, and the People's Liberation Army even took the occasion to debut its first ever female honor guards who, as the South China Morning Post put it, "apparently left an impression" on Berdymukhammedov:
Clad in skirts, riding boots and hair pulled back into the classic chignon, 13 women soldiers from China’s military debuted as honour guards on Monday to welcome the visiting Turkmenistan president. They are the first female People’s Liberation Army honour guards since the squad was established in 1952. Their attire of knee-high skirts and five-centimetre heels singled them out from the rows and rows of sober, hunter-green uniforms of their male comrades. Their presence apparently left an impression on President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who is in China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. “It’s very nice, very good,” Berdimuhamedov said of the female soldiers.
China-Turkmenistan ties are, of course, focused on energy. Just last week Berdymukhammedov inaugurated two new Chinese-built gas processing facilities, and gas exports are scheduled to increase from about 25 billion cubic meters this year to 65 billion in 2020.
During his visit, Berdymukhammedov also visited the offices of the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation to talk space cooperation. And the two sides signed deals to increase cooperation on infrastructure, telecommunications, agriculture, health care, and technology.
So far, the security relationship has lagged significantly behind the economic one; officially neutral, Turkmenistan isn't even a member of China's Central Asian security group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. But Chinese President Xi Jinping nevertheless highlighted Turkmenistan's security role: "China highly appreciates Turkmenistan’s efforts in maintaining regional security and stability," Xi said. China recently promised "hundreds of millions of dollars" in military aid to Tajikistan, so it's possible China's views on military ties to Central Asia may be changing.0 Legislature expands gun rights, says 'no' to medical marijuana
ATLANTA - Lawmakers did not pass a bill legalizing medical marijuana in Georgia, but did agree to expand gun rights.
The medical marijuana bill passed the Senate unanimously Thursday and it passed the House again with only two "no" votes.
Earlier in the day the Senate passed the bill unanimously, but attached a bill that requires insurance companies to cover therapies for young kids with autism.
“It's just frustrating that we've had such overwhelming support, 225 to 4 when you combine the votes in the House and the Senate, and to think that we might get nothing after all that support, it's frankly devastating,” said parent Shannon Cloud.
State Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Gwinnett County, pushed the autism amendment.
"They can blame me if they want to. I have stood up for autism. I have worked my fingers to the bone for medical marijuana," Unterman said.
A bill that expands gun rights in the state did pass just before midnight and will now go to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign. It would allow guns in churches if leaders decide to allow them and would let certain school employees carry guns on campus.
After 40 days of fighting for the medical marijuana bill, you couldn't miss the looks of defeat on the faces of parents who have kids with severe seizure disorders.
As the night wore on they were losing hope the bill that would legalize cannabis oil in Georgia would make the midnight deadline.
“The problem is before next year some kids are going to die,” said parent Sebastian Cotte.
Cotte will go back to the ICU Thursday night, where his 3-year-old remains.
The Georgia bill would have granted immunity from prosecution for parents that bring the oil to Georgia from a state where it's legal.
Parents with autistic kids have fought lawmakers on the issue for five years.
“The medical marijuana goes nowhere unless this right over here goes with it and that's the autism,” said Unterman.
“It's got nothing to do with us yet is seems like it's holding our bill completely back from passing when we've had overwhelming support,” said parent Blaine Cloud.
“Is it an option for you to get to Colorado?” Channel 2's Lori Geary asked Cotte.
“No, not with Jagger. He's too weak. We can barely make it to the doctor's appointment. We have more people coming to the house. Hospice, nurses and everybody. It's sad,” said Cotte.
It appears the Georgia parents who are now living in Colorado so their kids can have access to cannabis oil will be stuck there or face prosecution if they come back home.
The Senate did pass a resolution to study medical marijuana during the next year ; that's likely to be the only action we see on the issue.DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #1 Dave Johnson variant Credit: DC Comics
DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #1 Dave Johnson variant Credit: DC Comics
When Dark Knight III: The Master Race hits stands on November 25, it'll come with a variety of variant covers. Now, you can see the first of those variants right here, featuring art by Dave Johnson based on a sketch by Jim Lee.
DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #1
Written by FRANK MILLER and BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by ANDY KUBERT and KLAUS JANSON
Mini comic art by TBA
Cover by ANDY KUBERT and KLAUS JANSON
1:10 variant cover by KLAUS JANSON
1:25 variant cover by ANDY KUBERT and KLAUS JANSON
1:50 variant cover by TBA
1:100 variant cover by FRANK MILLER
1:500 variant cover by JIM LEE
1:5000 original sketch variant by JIM LEE
Blank variant cover
On sale NOVEMBER 25
32 pg comic: 6.375” x 10.1875”
16 page minicomic: 5.5” x 8.5”
FC, 1 of 8, $5.99 US • RATED T+
Retailers: This issue will ship with multiple covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The epic ending you never saw coming is here because you demanded it! The Dark Knight rises again to face the dawn of the master race!A prominent bioethicist is offering a controversial fix for America's obesity epidemic: "fat-shaming."
Daniel Callahan, senior research scholar and president emeritus of the Hastings Center, makes the suggestion in a new article, "Obesity: Chasing an Elusive Epidemic."
Callahan likens what he calls his "edgier strategy" to anti-smoking campaigns of recent decades.
"As a smoker, I was at first criticized for my nasty habit and eventually, along with all the others, sent outside to smoke, and my cigarette taxes were constantly raised," he writes in the article, published on Dec. 18. "The force of being shamed and beat upon socially was as persuasive for me to stop smoking as the threats to my health... Why is obesity said to be different from smoking?"
Callahan continues, "Only a carefully calibrated effort of public social pressure is likely to awaken them to the reality of their condition. They have been lulled into oblivious-ness about their problem because they look no different from many others around them."
Many have spoken out against Callahan's proposed fat-shaming.
“No amount of teasing, probing questions about what they wish they could do, or medications seem to help,” Dr. Tom Inge, a childhood obesity expert at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told NBC News. “So if one is proposing to help them by more stigmatization, that would seem at once both antithetical and unethical.”
“For him to argue that we need more stigma, I don’t know what world he’s living in,” Deb Burgard, a California psychologist specializing in eating disorders, told NBC. “He must not have any contact with actual free-range fat people."
Obesity is certainly a prevalent problem in the U.S., with 35.7 percent of U.S. adults and nearly 17 percent of U.S. children considered obese, according to recent data provided by the Centers for Disease Control. Obesity can lead to long-term health effects, such as diabetes, heart disease and several types of cancer. In 2008, medical costs associated with obesity-related health problems tipped the scale at $147 billion in the U.S.
Although Callahan might consider his idea new and edgy, fat-shaming has been used before -- and has failed.
In February 2012, Disney and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association teamed up to help children “fight bad habits" and launched a fat-shaming initiative, featuring a theme park exhibit, a website and an app. The project included overweight, animated characters named "Snacker," "Lead Bottom" and "The Glutton," according to Salon.
The exhibit prompted an uproar online and was closed after three weeks.
AboutFace, an organization aimed at combating harmful media messages, criticized Georgia's Strong4Life campaign, a fat-shaming effort in February 2012 that had used advertisements featuring photos of "sullen overweight children" and captions like “Fat prevention begins at home. And the buffet line" in an attempt to fight childhood obesity.Animated blockbuster Frozen is just the gift that keeps giving for Disney. Sixteen months after the film was released in late 2013, it has picked up two more Grammys to add to the pile of statuettes it’s accumulated. The latest honors came today during the non-televised part of the Grammy awards.
One of the latest Grammys is for the Oscar-winning song Let It Go, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, as best song written for visual media.
The other is for the film’s massively popular soundtrack, which the couple and producers Tom MacDougall and Chris Montan won for best compilation soundtrack for visual media.
The song and soundtrack were perched atop best-seller lists for months in the first half of 2014. The film won last year’s Oscar for best animated feature, and not incidentally set a record for highest-grossing animated film of all time. Disney Animation is rolling out a new short based on the film’s characters ahead of the live-action Cinderella feature coming later this month.Numbers released by the Drug Enforcement Agency show that $18 million in taxpayer funded money was spent on eradicating and destroying cannabis plants in 2015.
The funds were given to 128 local and state enforcement agencies who used the money to find, confiscate and destroy cannabis plants as part of the DEA’s Cannabis Eradication Program.
The program helps to pay for expenses such as helicopters which can be used to find cannabis growing operations from above, with the help of thermal and high precision camera technology.
Only Colorado and Alaska didn’t accept any funds through the program. They both continued to look for illegal grows, particularly those that are suspected to be growing above the personal limit for export outside the state.
In 2015 the DEA and their affiliates destroyed over 4 million cannabis plants, at an average spending of $4.42 a plant.
Lawmakers pushed to cut funding to the Cannabis Eradication Program last year and instead wanted to the funnel the money towards things like domestic violence prevention. Unfortunately, the proposals were unsuccessful and the eradication program received its traditional budget.
Critics of the program continue to speak out against what they say are muddled up priorities, and that the money could be spent on other efforts, particularly drugs that cause more harm to society and the user.
“It makes zero sense for the federal government to continue to spend taxpayer dollars on cannabis eradication at a time when states across the country are looking to legalize marijuana,” said California Representative Ted Lieu.
Lieu led the effort last fall to de-fund the DEA’s program.
“I will continue to fight against DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication Program in Congress and work to redirect these funds to worthwhile programs,” he added.Presentation Summary “High Performance at Massive Scale: Lessons Learned at Facebook”
Recently, we were fortunate to host Jeff Rothschild, the Vice President of Technology at Facebook, for a visit for the CNS lecture series. Jeff’s talk, “High Performance at Massive Scale: Lessons Learned at Facebook” was highly detailed, providing real insights into the Facebook architecture. Jeff spoke to a packed house of faculty, staff, and students interested in the technology and research challenges associated with running and Internet service at scale. The talk is archived here as part of the CNS lecture series. I encourage you to check it out; below are my notes on the presentation.
Site Statistics:
Facebook is the #2 property on the Internet as measured by the time users spend on the site.
Over 200 billion monthly page views.
>3.9 trillion feed actions proceessed per day.
Over 15,000 websites use Facebook content
In 2004, the shape of the curve plotting user population as a function of time showed exponential growth to 2M users. 5 years later they have stayed on the same exponetial curve with >300M users.
Facebook is a global site, with 70% of users outside of the US.
Today, there are 1.3B people in the world who have quality Internet connectivity, so there is at least another factor of 4 growth that Facebook is going after. Jeff presented statistics for the number of users that each engineer supports at a variety of high-profile Internet companies: 1.1M for Facebook, 190,000 Google, 94,000 Amazon, 75,000 Microsoft.
Photo sharing on Facebook:
Facebook stores 20 billion photos in 4 resolutions
2-3 billion new photos uploaded every month
Originally provisioned photo storage for 6 months, but blew through available storage in 1.5 weeks.
Facebook serves 600k photos/second –> serving them is more difficult than storing them.
Scaling photos, first the easy way:
Upload tier: handles uploads, scales the images, sotres on NFS tier
Serving tier: Images are served from NFS via HTTP
NFS Storage tier built from commercial products
Filesystems aren’t really good at supporting large numbers of files
Scaling photos, 2nd generation:
Cachr: cache the high volume smaller images to offload the main storage systems.
Only 300M images in 3 resolutions
Distribute these through a CDN to reduce network latency.
Cache them in memory.
Scaling photos, 3rd Generation System: Haystack
How many IO’s do you need to serve an image? Originally, 10 I/O’s at Facebook because of the complex directory structure.
Optimizations got it down to 2-4 IOs per file served
Facebook built a better version called Haystack by merging multiple files into a single large file. In the common case, serving a photo now requires 1 I/O operation. Haystack is available as open source.
Facebook architecture consists of:
Load balancers as front end requests are distributed to Web Servers retrieve actual content from a large memcached layer because of the latency requirements for individual requests.
Presentation Layer employs PHP
Simple to learn: small set of expressions and statements
Simple to write: loose typing and universal “array”
Simple to read
But this comes at a cost:
High CPU and memory consumption.
C++ Interoperability Challenging.
PHP does not encourage good programming in the large (at 3M lines of code it is a significant organizational challenge).
Initialization cost of each page scales with size of code base
Thus Facebook engineers undertook implementing optimizations to PHP:
Lazy loading
Cache priming
More efficient locking semantics for variable cache
Memcache client extension
Asynchrnous event-handling
Back-end services that require the performance are implemente in C++. Services Philosophy:
Create a service iff required.
Real overhead for deployment, maintenance, separate code base.
Another failure point.
Create a common framework and toolset that will allow for easier creation of services: Thrift (open source).
A number of things break at scale, one example: syslog
Became impossible to push large amounts of data through the logging infrastructure.
Implemented Scribe for logging.
Today, Scribe processes 25TB of messages/day.
Site Architecture
Overall, Facebook currently runs approximately 30k servers, with the bulk of them acting as web servers.
The Facebook Web Server, running PHP, is responsible for retrieving all of the data required to compose the web page. The data itself is stored authoritatively in a large cluster of MySQL servers. However, to hit performance targets, most of the data is also stored in memory across an array of memcached servers. For traditional websites, each user interacts with his or her own data. And for most web sites, only 1-2% of registered users concurrently access the site at any given time. Thus, the site only needs to cache 1-2% of all data in RAM. However, data at Facebook is deeply interconnected; each user is interested in the state of hundreds of other users. Hence, even with only 1-2% of the user population at any given time, virtually all data must still be available in RAM.
Memcache
Data partitioning was easy when Facebook was a college web site, simply partition data at the level of individual colleges. After considering a variety of data clustering algorithms, found that there was very little win for the additional complexity of clustering. So at Facebook, user data is randomly partitioned across indiviual databases and machines across the cluster. Hence, each user access requires retrieving data corresponding to user state spread across hundreds of machines. Intra-cluster network performance is hence critical to site performance. Facebook employs memcache to store the vast majority of user data in memory spread across thousands of machines in the cluster. In essence, nodes maintain a distributed hash table to determine the machine responsible for a particular users data. Hot data from MySQL is stored in the cache. The cache supports get/set/incr/decr and
multiget/multiset operations.
Initially, the architecture needed to support 15-20k requests/sec/machine but that number has scaled to approximately 250k requests/sec/machine today. Servers have gotten faster to keep up to some but Facebook engineers also had to perform some fundamental re-engineering of memcached to improve its performance. System performance improved from 50k requests/sec/machine to 150k to 200k to 250k by adding multithreading, polling device drivers, stats locking, and batched packet handling respectively. In aggregate, Memcache at Facebook processes in 120M requests/sec.
Incast
One networking challenge with memcached was so-called Network Incast. A front-end web server would collect responses from hundreds of memcache machines in parallel to compose an individual HTTP response. All responses would come back within the same approximately 40 microsecond window. Hence, while overall network utilization was low at Facebook, even at short time scales, there were significant, correlated packet losses at very fine timescales. These microbursts overflowed the limited packet buffering in commodity switches (see my earlier post for more discussion on this issue).
To deal with the significant slow down that resulted by synchronized loss in relatively small TCP windows, Facebook built a custom congestion-aware UDP-based transport that managed congestion across multiple requests rather than within a single connection. This optimization allowed Facebook to avoid the, for example, 200 ms timeouts associated with the loss of an entire window’s worth of data in TCP.
Authoritative Storage
Authoritative Facebook data is stored in a pool of MySQL servers. The overall experience with MySQL has been very positive at Facebook, with thousands of MySQL servers in multiple datacenters. It is simple, fast, and reliable. Facebook currently has 8,000 server-yearas of runtime experience without data loss or corruption.
Facebook has learned a number of lessons about data management:
Shared architecture should be avoided; there are no joins in the code.
Storing dynamically changing data in a central database should be avoided.
Similarly, heavily-referenced static data should not be stored in a central database.
There are a number of challenges with MySQL as well, including:
Logical migration of data is very difficult.
Creating a large number of logical dbs, load balance them over varying number of physical nodes.
Easier to scale CPU on web tier than on the DB tier.
Data driven schemas make for happy programmers and difficult operations. Lots of examples of Facebook’s contribution back to open source here.
Given its global user population, Facebook eventually had to move to replicating its content across multiple data centers. Facebook now runs two large data centers, one on the West coast of the US and one on the East coast. However, this introduces the age-old problem of data consistency. Facebook adopts a primary/slave replication scheme where the West coast MySQL replicas are the authoritative stores for data. All updates are applied to these master replicas and asynchronously replicated to the slaves on the East coast. However, without synchronous updates, consecutive requests to the same data item from the same user can return inconsistent or stale results.
The approach taken at Facebook is to set a cookie on user update requests that will redirect all subsequent requests from that user to the West coast master for some configurable time period to ensure that read operations do not return inconsistent results. More details on this approach is detailed on the Facebook blog
Areas for future research at Facebook:
Load balancing
Middle tier: balance between programmer productivity and machine efficiency
Graph-based caching and storage systems
Search relevance via the social graph
Object discovery and ranking
Storage systems
Personalization
Jeff also relayed an interesting philosophy from Mark Zuckerberg: “Work fast and don’t be afraid to break things.” Overall, the idea to avoid working cautiously the entire year, delivering rock-solid code, but not much of it. A corollary: if you take the entire site down, it’s not the end of your career.
AdvertisementsVIDEO=> Hillary Claims “The Republican Party is Imploding”…Meanwhile the DNC is Broke and Just Got Hit With FEC Complaint
Failed Democrat political hack Hillary Clinton said in an interview Wednesday that the “Republican party is imploding” and that it frightens her.
Meanwhile the DNC is on fire.
Hillary Clinton used Never Trumper RINO hacks Bob Corker and Jeff Flake as examples to claim there is turmoil in the Republican party.
She also accused the Republicans of being a far-right party captive to ideological, religious and commercial interests being at the mercy of financial backers.
Hillary Clinton could barely keep her eyes open as she gave a low energy interview and claimed “the Republican party is imploding”.
The Democrats have lost over 1,000 seats over the last several years thanks to Barack Obama’s failed leadership.
The DNC is broke and got hit with an FEC complaint on Wednesday. But the Republicans are imploding….
As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, under the leadership of former Obama official Tom Perez, a new FEC report reveals the DNC finished the month of June $3.3 million in debt.
They’re broke. Just like their policies.
An FEC complaint was filed Wednesday against the Clinton campaign and the DNC for violating campaign finance law because they failed to disclose payments for the Russian Dossier.
Meanwhile the Republicans are enjoying record breaking fund raising and they have held onto all Congressional seats that were up for special elections.
The RNC raised over $100 million during the first nine months of 2017, fueled by small-dollar donors at the center of a grassroots movement, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The Democrats are also now embroiled in a huge scandal as new reports surface about the Obama administration’s involvement in the Uranium One corruption scheme.
House Intel Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) announced an “inquiry” into the Russian-Uranium One scandal Tuesday from Capitol Hill.
There will be two different committees looking into this,” said Nunes.
Also, House Oversight chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and House Judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) jointly announced Tuesday they will launch a probe into the Justice Department’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
And to add to the pile on, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee called on the DOJ to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the Obama-Hillary Uranium One scandal Tuesday evening.
Furthermore, the Democrats don’t even have a message other than “sexist” “racist” “bigot” “xenophobe” and “Islamophobe”.
But in Hillary’s demented mind, it’s the Republican party that is imploding, not the Democrats.For Sale For Rent For Lease Sold For Sale
No min $10,000 $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 $80,000 $90,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $225,000 $250,000 $275,000 $300,000 $325,000 $350,000 $375,000 $400,000 $425,000 $450,000 $475,000 $500,000 $550,000 $600,000 $650,000 $700,000 $750,000 $800,000 $850,000 $900,000 $950,000 $1,000,000 $1,250,000 $1,500,000 $1,750,000 $2,000,000 $2,250,000 $2,500,000 $2,750,000 $3,000,000 $3,250,000 $3,500,000 $3,750,000 $4,000,000 $4,250,000 $4,500,000 $4,750,000 $5,000,000 $6,000,000 $7,000,000 $8,000,000 $9,000,000 $10,000,000 $30,000
To
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Any 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ 6+ 7+ Beds: Any
Any 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ 6+ 7+ Baths: AnyThere’s some potentially soul-crushing news for Disney theme park fans in the latest installment of the excellent insider column MiceAge. None of this is officially confirmed by Disney (then again, when is it?) but the latest column claims plans to turn Disneyland’s Tomorrowland in Anaheim into a more Star Wars centric world have been on hold. Similar plans in Orlando, FL have all but been cancelled.
Then there’s the rumored Monsters Inc. roller coaster |
skinsuits gave Team GB the edge at the Winter Olympics How skeleton skinsuits gave Team GB the edge at the Winter Olympics
How bad has it been? Back home, the Norwegian papers were questioning the team's spirit and commitment.
And then things got worse.
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Norway was simply blown off the court at the start of the game.
Handball is a game of breathtaking athleticism and surprising brutality. As players try to approach the goal to score, they're bumped, pushed, shoved, grabbed and generally beaten to hell. Most of this is even legal under the rules of the game.
It's also a game of momentum and fast breaks, where it seems a team can run off goal after goal. And that's what Brazil did, building a 15-9 lead just four minutes into the second 30-minute half. It's looking like a rout. The Norwegian fans look like they've just been served some bad lutefisk.
Read next All the best equipment you need to fly high in paramotoring All the best equipment you need to fly high in paramotoring
Then things totally shift. Norway tears off a run of four unanswered goals. Then another run of four goals. When Norway completes the comeback to take a 19-18 lead, the crowds erupts in a roar punctuated by the ringing of cowbells. It has the feel of a rock concert and a downhill ski race all in one.
It's easy to scoff at these "fringe" sports. But remember, to most Norwegians, rugby is about as relevant as say, well, handball is to people in the United States. That's too bad, because handball is awesome. I'm not the first to point this out, but if I could humbly ask you to check out handball in some way before it disappears for another four years, I think you'll be impressed.
It's super-fast and fun. They put resin on the ball to make it easier to throw and catch; you can hear the ball sticking to the floor ever so slightly when it bounces. Plus, there's the "jump-in-the-air-double-clutch-and-shoot" move that never, ever stops being completely cool. Seriously, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTo-WGdnglg" data-bitly-type="bitly_hover_card">check out</a> these goals.
Norway holds on to win the game, 21-19. Afterward, there are tears of disbelief on both sides, Norway's from happiness and relief, Brazil's from shock and disappointment.
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And in the time-honoured tradition of all sports, great and small, the Norwegian players responded to their critics in the press, in a most unique way. At the end of the team's press conference, the entire team lifted their shirts. There on their stomachs were written the words, "NORGES LAGAND."
That means "Norwegian Team Morale" if you're not fluent in the language. "This is a message of our players' solidarity," said Norway left winger Camilla Herrem, who scored the clenching goal. "This was to show the press who were highly critical that our morale is as high and indestructible as ever; we play together, we stay together."
Source: Wired.com Image: afcone/ Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0Jordan Henderson has heaped praise on unstoppable Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge after the England international increased his tally for 2013-14 to eight with a goal against Crystal Palace.
Despite missing much of pre-season with an ankle injury, the No.15 has made a flying start to the campaign, firing half-a-dozen goals in the Barclays Premier League and two more in the Capital One Cup.
Such scintillating form is no surprise to Henderson, who shared a dressing room with Sturridge for England U21s before the forward joined Liverpool, and the midfielder expects far more to come.
"Daniel's always been a confident lad," Henderson told the Liverpool Echo. "Even in the U21s he was always wanting the ball all the time, doing his skills and getting his shots away.
"But now he's been given the opportunity to play as a striker every week in the Premier League and I think he has benefited from that.
"He's come here and the manager has put great confidence and belief in him. And he's shown what he can do and can give back.
"His form is outstanding and he's improving all the time with his awareness, his touch and his finishing. He's got the lot really.
"I think he can be brilliant for England. There's obviously two big games coming up and he can contribute a lot in those two games. He's been sharp and getting goals. I think he'll play a big part."
Sturridge has formed a lethal partnership with Luis Suarez since the Uruguayan returned from suspension last month, scoring five of the Reds' six goals between them in their last two fixtures.
[OTPA_WIDGET_CONTENT]
From his position behind the creative duo, Henderson could see at close hand exactly how the combination flourishes - and he outlined why it will be so important for Liverpool's season.
He continued: "There's a lot of fluidity in the team at the moment with the formation. They can sort of wander about up front and go down the channels.
"The two of them were fantastic. Their link-up play and one-twos were brilliant and they do that all the time in training. Hopefully they can keep working on that, keep improving and keep getting the goals.
"They played a few games together before Luis got the ban and since Luis has come back in they've fitted together perfectly.
"They know where each other's going to be and they've been outstanding. They can be a massive factor for us this season. As a team we just need to make sure that we shut the door at the back and we're nice and compact.
"Dominating the ball and keeping good possession of the ball is something we need to get better at. But going forward I think we are as good as anyone really."
Although the victory over Palace lifted his team into joint-first with Arsenal in the Premier League standings, manager Brendan Rogers insisted afterwards that there is much room for improvement.
The No.14 echoed those sentiments: "Obviously it's frustrating when you see in training how good we are as a group. We've got a lot of good players and he wants us to perform at our best every single game.
"At half-time he wanted us to go out and win by four or five goals and play like we did in the first half. Obviously that didn't happen and so he is going to be frustrated.
"We were all disappointed with the way we came out in the second half because we wanted to be even better and get more goals.
"It didn't quite happen but the most important thing was the three points. We wanted to go into the international break with a win and we did that, but there is a lot of improvement for us as a team."Well, technically, that’s not true. What I’m trying to say is that atheism is just one small component of what I am, what describes my worldview, my personal philosophy, my attitude towards life and how I now choose to live it. A better word, one more encompassing, though a bit verbose, would be ASUPERNATURALIST. I don’t believe in the idea, the concept of the supernatural.
Why?
Most atheists would say “because there is no evidence for a supernatural realm”, and while that’s true, it misses the point a bit. The definition of the supernatural actually includes in it the characteristic of no evidence in, no connection with, the natural world, so if you point out to a theist that there’s no evidence for the supernatural, they just say “well, of course, that’s why it’s the supernatural, d’uh”, which of course then sucks you into a circular argument.
My problem with the supernatural world is that the definition of nature already takes the supernatural into consideration. Nature describes everything that exists. All reality. From the Big Bang onward in time,and everything left over. All the multi-billions of galaxies, and stars and nebulae and planets and dark matter and light matter and what we call space. Absolutely everything that exists. If gods and angels and demons exist, they exist in nature. And especially if they have the ability to interact and affect our lives, as, for instance, Christians believe.
If nature is defined to encompass everything that exists, then supernatural, i.e that which is beyond nature, defines that which does not exist. It’s a superfluous definition, a superfluous realm of (non)existence. And if it doesn’t exist, well…what are we talking about? Answer: nothing.
Hence, I’m an asupernaturalist in my worldview. I don’t believe in that which doesn’t exist. That includes Yahweh, Allah, Krishna, Satan, Jesus, O’Lucky the Leprechaun, Santa Claus, Michael the Archangel, Tinkerbell, Casper the Friendly Ghost, witches, faeries, goblins, invisible dragons in my garage, unicorns, talking snakes, and a whole host of supposedly supernatural entities with some great, and some lesser, unnatural powers.
These are all fictional characters created in the minds of (natural) humans; some to explain that which seemed mysterious at the time, some simply to entertain us while reinforcing our normal human tendency to believe in the supernatural. And while there is no evidence for their existence, their purported existence contradicts their definition. If they exist, and we know it and can prove it, then they are natural. If not, they are supernatural, and for all intents and purposes don’t exist (other than as mental constructs) so why act as if they do? If they exist in a realm that cannot and does not interact with the natural realm, by definition, then why believe in it? Why worship a god that cannot and does not have any effect on us whatsoever, any more than we should worry about a friendly ghost that can fly through walls and go “boo” but cannot hurt us or affect us in any way?
And if you believe in the supernatural realm, aren’t you capable of believing in a realm beyond the supernatural? Let’s call it the super-supernatural. And can’t we take that belief into an infinite progression so that there are supernatural entities that are more powerful than the god Christians believe in – supergods, and super-supergods? At what point do we stop all these silly mental constructions?
I hate being defined by my lack of belief in one small aspect of the overall definition of the supernatural. Couple this with the clear pejorative sense that theists have imposed on the word atheist, and it would be nice to find a way to describe an asupernaturalist with something less tongue tying. I am only an atheist because most people are theists. Without theism, atheism would not be necessary. The definition of atheism is simply the opposite of theism.
But I’m also an apoltergeistist, because there are so many people that believe in ghosts. But I don’t identify myself as an apoltergeistist. And people, as a rule, would not make a political decision about voting me into office based on my apoltergeistist viewpoints, as they would about my atheistic viewpoints. The same could be said for asantaclausists, aleprechaunists, agoblinists, avampirists, etc. So, equally, why need I be defined by my atheism? Shouldn’t I be defined more by my grasp of reality, than my belief in delusions?Stanford hopes to take more up-tempo offensive approach
Here’s a question for Pac-12 Conference football fans: Which quarterback said the following on Tuesday? “The no-huddle, up-tempo fits us.”
Maybe another conference quarterback has uttered similar words recently because many teams run that type of offense. In this case, it was Stanford’s Kevin Hogan.
It was like a Kardashian saying, “Anonymity fits us.”
Yes, the Cardinal have been opening up the offense in recent weeks. Partly it’s because the coaches want to take better advantage of their playmakers. Partly it’s because they finally realized that the current backs, offensive linemen and tight ends are simply not ready at this point to produce the crunching ground game that has been Stanford’s strength in recent years.
Smash-mouth football might not be dead on the Farm, but the Cardinal would prefer to bruise other body parts or even — you know — run around somebody rather than try to run over him.
As head coach David Shaw puts it, “Nine games in, you can say we don’t feel like the Stanford we have been.” The idea, he said, is “zeroing in on what we need to do for our guys and not just trying to plug them into what we did in the past.”
Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan will employ a more up-tempo approach of offense after relying on ground game. Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan will employ a more up-tempo approach of offense after relying on ground game. Photo: Rick Scuteri / Associated Press Photo: Rick Scuteri / Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Stanford hopes to take more up-tempo offensive approach 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
According to Hogan, before the coaches tweaked things to run more up-tempo plays, more passes and not as many power runs, the offense sometimes put “a lot of stress on us — having so many different options, so many reads and checks. This allows us all to play fast.”
It also allows Hogan to “play fast” without having so many complications to ponder. For one thing, he said, he’s using more “full-field progressions” in picking his pass targets rather than picking one side ahead of the snap depending on what the defense is showing.
“Sometimes that can be difficult when they show something and then rotate a different way,” he said.
The Cardinal opened up the offense against Oregon State, winning 38-14 before having their doors blown off by Oregon. The offense did have 428 yards against the Ducks but didn’t score more than one touchdown.
Last week was a bye, allowing the Cardinal (5-4, 3-3 Pac-12) to refresh themselves before playing No. 25 Utah (6-3, 3-3) at 3 p.m. Saturday in the season’s final home game.
The Utes are still in the hunt for the South Division title. Stanford is playing for pride and bowl eligibility. In a season that started with fans thinking about a berth in the new College Football Playoff, the Cardinal have to win one of their last three games simply to go to any bowl.
They follow the Utah game with the Big Game at Cal next week and a visit to UCLA on Nov. 28.
The bye helped get some injured players back to health, although fullback Patrick Skov will be out this week and possibly the next with an undisclosed injury.
On the other hand, nose tackle David Parry, hampered by an injury at Oregon, should be at full strength, and safety Zach Hoffpauir will return after missing the previous game.
“Even with the (earlier) bye, we were more beaten up this year than we were in the last two years,” Shaw said. “Our injury list hasn’t been this long in probably four or five years.”
He said Ty Montgomery, in particular, “gets hit probably more than any receiver in the nation” because he also returns kickoffs and punts and takes occasional snaps in the wildcat formation.
That said, Stanford has had probably fewer major injuries to its key players than any major college program in recent years.
Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgeraldNECannounced today its new 34-inch ultra-wide curved display, the NEC MultiSync® EX341R. The LED-backlit desktop display has a 21:9 aspect ratio provides and 3440 x 1440 resolution based on an SVA panel.
With an SVA panel and 3440 x 1440 resolution, the EX341R display is among the market leaders with an 1800R curvature as well as ultra-narrow 1.55mm bezels on three sides, creating a uniquely immersive experience. The display features NEC's ground-breaking ControlSync™ technology combined with DisplayPort daisy-chain functionality to simplify multiple monitor configurations as well as a picture by picture mode to replace existing monitors. The EX341R also includes NEC's human presence sensor, which can turn the display off when the user leaves the workstation.
"Our new MultiSync EX341R curved display delivers cutting edge technology with one of the tightest curvatures in the market for business, finance, command & control users, and others who need an immersive environment to do their jobs," said Art Marshall, NEC's Senior Product Manager for Desktop Displays. "The ultra-wide workspace is crucial for power users who work in multiple spreadsheets or web development, and the factory color calibration is ideal for video and online photo editors."
Product EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK Display 34-inch, 3440 x 1440 SVA Curve 1800R Viewing Angles (Horizontal/Vertical) 178° / 178° Response Time 5ms Color Support 16.7 million Contrast Ratio 3,000:1 Brightness 290cd/m 2 Inputs 1 x HDMI 2.0
1 x HDMI 1.4
1 x DisplayPort 1.2 USB Connectivity 4 x USB 3.0 Speakers 2 x 1w MSRP $999 ($1,149 with SpectraViewII software bundle)
Designed to reduce eye strain, the curved display is certified for Low Blue Light Content and Flicker-Free from TÜV Rheinland, an international service group dedicated to documenting the safety and quality of products and services.
In addition, the EX341R includes factory calibration and uniformity correction, and can also be used with NEC's exclusive SpectraViewII software to ensure colors are uniform and accurate. The desktop and SpectraViewII software are available separately or as a bundle, the EX341R-BK-SV.
The curved display also includes multiple connections for most modern devices, including two HDMI ports, four USB 3.0 ports, and DisplayPort 1.2 input and output. Further, the USB hub features NEC's proprietary DisplaySync Pro™, a technology that allows users to control two computers with one keyboard and one mouse by using the display to switch between computers. When combined with picture in picture and picture by picture monitor setups, the technology boosts productivity and reduces desktop clutter.
Other Key Benefits:
34" ultrawide SVA display with 3440 x 1440 resolution and 1800R curvature
USB 3.0 hub with DisplaySync Pro that functions as a two-port KVM switch
Factory preset calibration and uniformity correction
Advanced on-screen menu user interface with touch-enabled OSD controls
Multiple connectivity options, including HDMI 2.0, HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2 in and out
2x 1W business-class speakers
Investment protection through 3-year parts and labor warranty
The EX341R-BK and EX341R-SV-BK displays will be available this month at a minimum advertised price of $999 and $1,149, respectively.<back to index
June 2008 Writing Well Zen and the Art of Writing Well What does Zen have to do with quality writing? What is Zen, anyway? As my favorite teacher, R.H. Blyth, has written –“Zen is the unsymbolisation of the world and all the things in it.” But isn’t writing all about symbols? Aren’t words, as the writer William H. Gass has taught us, the “ultimate minded things?” Numbers seem abstract but one finds them lurking within the ratio of diameters inside a chambered nautilus or organizing the elliptical orbits of the planets. Pi is hiding everywhere; scratch the surface of Nature and you’ll uncover pi hiding there like a vole in the rootballs of high grasses. But words? Words are completely minded things. How can Zen – which is a discipline, a way of seeing, a way of unsymbolizing the world – possibly help us with the minded arrangements of words in the minded and totally artificial profession of plotting and story-telling? “Of course,” writes R. H. Blyth, “the Zen masters use metaphors and similes, they even use symbols, but these are not to be taken seriously.” Zen is not a religion. It is a way of seeing. Its history is not, as is the history of all religions, a list of holy men and miracles and sacred scriptures: Zen is a narrative of momentary encounters in which some very human teacher startles some very human student into a clear way of seeing. To say that Zen grew from Buddhism is true, but it is the equivalent truth of saying that humankind “grew” from primordial sludge 4 billion years ago. Buddha himself attained enlightenment, but he seemed piss-poor at being able to explain or communicate it to others. The best he could do was to recommend a moral and self-controlled life as a way to enlightenment similar to his... oh, and to admonish his followers never to build statues to him or to hold his corpse or ashes in any sort of veneration. Immediately upon his death they built statues of him and worshiped what they thought were his ashes. Most of his disciples remained moral and self-controlled and blind and superstitious and unenlightened.
R. H. Blyth What is Zen? “Zen is looking at things with the eye of God, that is, becoming the thing’s eyes so that it looks at itself with our eyes.” The scientist nods here because this is what 16 billion years of the universe’s evolution and more than 4 billion years of planetary evolution have done to prepare us – We have become one of the universe’s eyes and hearts and minds by which the universe can contemplate itself. The mistake there is to start believing that you, part of that observing We, are somehow more important or central than the universe we are so imperfectly designed to observe. It as if one photoreceptive cell in one’s eye were to suddenly believe that it was the pinnacle of all evolution and the darling of creation simply because it can receive the impression of a photon. “But this is not enough,” says Blyth. “Impression must always be accompanied by expression. Impression without expression is not yet impression. Expression without impression is not possible. But impression and expression are not enough. Expession without reception is meaningless. It is not expression if it is to nobody. This is why all art, all music, all poetry requires two persons. Why only two?” The Tattireeya Upanishad explained this – “I am this world, and I eat this world.
Who knows this, knows.” Zen masters cannot be masters unless they have students. The encounter between the Zen master and his student is very similar to the encounter between the novelist and his reader (warning! We are wandering into analogy here, which is antithetical to true Zen) – that is, the Zen master and the writer use the imperfect forms of words, similes, stories, koans, and – yes, symbols – to shock and surprise the student and reader into seeing the world and what lies beneath the world with a fresh and terrible clarity. So in one of John Updike’s four Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom books (there was also a posthumous novella), decades ago, I read the line about Rabbit sleeping best during the day with all of the people in the house and outside “like upright nails holding down the world...” and I am enlightened. Religions ossify into sacred texts and icons and crucifixes and Stars of David and “sacred places” (all places are sacred) – symbols that are like the fossilized bones of dinosaurs and other extinct animals from the past. To become fossilized is to have the bones of a once-living thing be replaced by minerals – for a once-living body to become a three-dimensional shadow of stone. All symbols of religions and the religions themselves are such stone shadows. Zen is life itself. It is the irrelevant and unimportant act of a dinosaur scratching its neck – or a sabertoothed cat licking its balls. It is a mastodon farting. It is life itself. The great writers know that even if they do not say they know or know that they know. They impart sudden, sure, summer-heat-lightning-in-the-night glimpses of the world. The Buddha taught us – or tried to teach us – that presumed messiahs, prophets, and saints spend their lives pointing upward at the moon or at some perfect blossom and their followers stare at the pointing finger and believe that the message is the finger. I am this world, and I eat this world.
Who knows this, knows. And John Updike in his near-perfect Zen story “The Music School” – “The World is the Host. And it must be chewed.” # We can look for guidance toward writing well in the koans and statements of Zen masters, but it is difficult and tricky work. One of my favorite teachers is Ummon, a famous Zen master in the 9th Century Tang-era China. Ummon is particularly known for one-syllable Zen – i.e. answering his students’ questions, however lengthy and complicated the question, with a single (Chinese) word. A monk asked Ummon, “What is the Buddha?” Ummon replied, “A dried shit-stick.” Hmmm. How is this going to help us write a good novel or story? In fact, what the hell did Ummon mean? First of all, we should know that a koan does not “mean” at all, any more than a novel or poem does. As another Zen master, Archibald MacLeish, taught us in his poem “Ars Poetica” – “A poem does not mean but be.” But... the Buddha is a dried shit-stick? If Zen insists that the Buddha must be present in every word on every page of every story and novel we write – damned Buddha! damned Zen! – then is our novel to be nothing more than a dried shit-stick? While we ponder this 21st Case of the Mumonkan, a little context might help. For a long time, including Ummon’s era, pieces of wood were used as toilet paper in China. When the fresh wood ran out, people would pick up old used ones. This spread disease and killed off a lot of Chinese over the years and centuries, but the natural selection involved also led to the Chinese people being one of the most disease-resistant races on the planet. So was Ummon saying that the Buddha – i.e., man – was the shit on the clean wood of the shit-stick?
Ummon Too easy. Too simple. Since Ummon was made up of the atoms that would become Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde, we can make a better guess that the Master was telling the questioner not to seek the answer to that particular question but to be satisfied with his question. This is the art of living in this world. Another great Zen master named John Keats called this art of accepting the important question over the impossible answer “Negative Capability” and explained its meaning in his letter to George and Thomas Keats dated Sunday, 22 December, 1817 -- “I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, on various subjects; several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.” And yet another great (and accidental) Zen master named Ernest Hemingway elaborated on Ummon by showing us that one must see the shit and the stick as equally important entities when he said – “... the most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have it.” The idea is not, always, to exclude the shit, but to be able to tell it from the stick. A monk asked Ummon “What is it that surpasses the Buddhas, surpasses the Patriarchs?” Ummon replied, “Buns.” The Buddhas and Patriarchs, like the Bible and Koran, like the presidency and generalship and the authority of a policeman, are things of the mind; but buns are real. And also, as teacher Blyth explains, buns are something which Buddhas and gods and generals and presidents are not (except unintentionally); they are funny. Perhaps the ultimate Zen master of the 20th Century, Charlie Chaplin, showed us this Truth best in his dinner-roll dance routine in “The Gold Rush.” Charlie’s dancing dinner rolls – he plants his forks in two rolls and turns them into little bun-shoes -- are the truth that surpasses the Buddhas and all holy men who have come before those buns. # Blyth tells us that according to Shinichi Hisamatsu’s book Zen to Bijutsu, “Zen and (Chinese and Japanese) Art,” Zen has seven characteristics as seen in painting, pottery, calligraphy, Nō, the tea ceremony, and so on. Perhaps these characteristics also apply to writing well. Perhaps they do not. Either way, or both, they will help us see. Asymmetry (avoidance of the geometrical and perfect; unsaintly saints) Simplicity (black and white preferred) Agedness (finished before it is begun; Wordsworth’s ‘bare trees and mountains bare”) Naturalness (innocence; thought-less-ness; no compulsion) Latency (translated as “profound subtlety,” the gentleness of the warrior; the subdued but not gloomy light of the tea-room; much in little) Unconventionality (indifference to contradictions; no “Idea of the Holy”) Quietness (inner, not outer) Blyth goes on to say – “We should use these terms flexibly; they may include their apparent opposites. Quietness is heard in the roaring end of a Bach fugue, with organo pleno. It is seen in the writhing of a million maggots in rotting fish-heads. Unconventionality may be expressed in the wearing of a silk hat and frock coat. Zen has latency (yūgen) but is not symbolic. It is deep, but easy. Zen is natural, but there is little Zen in children and none in animals, which are near-machines. We must become children, but a man who has become a child is not merely a child. Each of the above qualities is necessary; none can be omitted, because they are different names of the same nameless thing which is not a thing. When one is absent, all are absent. To these seven I wish to add four more: 8. Freedom (absolute freedom – to be symmetrical if we want to)
9. Humour (includes paradox and contradiction, and the blessedness which we attain to in their perception)
10. Sexuality (“Eternity is in love with the productions of time”; this sexual relation between man and the world is
Zen, and enlightenment is its orgasm; “All nature is my bride,” says Thoreau. Those human and necessary
elements, sadism and masochism, are included here.)
11. Joy (youthfulness, Blake’s Glad Day; the early Wordsworth’s universe) # I’ll step fully out of Zen here to analyze these no-need-to-be-analyzed 11 steps to Zen Writing Well. (The 12th Step may have to join a 12-Step Recovery Program to recover from the 11 Zen Steps.) One – “Asymmetry.” How would the Zen and Asian principle of preference for asymmetry be applied to writing well? There’s the obvious – escape from symmetrical formula and escape from the strict guidelines of form in general. Perhaps this is why traditional screenwriting with its strict 3-act format and equally strict requirements of high points, sub-climax, climax, denouement, at set points on the journey, are so totally anti-Zen. And yet the best films – say, “Casablanca” – are filled with Zen. Was it an accident? Oh, yes. All great Zen is an accident of encounter with now. And all such accidents are the triumph of asymmetrical beauty over strict form and tired formula. So should we avoid careful outlines and plot wheels and various write-a-novel formulae in our Zen attempt to write well? “Mu,” says the Zen master. “No.” “Yes.” “Unask the question.” And then there is a cry of “Kwatz!” and the master’s heavy staff comes flailing down on our head and shoulders. Zen-teachers and Zen-poets such as Robert Frost show us that the greatest freedom can be found by imposing restrictions, while also reminding us – say in regard to choosing rhyme and traditional meter over blank verse – that it’s more fun to play tennis with a net in place. We, as Westerners, prefer the geometrical and perfectly symmetrical in much of our life – our architecture, our interior design, our landscaping, our thinking. Thomas Jefferson was a slave to symmetry and geometry. The awkward roof of his octagonal house leaked like a sieve. Eight fireplaces serving only four chimneys, a geometrical delight to him, caused the flues to clog and threatened to burn the place down. Jefferson’s huge vegetable garden – its layout, its fencing, its rabbit traps, its choice of vegetables to be grown – was a hymn to symmetry and geometric precision and scientific theory. It just didn’t grow many vegetables. Each year, Jefferson had to buy vegetables from his slaves – vegetables grown in their haphazard, unscientific, and very asymmetrical plots behind their slave quarters. But, you point out, all writers strive for the perfect. Flaubert and F. Scott Fitzgerald and a few others came damned close to achieving it in their novels. There was much plotting there, much attempt at symmetry, much geometrical underpinning, and rewrite after rewrite in their attempts at perfection. “Buns!” cries Ummon. Study the geometrical complexities of their wonderful, carefully planned and carefully executed novels and you will find an ingredient of pure chaos at play. The world – the Charlie-Chaplin-dancing-dinner-buns world of the real and surprisingly accidental, however carefully rehearsed – is very much in Madame Bovary and The Great Gatsby. Buns-chaos snuck in. And it stayed for dinner. # Second – “Simplicity.” So simplicity in prose (“black and white preferred”) is the truest way to writing well? The answer is a strong and unequivocal “Yes.” The answer is also a strong and unequivocal “No.” We’ve certainly argued strongly for simplicity in prose style in this Writing Well discussion. Flaubert shows us why it is the best of forms. Examples from James Joyce’s short fiction seem to confirm Flaubert’s theories and practice. Understanding why Scott Fitzgerald’s deceptively simple style is so powerful adds to the circumstantial evidence. And then there is Hemingway. For a man who seemed to have no Zen in his personal life, Hemingway’s writing – especially the early short stories – radiates Zen and Zen-truth. Someone compared Hemingway’s prose style to a clear stream through which we can see the pebbles at the bottom – the pebbles presumably being whatever Hemingway wanted us to see of his characters and his tale, vision never made murky by attempts at fancy style. (My friend Harlan Ellison refers to the cinematic equivalent of fancy, quirky style – the young director’s nervous use of odd-angle shots and weird compositions and jumpy cuts – the “Look at me and what a big dick I have!” school of directing.) Hemingway may have shown that last attitude in his life, but his writing was Zen-simple, Shaker-simple, with a clear purpose for every well-made chair and staircase. To understand Zen in writing styles, one can study “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” or “Cross-Country Snow” or “Hills Like White Elephants” or “Big Two-Hearted River” or “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and see the pebbles through the stream and know that both stream and pebbles are Zen. Where Hemingway is buried in the town cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho, at the north end of town – (he committed suicide there at his home in Ketchum in 1961) -- there is an almost-Zen monument with words taken from a eulogy he wrote in 1939 for a friend, Gene Van Guilder: Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills
The high blue windless skies
Now he will be a part of them forever This might be a Zen-poem by Bashō or Hanshan (Kanzan) or Ryōkan or Ikkyū or another great Zen-master-poet save for that sentimental and redundant last line. There is no sentimentality in Zen. Hemingway bowed to his Christian heritage there and showed the hawk in the blue sky when all he had to do was to show the blue sky. So simplicty is always preferred? Mu. (and “Kwatz!” and thunk!) We’ve savored the simplicity of style of Hemingway and Twain and others in this Writing Well discussion, but we’ve also celebrated the power of complex, even convoluted styles such as shown by Keats and Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov and the early Cormac McCarthy and others. If there was a moment of enlightenment here it came when we realized that both John Keats and F. Scott Fitzgerald were lying when they wrote about what they learned from earlier great writers. (Fitzgerald was lying to his daughter!) Neither Keats nor Fitzgerald – nor any of the greatest of writers – had learned or earned their style. The style was the man and the man was the style. And in the case of perhaps the greatest stylist of American letters – Emily Dickinson - -the style was the woman and the woman was the style. So where is the simplicity? Zen is never just the artistic or literary product; it is the producing of art and the engagement with producing art. Zen hears the sentiment “God is love” and answers with the statement “God is a dog pissing on a telephone pole.” Simplicity is being true to your nature – and to the nature of your medium and talent – even when that nature appears to be the antithesis of simplicity. # Third – “Agedness” This doesn’t mean that Zen-filled art or Zen-filled writing should feel old and tired and stodgy – just the opposite. Zen-writing must be so filled with |
I said, hey that’s perfect."
Beyond being a well-known actor, Frank is a skilled martial artist with a black belt in karate and a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has 1-0 professional MMA record and a 4-0 amateur record, with all of those fights taking place in 2010.
In addition to challenging Punk, Frank also stated that he would like to work with WWE.
"Man, I got a chance to visit some of the WWE guys and looking backstage it’s much like the UFC," Frank said. "I’m not talking about the fighting but the energy that everybody puts into the show. So one way or another I would like to get involved with WWE or UFC to please the fans. To me, I’ve been fighting my whole entire life, I can do it tomorrow if they’d like. I love it, it just has to make sense why we’re doing it."
Walter Emanuel Jones, a.k.a. Zack Taylor "The Black Ranger"
During his interview on PRIMO NUTMEG, Walter Jones discussed his dancing career and the fact that he was competing on Star Search and appeared at the 1992 Olympics roughly one year before Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted.
Jones also tackled the regular accusation that the original color scheme of the show was racist -- Jones, an African American was cast as the Black Ranger, and Thuy Trang, a Vietnamese American, was cast as the Yellow Ranger.
According to Jones, the colors were a complete coincidence. He points to the fact that the original Yellow Ranger in the pilot was a Latina actress. Jones also said that originally he auditioned just to play the character of Zack Taylor and did not know the color of the ranger costume. Once he found out that his costume would be the color black, Jones says that he was happy about it.
In the new movie, the character of Zack Taylor is played by Chinese-Canadian actor Ludi Lin.
During the interview Jones also discussed what caused him, Trang and Austin St. John to leave the show during the second season. That departure of half the cast led to the long tradition of replacing cast members on the show.
Jones said that the original cast members still keep in touch and run into each other occasionally.
David Yost, a.k.a. Billy Cranston "The Blue Ranger"
David Yost, discussed his difficulty in coming to terms with his homosexuality in the late 1990s, as well as a recent controversy involving Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston (who also happens to play Zordon in the new Power Rangers film).
Yost discussed how the harassment he faced while working on the show came when he was personally struggling with his own sexuality.
"It was really hard for me to go to work every day," Yost said. "I was hating myself so much because I really didn't want to be gay. And I had already started the process of what they call Conversion Therapy when I was still on the show, at the tail end of it. Just because this was something that I hated so much about myself and I didn't want to be gay and I just had so many beliefs that it was wrong and that it was against God and all this stupid stuff now when I look back on it. Like it was really just such a horrible mental thing that I did to myself."
Talking about what it took for him to be able to accept his sexuality, Yost said that he unfortunately "hit rock bottom."
"I contemplated suicide many, many times when I was on Power Rangers," Yost said. "I had to go through a nervous breakdown. I had to be hospitalized. I had to be on medication for anxiety and depression. I really had to crash really hard to get to a point where I could start repairing myself and start saying, 'Okay, this is who I am.'"
Yost also addressed comments that Bryan Cranston made a few years back. During an interview with IGN in 2009, Cranston mentioned that Yost's character on the show, Billy Cranston, was named after him, but said that that was a "problem" because "he's the fey one."
"If somebody want to think that it's a 'problem' as he stated in his comment, that's his business, but I am who I am," Yost said. "I don't necessarily think his comment was about my character cause it doesn't make sense about my character. And all the people that write to me and tell me, 'He didn't mean it the way you're making it sound, he meant it literally.' Like if you look up the word 'fey' literally the dictionary, I think it means something like 'jovial.' So if that's truly the case, if he meant it literal, what would he say that's a 'problem.' His comment was, 'He's the fey one, that's the problem.' So it just doesn't make sense. It's a very rude comment."
"He's apologized, so to speak, through his manager or somebody. And that's fine. I accept his apology. But it should be evident to people that this is sort of the stuff that I went through when I was on the TV show. So it's just those little jabs, those backhanded comments that aren't necessary. But those are things that I would hear all the time. And that's what caused me to leave the TV show. Because who wants to go to work when people are making dumb comments like that on a consistent basis?"
Amy Jo Johnson, a.k.a. Kimberly Hart "The Pink Ranger"
Amy Jo Johnson discussed much of her early acting career, including her time both on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Felicity.
Johnson talked about why she did not leave the show with Jones, Trang and St. John when they left during the second season. She stated that she did not understand the business well enough at the time, was scared, and said that she does not believe she even had an agent at the time. She said that she left the show a later when she "felt it was time" to move on to other acting projects.
Johnson also discussed her music career, and the fact that she received guitars when she left both Power Rangers and Felicity.
She also talked about recently becoming a filmmaker, and the fact that she was launching a contest for fans to launch a theatrical screening of her film, The Space Between, in the fan's hometown.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the government and the Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan, challenging the government’s decision to allow RJIL to offer voice services on its 4G spectrum.
Bhushan has challenged the government’s March 2013 decision to allow RJIL to offer voice telephony using data spectrum, referred to as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) by paying ₹ 1,658 crore (the effective entry fee paid by all telcos offering mobile telephony). Bhushan argues that this move is a back-door entry provided by the government to RJIL.
Bhushan contends that the apex court’s February 2012 verdict had cancelled 122 telecom licences and spectrum allocated to nine companies in January 2010 which paid the same fee. The department of telecommunications, or DoT, as a consequence of this verdict, should have discarded the ₹ 1,658 crore figure, as the reference rate, altogether. But instead, DoT allowed RJIL to offer voice services using the 2,300MHz spectrum it acquired in a 2010 auction, referred to as 4G spectrum, for the same fee. RJIL paid a total of ₹ 12,847 crore for the 4G spectrum.
RJIL is expected to launch high-speed wireless data services using this spectrum and the radio waves acquired in the February auction this year. Since the company had an Internet service provider (ISP) licence and not the unified access services licence, it could not offer voice services using the spectrum. RJIL has since applied for the unified licence that allows the company to offer any communication service it wishes to.
Separately, DoT has also replied to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG’s) allegations that it allowed an undue benefit of more than ₹ 20,000 crore to RJIL by allowing it to convert its ISP permit into a unified licence. DoT challenged the CAG’s allegations, saying that notice inviting applications for the 2010 auction did not stop winning bidders from offering voice services using the spectrum.Under Armour Inc. said fourth-quarter profit surged 28%, as the athletic-goods maker posted strong sales growth, particularly in accessories.
The company's share price rose about 9% in recent premarket trading Thursday, as the results easily beat analyst expectations and the company provided an upbeat outlook for the current year.
For 2014, Under Armour projected revenue of $2.84 billion--$2.87 billion, compared with $2.77 billion recently projected by analysts.
Under Armour's growth has been bolstered by new apparel, well-received footwear offerings and a renewed focus to win over more female consumers.
The Baltimore-based company, known for products that include "moisture-wicking" shirts and athletic shoes, last November acquired popular workout application company MapMyFitness for $150 million. The move was aimed at expanding Under Armour's existing digital offerings and beefing up its plans to become a premiere sports products company.
Under Armour reported a fourth-quarter profit of $64.2 million, or 59 cents a share, up from $50.1 million, or 47 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 35% to $682.76 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters recently forecast earnings of 53 cents a share on revenue of $620 million.
The bulk of Under Armour's business is derived from North America, with sales from that region rising 37% in the quarter. But the athletic-gear maker is also looking to become a more global brand that can compete with larger rivals Nike Inc. and Adidas AG.
Net revenue from overseas, which Under Armour has called its biggest growth opportunity, grew 12% to $37.6 million in the latest quarter.
Meantime, the company's accessories business led growth in the quarter, with sales climbing 52% to $545.5 million. Apparel and footwear sales soared as well, up 35% and 24%, respectively.
Gross margin widened to 51.3% from 50.3%.
Through Wednesday's close, the company's stock had risen 4.6% in the past three months.Results There were only two eligible randomised controlled trials of dietary sources of calcium (n=262), but 50 reports from 44 cohort studies of relations between dietary calcium (n=37), milk (n=14), or dairy intake (n=8) and fracture outcomes. For dietary calcium, most studies reported no association between calcium intake and fracture (14/22 for total, 17/21 for hip, 7/8 for vertebral, and 5/7 for forearm fracture). For milk (25/28) and dairy intake (11/13), most studies also reported no associations. In 26 randomised controlled trials, calcium supplements reduced the risk of total fracture (20 studies, n=58 573; relative risk 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.81 to 0.96) and vertebral fracture (12 studies, n=48 967. 0.86, 0.74 to 1.00) but not hip (13 studies, n=56 648; 0.95, 0.76 to 1.18) or forearm fracture (eight studies, n=51 775; 0.96, 0.85 to 1.09). Funnel plot inspection and Egger’s regression suggested bias toward calcium supplements in the published data. In randomised controlled trials at lowest risk of bias (four studies, n=44 505), there was no effect on risk of fracture at any site. Results were similar for trials of calcium monotherapy and co-administered calcium and vitamin D. Only one trial in frail elderly women in residential care with low dietary calcium intake and vitamin D concentrations showed significant reductions in risk of fracture.
We assessed the evidence supporting the recommendation to increase dietary calcium intake to prevent fractures and compared the anti-fracture efficacy of increasing calcium intake through dietary sources with the anti-fracture efficacy of calcium supplements. We undertook a systematic review of studies of dietary sources of calcium or calcium supplements in older adults (>50) with fracture as an endpoint. We primarily focused on the results of randomised controlled trials, but when insufficient evidence from such trials was available, we considered results of observational studies.
Older men and women are recommended to take at least 1000-1200 mg/day of calcium for bone health and prevention of fractures. 1 The average intake in the diet in Western countries is 700-900 mg/day, and lower in Asia and Africa, meaning that most older people would need to take calcium supplements to meet these recommendations. These guidelines for calcium intake have been widely implemented, and, in some Western countries, more than 30-50% of older women take calcium supplements. 2 3 4 5 Clinical trials of calcium supplements at doses of 1000 mg/day, however, have reported adverse effects, including cardiovascular events, 6 7 8 kidney stones, 9 and hospital admissions for acute gastrointestinal symptoms. 10 Consequently, older people have been encouraged to improve bone health by increasing their calcium intake through food rather than by taking supplements. 11 This advice assumes that increasing dietary calcium intake to the recommended level of >1200 mg/day prevents fractures without causing the adverse effects of calcium supplements.
For prospective cohort studies, authors reported their data in four different ways: the risk of fracture by group with the cohort divided into two to five groups by baseline dietary intake; pooled risk of fracture per unit of dietary intake; mean baseline dietary intake in individuals with or without subsequent fracture; or a written description of any association. We used only one association from each study for each fracture outcome with priority assigned in the order listed. These four different types of data cannot be combined in a meta-analysis and therefore we did not pool the results of different studies. Instead, we assessed whether there was an association between dietary intake and risk of fracture for each study. We classified associations into four groups: no association, inverse association (where a higher intake was associated with a lower risk of fracture, or a lower intake with a higher risk), a positive association (where a higher intake was associated with a higher risk of fracture or a lower intake with a lower risk), or a U shaped association (where both higher and lower intakes were associated with a higher risk of fracture). We considered associations to be present when there were significant differences between mean baseline dietary intakes (assessed by t tests either reported in the paper or calculated post hoc with OpenEpi; www.OpenEpi.com ) or when the confidence interval for a group excluded 1. For studies that reported data from three or more groups of dietary intake, we assessed the results for the group furthest from the reference group. Thus, when the reference group had the lowest dietary intake, we assessed results from the group with the highest intake; when the reference group had the highest dietary intake, we assessed results from the group with the lowest intake; and when the reference group had intermediate dietary intake, we assessed results from the groups with both highest and lowest intake.
For randomised controlled trials, data were pooled with random effects meta-analyses and heterogeneity was assessed with the I 2 statistic (I 2 >50% was considered significant heterogeneity). We used funnel plots and Egger’s regression model to assess for bias. For the primary analyses, we assessed the effects of calcium with or without vitamin D, and in subgroup analyses we assessed calcium monotherapy and co-administered CaD separately. Randomised controlled trials of CaD versus vitamin D, in which the groups differed only in treatment by calcium, were included in subgroup analyses of calcium monotherapy, while trials of CaD versus placebo or controls were included in the CaD subgroup analyses. For trials with factorial designs or more than two arms, in which multiple comparisons can occur, we included all available data from the study. Thus, for factorial randomised controlled trials we included all study arms that allowed a comparison of calcium versus no calcium in the primary analyses and the calcium monotherapy subgroup analysis, but only arms comparing CaD with controls in the CaD subgroup analysis. For multi-arm randomised controlled trials, we pooled data from the separate treatment arms for the primary analyses, but each treatment arm was used only once. We undertook analyses of prespecified subgroups (risk of bias, calcium monotherapy versus CaD, participants living in the community versus residential care, and baseline dietary calcium intake <800 mg/day) with a random effects model and performed a test for interaction between subgroups. Sensitivity analyses were performed to explore the effects of incorporating different study designs and risk of bias. All tests were two tailed and P<0.05 was considered significant. All analyses were performed with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (Version 2, Biostat, Englewood, NJ, USA).
In one randomised controlled trial 13 it was not clear whether the data reported were total number of fractures or number of participants with a fracture. Another was described as a cluster trial of three different fracture prevention programmes: CaD, an environmental programme, or both. 14 Treatment was randomly assigned to each cluster, however, which was based on location of residence and there were only four clusters (one cluster per treatment group), so in effect participants were quasi-randomised by location. The CaD and environmental programmes included an intervention—a home visit by a nurse to review treatment—which was not offered to the control group. Thus, the best estimate of the effect of CaD in the study is a comparison of both programmes (CaD and environmental) with the environmental programme, whereas the comparison of CaD versus no CaD assesses a multifactorial intervention. For these reasons, we considered these two randomised controlled trials to be at high risk of bias and included them only in sensitivity analyses. One trial was described in the methods as a cluster randomised controlled trials but was analysed as individually randomised. 15 16 We analysed the trial as a cluster trial in the primary analyses, using the approach recommended in the Cochrane handbook 12 with an intracluster correlation coefficient of 0.023 17 18 and an estimated average cluster size of 3.5. In sensitivity analyses we analysed the trial as individually randomised. In one trial 9 there was an interaction between oestrogen treatment, CaD treatment, and risk of hip fracture. 19 In women taking oestrogen, CaD reduced risk of hip fracture (relative risk 0.59, 95% confidence interval 0.38 to 0.93), whereas in women not taking oestrogen, CaD had no effect on risk (1.20, 0.85 to 1.69). 19 We included the data for all participants in the trial in the primary analyses but used results of participants not taking oestrogen from this reanalysis in sensitivity analyses.
From each study we extracted information on characteristics of participants, study design, funding source and conflicts of interest, and numbers of participants with total, hip, forearm, and vertebral fractures. When data were reported for non-vertebral fracture but not total fracture, we treated non-vertebral fractures as total fractures. A single author (WL, MJB, or VT) extracted data, which were checked by a second author (MJB or SB). Risk of bias was assessed as recommended in the Cochrane Handbook, 12 and we planned a subgroup analysis for each fracture outcome stratified by risk of bias. Any discrepancies were resolved through discussion.
We included randomised controlled trials and cohort, case-control, or cross sectional studies with fracture as an outcome in which participants were aged >50 at baseline, or for cohort studies, where most follow-up occurred in participants aged >50. We excluded studies where most participants had a major systemic pathology at baseline other than osteoporosis, such as renal failure or malignancy. We included studies of calcium supplements used in combination with other treatment provided that the other treatment was given to both arms (for example, calcium plus oestrogen v placebo plus oestrogen), and included studies of co-administered calcium and vitamin D supplements (CaD). We classified milk, dairy products, and dietary calcium intake from food as dietary sources of calcium. We treated hydroxyapatite as a dietary source of calcium, though it is not a food because hydroxyapatite supplements are made from bone and contain other minerals, hormones, protein, and amino acids in addition to calcium. Several cohort studies reported analyses of calcium intake and fracture risk in more than one publication. We included the results from the publication that reported the longest duration of follow-up for the cohort. Superseded publications are listed in appendix 1. Titles and abstracts were screened by one author (WL or MJB) and the full text of potentially relevant studies reviewed by two authors independently (WL, MJB, VT, or SB). The flow of articles is shown in appendix 2.
In July 2013, we searched Ovid Medline and Embase since inception for English language studies of calcium, milk, or dairy intake, or calcium supplements that reported on a broad range of skeletal and non-skeletal endpoints including fracture. The full text of the search was designed with assistance from a professional librarian and is shown in appendix 1. From this search, we also identified 120 systematic reviews or meta-analyses on these topics and hand searched these articles, any other articles included in our review, and recent review articles on fracture risk for other relevant articles. In September 2014, we updated the results with a focused search (no language restrictions) of PubMed (appendix 1) and Embase for studies with fracture or bone mineral density as an endpoint.
Table 2 ⇑ and table C in appendix 3 show the study design and selected characteristics of the 11 cohort studies that reported associations between calcium supplements and fracture outcomes. Most studies reported no association between calcium use and fracture (table F in appendix 3). Of the 20 reported associations, 13 were neutral, five were positive, and two were inverse.
Table 7 ⇓ shows the results of the sensitivity analyses. Inclusion of two randomised controlled trials at high risk of bias 13 14 and analysis of one cluster randomised controlled trial 15 16 as an individually randomised trial did not alter the results. We used the result from the reanalysis of the Women’s Health Initiative restricting participants to those not using oestrogen (relative risk 1.20, 95% confidence interval 0.85 to 1.69) 19 instead of the result for the entire cohort (0.88, 0.72 to 1.07). 9 This had a modest effect, moving the results toward those of the trials at low risk of bias. We repeated our analyses excluding the influential trial with the outlying results. 15 16 The relative risk was 0.90 (0.82 to 0.98) for total fracture and 1.02 (0.78 to 1.34) for hip fracture.
Table 6 ⇓ shows the results of the prespecified subgroup analyses. There was no evidence of a difference in the results between the subgroups of calcium monotherapy or CaD, or between the subgroups based on residential status and baseline dietary calcium intake for total, vertebral or forearm fracture. Fig 1 ⇑ and table 6 ⇓ show that there were differences in all subgroup analyses for hip fracture, which were largely because of the results of a single large trial of CaD with a 23% reduction in hip fractures that was carried out in women living in residential care with a low dietary calcium intake and low vitamin D concentrations. 15 16 In all four subgroup analyses (risk of bias, calcium or CaD, residential status, and baseline dietary calcium intake), whichever subgroup this study was in had markedly different results to the other subgroup, in which there were non-significant increases in risk of hip fracture.
Figures1-4 show that calcium supplements reduced the risk of total fracture (20 studies, n=58 573; relative risk 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.81 to 0.96; P=0.004; fig 1 ⇓ ) and vertebral fracture (12 studies, n=48 967; 0.86, 0.74 to 1.00; P=0.04; fig 3 ⇓ ) but not hip fracture (13 studies, n=56 648; 0.95, 0.76 to 1.18; P=0.63; fig 2 ⇓ ) or forearm fracture (eight studies, n=51 775; 0.96, 0.85 to 1.09; P=0.54; fig 4 ⇓ ). With Egger’s regression model and visual inspection of funnel plots, data seemed biased toward reduction in risk with calcium supplements for total (P=0.006), vertebral (P=0.002), and forearm fracture (P=0.06), raising the possibility of publication bias. Furthermore, the pooled effect estimates for all fracture outcomes seemed related to the risk of bias. Figures 1, 3, and 4 ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ and table 2 ⇑ show that the effect size was smallest and not significant for total, forearm, and vertebral fracture in the subgroup of studies at lowest risk of bias, and that results also differed by risk of bias for hip fracture (fig 2 ⇓ ).
We identified 26 randomised controlled trials (n=69 107 participants) of calcium supplements that reported fracture outcomes. 9 13 14 15 16 18 21 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 Table 1 ⇑ and table A in appendix 3 shows the study design and selected baseline characteristics of the randomised controlled trials. Fourteen studied calcium monotherapy, eight studied CaD, and four were multi-arm or factorial studies of both agents. Twenty trials used a dose of ≥1000 mg/day of calcium; 21 were in individuals living in the community; 15 had a duration of three or more years; in 16, the mean age of participants at baseline was ≥70; in 24 most participants were women; and in 10 of 19 randomised controlled trials that reported baseline dietary calcium intake, the level was <800 mg/day. Table B in appendix 3 shows our assessment of the risk of bias: three trials were assessed as low risk of bias, one as high risk of bias for hip fracture but low risk for other outcomes, nine as moderate risk of bias, and 13 as high risk of bias.
Tables 3-5 and tables E-F in appendix 3 summarise the results of these cohort studies ⇓ ⇓ ⇓. For dietary calcium, 14/22 studies (32 853 with fracture/291 273 participants) reported no relation between calcium intake and total fracture (table 3 ⇓ ), 17/21 no relation with hip fracture (2629 with fracture/329 414 participants) (table 4 ⇓ ), 7/8 no relation with vertebral fracture (711 with fracture/54 140 participants) (table 5 ⇓ ), and 5/7 no relation with forearm fracture (1065 with fracture/65 268 participants) (table 5 ⇓ ). Thus, 43 of the 58 (74%) reported associations between dietary calcium intake and fracture outcomes were neutral. When relations were reported, they were usually inverse (13/15 associations), with one study describing a positive relation and one study a U shaped relation. Of these 15 associations, 14 reported a numerical relative risk estimate, and 11 of these 14 estimates were between 0.5 and 2.0, which are considered weak associations in observational studies. 72 For milk and dairy intake (tables D and E in appendix 3), nearly all studies reported no association with fracture risk, with 25/28 neutral associations for milk intake and fracture risk and 11/13 for dairy intake.
As there were too few randomised controlled trials of dietary calcium intake that reported fracture to draw conclusions, we analysed observational studies. We identified 50 publications 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 from 44 cohort studies reporting relations between dietary calcium (n=37), milk (n=14), dairy intake (n=8), or calcium supplements (n=11) and fracture outcomes. There were sufficient cohort studies to analyse, so we did not analyse case-control or cross sectional studies, which are considered a lower level of evidence. Table 2 ⇓ and table C in appendix 3 show the study design and selected characteristics of the cohort studies.
We identified two randomised controlled trials of dietary sources of calcium: milk powder in one (n=200, calcium dose 800 mg/day, vitamin D dose 240 IU/day) 20 and a preparation of hydroxyapatite in the other (n=62, calcium dose 800 mg/day). 21 Table 1 and table A in appendix 3 show the study designs and selected baseline characteristics ⇓. For the randomised controlled trial of milk powder, there was one fracture in the milk group and three in the controls (relative risk 0.33, 95% confidence interval 0.04 to 3.2; P=0.34). For the trial of the hydroxyapatite preparation, fracture data were not reported separately for the hydroxyapatite arm (n=31 participants) but were reported for the 62 participants receiving hydroxyapatite or calcium supplements and are included in the analyses of calcium supplements.
Discussion
There is insufficient evidence to assess the effect of increasing calcium intake in the diet from randomised controlled trials as only two small trials of dietary sources of calcium have reported fracture outcomes. Some 42 cohort studies, however, have assessed relation between dietary calcium intake, milk or dairy intake and fracture. Most analyses (≥75%) found no associations, and where there were relations reported, most relative risks were between 0.5 and 2.0, which are considered weak associations in observational studies.72 The recommended dietary calcium intake for older adults is 1200 mg/day.1 Most studies, however, did not report reduced risk of fracture in individuals with this level of calcium intake compared with lower intakes. Thus, observational research does not support a hypothesis of dietary “calcium deficiency” in which there are reductions in fracture risk from increasing dietary calcium intake across the range of intakes (<300->1200 mg/day) in studies in this review.
In 26 randomised controlled trials, calcium supplements reduced the risk of total fracture by 11% and vertebral fracture by 14% but had no effect on forearm or hip fracture. The results, however, were not consistent. There was no effect of calcium supplements on any fracture outcome in the largest trials at lowest risk of bias. Only one trial in frail elderly women in residential care with low dietary calcium intake and vitamin D concentrations showed significant reductions in fracture risk. Funnel plots were also asymmetric with more small-moderate sized studies than expected reporting risk reductions in total, vertebral, and forearm fracture with calcium supplements, raising the possibility of publication bias. Results from randomised controlled trials of calcium monotherapy were similar to those with CaD, with no evidence of additional benefit of vitamin D on risk. These results suggest that widespread untargeted use of calcium supplements in older individuals is unlikely to result in meaningful reductions in incidence of fracture.
Strengths and limitations The strength of this review is its comprehensive nature, including both randomised controlled trials and observational studies, and assessment of four fracture outcomes: total, hip, vertebral, and forearm. An important limitation is the difficulty of identifying all cohort studies that reported relations between calcium intake and fracture risk. Many of the reports of cohort studies included in our review were not identified by the database searches because the relation between calcium intake and fracture was not the focus of the report, with the results reported in the text or tables of the article but not the abstract. This was more likely to occur when there was no association between calcium intake and fracture, so the current analysis might overestimate the relation between diet and fracture. We did not perform a quality assessment of the cohort studies, although we included only those studies with a prospective cohort design, considered to be the strongest observational methods. Generally, observational studies are considered to have a higher risk of bias than large well conducted randomised controlled trials. Tools for assessing quality of observational studies are available, but they often focus on reporting of studies rather than topic specific issues, such as methods of assessment of dietary calcium intake, methods of fracture assessment, categorisation of dietary calcium intake in statistical models, and inclusion of covariates in those models. Such factors are likely to be extremely influential in the results of the cohort studies but are either not easily assessed or not able to be assessed. If we limited our results to cohort studies with more than 100 fractures in which fracture risk by baseline dietary calcium intake was reported for at least three groups, most studies reported no association between baseline dietary calcium and fracture (5/7 for total fracture, 6/8 for hip fracture, 1/1 for vertebral fracture, and 3/4 for forearm fracture). The results from these large studies are similar to the overall results, and each study has adequate power to detect clinically relevant effect sizes. We did not perform meta-regression analyses because there were few studies that reported sufficient data for such an analysis. Individual patient data analyses might be of value in further exploring the relation between baseline calcium intake and fracture risk. Other important limitations include that many of the randomised controlled trials were of short duration and did not have fracture as the primary endpoint. The trials were generally carried out in healthy populations or those at risk of osteoporosis, and so the findings might not apply to other population groups.
Results in context Overall, there is little evidence currently to suggest an association between calcium intake and fracture risk or that increasing calcium intake through dietary sources will alter risk. Although calcium supplements produced some small inconsistent reductions in fractures, the doses used of 500-1600 mg/day gave an average total daily calcium intake of 1780 mg/day (range 1230-2314 mg/day). This is considerably higher than the dietary calcium intake in the highest quarter or fifth in the prospective observational studies. If calcium supplements are correcting dietary “calcium deficiency” it might be necessary to increase dietary calcium intake to about 1800 mg/day to achieve equivalent effects to calcium supplements. Dietary manipulation to increase calcium intake by ≥1000 mg/day or to achieve total daily intakes of this size is unlikely to be sustainable. The pooled analyses of all randomised controlled trials showed reductions in risk with calcium supplements for all fractures (by 11%) and vertebral fractures (by 14%). The incidence of vertebral fracture and any fracture in the control groups in our pooled analyses was 1.5% and 12%, respectively, after a participant weighted average duration of follow-up of 6.2 and 5.5 years, respectively. With these values and the observed risk reductions from the meta-analyses, the number needed to treat (NNT) with calcium to prevent one vertebral fracture is 489 for 6.2 years and to prevent one fracture at any site is 77 for 5.5 years. These benefits are unlikely to be attractive for an individual and would be even smaller for individuals at lower risk of fracture, who are often advised to take calcium supplements, or if relative risks from the randomised controlled trials at lowest risk of bias were used in the calculations. There was no benefit from calcium supplements for hip fractures, which have the greatest clinical consequences. Small benefits might be useful at a population level if calcium supplements were used widely, well tolerated, and safe. Persistence with calcium supplements in clinical trials is low, however, at about 40-60%,9 87 89 90 and in one recent randomised controlled trial, there were 24 more women admitted to hospital for acute gastrointestinal symptoms in the calcium group than the placebo group, and 16 fewer women with a fracture.10 89 In another randomised controlled trial, there were 68 more women with a kidney stone in the CaD group and 56 fewer women with a fracture.9 In our randomised controlled trial and subsequent meta-analyses, the cardiovascular risks of calcium were similar to6 7 or exceeded8 the benefits of calcium on fracture prevention. In addition, 10-20% of people experience gastrointestinal side effects such as constipation, which cause a considerable number to stop taking the supplements. Thus, because of the small benefits of use and unfavourable risk:benefit profile, calcium supplements should not be recommended for fracture prevention either at an individual or population level. An important point emerging from our analyses is the impact of one randomised controlled trial15 on previous meta-analyses. Chapuy and colleagues studied frail elderly French women (mean age 84) in residential care with low baseline dietary calcium intake (513 mg/day) and low baseline vitamin D concentrations (mean about 20 nmol/L in modern assays83). Of these participants, 16% died within 18 months of randomisation. Co-administered CaD (1200 mg/day, 800 IU/day) reduced hip fractures by 23% and all fractures by 17% at three years.16 These results are in contrast to all six other large randomised controlled trials (n>1000) of calcium or CaD, none of which reported significant reductions in total or hip fracture risk (fig 1⇑). Based on the average vitamin D concentrations in the Chapuy study (about 20 nmol/L), it is possible that many participants had unrecognised osteomalacia, the treatment of which might have led to the benefits observed. Therefore, the benefits of CaD in this study should not be expected to be reproduced in cohorts with higher vitamin D concentrations. In our subgroup analyses, whichever subgroup the Chapuy study was in had reductions in risk of hip fracture that were markedly different to the other subgroup (table 7⇑). The influence of this single trial is also a feature of previous meta-analyses that concluded that high dose but not low dose vitamin D prevents fractures,95 co-administered CaD but not vitamin D prevents fractures,96 and CaD administered to people living in residential care but not in the community prevents fractures.17 Our analyses highlight that the results from this study of a frail population |
forms,” he told Vocativ in a Twitter message. “So that’s why Ryu is stepping up and not dragging his (bare) feet behind women of color like Chun Li or transgender women like Poison, expecting them to lead the resistance,” he said, citing other classic Street Fighter characters.
Offline, the Free Speech Bus has been repaired and is headed for Boston, MA; New Haven, CT; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; and Washington, DC, where LGBTQ activists await it.A new lawsuit condemns Northwestern University and a former star professor central to Illinois’ history of wrongful convictions and exonerations, alleging the university allowed a “culture of lawlessness” and unethical conduct among faculty and journalism students who worked to free inmates.
The suit seeking $40 million in damages was filed Tuesday in federal court on behalf of Alstory Simon, who spent some 15 years in prison after he confessed and pleaded guilty to a double-homicide in Chicago. Simon’s confession led to the release of Anthony Porter, who had been on death row for the 1982 slayings.
The case is one of the most significant in Illinois history, since Porter’s release helped spur then-Gov. George Ryan to halt executions, a step toward the abolition of the death penalty in 2011. But the case was upended in October when Cook County prosecutors agreed to throw out Simon’s conviction, citing questions about the methods used to obtain his confession.
The suit alleges that former professor David Protess, a private investigator who worked with him and a lawyer conspired to frame Simon as part of an effort to free Porter from prison. The suit alleges Protess and the investigator manufactured bogus evidence, coaxed false statements from witnesses, intimidated Simon into confessing and set him up with a lawyer, Jack Rimland, who coached him to plead guilty.
The university, the suit claims, allowed unethical acts by students and Protess, who taught investigative reporting at Northwestern’s prestigious journalism school and founded the Medill Innocence Project, a key engine of the often successful local movement to unearth injustices. Simon’s suit alleges students working with Protess — who left the school in 2011 amid acrimony over his purported methods — gave witnesses money for drugs, lied about their identities and flirted with witnesses.
Protess, his students and investigator Paul Ciolino crossed ethical lines “in a zeal to create a poster boy for abolition of the death penalty,” said Terry Ekl, Simon’s lawyer, in a telephone interview.
Cook County prosecutors threw out the double murder conviction of Alstory Simon on Oct. 30, 2014. Simon pleaded guilty in 1999 to the murder of a Chicago man and woman and was sentenced to 37 years in prison.
“I think David Protess was way off the rails,” said Ekl, a former prosecutor.
Ciolino called the suit a “legalized version of a holdup for a big payday.” In a written statement, he said Porter was unjustly convicted and denied that Simon’s confession was coerced, noting that he also confessed at sentencing. Ciolino also pointed out that the suit didn’t go after law enforcement authorities for the wrongful conviction as so often happens in such cases.
“Last I checked, none of us had the ability to charge a suspect, plea bargain, take a case to trial or convict an inmate,” he wrote. “I don’t have to read this lawsuit to know it is frivolous.”
Northwestern spokesman Alan K. Cubbage said the university was reviewing the suit, but he declined to comment beyond denying wrongdoing by the university and predicting vindication in court.
Neither Rimland nor Protess could be reached for comment. Both have previously denied wrongdoing.
The case’s winding history stretches back to August 1982 when Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green were shot dead on Chicago’s South Side. Witnesses implicated Porter, who had a low IQ and a criminal record, and he was convicted and sentenced to death.
Porter, who at one point had come within days of execution, was still on death row at the time of the dramatic revelation that Simon had confessed on video to the private investigator. Confronted with the video, prosecutors quickly agreed to Porter’s release. Simon pleaded guilty to the murders and a judge sentenced him to 37 years in prison. He tearfully apologized for the murders at sentencing.
Ryan has said he found Porter’s exoneration jarring. He halted executions less than a year later, though he has noted there were other clear indications of the death penalty’s shortcomings.
Porter’s release also added to the fame of Protess, a heralded professor known for leading teams of students who helped free inmates who claimed innocence. The university promoted Protess’s work and used it in fundraising literature, and his student investigations’ led to more than 10 inmates wrongly convicted of murder being freed from prison.
Protess exited the university amid allegations that he had intentionally misled the school in a different case. He also started the Chicago Innocence Project, a nonprofit intended to do similar work. The Northwestern project he had founded years earlier, now known as the Medill Justice Project, continues under new leadership at the university.
In 2013, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who had clashed with Protess in another contested criminal case years before, agreed to review Simon’s case.
In late October, Alvarez announced her office would let Simon go free. She said she could not determine who killed the victims, but the review by her Conviction Integrity Unit raised serious doubts about the tactics used to secure Simon’s confession, and she questioned Rimland’s independence in representing him. It was clear, she said, that Simon’s rights had not been carefully protected. Simon, now 64, walked free from a downstate prison.
The lawsuit echoes and expands on Alvarez’s contentions.
Its centerpiece is the claim that Protess, Ciolino and the students coaxed false statements out of witnesses and bullied a confession out of Simon. The suit accuses Ciolino of impersonating a police officer, confronting Simon while armed, showing him a video of an actor falsely claiming to have witnessed the killing and telling Simon he could avoid the death penalty if he confessed to shooting the victims in self-defense. Ciolino promised Simon legal representation and large sums of money from book and movie deals if he gave a statement, the suit alleged.
Simon was under duress and the influence of narcotics when he confessed, the suit claimed.
Rimland told Simon the case against him was solid and that he had no choice but to take the plea deal, according to the lawsuit.
The suit also alleged that Protess and Ciolino had engaged in similarly unethical and deceptive practices while earlier leading student investigations into the conviction of the Ford Heights Four. Ciolino once donned a sharkskin suit and, in Protess’ presence, falsely portrayed Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer in an attempt to lead a key witness to think he could reap huge financial rewards for changing his testimony, according to the suit.
Simon’s lawyers blame Northwestern for tolerating the conduct. The suit alleges that the school replaced Dean Michael Janeway with Ken Bode in the late 1990s after Janeway voiced concern about the lack of oversight over Protess and Ciolino.
Bode could not be reached for comment. Janeway has since died.
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Twitter @dhinkel
Twitter @pmocwriterElijah Wood, the blue-eyed Frodo Baggins of The Lord of the Rings, has been wanting to visit India for a long time. The tunes of Bollywood songs of 1970s and 1980s, the culinary delights and Lata Mangeshkar's voice were among the many reasons for his eagerness to come here. And the moment he got an opportunity, he ensured nothing came in the way.
In India on a three-city tour, he's mesmerised with the desi version of his idea of Thailand's 'tuk-tuks' and was pleasantly surprised that the "nightmarish" traffic he had heard of, wasn't "quite the reality" when he landed into Mumbai. More than that, he's loving the hospitality.
"People have been so friendly, accommodating and hospitable... it has been lovely," said Elijah in a telephonic interview from Mumbai, where he performed on Thursday.
"India is a place I always wanted to travel to. It is culturally and 'culinarily' rich... I've always been fascinated by India as it's one place in the planet that has such a singular identity.
"The kind of rich history, incredible history of Bollywood... so I jumped at the chance to come here when the opportunity came," said the 34-year-old, who is one half of the DJ duo Wooden Wisdom with Zach Cowie.
Getting a chance to entertain his Indian fans -- in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad -- with music, was something Elijah was truly excited to do.
"We have brought a lot of records that many people wouldn't have heard of here before. That's exciting. We play a lot of soul, funk and international stuff from Africa and Turkey... we actually brought some Bollywood soundtrack mix stuff too!
"It's honestly the best part of doing what we do -- to play music for people, travel to different countries, countries we have always wanted to travel to -- meet different people, and also experience their cultures and buy their records.
"We are excited about shopping for records in India too," he said in his delightful voice, which he has lent to animated films like Happy Feet and Spyro.
He admits he has "never seen an entire Bollywood film".
"But I've seen some of the song sequences... my knowledge comes from soundtracks and some compilations, which have come out in the 1970s and 1980s... old Bollywood numbers. I've always loved Lata Mangeshkar... her voice is lovely," he said.
While in India, he hopes to take more rides of the auto-rickshaw, which he finds an interesting version of Thailand's 'tuk-tuks'!
"It seems that's the only way to get around through the traffic," he quipped.
Overwhelming, is it... the traffic in India, for him?
"It's fine. We heard a lot about your (country's) traffic, but we thought it was okay... People said it could be nightmarish, but it wasn't as bad as we were anticipating," he said.
Not sure about just what all he wants to explore in the country, Elijah is happy to have a child-like excitement about being here.
"Everything is so brand new to us, and so exciting.... it's an entirely new experience for us."
Hopefully, a memorable one too!
First Published: Sep 05, 2015 15:15 ISTYou're no Ronald Reagan. No, YOU'RE no Ronald Reagan.
This weekend, some hot Rand Paul–on–Rick Perry action broke out in our nation’s op-ed pages. Paul wrote an op-ed last month opposing military intervention against ISIS rebels in Iraq. On Friday, Perry wrote an op-ed of his own calling Paul an isolationist. Today Paul has another op-ed responding to Perry.
As is often the case with intra-Republican squabbles, the dispute has taken the form of a Reagan-Off. All sides take as settled fact the premise that Reagan revealed the truth to the world in its entirety forever and ever, and any revisions to the Party canon must make the case that rival claimants have incorrectly interpreted the Reagan writ. The ritual can be seen in the dueling op-eds.
Accordingly, Paul’s initial foray opens, “Though many claim the mantle of Ronald Reagan on foreign policy, too few look at how he really conducted it,” and builds up to a rousing call for “a new approach, one that emulates Reagan’s policies, puts America first, seeks peace, faces war reluctantly, and when necessary acts fully and decisively.” In conclusion, Ronald Reagan.
Perry replies that he will see Paul’s mere four Reagan references and double them:
Paul still advocates inaction, going so far as to claim in an op-ed last month in The Wall Street Journal that President Ronald Reagan’s own doctrines would lead him to same conclusion … Paul conveniently omitted Reagan’s long internationalist record of leading the world with moral and strategic clarity. Unlike the noninterventionists of today, Reagan believed that our security and economic prosperity require persistent engagement and leadership abroad. He, like Eisenhower before him, refused to heed “the false prophets of living alone.” Reagan identified Soviet communism as an existential threat to our national security and Western values, and he confronted this threat in every theater. Today, we count his many actions as critical to the ultimate defeat of the Soviet Union and the freeing of hundreds of millions from tyranny. At the time, though, there were those who said that Reagan’s policies would push the Soviets to war … I personally don’t believe in a wait-and-see foreign policy for the United States. Neither would Reagan. Reagan led proudly from the front, not from behind; and when he drew a “red line,” the world knew exactly what that meant. But in today’s world, with today’s threats, we still cannot “take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost.” That was President Reagan’s warning. Sen. Paul would be wise to heed it.
Paul today replies, oh, no — you don’t Reagan my Reagan, I Reagan your Reagan:
This is where many in my own party, similar to Perry, get it so wrong regarding Ronald Reagan’s doctrine of “peace through strength.” Strength does not always mean war. Reagan ended the Cold War without going to war with Russia. He achieved a relative peace with the Soviet Union — the greatest existential threat to the United States in our history — through strong diplomacy and moral leadership. Reagan had no easy options either. But he did the best he could with the hand he was dealt. Some of Reagan’s Republican champions today praise his rhetoric but forget his actions. Reagan was stern, but he wasn’t stupid. Reagan hated war, particularly the specter of nuclear war. Unlike his more hawkish critics — and there were many — Reagan was always thoughtful and cautious.
The winner of this debate will meet Scott Walker, who hosts an annual dinner on Reagan’s birthday serving Reagan’s favorite foods, including macaroni-and-cheese casserole and jelly beans.Local authorities said on Saturday that five bodies were discovered in the middle-class area of Navarte on the outskirts of Mexico City.
Police found the bodies with their hands tied and some showing apparent signs of torture, said police.
One of the bodies was identified as Ruben Espinosa, a photojournalist for Mexico's investigative reporting magazine "Proceso."
According to Proceso, Espinosa - who also worked for other publications - went into "self-exile" from the eastern state of Veracruz, where he felt threatened.
In January, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported confirmation of four journalists killed for their work since 2011, adding that it was still investigating at least six other deaths.
The bodies were discovered after neighbors alerted the police on Friday night, according to the Mexico City prosecutor's office.
Mexico has experienced a wave of brutal violence linked to drug cartels since 2006, when the government launched a military campaign against organized crime.
Cartel-linked violence has left more than 100,000 dead and 22,000 disappeared, mostly in the country's northern regions near the US border.
Mexico City has witnessed fewer cases of violence linked to the drug trade, in comparison with many other parts of the country.
ls/gsw (AP, AFP, EFE)One in every six New Zealand teens spends around six hours online each day.
Monitoring screen-time is a modern parents' nightmare.
Anyone who has tried to get grizzly, overtired kids ready for school, or whose teenager throws back coffees before class knows that some young people don't get enough sleep.
While putting your phone or laptop away earlier might sound like common sense, school kids are staying up late doing homework - or on social media - until the small hours.
Are screens getting in the way of a good nights sleep?
READ MORE:
* Parents struggle to limit screen time - study
* Phones used to put kids to sleep
* Children's sleeplessness may be linked to bedtime use of electronic gadgets
A recent international study found that one in six Kiwi 15-year-olds spends more than six hours a day online.
The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) tested 540,000 15-year-olds on their education performance, including 4453 in New Zealand.
PISA's student wellbeing report from 2015, published on Thursday, showed that Kiwi 15-year-olds were classed as 'extreme' internet users.
Kiwi teens reported being online for an average of 163 minutes, outside school hours, each weekday, up from 98 minutes in 2012.
The PISA study stated that extreme internet use - more than six hours per day - had a negative relationship with students' life satisfaction and engagement at school.
A third of the 'extreme' group, 31 per cent, had skipped a day's school in the previous fortnight, compared with 15 per cent of'moderate' users. (1 to 2 hours a day)
Screens are not just delaying bed times - one in four 'extreme' internet users reported being late for school in the two weeks prior to the survey.
An Auckland mother, who did not want to be named, admitted she struggles with her daughter's screen-time.
Her seven-year-old daughter uses her tablet at night to practice her reading or maths skills for 10 minutes before bed each night.
But sometimes she stays on for longer, or watches Netflix, so mum can take some time for herself, she said.
"I do need that break sometimes, but she has a limit in those times too."
She now has to go in and take the tablet from her daughter's room each night because she'd "be sneaky" and keep using it, making her cranky the next day.
"She would be on it all day if I let her," her mother said. And she's not alone.
A 2016 ASG and Monash University survey of 800 New Zealand parents found that 55 per cent felt their children spent too much time in front of a screen, and 48 per cent struggled to limit their child's use of digital devices.
Published data on sleep in New Zealand is limited but growing, PhD student at Massey University's Sleep/Wake Centre, Dee Muller said.
Sleep studies indicate children with screens in their bedrooms went to bed later, slept less on school nights, and had higher scores of sleep disturbance, she said.
Muller, who is investigating the social determinants of preschool children's sleep, said there is an association between short sleep durations, irregular or late bedtimes, poor quality sleep and an increased likelihood of behavioural difficulties in preschool and school aged children. In teenagers, insufficient sleep can cause poor academic performance, and even behavioural and mood problems, she said.
Muller said the rise of screen-based media and portable device use - particularly in bed - poses a challenge for young people to get sufficient, good quality, consistent sleep.
Her advice to parents? "Consider limiting the accessibility and use of technology particularly at night time."
HOW MUCH SLEEP SHOULD CHILDREN BE GETTING?
The National Sleep Foundation and the Ministry of Health recommend the following sleep durations over a 24-hour period.
Preschoolers: between three and four years - 10 to 13 hours.
School age children: between five and 13 years - nine to 11 hours.
Teenagers: between 14 and 17 years - eight to 10 hours.
Young people: between 18 and 25 years - seven to nine hours.For the most part, the long-term unemployed look like the larger pool of unemployed Americans, both those newly out of work and those who've become discouraged by the job market, temporarily or permanently dropping out of the labor pool. But they look more like the population of employed Americans than do the newly unemployed.
They are older than the newly unemployed.
This chart (like those that follow) compares four populations: the long-term unemployed (people out of work 27 weeks or more), the newly unemployed (those unemployed for fewer weeks), those who've dropped out of the labor pool, and those with work. In this chart, the darker bars indicate older people.
The make-up of the long-term unemployed looks somewhat more like the population of employed people than other unemployed groups. A full one-fifth of the population is between 46 and 55 years old. Half as many long-term jobless people are under the age of 26 as among the newly unemployed. Which is part of the reason that they're harder to employ: older workers tend to have higher salaries when they lose their jobs.
Notice that the percentage of discouraged workers that is aged 56 to 65 (the darkest bar) is higher than for the long-term unemployed. Often, as North Carolina saw when it ended insurance for the long-term unemployed, older workers will leave the labor force.
They are more likely to be African-American.
While nearly two-thirds of the employed population is white, according to Mitchell, just under half of the population of the long-term unemployed are not. Particularly, the long term unemployed are about 50 percent more likely to be black than a member of the newly unemployed.
They are slightly better educated.
Compared to the newly unemployed group, the long-term unemployed are more likely to have a high school education — 64 percent of the long-term unemployed graduated from high school but not college, compared to 60 percent for the newly unemployed.
What's stark about this chart, though, is how the populations of the unemployed compare to that of the employed. Ninety-one percent of the employed have at least a high school education. One of the reasons that older people might be more likely to drop out of the workforce is that that, as a Senate report noted last spring, "workers in this age group are less likely to pursue additional job training and education." A 55-year-old isn't as likely to go get the college degree that would open more doors.
The long-term unemployed still constitute well over a third of the unemployed population in America. They're people who are less likely to be able to reenter the workforce — obviously — in part because they tend to be the sorts of workers that cost employers more money. But not, at this point, the United States government.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.British couple Alice Burton and Matt Kaley got engaged during a Simpsons-themed triva Halloween night in Chicago. View Full Caption Provided
CHICAGO — British couple Alice Burton and Matt Kaley's love revolves around the longest-running American sitcom on TV.
The duo flew from their hometown of Brighton on the southern coast of England to Chicago this month to participate in the Woo Hoo! Classic "Simpsons" Trivia Halloween party at Pizza Serio in Lakeview, and appropriately wound up getting engaged in full costume: as a crazed Mr. Burns and doting Waylon Smithers.
With Burton as Burns and Kaley as Smithers, the couple's costumes referenced an episode titled "$pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)," which draws cultural references from the 1968 movie, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."
"When we were talking about costumes, bouncing specific ideas around, this scene kept coming up," Kaley said. "We're always quoting this bit, the whole interaction between the two of them, Burns having totally lost his marbles... but Smithers right there with him buying into his madness out of a lifetime of love and service... maybe it just resonated with me?"
"I had it in my head to pop the question, and the parallels were just too good to pass up... It was finally a chance for [Smithers] to profess his feelings and not back out of it, and to have Burns reciprocate. It was just too perfect."
Burton said she is the bigger fanatic of the two, and her diehard love of the Simpsons was a fact Kaley "had to accept."
"Our relationship almost ended early on when he told me he preferred [the TV show] 'Futurama,'" the future bride said.
Though the couple dominated "Simpsons"-themed trivia nights in the United Kingdom, Kaley said he knew the Chicago group would be the "holy grail" for Burton and started planning the engagement surprise several months in advance, coordinating with the group's organizer via social media.
The "Simpsons" trivia group has a private Facebook page where members post memes and discuss episodes, and the group meets once a month at Pizza Serio at 1708 W. Belmont Ave. There attendees watch classic episodes and answer rounds of questions about the show. While the group usually meets at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of the month, but it will meet on Nov. 14 and Dec. 12 because of the upcoming holidays.
Halloween in particular has become the group's largest celebrated occasion, with super fans hand-making detailed costumes — a fact Buzzfeed discovered in 2014 after members posted pictures of their costumes online.
That's what drew Burton and Kaley to the Windy City, they said.
The couple said they began planning for the trip to Chicago on a whim in February when airfare was low and felt at home among their American "Simpsons" brethren.
Looking into the future, Burton and Kaley said they will likely sneak some special "Simpsons" references into their wedding plans and hope to return to Chicago.
"When we came over I was worried they would think we were just these crazy English people but they were all so welcoming and lovely," Burton said. "And importantly just as crazy about 'Simpsons' as me... I love the city and it'll always be a special place for us now."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:Matt King's family has lived in Hawaii for generations. His extended family - namely he and his many cousins - own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai held in trust, which ends in seven years. The easiest thing for the family to do is sell the land before the seven years is up, which is all the talk in the state, as, to whom they sell the property could very well change the face of Kauai. Despite the vast wealth that comes with the land, Matt has decided to live solely on what he earns as a Honolulu lawyer. However, Matt has not had a perfect life living in Hawaiian paradise as many believe. He and his wife Elizabeth were having problems in their marriage. She recently got into a boating accident which has placed her in a coma. Their seventeen year old daughter Alex is in boarding school on the big island since they couldn't handle her rebellion, which was made all the worse by an argument of an unknown nature between mother and daughter during Alex's last visit home. And their... Written by HuggoFish Can plant-based feeds make aquaculture sustainable? Some scientists are replacing sardines and anchovies with soybeans and corn as food for farmed fish.
In a capacious warehouse northeast of downtown Bozeman, Montana, a lanky scientist named Rick Barrows leans over a blue tank teeming with rainbow trout. The fish thrash expectantly at the arrival of human visitors, and Barrows smiles behind his scrub-brush mustache. “You go to the poultry nutrition conference, and there are 4,000 people there,” he says wryly. “You go to the U.S. fish nutrition conference, and there are 30.”
Rick Barrows is a U.S. Department of Agriculture fish nutritionist — an esoteric occupation, true, but a vital one. Here at the Bozeman Fish Technology Center, a century-old federal facility tucked into a patchwork of ranchlands, Barrows is changing how the world produces its seafood.
Aquaculture is the fastest-growing form of food production in the world, at around 8 percent per year; the World Bank projects that two-thirds of our fish will come from farms by 2030. From a sustainability standpoint, that might be good news: Because they’re cold-blooded and water-dwelling, fish don’t have to heat their bodies or support their own weight. That means they can devote calories to packing on muscle, making them a more efficient source of protein than four-legged livestock. “Aquaculture is most likely to meet the growing demand for animal products with the least demand on ecosystems,” one Conservation International official told The Guardian in 2011. Steve Ausmus, Agriculture Research Service
But aquaculture carries plenty of ecological baggage. Perhaps its greatest irony is that growing fish on farms has traditionally required extracting other fish from the sea. Well over half the global harvest of so-called forage fish — the small silver creatures, like sardines, menhaden and anchovies, that form the bedrock of marine ecosystems — gets ground into fishmeal and fish oil to feed bigger farmed species, like salmon. The West is hardly immune to the repercussions. Pacific sardines have experienced a nearly decade-long collapse, starving brown pelicans and California sea lions and prompting federal managers to close the fishery in July 2015. While sardine stocks are notoriously prone to natural boom-bust cycles, fishing pressure appears to have exacerbated this crash.
To avert ecological harm — and defray rising costs — fish farmers have lately begun reducing the proportion of fishmeal in aquaculture feed, replacing ground-up sardines and anchovies with soybeans and corn. The challenge is that many delectable fish, such as salmon and trout, are carnivores, ill-adapted to subsisting on vegetable matter. Thanks in large part to Rick Barrows, however, some companies are already raising carnivorous fish on all-plant diets. For over two decades, Barrows has been developing vegetarian feeds for species such as salmon, cobia, walleye and, most of all, trout.
“We consider rainbow trout the white rat of the aquaculture world: They grow fast and they’re inexpensive to obtain,” Barrows says as his fish churn the surface. “We use trout to develop basic dietary knowledge that we apply to other species.”
The future of seafood, in other words, is being developed with the help of freshwater fish, 600 miles from the nearest ocean.
From one perspective, farming carnivorous fish doesn’t make much sense. The planet is swimming with herbivores and omnivores that require less protein-dense meals. Tilapia, which flourishes on a chickenfeed-like corn diet, is the country’s fourth most-eaten form of seafood, though its popularity hasn’t come without environmental consequences, such as pollution and ecosystem invasions.
But carnivores have a crucial physiological advantage over their plant-eating counterparts. "It’s hard to catch your meal if you’re a carnivore — you have to chase after it,” says Mike Rust, aquaculture science coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As an evolutionary consequence, carnivores “have machinery designed to get every last nutrient out of what they eat.”
From a sustainability standpoint, that digestive efficiency is a major advantage. The trick, then, isn’t to turn carnivores into herbivores; it’s to make plant foods behave like fishmeal.
Barrows leads me to another vast room in the USDA complex, this one packed with an obstacle course of humming equipment, a maze of ovens and chutes and glowing green lights. A rich vegetative aroma, reminiscent of a brewery, wafts in the close air; food pellets crunch underfoot. This is where the alchemy happens, where Barrows and his team transform vegetation into something with a nutritional profile that approximates meat.
“This is a smaller version of what the food production industry uses,” says Jason Frost, a technician with the drooping mustache of a 19th century saloonkeeper. “Cat food, dog food, all kinds of cereals.” Indeed, the fragrant brown nuggets that fill one row of garbage cans would look perfectly at home floating in a bowl of milk.
Converting vegetation into viable aquaculture feed, however, is not easy. Fishmeal is rich in minerals, like iron and selenium, and amino acids, like lysine, that plants lack. Excluding just one crucial constituent can be disastrous: Without zinc, for instance, trout develop cataracts. Moreover, soy and other crops are packed with so-called anti-nutrients, defense compounds that cause inflammation in fish’s small intestines. And even if you assemble all the right components, it’s worthless if the fish can’t actually digest it. Carnivorous fish lack the enzymes to break down the cellular walls of most microalgae, for instance, though Barrows can overcome that by supplementing feeds with the proper enzymes.
To create a well-balanced feed, Barrows’ team tests as many as 50 ingredients each year, blending and tweaking like a mixologist. Most concoctions begin with soy, though not all; some manufacturers prefer to keep their feeds free of genetically modified organisms, and it’s hard to find non-GMO soy. Corn, algae, even black-fly larvae find their way into Barrows’ creations. He also supplements some feeds with trimmings from an Oregon fish-processing plant, waste that would otherwise be discarded. Barrows has developed vegetarian diets for nine species altogether, including tricky marine carnivores like white seabass and yellowtail.
Rick Barrows
Still, obstacles remain. Vegetarian feeds generally cost more, though the gap has narrowed in recent years as fishmeal’s price has climbed. And plant-based feeds aren’t always ecologically pure. “The question I would ask is, are you cutting down rainforest in Brazil to grow the soybeans?” says Geoff Shester, California program director for the marine conservation group Oceana. While Oceana supports the aquaculture industry’s move toward plant-based feed, it argues that sustainably harvested forage fish, fed to humans instead of animals, is the best solution to the piscivore’s dilemma. As Shester puts it: “We prefer foodwebs to feedlots.”
The Technology Center’s most exciting feeds, therefore, may be the ones that repurpose agricultural waste. One product incorporates pistachios discarded by farmers — “nuts that are too big, too small, too green, too light,” Barrows explains. Working with a company called Adaptive Bioresources, Barrows has figured out how to process the pistachios into meal that’s high in nutritious omega-3s and contains around 55 percent protein, allowing it to supplant fishmeal. According to John Hamilton, the company’s owner, pistachio-raised salmon and trout raised are already entering the market. Pistachio trees are wildly profitable, and California’s farmers have ramped up their planting, despite drought. “As the price for waste almonds comes down, we’ll be looking at those, too,” Hamilton says.
Though these discarded pistachios could someday impact U.S. salmon farming, they’ll never be abundant enough to affect, say, Chile’s farms. Still, they’re a reminder that creativity offers big dividends. Barrows and another company, Montana Microbial, have made similar use of unwanted malting barley, a key ingredient in beer. Brewers generally desire barley with a low protein content, in the 11 to 13 percent range; any higher and the beer turns cloudy. In dry years, however, the crop often exceeds that threshold, creating a product that’s substandard for beer, but suitable for fish. The brewer’s loss is the fish farmer’s gain.
While Barrows fiddles with their food, his collaborators in Idaho are refining the other side of the equation: the fish themselves.
Back in 2000, Ron Hardy, director of the University of Idaho’s Aquaculture Research Institute, began breeding a trout that’s better at processing plant-based diets. It was a long process: Rainbow trout take two years to reach sexual maturity, and the first three generations that Hardy raised couldn’t grow as quickly on Barrows’ soy-based meal as their fishmeal-eating cousins could.
But by around 2008 — generation four — the soy-munching trout families began catching up. These days, Hardy is studying his seventh generation, and some of the soy-eaters have taken a slight lead. Hardy’s fish reach two pounds in just nine months, twice as fast as when the research began. Just as important, they retain the nutritional benefits of conventional fish. At least for rainbow trout, then, the grand dream of efficiently raising a plant-fed piscine crop has already been achieved.
Steve Ausmus, Agriculture Research Service
And these fish of the future are already infiltrating the supply chain. At some Idaho trout farms, a quarter of the crop is composed of Hardy’s trout. An added bonus, for finicky American consumers, is that veggie-fed trout taste less fishy. (Hardy, who developed a taste for potent flavors while teaching in Thailand, finds this mystifying. “People in the U.S. would rather eat bland fish that they can gussy up with sauce and seasoning,” he says, incredulous.)
A critical question remains unanswered: Why are these seventh-generation trout so proficient at turning plants into muscle? Are they more metabolically efficient? More tolerant of anti-nutrients? One intriguing clue is that plant-selected trout avoid gut inflammation, a condition that can impede growth, perhaps because trout bred for plant consumption have different microbial communities living in their guts. Just as fecal transplants have been used to help humans suffering from intestinal disorders like Crohn’s disease, Hardy speculates that researchers might eventually develop probiotics from the microbiomes of soy-fed trout that could help other fish better digest plant-based feed.
Back in Bozeman, Barrows guides me down a narrow hallway, one wall checkered with plastic bags bursting with feed — black feeds made of soldier fly larvae, green algae feeds, yellow corn feeds, brown soy feeds, and so on. To be sure, these myriad stocks aren’t panaceas: Poultry and pigs gobble down a third of the world’s fishmeal and fish oil, meaning that improvements in aquaculture can only achieve so much. And as Oceana’s Shester points out, the aquaculture industry’s recent efficiency gains haven’t kept up with the world’s growing demand. We’re getting better at raising fish, but we’re also raising more of them.
But while Barrows’ feeds may not save the seas by themselves, they could help alleviate the pressure on the world’s precious forage fish stocks. The Bozeman Fish Technology Center’s colorful food wall is proof of possibility, a mosaic ode to dietary diversity and experimentation. The old truism that fish farming requires wild fish is, well, no longer true — or at least it doesn’t have to be.
“Aquaculture’s biggest strength is its biggest weakness,” Barrows muses. “With poultry, you’ve only got chickens and turkeys. But there are over 200 species of fish being cultured around the world — you’ve got guys working on trout, catfish, cobia, and so on. That dilutes the research somewhat. But it also makes for a very exciting environment.”
Ben Goldfarb is a High Country News correspondent.As President Donald Trump continued his attack on “fake news” Friday by blocking certain news organizations from an off-camera White House briefing with press secretary Sean Spicer, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith came to the defense of |
prosecutor, she named the NIA officer who had contacted her.
Prosecutor alleged pressure in an interview last June. Click for story
The Maharashtra ATS, which had earlier filed a chargesheet in the case, named 14 people as accused including Thakur and Purohit.
Sources said the decision not to charge Thakur, a former office-bearer of the ABVP, was taken because of the “weak evidence” against her and the fact that MCOCA charges had been dropped against the accused.
“The only material evidence against her was the motorcycle on which the bomb was kept. This motorcycle was in her name but was being used by Ramchandra Kalsangra. Investigations have proved it was with him for two years prior to the blast. He was the one who would get it repaired and pay for its maintenance. Witness statements proved it,” an officer claimed.
Sources claimed the evidence against Thakur on her participation in the conspiracy was “thin”.
“There is not a single statement recorded before a magistrate (under Section 164 of the CrPC) that says she was part of the conspiracy meetings. All witness statements have been recorded under MCOCA before a DCP (deputy commissioner of police). Once MCOCA charges are dropped, these statements have no evidentiary value. There are just as many statements saying she was not part of the meetings,” another officer said.
Under MCOCA, a statement recorded before a DCP-rank officer is admissible as evidence in court. A statement recorded under Section 164 of CrPC before a magistrate is also admissible in court.
The NIA evidence against Purohit, sources said, establish he was an integral part of Abhinav Bharat, the organisation that allegedly plotted the blasts. The probe uncovered a money trail leading to Purohit. Sources said the NIA had found that he used the organisation’s money to buy plots in Nashik.
The NIA will also list evidence in the form of phone intercepts. In one such intercept, he is allegedly telling the other accused to flee and destroy evidence since police had got whiff of their involvement. The agency matched his voice sample with that in the intercept.
“There are several statements, recorded before a magistrate, which say he was part of conspiracy meetings. Against him, we have good evidence,” an NIA officer said.
The decision to drop MCOCA charges against the accused was taken since the application itself was flawed, NIA sources claimed. Sources said only one accused, Rakesh Dhawde, qualified to be charged under the law which requires that the accused must have at least two chargesheets against him, and proof that the crime was committed for pecuniary gains.
“All others were charged for association. Even the two chargesheets against Dhawde were an afterthought. He was arrested in November 2008 for his involvement in the 2003 Parbhani blast and 2004 Jalna blast. The day after his arrest, he was chargesheeted. This was used as justification for slapping MCOCA,” the officer said.
The NIA had earlier sought the opinion of the Law Ministry whether MCOCA charges could be dropped. The Ministry asked the agency to apply its own mind on the available evidence.
The NIA, which took over the case almost three years after the Maharashtra ATS filed a chargesheet in the case, re-examined all the accused, witnesses and evidence presented in the ATS chargesheet. It also recorded fresh statements, many of which exonerated the accused.
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What ATS had on Sadhvi, Purohit
* Hero Honda motorcycle with bombs was owned by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.
* She was the first to be arrested by Maharashtra ATS on October 24, 2008.
* Sadhvi attended most meetings since 2006 on targeting Muslim-majority areas.
* At Bhopal meeting on April 11, 2008, Purohit said he would provide explosives.
* Sadhvi said she would arrange men for the blasts in Malegaon.
* Sadhvi knew Sunil Joshi, Ramchandra Kalsangra. Her motorcycle was with Kalsangra.
* ATS said Purohit floated Abhinav Bharat in 2007 for a Hindu Rashtra.
* Purohit brought RDX from Kashmir where he was posted earlier.
* Purohit assembled bombs in Pune with Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Kalsangra.Image caption The Jeepney, ubiquitous in the Philippines, is the cheapest mode of mass transport there Image caption It is a form of self-expression - no two Jeepneys are decorated in the same way Image caption Sarao Motors was one of the first companies to take old US army vehicles left behind after World War II and customise them for mass transport Image caption Leonardo Sarao founded the company, helped by his brothers Image caption Mr Sarao use to drive a kalesa - or horse-drawn cart - but saw the opportunity in mass transport. His old kalesa is still kept in the workshop today Image caption In the 1970s Sarao Motors promoted the Jeepney all over Europe as part of a campaign by the Philippines' tourism department Image caption During a visit in 1981 by Pope John Paul II, he waved to the crowds gathered along the route from a specially-made Sarao Jeepney Image caption The original Jeepneys were fitted with diesel engines, but the newest incarnation of the vehicle runs on electricity previous slide next slide
London has the red double-decker bus, New York the yellow taxi, and the Philippines has the Jeepney.
The country's most popular means of public transport zipping by adds a flash of vibrancy in the often frustrating, gridlocked streets of metropolitan Manila.
With names like Delilah and Rosa emblazoned across the front, each one is individually adorned with religious and nationalistic artwork - no two are identical.
For Ed Sarao, head of Sarao Motors - one of the first makers of Jeepneys - the vehicle represents the multi-cultural history of the Philippines.
"There is bit of Spanish, Mexican traits there; how they incorporate vivid colours, fiesta-like feelings. There is a little of the Americans because it evolved from the Jeep. There is a little Japan because of the Japanese engine. But it was built by Filipino hands," he says.
But while it was once part of the Philippines' image and identity, the Jeepney has now become something of a dinosaur - and newer, more economical vehicles are starting to take its place.
King of the road
Image caption Leonardo Sarao started Sarao Motors in 1953
Jeepneys first hit the roads in the 1950s, refashioned from military vehicles left behind by US soldiers after World War II.
Some entrepreneurial Filipinos took those US Jeeps and modified them, adding features to make them roadworthy, and creating a new form of mass transit.
One of those entrepreneurs was Leonardo Sarao, who at the time drove a kalesa, or horse-drawn cart.
"He saw the opportunity in having public transportation around Manila," says Ed, who still keeps his father's old kalesa in the workshop.
Jeepneys can carry about 18 people - packed in shoulder-to-shoulder, with glassless windows for ventilation in the hot climate.
Operated by owners who run franchises, for average Filipinos they are still the cheapest way to get around, costing about eight pesos (20 US cents; 12 pence) for a ride.
Financial reality
At the height of their popularity, when Ed describes the factory floor as a bee hive buzzing with activity, Sarao Motors was asked by the tourism ministry to showcase its vehicles around the world.
But the heyday came to an end shortly after the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98.
Ed says Sarao Motors has never really recovered. It has gone from churning out 12-18 units a day to producing just 40 a year.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ed Sarao from Sarao Motors describes the ups and downs the company has faced
The reason for the decline in the company's fortunes, and the fall of the Jeepney in general, is purely financial, says Jamie Leather, principal transport specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is headquartered in Manila.
He explains that Jeepneys are more expensive to operate and repair than other vehicles on the market because they don't have standardised parts that are readily available.
Other vehicles may take fewer passengers, but are more profitable for operators and so some of them are opting to replace their Jeepneys, Mr Leather says.
"Passengers also prefer air-conditioning that other vehicles provide - they see it as more comfortable," he adds.
Modernise transport
The other reason Jeepneys are now at odds with the future of transportation in the Philippines is the amount of carbon dioxide they emit from their diesel engines.
The Philippines is struggling to combat air pollution - the ADB estimates that 5,000 people die from air pollution-related illnesses every year.
So, in an effort to keep the nostalgia but not the fumes, one organisation is testing electric Jeepneys in the central business district of Makati, one of the cities that makes up metropolitan Manila.
Image caption In an effort to fight air pollution, 10 electric Jeepneys are being operated in Makati City
The Institute of Sustainable Cities has awarded a franchise to the E-Jeepney Company to operate 10 electric Jeepneys.
"We are trying to modernise the transport system in the Philippines," says Yuri Sarmiento, the head of E-Jeepney.
Their vehicles charge overnight at a makeshift hub inside the Makati Fire Station. During the day they go on fixed routes, picking up passengers from designated stops.
Of the roughly 50,000 Jeepneys roaring around Manila on any given day, they are hoping to replace about 2,000 of them with e-Jeepneys by 2015, and eventually to have 10,000.
"We use it as a vehicle for change to grow awareness among Filipinos to use alternative fuel," says Mr Sarmiento.
"The Jeepney fits that role perfectly."
Back at his workshop, Ed Sarao says he is also considering what the next phase of the Sarao Jeepney will be, whether it is electric or perhaps air-conditioned models.
Despite the tough times his company is going through, he's not giving up yet.
"Filipinos are very resilient," he says, and he hopes that the vehicle his father pioneered will prove to be resilient too."Uncountable" redirects here. For the linguistic concept, see Uncountable noun
In mathematics, an uncountable set (or uncountably infinite set)[1] is an infinite set that contains too many elements to be countable. The uncountability of a set is closely related to its cardinal number: a set is uncountable if its cardinal number is larger than that of the set of all natural numbers.
Characterizations [ edit ]
There are many equivalent characterizations of uncountability. A set X is uncountable if and only if any of the following conditions hold:
There is no injective function from X to the set of natural numbers.
to the set of natural numbers. X is nonempty and for every ω-sequence of elements of X, there exist at least one element of X not included in it. That is, X is nonempty and there is no surjective function from the natural numbers to X.
is nonempty and for every ω-sequence of elements of, there exist at least one element of X not included in it. That is, is nonempty and there is no surjective function from the natural numbers to. The cardinality of X is neither finite nor equal to ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} aleph-null, the cardinality of the natural numbers).
is neither finite nor equal to aleph-null, the cardinality of the natural numbers). The set X has cardinality strictly greater than ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}}
The first three of these characterizations can be proven equivalent in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory without the axiom of choice, but the equivalence of the third and fourth cannot be proved without additional choice principles.
Properties [ edit ]
If an uncountable set X is a subset of set Y, then Y is uncountable.
Examples [ edit ]
The best known example of an uncountable set is the set R of all real numbers; Cantor's diagonal argument shows that this set is uncountable. The diagonalization proof technique can also be used to show that several other sets are uncountable, such as the set of all infinite sequences of natural numbers and the set of all subsets of the set of natural numbers. The cardinality of R is often called the cardinality of the continuum and denoted by c {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {c}}}, or 2 ℵ 0 {\displaystyle 2^{\aleph _{0}}}, or ℶ 1 {\displaystyle \beth _{1}} (beth-one).
The Cantor set is an uncountable subset of R. The Cantor set is a fractal and has Hausdorff dimension greater than zero but less than one (R has dimension one). This is an example of the following fact: any subset of R of Hausdorff dimension strictly greater than zero must be uncountable.
Another example of an uncountable set is the set of all functions from R to R. This set is even "more uncountable" than R in the sense that the cardinality of this set is ℶ 2 {\displaystyle \beth _{2}} (beth-two), which is larger than ℶ 1 {\displaystyle \beth _{1}}.
A more abstract example of an uncountable set is the set of all countable ordinal numbers, denoted by Ω or ω 1. The cardinality of Ω is denoted ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}} (aleph-one). It can be shown, using the axiom of choice, that ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}} is the smallest uncountable cardinal number. Thus either ℶ 1 {\displaystyle \beth _{1}}, the cardinality of the reals, is equal to ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}} or it is strictly larger. Georg Cantor was the first to propose the question of whether ℶ 1 {\displaystyle \beth _{1}} is equal to ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}}. In 1900, David Hilbert posed this question as the first of his 23 problems. The statement that ℵ 1 = ℶ 1 {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}=\beth _{1}} is now called the continuum hypothesis and is known to be independent of the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (including the axiom of choice).
Without the axiom of choice [ edit ]
Without the axiom of choice, there might exist cardinalities incomparable to ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} (namely, the cardinalities of Dedekind-finite infinite sets). Sets of these cardinalities satisfy the first three characterizations above but not the fourth characterization. Because these sets are not larger than the natural numbers in the sense of cardinality, some may not want to call them uncountable.
If the axiom of choice holds, the following conditions on a cardinal κ {\displaystyle \kappa } are equivalent:
κ ≰ ℵ 0 ; {\displaystyle \kappa
leq \aleph _{0};}
κ > ℵ 0 ; {\displaystyle \kappa >\aleph _{0};}
κ ≥ ℵ 1 {\displaystyle \kappa \geq \aleph _{1}} ℵ 1 = | ω 1 | {\displaystyle \aleph _{1}=|\omega _{1}|} ω 1 {\displaystyle \omega _{1}} initial ordinal greater than ω. {\displaystyle \omega.}
However, these may all be different if the axiom of choice fails. So it is not obvious which one is the appropriate generalization of "uncountability" when the axiom fails. It may be best to avoid using the word in this case and specify which of these one means.
See also [ edit ]"Fucking hell! It all just fell in to place"
Noel Gallagher has released ‘Fort Knox’, the latest single to be taken from his new album. Check it out below.
The song is the first in sequence on new album ‘Who Built The Moon’, which is set for release at the end of next month.
It follows the release of ‘Holy Mountain’, Noel’s comeback single which received a rather predictable thumbs down from brother Liam after being unveiled earlier this month.
Describing ‘Fort Knox’, Noel admitted that an unlikely influence came in the form of one Kanye West.
“It was the last track finished on the last day in the studio”, he said.
Fort Knox Fort Knox, a song by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds on Spotify
“It started from a conversation talking about the Kanye West track ‘The Power’. The singer Y-See, had never even heard the track and she started to do this vocal over it and it was like: fucking hell! It all just fell in to place.’
Sharethrough (Mobile)
Meanwhile, Who Built The Moon is set for release on November 24 and features guest appearances from Johnny Marr and Paul Weller.Arizona Coyotes general manager Don Maloney was on an airplane headed from New York to Zurich, Switzerland, for the World Championships while the NHL held its Draft Lottery on Saturday. He didn’t know that Edmonton had won the right to draft Connor McDavid until he landed, but his reaction was a rarity in the Valley and in the hockey world.
"I had about a dozen text messages, mostly from family members cursing the Oilers out," Maloney said, laughing. "To my way of thinking, at least it was a team at the bottom of the standings. If it had been one of the teams that missed the playoffs with 90-plus points, that wouldn’t have seemed fair to me."
As for Edmonton bumping the Coyotes to No. 3 in the draft, and out of the McDavid/Jack Eichel sweepstakes, Maloney expected that. There was a 66.5 percent chance that the Coyotes would drop a spot.
"My expectations were so low because of the odds that I can’t say I was shocked or really upset," he said. "I know what’s coming for us in the system. The difference is it’s going to take a little longer because McDavid and Eichel are special. But in three to four years, that player we get could certainly be a front-line, All-Star level player. He just won’t be ready come September."
Maloney said if the staff had to make the No. 3 pick today, "we absolutely know who we are taking." But the Coyotes do not have to make the pick today so they will use further evaluations, the NHL Scouting Combine and some individual visits to better inform their decision.
Maloney expects to receive a lot of calls as the draft approaches in June from teams that may be interested in moving up. Since it’s all but certain that neither Edmonton nor Buffalo will trade the top two picks where franchise centers are waiting, the Coyotes are in an enviable position as the top draft choice available for teams that want to move up. That could mean additional assets for Maloney if the price is right.
While Maloney believes the loss of McDavid and Eichel doesn’t change the Coyotes’ long-term plan, he admitted the Coyotes have work to do this summer to accomplish their short-term goal of competing for a playoff spot next season.
Arizona has center Martin Hanzal returning, along with Kyle Chipchura and Joe Vitale, but Maloney acknowledged that the team needs to add a couple centermen to the mix next season. He also thinks the Coyotes need a couple defensemen and a backup goalie.
"I will guarantee you we will find a couple center icemen that can play come September," he said.
The free-agent class is thin this season, but Maloney thinks there will be opportunities there, and more so via trades with teams that are bumping up against the salary cap and have to move quality NHL players.
Maloney met with coach Dave Tippett before he left for the World Championships to discuss the short- and long-term plans. Tippett has made it clear he feels the team should compete for a playoff spot every year. He also confirmed that he has clauses in his contract to protect him if the team isn’t going in the direction he wants.
"Tip and I are 100 percent on the same wavelength with what we need to do," Maloney said. "I can see light at the end of the tunnel. It’s much harder when you have to go behind the bench every night without seeing what might be coming, but I had a good conversation with Tip. He’s OK."
Maloney will return from the World Championships on April 27. When he does, he expects to sit down with ownership and get a budget for the upcoming season.
"There’s so much more hope this year than there has been the last few years," Maloney said. "All that being said, we have to put a team on the ice next year and we want to be competitive and make people want to come see us play. That’s going to be the challenge: to fill the holes with enough quality and compete."
Follow Craig Morgan on TwitterImage copyright Getty Images Image caption Police and soldiers on the streets of Brussels after the terror attacks in Paris were linked to the city
An unwinding rarely has a start date. It settles in over time. It is an erosion, deceptive, slow at first, and then it is all around you; old certainties crumbling; the believer's glint dulled; the claim on destiny weakened.
In just a matter of months, the idea of Europe has been unwinding, buffeted by successive crises; the Greek drama, the columns of migrants; the terror attacks.
So how does the unwinding reveal itself?
It can be glimpsed in the edginess of European officials.
"I'm not going to say today that (Europe) is going to be destroyed," said Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission, "but it is not indestructible."
It can be heard, too, in the comments of the politicians lining up in the confessionals: Sweden, declares its prime minister, had been "naive" about Islamist extremists.
Image copyright AP Image caption Frans Timmermans warned that Europe was not indestructible
It can be seen in the shaking of the EU's foundation stones: "Let there be no doubt," said Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, "the future of Schengen is at stake."
It is an era defined by the stripping away of illusions.
Greece was saved in the summer but unconvincingly. Its debt remains unsustainable, a reckoning lies ahead.
The suggestion that Greece needed time out from the eurozone destroyed the belief that membership of the single currency was irreversible.
The terror attacks in Paris exposed layers of deceit and wishful thinking.
Europe's borders were not secure.
The extremists had moved around Europe's passport-free borders - guaranteed under the Schengen agreement - undetected.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Donald Tusk warned the Schengen area was at risk
They even bragged about how easy it was. Several of them had travelled back and forth to Syria.
Schengen was more than just an agreement; it was an article of faith that there would be freedom of movement between 22 of the EU's member states.
But recent weeks have laid bare the flaws. Returning citizens with EU passports were hardly ever checked against watch lists or security data bases.
Passenger name records for flights between member states were not kept.
The European Parliament had been scrapping over this for years.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazenove said "not a single French citizen, not a single EU citizen will understand why the Parliament continues to block this measure."
But civil liberties trumped security.
It was an open secret that both Italy and France waved through migrants; many were neither fingerprinted nor registered.
Schengen: Controversial EU free movement deal explained
And then there was Brussels from where several of the Paris attackers came.
For years it had been known as a centre of radicalism, but its intelligence service was underfunded.
It had recruited few Arabic speakers.
Investigations had to contend with six different police authorities.
An estimated 500 jihadists had travelled to Syria; that's more than any other European country.
The French say they did not receive the intelligence they would have expected from Brussels.
Change at last
Now belatedly change is coming.
In Belgium, they are discussing taking away passports from people who join Islamist militants.
Even before the Paris attacks, Europe's discomfort had deepened with the migrant crisis.
For Angela Merkel this was the latest great test of the European project; refugees were to be welcomed as a reflection of European values.
She was first baffled and then angered by the refusal of other countries to see it that way. They resisted the burden-sharing of quotas.
The attacks in Paris did have a link with the refugee crisis.
Most mainstream politicians correctly resisted the suggestion that migrants were potential terrorists but the fingerprints of two of the Paris bombers were recorded at a checkpoint in Greece in October.
The former chief of French intelligence said: "It is obvious now that among the migrants there are terrorists."
Other politicians began to question how tens of thousands of people - unregistered and undocumented - were moving through Europe.
"How had this been allowed to happen?" asked one foreign minister.
The mood of mistrust deepened when Angela Merkel's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble seemed to attack the chancellor by talking about "a rather careless skier" causing avalanches.
The polls indicated that voters no longer trusted Europe to deliver security.
Image copyright AP Image caption Europe is keen to strike a deal with Turkey's President Erdogan
And so gradually country after country reinstated border controls.
It rattled the European Commission. Its President Jean-Claude Juncker warned that "if the spirit of Schengen leaves us forever and leaves our hearts, we'll lose more than the Schengen agreement. A single currency doesn't make sense if Schengen fails."
Angela Merkel, desperate to stem the flow of refugees, warned that unless the refugees were distributed throughout Europe there couldn't be open borders.
Many of her colleagues believe her resistance to establishing "upper limits" is unsustainable.
She had to stand on stage and watch her coalition partner tell her that "her big task... would not be achievable in the long run if we don't get an upper limit". Her interior minister has said: "Europe should set a limit."
New realism
Europe, stripped of some of its illusions, is already engaging in a new realism.
The Europe of values will shortly try to clinch a deal with the increasingly authoritarian President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The harassment of Turkish journalists will be overlooked.
The suspicion that Turkey enabled scores of foreign fighters to cross its border into Syria and join the Islamic State will be set aside.
Europe is considering paying Ankara €3bn to reduce the number of refugees.
In this new world France is contemplating a loose alliance with President Putin as part of a broad coalition to defeat IS.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Manuel Valls (left) has adopted a hard line on refugees
Plenty of those who support the deeper integration of Europe now say that officials and leaders allowed dreams to get ahead of reality.
Quite simply, if Europe cannot provide security then voters will demand the nation states step back in. The old slogans will not suffice.
A harder-headed Europe will have to emerge that protects people and delivers jobs and security.
In the past two days, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave his response to Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards refugees.
"We cannot," he said, "accommodate any more refugees in Europe, that's not possible.
"If we don't do that, the people will say, 'Enough of Europe.'"Tim McManus breaks down the Philadelphia Eagles' 2017 draft class.
Round 1, No. 14 overall: Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee
2017 NFL DRAFT | Philadelphia NFL draft home page » • By round: pick-by-pick analysis | By team
• Kiper: 2017 NFL draft grades
• McShay: Best pick for all 32 teams
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• Fantasy: Day 2 reaction | Round 1
My take: Defensive end was a big-time need for the Eagles. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz relies on the front four generating a pass rush on its own and simply didn't get enough of that in 2016. Brandon Graham is the best option at the moment but has yet to establish himself as a top-end sack artist. The Eagles parted ways with starting end Connor Barwin, and while they paid Vinny Curry handsomely last offseason, he has yet to prove that he can be relied upon consistently. Barnett was projected to go right in this range, if not earlier, so it's a situation where need meets best available.
Athleticism vs. production: With 32 career sacks, Barnett broke former Eagles great Reggie White's Tennessee record; he also posted 13 sacks and 19 tackles for loss this past season. That's some eye-popping output. There is some question, though, about whether he has the type of elite athleticism that is often associated with many of the league's best pass-rushers. His less-than-stellar combine numbers did little to alleviate those concerns. Barnett was apparently ill during the testing, Eagles brass said, which helps to add context to the evaluation.
The next Suggs? Eagles vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas was schooled under Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore. He likened Barnett's situation to that of Terrell Suggs, who tested somewhat poorly during the 2003 pre-draft process following a highly productive stint at Arizona State. With Douglas, on-field production and character makeup seem to far outweigh measurables.
Round 2, No. 43: Sidney Jones, CB, Washington
My take: After getting a pass-rusher, the Eagles turned to their need at cornerback. This was considered one of the deepest corner classes in recent memory, but executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman was concerned that prospects would fly off the board. So the Eagles grabbed one in the second round, but in doing so, they took the long view by selecting the ultra-talented, but injured, Jones. The research the team has done suggests a high rate of full recovery for young players who have ruptured their Achilles, but there are no guarantees. The Eagles walk away with a player whom they gave a top-15 grade, with the understanding that there’s risk involved and patience is needed. For a team that is still a few pieces away, it’s a move that makes sense and one that could pay serious dividends.
How he fits: Jones hopes to be back on the field come October, but management immediately stressed that the team will not rush the process in the least. When Jones is ready, he has the ability to slide into a starting spot immediately, especially when you consider the shaky state of the Eagles corner position overall.
Round 3, No. 99: Rasul Douglas, CB, West Virginia
The Eagles bolstered their secondary over the first two days of the draft, adding cornerback Rasul Douglas in Round 3. Ben Queen/USA TODAY Sports
My take: The Eagles will have to wait before seeing second-round selection Sidney Jones take the field but should get some immediate gratification with Douglas. At 6-foot-2 and 209 pounds, Douglas has length that will come in handy in a division that features the likes of wide receivers Dez Bryant, Terrelle Pryor and the uber-athletic Odell Beckham Jr. This is a solid third-round pick at a position of need.
How he fits: The corner position was in very rough shape heading into draft weekend. Given that the Eagles parted with both starting corners from last year, Douglas should have a legitimate shot at competing for a significant role -- especially with Jones still on the road back from an Achilles injury.
Round 4, No. 118: Mack Hollins, WR, North Carolina
My take: Carson Wentz gets another big wide receiver target. Hollins (6-foot-4, 221 pounds) has ideal size and is considered a smooth runner with 4.53 speed in the 40. Along with the 6-foot-3 Alshon Jeffery, Wentz now has a couple of large weapons who should win their share of 50-50 battles.
How he fits: The Eagles have three starters penciled in with Jeffery, Torrey Smith and Jordan Matthews. Hollins will provide some welcome depth and is a quality special teams player as well, so he has a good chance of dressing on Sundays.
Round 4, No. 132: Donnel Pumphrey, RB, San Diego State
My take: A potential home run pick, Pumphrey is the leading rusher in FBS history as he slashed his way to 6,405 yards over four years at San Diego State. He's on the smallish side (5-foot-9, 180 pounds), but he toted the ball over 300 times in each of the past two seasons. He is a threat in the passing game as well. A great fit for Doug Pederson's hybrid West Coast system.
How he fits: There is plenty of opportunity in the Eagles' backfield. Ryan Mathews (neck) is expected to be released once he can pass a physical, Darren Sproles is 33 years old and Wendell Smallwood is still unproven. Pumphrey could make an immediate impact.
Round 5, No. 166: Shelton Gibson, WR, West Virginia
My take: This pick is all about speed. Gibson averaged 23 yards per catch during his three seasons at West Virginia and is known for taking the top off defenses. When you get to this point in the draft, teams aren't looking for complete players necessarily but rather athletes with plus traits that can translate. Gibson can burn.
How he fits: The Eagles will have plenty of competition in camp this summer. The starting spots are currently occupied by Alshon Jeffery, Torrey Smith and Jordan Matthews, and holdovers like Nelson Agholor will be fighting for work along with a handful of other players, including Gibson and fellow rookie Mack Hollins.
Round 5, No. 184: Nathan Gerry, LB, Nebraska
My take: Gerry mostly played safety at Nebraska, but the Eagles are apparently looking at him as a linebacker. (He did start three games at LB in 2013.) Currently listed at 6-foot-2, 218 pounds, he might be asked to put on a little weight as he makes the transition. Gerry is a versatile player who lined up as a slot defender at times and had 13 interceptions on the collegiate level.
How he fits: It will be interesting to see how defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz utilizes him should Gerry make the team. Gerry could start out as a special teams player. Part of his value could come from being able to play multiple positions in a pinch.
Round 6, No. 214: Elijah Qualls, DT, Washington
My take: The Eagles start and finish the 2017 draft by addressing the defensive line. Qualls (6-foot-1, 313 pounds) is a stout, athletic interior lineman who could be useful against the run. A key part of the team's philosophy is to build from the inside out, and that has been reflected on the defensive side of the ball this offseason.
How he fits: Qualls will compete with the likes of Destiny Vaeao and Beau Allen (once back from a pec injury) for snaps. The Eagles traded for Tim Jernigan to account for the loss of Bennie Logan in free agency. He’s the likely starter opposite Fletcher Cox, but Jim Schwartz rotates his linemen, so depth is a must.SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, 9TH & 10TH UPDATE: The Top 3 order changed again this weekend. Holdover Despicable Me 2 is still #1 with around $44.7M beating newcomers Growns-Ups 2 ($42.5M for #2) and Pacific Rim ($38.3M for #3). Universal’s and Illumination Entertainment’s 3D toon is #1 worldwide passing $400M global gross and $200M from North America. Warner Bros’ and Legendary Pictures’ mecha anime-inspired scifi battle was the only original newcomer fighting 2 sequels. Because of good reviews and CinemaScores, the hope is to “broaden out” the 3D film’s audience for the next four weeks of IMAX screenings. The $180-$220m costing pic’s worldwide cume is now $91.3M after opening in 50% of international territories this weekend. More later.
SATURDAY 10 AM, 8TH UPDATE: What a surprise Friday’s domestic box office turned out to be as Summer 2013 continues to sizzle. Total moviegoing this weekend is close to $200M which is a humongous +29% from last year. At first the three top films looked neck and neck throughout Friday. After predictions of possible disaster, Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures’ 3D Pacific Rim (3,275 theaters and 331 IMAX screens) seemed strong throughout the day but then “ran out of IMAX tix and pre-sales at last” according to an exec. It ended Friday #2 with $14.6M and an expected $37M weekend. With audiences giving it an ‘A-‘ CinemaScore, the scifi winner-takes-all actioner may have an upside with word of mouth. Or else the hype just failed to hold. International is a big part of Pacific Rim‘s strategy day and date in 38 territories in a crowded marketplace with 9,700 screens including the Top 12 markets. But Sony Pictures/Happy Madison’s Growns-Ups 2 (3,491 theaters) wound up #1 Friday with a middle-of-the-road ‘B’ CinemaScore (same as the original) despite terrible reviews. Goes to show that this summer’s audiences are still starved for comedy. And that no one can count out Adam Sandler and his $80M ensemble or Jeff Blake’s strong marketing department. It made $16.3M for $42M, beating the first’s $14.4M/$40.5M. Internationally, Sony is releasing it day and date in just Spain and some small territories this weekend Germany next week, and then a wide rollout. But even though Universal’s and Illumination Entertainment’s global #1 holdover Despicable Me 2 placed #3 Friday, it must wait for the Saturday kiddie bump to see if it can land on top of the worldwide box office again. The 3D |
squirming a little listening to these answers. Presumably some of these people have black friends or co-workers. Would they refer to those friends or co-workers as “these type of people?” I hope not. And it gets worse when some respondents grasping for an explanation suggest black people don’t have access to the internet or cell phone data plans.
I won’t spoil the payoff here but suffice it to say that Horowitz gets some mystified reactions when he heads to Harlem to do the same man-on-the-street interviews with black people, asking them about what he was told in Berkeley.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “soft bigotry of low expectations” before. It’s a way of referring to the well-meaning but ultimately insulting and harmful practice of expecting some person (or group) to be able to accomplish less than what you would expect from anyone else. The phrase was coined by George W. Bush speech writer Michael Gerson but rarely has it come to life so clearly as it does in this clip. Enjoy:Holy See (The Pope) Criticizes TPP And TAFTA/TTIP In WTO Speech
from the nobody-expects-the-Spanish-Inquisition-or-Holy-See dept
There's no shortage of critics of massive trade agreements like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, but today saw strong condemnation from a very unexpected quarter: the Holy See, often, if erroneously, equated with the Vatican. Whatever the jurisdictional differences, the statement delivered by His Excellency Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva at the 9th Session of the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization presumably comes with the full approval of Pope Francis himself. We can assume that because of the extremely controversial statements it contains, which would have required approval at the highest level. Things like this: While a minority is experiencing exponential growth in wealth, the gap is widening to separate the vast majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and of financial speculation. Consequently, there is an outright rejection of the right of States, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. An even worse development is that such policies are sometimes locked in through trade rules negotiated at the WTO or in bilateral or regional FTAs. The statement then goes on to criticize the move away from multilateral trade agreements of the kind traditionally drawn up at the WTO, to new-style "mega-regional trade agreements", routinely negotiated in secret: Currently there is a clear tendency to further enlarge these RTAs [Regional Trade Agreements] to form mega-regional trade agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Certainly, the enlargement of regional trade agreements is a step towards further trade liberalization but we have to bear in mind that these agreements inevitably threaten the desirability to reach an agreement on a truly multilateral basis. In fact, by entering a regional trade agreement a country reduces the incentives to extend its efforts on trade liberalization at a multilateral level. Here's why the Holy See believes RTAs and mega-RTAs are problematic: we know that only the multilateral system is a clear, equitable system that provides effective guarantees for small and poor countries that tend to be penalized in a Regional Trade Agreement where it is asymmetric. Among the most damaging concessions developing countries make in regional and bilateral agreements are those enhancing the monopolies on life-saving medicines, which reduce access and affordability and those that provide excessive legal rights to foreign investors, limiting the policy space for nations to promote sustainable and inclusive development. "Enhancing the monopolies on life-saving medicines" is a clear swipe at TPP, which aims to do precisely that, with what are likely to be terrible and even fatal consequences for the poor in the Pacific region. And the phrase "excessive legal rights to foreign investors, limiting the policy space for nations to promote sustainable and inclusive development" is obviously a reference to the imposition of corporate sovereignty clauses in both TPP and TAFTA/TTIP.
It's unlikely that the Holy See's intervention at the WTO meeting in Bali will have any direct effects on either the TPP or TAFTA/TTIP negotiations, but it does signal two important facts. First, that Pope Francis is emerging as a passionate defender of the world's poor, and one who is not afraid to speak truth to even the most powerful nations; and secondly, that resistance to the most unjust and unjustifiable aspects of TPP and TAFTA/TTIP continues to grow.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Filed Under: access to medicine, holy see, patents, pope, tafta, tpp, trade agreements, ttip, wtoPierre Poilievre, champion of free and open elections, wants you to know that the Conservative Government is battling electoral fraudsters. When asked whether his bill — The Fair Elections Act — would actually drive down voter turnout, Poilievre rejected that idea absolutely.
“When someone lies about their identity or residence in order to vote illegally, they are stealing or cancelling out another person’s vote,” Poilievre told the House during Question Period. “That is an attack on honest Canadians who are trying to have a legitimate influence within our voting system. Some identification methods have a significant rate of error, and we will eliminate these methods in order to protect the integrity of the vote.”
What he’s talking about are two of the most contentious things in the bill — the end of the use of ‘vouching’ (one elector signing an oath that another voter, who is not on the electoral rolls, is in fact a valid voter) and the axing of voter information cards as a quasi-valid piece of ID.
That’s interesting. Why, Pierre?
“The reality is that vouching is not safe; it is not secure. After The Fair Elections Act is passed, it will not be allowed,” he said.
He has statistics, too! 25 per cent of those who vouched in 2011 had “irregularities,” he said. They have to stop that.
Poilieve’s statistics are actually wrong. In 2011, according to an Elections Canada audit, in 42 per cent of cases where voters needed to be vouched for, there were irregularities. That’s about 45,000 irregularities of the 120,000 vouchings that occurred. Wow! So much electoral fraud.
But wait, what’s an irregularity?
For 90 per cent of those cases, the irregularity was a minimal one — it was a circumstance where the voucher also did not appear on the electoral list (but they still would have to prove that they live in the riding.) In about 10 per cent of the cases, the voucher did not live in the same polling division as the voter. And then in about 0.007 per cent of the cases, a voucher tried to vouch for more than one voter.
Poilievre’s 25 per cent comes from another (ostensibly, overlapping) statistic. It’s the percentage of vouchings, according to the audit, “where the voter also needed to have their ID and/or address vouched for where the tick box [on the registration form] confirming that vouching was required was not checked.”
So of those “irregularities” that Poilievre keeps bringing up — technicalities, and unchecked boxes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
If these rules were in place prior to the 2011 election, 120,000 voters would have been turned away from voting. That’s a problem.
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And what of the voter information card?
It’s that red-and-white card mailed to you to confirm that you, are, indeed on the list. This card was never valid ID for a voter, although many believe it is. Returning officers, though, had the ability to bend the rules to admit voters using that card. Given the number of people who tried to use it, Elections Canada tried a trial run in the November 2010 by-elections, and then expanded it to thousands of voting locations for the 2011 campaign. Here’s what it found:
“From the limited data returned as of July 18, 2011, the proportion of electors who used their VIC with another authorized piece of identification (e.g. hospital bracelet) to cast their vote in seniors’ residences and long-term care facilities was about 73 percent. In targeted polling sites on Aboriginal reserves, the proportion of electors who used their VIC with another authorized piece of identification (e.g. Certificate of Indian Status) was 36 percent. Of the small number of students able to take advantage of the initiative, 62 percent used the VIC. The initiative made the voter identification process run more smoothly and reduced the need to ask the responsible authorities for letters of attestation of residence.”
Wonderful!
But after this bill passes, that will be killed. No more letting Betty from the room at the end of the cancer ward go down with her voter information card and her hospital bracelet. No more letting First Nations employ their status cards as a second piece, alongside the red-and-white card.
Why?
Poilievre hasn’t explained that to us yet.
Brad Butt, MP for Mississauga–Streetsville, made an attempt during the debate. He told the House that he’s seen campaign workers scoop up piles of voter information cards and hand them out to dummy voters, and then take them all to the polls.
Well, unless Brad Butt is a superspy, and was stalking those campaign workers (or, unless it was his campaign that was doing it) that’s entirely absurd and made up.
You still need a second piece of ID to use those voter information cards — it’s benefit is that it serves as proof of address (for voters with outdated ID) and it serves as a corroborative second piece for voters who do not have photo identification. It has not been, nor can it be, the sole piece of identification for a voter.
The government should get props for expanding the list of useable IDs, but they’ve utterly failed to explain why these two charges are necessary.
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Other columns by Justin Ling
To Charte, or not to Charte?
Harper and the liberal journalists of Sparks Street
Harper’s Israeli Rorschach Test
Follow Justin Ling on twitter: @Justin_LingLowell Cohn: Jed York should be answering questions about this 49ers mess
SANTA CLARA
Jed York is the most-hated sports-team owner in Northern California. No one else comes even close.
I bring this up because Jed’s father, John, told reporters in Atlanta after the 49ers lost their 13th in a row, that he and his wife Denise — the parents of Jed — are not stripping him of his power, as has been reported. And the parents are not moving Jed out of football operations.
This, I suppose, was to reassure Jed. It’s terrible when your parents fire you, even when you deserve it. But are the fans supposed to feel reassured that Jed is sticking around? The dad, no football genius himself, just served notice on everyone that his management-inadequate son, only 36 years old, will be in charge making a mess of things for a long time to come.
Feeling reassured, Niners fans?
Happy for Jed, Niners fans?
I want to put this sad, bad news about the bumbler Jed into a context. Coach Chip Kelly held his weekly news conference on Monday. Chip stood in front of the media and heard us ask him questions about his own inadequacies. Why does the team keep losing? Is Chip doing a good job? Painful but fair questions.
And Chip stood up to them. But, really, Chip should not be up there week after week bobbing and weaving from incoming missiles, in spite of the fact he is a substandard coach. Jed should be the one standing there explaining himself, explaining what keeps going wrong year after year on his watch.
Jed is the architect of the mess. Jed alone. Jed hired Chip, who also is part of the mess. But Jed is responsible for the full catastrophe, and no one sees him or hears from him these days. Which may or may not mean he is a coward. You make the call.
It is Jed who kept Trent Baalke instead of Jim Harbaugh.
It is Jed who created an environment in which no credible coach wants the 49ers head-coaching job. Jed was reduced to hiring two men the league did not want — Jim Tomsula and Chip. Jed takes what he can get — the league’s leftovers.
It is Jed whose team has about $45 million in cap space but barely paid for credible free agents for this season. It is Jed who runs the team with the fifth-highest value in the NFL and it is Jed who did not spend. Some people call this being cheap.
It is Jed who does not care about winning. Doesn’t seem to care.
It is Jed who has given fans — The Faithful — the impression he’s OK with losing. Jed and his parents rake in the money. That’s all they seem to care about. They are filthy rich. Winning be damned. Jed makes season-ticket holders and PSL holders a bunch of suckers.
People used to make fun of Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, said he was the worst owner in the league. Wrong. Snyder used to be a bad owner — he’s improving — but he always wanted to win.
He spent money to win. He just didn’t know how to run a football operation. Jed is not even in Daniel Snyder’s class. That’s how disappointing Jed is.The U.S. government is proposing to charge a new fee for every vehicle or pedestrian crossing the U.S.-Canada border — an idea that has prompted fierce objections from New York lawmakers who claim the levy would stifle transboundary commerce and undermine recent efforts to ease the flow of people and goods between the two countries.
The Canadian government, too, is raising alarms about the proposal, with an embassy spokesman in Washington telling the Buffalo News that “we’re confident that any study would conclude that the considerable economic damage any fee would do would greatly outweigh any revenue generated.”
The issue flared on Friday in the U.S. after Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democratic congressman from Buffalo, N.Y., drew attention to an item buried deeply in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s proposed 2014 budget, released last week by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Exactly how and where such a fee would be collected, whether it would focus on those entering or leaving the U.S. — or both — and how much each crossing might cost each traveller have not been determined.
But Higgins slammed the fee idea as “the absolute last thing we should be doing” at a time when both the U.S. and Canada are working to streamline cross-border movements, even as the countries’ respective border-security regimes aim to strengthen monitoring and enforcement along the 8,900-kilometre binational frontier.
Higgins has also suggested that a crossing fee at the Canada-U.S. border would be used to unfairly “subsidize” the more expensive and challenging security operations required along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Department of Homeland Security budget blueprint proposes to “conduct a study assessing the feasibility and cost relating to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee for both land border pedestrians and passenger vehicles along the northern and southwest borders of the United States.”
The study, to be completed within nine months, would explore “the feasibility of collecting from existing operators on the land border such as bridge commissions, toll operators, commercial passenger bus, and commercial passenger rail.”
It would also identify the investments necessary to collect the fee “at land ports of entry where existing capability is not present,” and probe whether there are “any legal and regulatory impediments to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee.”
In a written statement about the proposed budget, submitted by Napolitano ahead of her appearance last week at the House of Representatives homeland security committee, she said her department needed to find fresh revenue streams through fees to hire new border guards and to support increasingly expensive operations at international crossing points.
“Processing the more than 350 million travellers annually provides nearly $150 billion in economic stimulus, yet the fees that support these operations have not been adjusted in many cases for more than a decade,” Napolitano stated. “As the complexity of our operations continues to expand, the gap between fee collections and the operations they support is growing, and the number of workforce hours fees support decreases each year.”Reddit Ask Me Anything Happening soon!!
I will be hosting an AMA over on reddit at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST/ 1pm PST.. We are so close to reaching our crafting stretch goal!! Make sure to join us for this AMA! Bring your friends, bring your family, bring anyone you feel will help us reach our stretch goal!! We can do this! Even though we only have a few hours left on our Kickstarter, we can push through to crafting with your help!!
First Acaean Lore Release!!
Today we release the lore for the first faction within the Acaean race! The Feral Faction! The Acaean race is extremely interesting and I am sure many of you will enjoy reading up on this unique race within the Novus AEterno universe!
The Feral Faction!
Paypal After Kickstarter!!
Once Kickstarter ends we will be keeping Paypal open! Until the end of January all the Kickstarter tier will stay exactly the way they are right now. At the end of January we will be revamping our Paypal. The tiers will change and many of the awesome things available right now will no longer be available, so grab them while you can!! We will also be adding additional items to our Add-ons!
So make sure you keep telling people about Novus AEterno, we can reach a few more stretch goals before the game goes live!
A true MMO needs Pets (and Skins)!
As in any MMO available these days, it is an unspoken rule that players must have access to pets. With this in mind we are proud to announce the inclusion of pets on player capital ships.
Pets will follow you around as you explore the interior of your ship and will go about their daily lives even when you aren’t around. They will be cute and cuddly but mostly deadly. Want to turn your bridge into a zoo? That is all up to you!
Having a baby Veru’nas pet on board our ship might be really fun, but just remember to have enough resources to keep them fed, or you might end up with a few missing crew members!!
There will be one exclusive pet which will be available as an add-on for a short time! We will also make a few other pets available through Paypal that will also be available within the in-game store!
We will be adding various skins to the add-ons as well! All these skins will be available once the game releases, but they will cost more.
EVERY person who has backed us during our Kickstarter will be receiving an exclusive Veru’nas and Cauldron Born capital ship skin as a thank you for reaching both race stretch goals. Only people who have backed during the time our Kickstarter is still open will receive these exclusive skins!!! These skins will not be available anywhere else!The following videos were uploaded by Liquid Chris from August through November 2009.
This time period encompasses the Kacey Saga, and ends with Sonichu Special 4: the notorious shot-through-the-knees comic.
Pre-Kacey Saga
Ian, Talking Time is Over. The REAL Christian Weston Chandler is SICK of Your Lies. Come CLEAN.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
I am VERY Ticked Off right Now. CWC
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Hello, y'all. Just droppin' by For a Quick Update. Check out the New Store! http://cwcstore.blogspot.com/ CWC
I, Christian Weston Chandler of Ruckersville, Virginia, Have Grown Up.
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The Judges also Agree: I am the WINNER of the SingStar Challenge and the TRUE and HONEST Christian Weston Chandler. Goodbye, Youtube. And Every Soul whose Heart I have Touched, and has Touched Mine Back. I have Found Myself, and Kacey and I will Grow Together. CWC
GONE
10152009
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
I am Not Dead!!! Also, I have Sonichu's Patent now. Thank you For Your Support, my Fans! CWC
Kacey Saga
THIS will NOT STAND, you HOMO JERK. FROM: the True C.W.C with Birth Name Christopher.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
ACCEPT MY CHALLENGE, for KACEY AND I'S PURE LOVE. I will Be Right Here. CWC (Christopher by Birth)
BACK THE FUCK OFF OF KACEY, OR I WILL DESTROY YOU! SIGNED CHRISTOPHER C.W.C. :-(
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Recorded in Front of the CWCVille Mayor's Office :) CWC
M.C. CWC Serves The Girlfriend Thief the Rhymes to Win Kacey Back
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Please Excuse the Curses, Swearing, and General Bad Language in this Video. Peace, CWC
My Half of A Whole New World For Kacey
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Let us Sing This Duet together in Our Hearts. CWC
Sonichu's Copyright Proof and Thank You Kacey's Father
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:AAs technology deals go, it was hardly headline-grabbing: the giant US-based defence contractor Lockheed Martin is buying $10m (Dh36.7m) of computer hardware. But it may mark the start of the biggest revolution in computer technology since the invention of the microchip.
The hardware at the centre of the deal is said to be the world's first commercial quantum computer, a device that - in theory at least - could make today's computers seem as sluggish as an abacus.
Exploiting sub-atomic phenomena that defy classical physics, a quantum computer could solve myriad problems in one swoop, rather than cranking through each in turn. The result is an unimaginable increase in number-crunching power, with a single machine outgunning the combined power of every PC on Earth.
With those capabilities, $10m seems like a pretty amazing deal. The reality, of course, has a few caveats. Lockheed Martin has signed up to collaborate with D-Wave, the Canadian company that made the computer, to explore its powers over the coming years. And among scientists, that company is somewhat controversial. Based in the province of British Columbia, D-Wave made headlines four years ago by demonstrating what it said was a prototype quantum computer, which seemed a huge advance on anything else produced to that date.
The claim met with much scepticism, principally because it was not clear that D-Wave's machine really was exploiting the phenomena at the heart of a genuine quantum computer.
The central importance of these was first recognised by scientists in the 1980s. In conventional computers, data is processed in the form of 1s and 0s known as binary digits or "bits". So, for example, the number 9 in binary form becomes 1001, which thus requires four "bits" to represent it. In this form, data can be worked on by microchips, which churn through the bits one at a time.
Under the strange rules of the quantum world, however, it's possible to create bits that represent both 1 and 0 at the same time. The trick lies in a phenomenon called superposition, by which particles like electrons can exist in multiple states simultaneously.
A single electron can be put into a state so that it represents a mix of both 1 and 0 at the same time, creating the quantum equivalent of a binary digit, a "qubit". Qubits are thus an astonishingly efficient form of data: while four ordinary bits are needed to represent just the number 9, four qubits can represent all sixteen numbers (that is, 2 to the power 4) from 0 to 15 simultaneously.
Better still, quantum theory also allows whole groups of these qubits to be linked together - "entangled" - so their properties can be processed simultaneously. This leads to an awesome increase in number-crunching power. A quantum computer using just 100 qubits would be able to handle problems involving two to the power 100 different states in one go. That's around 10 to the power 30 - a one followed by 30 zeros, or more than the number of stars in the universe.
The applications of such power are endless, from designing life-saving drugs to predicting climate change and probing the origins of the cosmos. Frustratingly, though, scientists have to date had little success in realising such mind-boggling potential.
The biggest challenge lies in the delicate nature of qubits, which can lose their quantum properties all too easily, making them no better than ordinary bits.
So great is the effort required to ensure qubits keep their magic that, to date, the most complex problem solved using quantum computing is finding the prime factors of 15 (which are five and three, in case you don't have a quantum computer to hand).
D-Wave has tackled this delicate problem by looking for more robust types of qubit. They appear to have succeeded by using rings of so-called superconducting material that can be persuaded to carry current in two different directions at once. But while no one doubts that these materials exhibit quantum behaviour, it is less clear that the resulting qubits exploit the effects needed for a real quantum computer.
D-Wave has now answered some of its critics with research published recently in the journal Nature. This shows that the qubits really are acting in ways that can only be explained using quantum theory. Sceptics have been quick to point out, however, that this by itself is not enough: unless the qubits show both superposition and entanglement, they will never achieve the power of a full-blown quantum computer.
The company's scientists are convinced their qubits will turn out to have everything needed for a quantum computer. But in any case, if D-Wave's publicity is to be believed, the machine is still immensely powerful even if it is not the "real deal". The company says it is especially well-suited to solving certain types of real-life problem. These include "optimisation" - that is, finding really good solutions to problems with multiple answers, such as the quickest route between various cities.
Certainly Lockheed Martin is not the only major company impressed by its potential; Google has been experimenting with D-Wave's technology for several years. In 2009, the search giant announced that it had been using a D-Wave computer to sift through images and identify specific targets faster than possible with existing methods.
If D-Wave's machine lives up to its billing, its development will echo the story of another breakthrough technology: the aeroplane. When the Wright brothers announced the success of their first flight in 1903, they met with scepticism. For centuries people believed the only way to fly was to imitate the birds. The genius of the Wright brothers lay in showing that by taking a different tack it was possible to come up with a solution that, while lacking the elegance of nature, was still highly effective.
The dream of full quantum computing may never become a reality. But if the D-Wave machine takes us even a little way towards it, the consequences could be epochal.
Robert Matthews is visiting reader in science at Aston University, Birmingham, EnglandPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
HARRISBURG, Pa. - An audit of the Department of Human Services found thousands of dollars in state public assistance benefit funds were paid out to recipients who were already deceased, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Thursday.
According to the audit, 2,324 recipients who were already dead received $693,161 in public assistance funds on their EBT accounts between July 2013 and June 2014.
"Not only does DHS continue to put dollars on the cards assigned to individuals who have died, it often fails to detect use of those dollars," DePasquale said at a news conference Thursday.
Digging deeper into some of these recipients, investigators found that benefits paid to deceased recipients were still being used to make purchases.
"In one of the cases we found a cardholder who died on May 1, 2013, continued to receive $200 per month placed on their EBT card through September," he said in a news release. "Then, over a 22-day period in December 2013 and January 2014, nearly $800 in purchases were made with that card."
The Department of Human Services disputed the numbers given by DePasquale, saying its calculations found $331,432 in incorrect payments over the same time period. The department claims it recovered $681,660 from the accounts of the deceased in this audit.
"It was actually some incorrect payments were made, but those amounts were later expunged off the cards due to inactivity, which is not surprising given the folks had passed on," DHS Secretary Ted Dallas said.
Auditors also found that more than $70 million a year in public assistance funds over a three-year period were being spent out-of-state.
During that period, more than $14 million was spent in Florida, and purchases were made in all 50 states, including popular holiday destinations like North Carolina and Hawaii.
"It's probably safe to say that people weren't going to Hawaii to do their grocery shopping," DePasquale said.
But DHS countered that, saying its monitoring system has prevented nearly $27 million in inappropriate purchases since 2012, and said 2.7 percent of EBT purchases are made out-of-state. Taking out the states that border Pennsylvania reduces that figure to 0.6 percent, according to a DHS fact sheet.
"Our goal is zero fraud," Dallas said. "What we're talking about here is really less than.01 percent of all benefits issued."
The Department of Human Services says it has implemented several reforms dating back to the Corbett administration, but has made strides under Governor Tom Wolf.
As a direct result of this audit, DHS now changes how it handles redeterminations in single-person households, deactivating the account once the death notification has been issued, rather than following the federal guideline of waiting for a redetermination.Apple seems to have inadvertently referenced a new model of Mac mini on an Apple Support page. The page was last modified yesterday, presumably to include information on the new MacBook Pro’s but instead lists “Mac mini (Mid 2014)” as a supported machine. There is a possibility that this is simply a human error on Apple’s part, of course, confusing the MacBook Pro and the Mac mini updates. There haven’t really been rumors of a new Mac mini being in the works, but due to the relative unimportance of the product in the Mac lineup, it is not of the question for it to have slid under the radar.
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The Mac mini was last updated in 2012 and, as such, a refresh is long overdue. There is a chance this is simply a mistake on Apple’s part. We have asked Apple for comment on the situation.
Update:This article is over 2 years old
Case comes after authorities refused the couple’s request to have their relationship officially recognised as a marriage last June
A Chinese judge has rejected a gay couple’s attempt to secure the right to marry in the country’s first same-sex marriage case.
Sun Wenlin, 27, from the central province of Hunan, had sued the civil affairs bureau in the city of Changsha for the right to marry his 37-year-old partner Hu Mingliang, a security guard.
China bans depictions of gay people on television Read more
Sun decided to take legal action after authorities refused the couple’s request to have their relationship officially recognised as a marriage last June, on their first anniversary together.
In January a court in Changsha agreed to hear their case, which activists said was the first of its kind in China.
At lunchtime on Wednesday a judge in Changsha announced he was dismissing the case shortly after the three-hour trial hearing had ended.
Speaking to the Guardian after the unexpectedly quick verdict, Sun said he believed the court had not taken enough time to consider their case and had been “too cautious”.
He vowed to continue his quest for the right to marry.
“We will continue to appeal. I think it is worthwhile. It catches people’s attention and it will help our opinions spread,” Sun said.
“What we are trying to achieve is freedom and equality.”
Shi Fulong, the lawyer representing the couple, claimed the court had provided insufficient grounds for dismissing the case but said gay marriage was destined to become a reality in China in the not-so-distant future.
“If the law is unable to provide people with equality and justice, it means the law needs to be changed,” he said.
Earlier hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) campaigners had gathered outside the court to show their support for the couple’s case.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest People register to attend the court session for China’s first same-sex marriage case. Photograph: Gerry Shih/AP
John Shen, a prominent gay rights activist, said he was optimistic about the future for China’s LGBT community, pointing to legal cases in which Chinese citizens had sought to safeguard their rights.
“Even though the case was rejected by the court I still think it is a big step since it has already raised huge attention and discussion, which was the case’s original goal,” said Shen, who is programme manager at the Beijing LGBT Centre, China’s oldest and largest advocacy group. “It is a monument on the way to victory.”
Nearly 20 years after China decriminalised homosexuality, in 1997, Shen said the LGBT community continued to face challenges. Homosexuality was still considered a mental health issue by many Chinese doctors and the country had no anti-discrimination law.
Some Chinese psychiatrists continue to prescribe electric shock treatment to gay patients in an attempt to “cure” them.
A recent survey conducted by the Beijing LGBT Centre found that most members of the LGBT community faced discrimination at university or work. “The situation was actually worse than we thought,” Shen said.
A separate study of the views of Chinese medical professionals found that 67% considered sexual orientation to be something that could be changed.
However, Shen, whose group has campaigned for gay marriage since 2009, said recent legal cases, in which Chinese citizens had sought to safeguard their rights through the courts, represented huge progress.
In September last year the filmmaker Fan Popo sued China’s censorship department in an attempt to discover why his 2012 documentary, Mama Rainbow, had been removed from the internet. The film tells the stories of six gay and lesbian characters coming out to their parents.
Two months after that case, the LGBT cause returned to the courtroom when a university student sued the ministry of education for permitting homophobic material to circulate in state-sanctioned school textbooks.
On Monday a Chinese court heard the country’s first transgender discrimination case.
“It is a very amazing time for us right now. One year ago we couldn’t have imagined such things in China. It is very inspiring,” said Shen, noting that China’s gay rights movement only started to take shape in the late 1990s.
“We are 30 years [behind] the west,” he said. But change was coming.
“Last year, if you’d have asked me [when China would allow gay marriage] I would have said maybe 20 years. Today I think maybe it will come a little sooner,” he said.
“I think we will have more litigation like this in the future, on many other topics, and we will also encourage other communities to join this kind of litigation with us to use the Chinese law to change the Chinese law.”
Additional reporting by Christy YaoWorld
US-Led Coalition Airstrike Kills Two Families in Raqqa
TEHRAN (FNA)- The US-led coalition killed two Syrian families during the aerial attack in the town of Tel Abyadh.
Two Syrian families in Syria’s Raqqa province were killed in a US-led coalition airstrike, Arabic media reported Saturday.
According to Al Jazeera television channel, the coalition conducted the aerial attack in the town of Tel Abyadh.
Tel Abyadh is situated in the vicinity of the city of Raqqa, occupied by the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) jihadist group, outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United States. Kurdish militants announced the liberation of Tel Abyadh from Daesh in June last year.
The US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against Daesh in Syria and Iraq since September 2014.
A ceasefire in Syria, agreed by Russia and the United States earlier this week, took effect at midnight on Saturday Damascus time (22:00 GMT on Friday), but it does not concern Daesh and Nusra Front extremists.Relationships that began online are slightly happier, the research finds.
Relationships that start online are slightly happier, researchers say. (Photo11: Jennifer S. Altman for USA TODAY) Story Highlights Researchers: Relationships that start online are less likely to split
Mobile dating is expected to drive growth
Study was commissioned by the dating website eHarmony, leading some to question the findings
More than a third of recent marriages in the USA started online, according to a study out Monday that presents more evidence of just how much technology has taken hold of our lives.
"Societally, we are going to increasingly meet more of our romantic partners online as we establish more of an online presence in terms of social media," says Caitlin Moldvay, a dating industry senior analyst for market research firm IBISWorld in Santa Monica, Calif. "I do think mobile dating is going to be the main driver of this growth."
The research, based on a survey of more than 19,000 individuals who married between 2005 and 2012, also found relationships that began online are slightly happier and less likely to split than those that started offline.
Findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, put the percentage of married couples that now meet online at almost 35% -- which gives what may be the first broad look at the overall percentage of new marriages that result from meeting online. About 45% of couples met on dating sites; the rest met on online social networks, chat rooms, instant messaging or other online forums.
Lead author John Cacioppo, a psychologist and director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, says dating sites may "attract people who are serious about getting married."
While Cacioppo is a noted researcher and the study is in a prestigious scientific journal, it is not without controversy. It was commissioned by the dating website eHarmony, according to the study's conflict of interest statement. Company officials say eHarmony paid Harris Interactive $130,000 to field the research. Cacioppo has been a member of eHarmony's Scientific Advisory Board since it was created in 2007. In addition, former eHarmony researcher Gian Gonzaga is one of the |
grassroots activism they have forced their issues on to the party’s agenda. Sanders has taken that same disruptive spirit into a national campaign to restore the Democrats’ New Deal values, and reverse their capitulation to the Republican fiscal agenda that began with the presidency of Bill Clinton.
He grounds his campaign in the time-honored tradition of America’s progress towards social justice – whether on race, women’s equality, labor rights and LGBT equality – being driven not by elected politicians, but by the willingness of ordinary women and men to take action that eventually compels political elites to respond. He’s not promising to solve problems himself, as much as to use the White House as a bully pulpit to mobilize citizens against the forces that keep the status quo intact.
“You have to develop grassroots organizations,” he told an interviewer questioning how he’d deliver with so little support for his positions on Capitol Hill. “You have to bring the grassroots in much closer to what’s happening in Congress.” Elsewhere, he noted: “We can elect the best person in the world to be president, but that person will get swallowed up unless there is an unprecedented level of activism at the grassroots level.”
Barack Obama also rode the crest of a mass movement seeking progressive change to win the nomination and the election in 2008. But he just as quickly demobilized it and governed as a centrist technocrat. In Sanders’ own telling, Obama’s biggest mistake was that “after his brilliant campaign in 2008, he basically said to the millions of people who supported him: ‘Thanks for getting me elected – I will take it from here.’ I will not make that mistake.”
Why I feel betrayed by Bernie Sanders | Lucia Graves Read more
A “movement” campaign for a “movement” presidency, then, in the tradition of America’s social justice history of which Sanders was a part, as a young activist against segregation and war.
These goals are generational, and achieving them isn’t dependent on winning the Democratic nomination. We won’t know whether the campaign succeeded or failed in this longer game for many years to come. But given its movement-building goals, we know that it will not necessarily have failed if he doesn’t secure the Democratic party nomination.
The scale of support Sanders drew in a hastily conceived presidential bid launched less than a year ago is evidence of wide and deep enthusiasm for his ideas, not his persona. It’s a relatively safe bet that the next time the Democratic party has to chose a nominee, that person’s ideas will be closer to Sanders’ than to Clinton’s.
The key, for Sanders, is his belief that the grassroots activism of his campaign has to continue after the election – whether or not it puts him in the White House. The metric of his campaign’s success is not simply whether voters in the primaries or in November “feel the Bern”. He has made clear all along that, win or lose, it’s the after-Bern that counts."The world belongs to Satan," according to rock star Alice Cooper – and his job is to warn people that the Devil is real.
Kreepin Deth Alice Cooper performing live at Wembley Arena in 2012.
Known for his outrageous stage act which featured guillotines, electric chairs, chopped up dolls and songs about necrophilia, Cooper – born Vince Furnier – has been a Christian for many years.
In an interview with CNS News he spoke of his struggle with alcoholism, saying: "Thirteen years ago I stopped drinking and I started going back to church. I was throwing up blood every morning, I was really a bad alcoholic. I wasn't a cruel or mean alchoholic, but I was definitely a self-destructive one."
Asked what he would say to people struggling with drugs, alcohol or pornography, he said: "The world doesn't belong to us, the world belongs to Satan. We're living in that world, bombarded with that every day. If you don't have Christ in your life, you're a victim to that."
He also reflected on his Christian family heritage. "My grandfather was a pastor for 75 years," he said. "I grew up in a Christian home. My wife's father is a Baptist pastor. We were PKs, preachers kids and married each other. so I always refer to myself as the real prodigal son because... I went out and the Lord led me through everything, maybe allowed it but then started reeling me back in, saying OK, you've seen enough, now let's bring you back to where you belong."
He continued: "When I stopped drinking I started going back to church with my wife and there was this pastor in Phoenix who was just hellfire. There'd be 6,000 people there and he was talking to me, every Sunday. I was exhausted. Every weekend I'd come out of there and I'd be, 'I don't want to go back.' But I always came back and I finally realised I had to go one side or the other."
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While he was "still a rock and roller", he said, "I certainly don't do it in the same spirit I used to do it in. And I watch the songs, lyrically, about what I'm singing about. A lot of the songs I used to do were way over the line."
On the difference his faith had made, he said: "Before, you're always self-centred, everything is always for you, your self is god. Humans make lousy gods, we have to let God be God and us be what we are."
Cooper was also interviewed by DC Beacon for HM: The Hard Music Magazine. He has avoided what he calls 'celebrity Christianity' and told HM: "It's really easy to focus on Alice Cooper and not on Christ. I'm a rock singer. I'm nothing more than that. I'm not a philosopher. I consider myself low on the totem pole of knowledgeable Christians. So, don't look for answers from me."
In his stage persona, Cooper says that he sees himself as "the prophet of doom", warning his audience: "Be careful! Satan is not a myth. Don't sit around pretending like Satan is just a joke." He said: "I think my job is to warn about Satan."03/04/2017 8:18 AM by John M
The Urban Design Committee takes up the pedestrian plazas of the proposed Church Hill North Culinary Complex at their Thursday, March 9, 2017 meeting.
The design is way beyond the brick rectangle:
The Markels worked with O’Neill McVoy Architects, who are a part of the design team for the VCU Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), to design the culinary school building. The Markels share the City’s dream for this project being an integral part of the ongoing dynamic growth and expanding vitality of the Church Hill community. They also have a desire that its architecture capture and reflect the excellence of the J. Sargeant Reynolds Culinary Institute, and make it an icon for decades to come of the transformational power of education and healthy dietary choices. At the same time the project must have a human scale, be inviting to the community, and become a part of its fabric. It must have the ability to attract prospective culinary students from Church Hill community as well as the entire Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond; to form a landmark presence on the important urban corner of 25th Street and 9 Mile Road.
The development will include the culinary school, 11,200 SF for private restaurants, 50,796 SF for 49 apartments, and 7,800 SF for retail space. J. Sargent Reynolds Culinary Institute will anchor the culinary complex development.
— ∮∮∮ —DC Universe Online, the free-to-play massively multiplayer superhero role-playing game, is coming Xbox One.
Developer Daybreak Games revealed the news during a livestream of the Colin & Greg show on Twtich, and then confirmed it on Twitter.
Daybreak Games developed DC Universe Online and released it in 2011, when the company was still Sony Online Entertainment. The game is currently available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC. DCUO was among the first console-available MMORPGs, and has received a steady stream of episodic content and story updates over the past five years.
SOE became Daybreak Games in February 2015, and the company has been teasing potential development for Microsoft’s console. DC Universe Online for Xbox One is the first new release announced by Daybreak since they rebranded.In the past, I have briefly written my theology of coffee. I truly do love coffee. I don’t feel addicted to it, but just really enjoy it, especially a couple of warm cups early in the morning in my office with my Bible open. And Europe has some good coffee.
But I have also wanted to write a theology of beer as well. I must admit, and I am not ashamed to say so, I really enjoy beer. Yes, it is a special activity here in Belgium. And God was gracious in calling me to a land that has such wonderful beer.
Though, my main goal is not to really lay out why it is ok to partake of alcoholic beverages, I briefly give three Biblical reasons why:
1) In a passage probably not as well known, Deuteronomy 14:22-27, the Lord lays out what is to take place in celebrating the tithe. The people were to come with their tithe – of grain, wine, oil and firstborn of the flock and herd – to eat it and celebrate before the Lord. They were to do this in the place God would choose, which would later become Jerusalem.
But, if this place chosen was too far away, God was reasonable and told His people to sell these things mentioned above and still make their way to Jerusalem, but now with the lighter load. Once they arrived, God said this: spend the money for whatever you desire – oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves (vs26).
Now, I am aware of the arguments that wine was non-fermented (which I disagree with, but will come onto in just a moment). But no one can refute the phrase, ‘strong drink’. It’s pretty obvious this is in reference to something with alcohol, something fermented.
And, of course, such would be expected, since God was calling them to celebrate. Hey, that’s something to consider about our giving – are we celebrating as we give! But that’s another article on another day.
So, first off, God is ok with us celebrating with strong drink. Matter of fact, He commanded it in days of old!
2) When we read Paul’s rebuke to the Corinthians, specifically the one in reference to their celebration of the Lord’s Supper (or the ‘agape feasts’ they celebrated), we read something interesting in that passage. Specifically, in vs21, he says they were getting drunk!
Now, the only way one can get drunk on wine is if it actually is fermented. You can’t get drunk on non-fermented wine (simple grape juice). It’s quite the difficult thing.
Of course, they were wrong in getting drunk. But the mere fact that they were able to get drunk shows they were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with fermented wine during their gatherings.
3) Let’s all be honest. To suppose that when the word wine is used in Scripture, it refers to non-fermented wine, this is not a strong argument. Why do I say? Well, I could walk down the path that a colleague once did by stating something to this affect: ‘When Jesus preached to the masses, it didn’t have to detail that He had clothes on. It would have been an obvious reality. Thus, when it speaks of wine in Scripture, it did not need to detail it as fermented wine. It would have been an obvious reality.’
But, even more, let’s just simply think about this. Back in those days they did not have refrigerators. Those were invented just a few centuries later. Why do I mention this? Because, to keep pure grape juice from fermenting, they would have to refrigerate it. But with no access to such technology, we can easily conclude that such drink would rather quickly ferment. It’s just a simple and practical reality about it the subject.
So, these are three reasons for alcoholic or fermented beverages being acceptable to drink. God created it and pronounced it good.
Of course, drunkenness is not healthy (Ephesians 5:18; Proverbs 23:29-35), but this texts speak of strong intoxication. Therefore, let’s also not try and be the Holy Spirit, telling how much a person can have – one drink, two drinks, etc. Let’s let Him be who He says He is.
But going back to beer, I am happy to be planted here in the land of Belgium. Yes, it is known for it’s chocolate and waffles. But it really has fine beer as well. Matter of fact, it seems that Belgium can boast 1,498 total beers, and that in such a small country. Of course, knowing the vastness of a place like America and all its micro-breweries, I am sure the number is well over 10,000. But, such a number for Belgium is quite amazing.
One of the unique things they do here is producing a different glass for each different brand of beer. No, there isn’t 1,498 different beer glasses. But, there is a differing one for each brand. So, one brewing company or monastery might produce multiple beers, but they will only have one glass per label brand. Still, walking into cafes, bars and restaurants, you will find so many varying beer glasses of all shapes and sizes.
My favourite beer in Belgium is Leffe Bruin (Brown), though they also have a Blonde (Blond) one. It is not your ‘working man’s beer’ (so not comparable with a Budweiser in the USA). But it is a regular beer offered everywhere you go. But it is mighty fine and tasty. I also enjoy Chimay Blauw (Blue), which is really a trappist. It is another darker beer with a little higher alcohol content. [My mouth is beginning to water even now as I type.]
Another interesting thing to note about beer in Belgium is that many of them are of a higher alcoholic percentage – 8, 10 and 12%. So they can get pretty high, almost like the alcohol percentage of a glass of wine.
The only negative about Belgian beers is that, as they get higher in alcohol content, it seems the sweeter they become. So, they can get kind of sweet, which can wear on your taste buds after a little while.
Beer is just part of European culture. You can even get one of those Jupiler’s at McDonald’s. There is no secondary thought of whether it’s wrong. It just is part of life, no questions asked.
And so, being one who very much enjoys beer, I am glad to be in Belgium. I’m collecting differing bottles, glasses, and tasting the various kinds of beer available in this little land. Therefore, just as I am thankful God created Asians for their amazing food, I am grateful God created Belgians and their lovely beers.Antonio Cromartie has made a career out of shutting down...
Antonio Cromartie can’t retire from football anytime soon.
The Jets cornerback will have 12 children to support, including the twins who wife Terricka Cason announced last week are on the way.
Besides the two children he already has with Terricka, Cromartie, 31, has eight kids with seven other women across the country. He pays each about $3,500 a month in child support — an estimated $336,000 a year.
That takes up just a small chunk of his guaranteed $7 million salary in 2015. But under a four-year, $32 million contract he signed in March 2015, the rest is not guaranteed. The Jets can cut him loose at any time.
Before settling down with Terricka, an ex-model who co-starred in the 2009 E! reality show “Candy Girls,” Cromartie seduced, impregnated and dumped a string of women across the country, from his high school sweetheart in Tallahassee, Fla., to a corporate lawyer and former Miss Black North Carolina.
Several of the women have taken him to court over custody and financial disputes. A Houston woman who bore two of Cromartie’s daughters has demanded a bigger monthly payment.
And several baby mamas say Cromartie spends little time with his far-flung brood.
“These kids have to Google to find out about their dad,” one told The Post.
Cason expressed shock to US Weekly that she is expecting twins — even after Cromartie had undergone a vasectomy, which is 99.85 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.
Cason trumpeted similar news in April 2012, when she posted a sonogram photo on Twitter showing twin fetuses. She accepted congratulations, and wrote, “Identical twins run in my family.” But she did not give birth to twins, and it’s unclear whether it was a miscarriage or a hoax.
Susan Edelman first reported on Cromartie’s multiple wives and children in 2010.
Cromartie is Gang Green's top seed with eight baby mamas over six states
Cromartie is Gang Green's top seed with eight baby mamas over six statesThink about Donald Trump.
Now think about Bernie Sanders.
Does a Democratic Socialist from Brooklyn have anything in common with a carrot-topped billionaire?
Yes!
Their personal histories and political policies couldn’t be farther apart, but their appeal has a startling similarity: Both have significant support among voters who don’t trust the Federal government to do what’s right.
In the Republican race, Trump leads Sen. Ted Cruz, his closest rival, 53% -11%–a huge margin–among voters who distrust the government in Washington, D.C.
And on the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders has an even bigger edge, 69-21% over Hillary Clinton.
"Normally when we look at voters in these elections, we look at how liberal or conservative they are- but that’s not what’s going on here. We’re looking at how trust is overtaking how people think about their vote, and that’s driving Sanders and Trump," said Dr. Josh Dyck, UMass Lowell pollster
But Clinton gets the best of Sanders when New Hampshire voters from both parties were asked, no matter who you’ll vote for, who do you think will be the next president?
Hillary Clinton was the number one answer with 23%, with Trump just a point behind, at 22%, and Sanders with 16%.
Interestingly, 30% are still undecided.
"It’s fascinating that 30%- that number – 30% keep your eye on that. It’s greater support of any candidate is getting who we think will win. So voters don’t
know what’s going on in this election and that really highlights how unusual it is," said Dr. Dyck.
Now imagine a Trump-Sanders general election.
No matter who won, the mandate would be for change…Big change!
The problem is there’s no significant change both liberals and conservatives support.
What each side wants, the other fears.
(Copyright (c) 2016 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)Exhibit “China Comes to Tech: 1877-1931” opened to fanfare on Feb. 10 with a reception at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It commemorates the first student from China to enroll at MIT in 1877, marking the 140th anniversary of Chinese students at the school.
“There is a history of exchange that celebrates and reflects diversity,” said curator Emma Teng. She thanked her team for their efforts, from collecting photographs to looking up records from Institute archives.
By 1910, China sent more students to MIT than any other foreign country, who returned to China with knowledge of new technology and science. In 1930, MIT president Karl T. Compton said, “The Institute is justly proud of the splendid part which her graduates have played in the New China and is happy to be of service in the further training of the young men to whom will come the opportunity and responsibility to organize the resources of this great sister republic, especially in science, engineering and business administration.”
The MIT Chinese Students’ Club published the “MIT Chinese Students Directory: For the Past Fifty Years” in 1931 with Compton’s support. The students were of Chinese heritage, some born in America, Australia and beyond. Among the students were William Ding Moy, the first Chinese American from Boston’s Chinatown to attend MIT, and Li Fu Lee, the first woman from China to study at the school. Lee appears to be the first woman to receive an MIT degree in electrical engineering.
The exhibit discusses the effect of Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 on Chinese students at the time, a timely reminder in light of recent executive actions affecting seven Muslim-majority nations.
“This is what happens when you don’t read history,” Teng said.
The exhibit is at the Maihaugen Gallery, Building 14N-130, until November.
For more information, visit www.chinacomestomit.org.
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This post is also available in: ChineseCyber Monday, When It Starts, and Current Trends The Biggest Shopping Day of the Year Share
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••• Photo: Purestock/Getty Images
Cyber Monday is November 26, 2018, the first Monday after Thanksgiving. It was christened by Shop.org in 2005. At that time, shoppers needed the faster internet speeds from work computers to shop online. Now, personal laptops and mobile devices are as fast as work computers.
In 2017, it was the biggest shopping day of the year. According to Adobe Digital Insights, online shoppers spent $6.6 billion, 16.5 percent more than in 2016.
Cyber Monday sales replaced those of Black Friday, which only received $5 billion in online sales.
Three-fourths of shoppers dive in first thing Monday morning. Twenty-five percent shop during lunch and 34 percent go online Monday night. Only 19 percent take advantage of Cyber Monday sales the rest of the week.
Cyber Monday shopping has started earlier every year. Nearly a third of shoppers begin Cyber Monday on the Sunday before.
Top stores like Walmart, Amazon, and Target, start Cyber week sales on Thanksgiving Day itself. The best way to get in on their deals is to sign up for their email newsletters.
Sales Trends
Cyber Monday has set new records each year since its inception. Since 2009, Cyber Monday sales have more than tripled, as the chart below shows.
Year Sales (in billions) Comments 2009 $0.887 2010 $1.038 First time more than $1 billion in sales. 2011 $1.3 Sales rose 17%. 2012 $1.5 Mobile devices equaled 12.9%. 2013 $2.29 Sales rose 20%. Black Friday fell. 2014 $2.5 2015 $3.04 Stores offered discounts on mobile devices. 2016 $6.6
Why Cyber Monday Is So Popular
Cyber Monday shoppers are very clear about why they like the day. More than 40 percent of time-strapped shoppers said the 24-hour convenience is their highest priority. Almost as many listed their desire to avoid the crowds on Black Friday as their primary reason for shopping online.
Almost a third of online shoppers said they like the ability to easily compare prices.
The strong results on Cyber Monday are because of the aggressive sales offered by retailers with an online presence. Almost 90 percent of retailers offered Cyber Monday sales. Forty-five percent of retailers offered coupons or a percentage discount while more than one-third had limited-time-only promotions. Fewer or 15 percent promoted a free gift-with-purchase.
More than half of retailers offered to increase their "free shipping" budget, while one-third of retailers offered free shipping even earlier than ever. These retailers are smart because 36 percent of shoppers surveyed said they'd increase their online shopping only if shipping were free.
Only a few online shoppers said they would buy less, thanks to expensive shipping charges. Others didn't like that they weren't able to see or handle their purchases ahead of time. Some customers didn't like having to wait for it to be shipped.
Growing Importance of Mobile Technology and Social Media
Shoppers are using social media more than ever. Almost one-third said they would go to a company's Facebook page to get additional information about Cyber Monday sales.
Twice as many would look at customer reviews on the company's website before buying any products or services.
Online retailers respond to shoppers' use of mobile technology and social media by promoting there. More than half of retailers made sure their website sales were optimized for mobile devices. Another 20 percent optimize for tablet device apps. More than a third use QR codes in magazine and billboard ads.
Online retailers also maximized their use of social media. Almost three-quarters said they'd promote sales on their Facebook pages while more than 40 percent promoted on Twitter.
According to the National Retail Federation Annual Survey, 40 percent of tablet users compare prices, while 20 percent redeem coupons. Most important, almost a third buy online using their tablets.
How to Get the Best Cyber Monday Deals
Retail sales can be found on CyberMonday.com, which features a schedule of what retailers offer deals at what times in a "Deal of the Hour" promotion.
You can find sales from more than 800 online retailers.
ComScore reports that more than half of the deals consists of free shipping. Retailers also offered various price discounts. Other offers included free gifts with purchase.
Impact on Retail
Cyber Monday reflects the growth of internet retailing. By 2020, it is expected to reach $523 billion, growing almost 10 percent annually. The increasing power of cell phones is driving that growth. In 2017, people in 16 countries said that 60 percent of their “everyday transactions” occurred in a digital form instead of a store.
The success of internet retailing spells doom for brick-and-mortar stores. In 2018, former J.C. Penney CEO Mike Ullman said that only 25 percent of America's 1,200 shopping malls will survive over the next five years. Those that do will serve the highest-earning 20 percent. Ullman said that only malls that can attract an Apple or Tesla store would survive.
In 2018, retailers filed for bankruptcy at record-high rates. Well-known brands such as Nine West, Claire's, and Toys R Us announced bankruptcy in the first four months of the year.
In Depth: Why Is Black Friday Called Black Friday? | Green MondayOne of the most closely watched, internationally significant cases relating to data privacy and commercial activity is currently before the court in Ireland.
That’s the convoluted case taken in the Commercial Court by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) against Facebook and the Austrian Max Schrems.
The case arises out of last year’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision that the ODPC had a duty to investigate Schrems’s complaint against Facebook Ireland regarding the handling of his data in the United States.
Safe Harbour
In that decision, the ECJ effectively invalidated the old EU/US-agreed Safe Harbour principles. These theoretically ensured European data was given the same protections in the US as under European law but – as the justices rightly noted – was a flimsy construct even before you considered whistleblower Edward Snowden’s evidence of large-scale US surveillance and data-gathering programmes involving companies including, Snowden alleged, Facebook.
In June, the EU confirmed a controversial Safe Harbour replacement, called Privacy Shield, to address the concerns raised in the Schrems decision. Does it? Well, the article 29 working group of Europe’s data protection authorities this week announced continuing reservations with Privacy Shield.
Commercial Court
Meanwhile, following the ECJ ruling, the High Court instructed Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon to conduct an investigation, in which she ruled that Schrems had a valid complaint.
However (and this is where it gets confusing), before going further she asked the Commercial Court here to consider an issue of key import to many international businesses.
This is whether companies could safely opt to use private contracts called model contracts or standard contractual clauses, to exchange data. Facebook used these post-Schrems and pre-Privacy Shield.
Dixon’s draft decision regarding Schrems’s complaint indicates that model clauses are invalid, as they fail to address the same concerns raised by the ECJ over Safe Harbour. Two weeks ago, former US federal trade commissioner Julie Brill – who helped negotiate Privacy Shield – said in Dublin that she doubted model contracts were adequate, given that they were private contracts with little transparency.
Yet model contracts continue to be used by many companies, especially multinationals. Many of these, such as Amazon, told customers that data transfers post-Schrems were covered by model contracts. The European Commission itself said –in a wishy-washy way – that they were too. Probably.
The importance of the model contracts issue and this Irish case is such that the US Government, in a rare move, successfully asked to be appointed ‘amicus curiae’ — an informed advisor — to the court. So too did US privacy organisation the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC).
Bizarre route
But the ODPC has chosen a bizarre route to ask this critical question. Strangely, it is taking a Commercial Court action to request a referral to the ECJ on the point, naming Facebook and Schrems as defendants.
This strategy is baffling (especially naming Schrems as a co-defendant. Why?). Perhaps the ODPC reasoned that the case would be fast-tracked in the Commercial Court. But that has been proven wrong as of this week, when the judge put back the case until February next year, because of the need to find adequate (two weeks) court time. Facebook, predictably, had indicated it needed significant time to prepare its case.
Costly court time
That’s going to be costly time, because the Commercial Court is many times more expensive than other courts.
On past example, costs could be expected to run in excess of a million euro for a two-week case. The entire annual budget of the ODPC is €4million. For Facebook, which earned $18 billion in revenue last year, money isn’t an issue. For the ODPC, (under)funded by taxpayers, it should be.
For Facebook, the delay will no doubt be handy as it builds a case in which it told the court that it intends to dispute the findings of fact for the ODPC’s decision, facts based on Snowden’s damaging accusations. This case, in short, is a rare chance for Facebook to make a very public defence against Snowden’s allegations. No wonder the US government is eager to be involved.
Better alternatives
There were better, more cost-effective and faster approaches to decide this issue. The ODPC could have just asked the High Court to advise on its draft decision, and refer a question to the ECJ on model contracts. Or it could have issued a final decision and left Facebook (or Schrems) to appeal to the considerably less expensive Circuit Court, at a cost of about €15,000.
Instead, we are looking at a high-cost decision from the Commercial Court in February. A referral to the ECJ then typically takes another 12-18 months, pushing any model contracts ruling into 2018.
By that point, the whole issue is likely to be moot. Either another country will fast track a model contracts case or the ECJ likely will have heard a challenge to Privacy Shield.
If deemed adequate, Privacy Shield will be the easier, preferable option for data transfers. If inadequate, transatlantic business will be in a state of emergency and model contracts won’t be a reliable answer.Chinese students favouring Australian high schools as enrolments climb 20 per cent
Posted
New enrolment figures show China's rising middle class is increasingly looking to Australian high schools to educate its next generation.
Last year, there were almost 4,300 new enrolments of Chinese teenagers in Australian public and private schools.
The Australian Trade Commission said it was a rise of about 20 per cent on the previous year's new enrolments.
The total number of enrolments of Chinese school students rose to 8,386 in 2014, up from 7,447 in 2013.
Dr Minglu Chen, a lecturer at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre, said families were looking for better English education and a pathway to top Australian universities for their children.
"This is what we could expect from China's growing economy, which is at the moment is the second largest economy in the world, which actually also has a growing middle class," Dr Chen said.
"Australia is not far from China. They are one of the most important Asia-Pacific neighbours.
"I think parents, wealthy middle class parents in China, would prefer their children to be educated in an English-speaking society."
One of the reasons for the rise in enrolments of Chinese high school students is a new visa system.
In 2014, visa rules were relaxed to allow international teenagers to come to Australia on a student visa as early as Year 7.
Wealthy parents paying thousands for public schools
In New South Wales, Chinese parents pay about $13,500 a year for their children to study at public schools.
The Australian Trade Commission said students either boarded at private schools or stayed in home-stay accommodation.
Quentin Stevenson-Perks, assistant general manager of international education at the Australian Trade Commission, said Chinese parents wanted to send their children to Australian schools as soon as possible.
"One of the trends we've seen is a what we call "go earlier" strategy amongst Chinese parents," Mr Stevenson-Perks said.
"I think they're seeing that the benefits of their children gaining English language or foreign language studies earlier.
"Also, the prospects of higher education provide a pretty good package for the Chinese parent."
Trade officials and private schools recently spruiked the Australian curriculum at an international education exhibition tour in several Chinese cities.
One of those schools is Haileybury, a large private school in Melbourne, which said it was about to open a Beijing campus teaching an Australian curriculum to Chinese primary and secondary students.
The school's principal, Derek Scott, also said Chinese families were increasingly interested in Australia's secondary schools.
"That demand has certainly increased as the Australian dollar has gone down," Mr Scott said.
"Australian education rates very well on all the international testing programs."
The number of Chinese high school students in Australia is still far below the 90,300 Chinese university students in the country.
But the Australian Trade Commission has projected the number of younger students will continue to grow.
Trade Minister, Andrew Robb said Australia could teach 10 million international students within the Asia-Pacific region within 10 years if new policies were adopted.
Topics: education, education-industry, secondary-schools, vic, china, melbourne-3000, sydney-2000Harmony of Difference and Sameness
Ts'an-t'ung-ch'i
By Ch'an Master Shih-t'ou Hsi-ch'ien
Contents
Title of the Text
Author of the Text
The Ts'an-t'ung-ch'i
The Original Chinese Text
Translation of the Text
Bibliography
Title of the Text
參同契
Ts'an-t'ung-ch'i (Wade-Giles)
Cantongqi (Pinyin) Can1tong2qi4
Sandõkai (Japanese)
Literally, Coming [together and] Sameness Vow
Various Translations of the Title
1. Harmony of Difference and Sameness
2. Harmony of Difference and Equality
3. Merging of Difference and Sameness (Thomas Cleary)
4. Identity of Relative and Absolute (Dennis Genpo Merzel)
5. Ode on Identity (Daisetsu Teitarõ Suzuki)
Author of the Text
石頭希遷
Shih-t'ou Hsi-ch'ien (Wade-Giles)
Shitou Xiqian (Pinyin) Shi4tou5 Xi1qian1
Sekitõ Kisen (Japanese)
(700-790)
"Shih-t'ou was still a boy while the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-nêng, was yet alive; he was only thirteen years old when Hui-nêng died. Later, he studied Zen under Hsing-szu and became one of the great teachers of the day." (Essays in Zen Buddhism – Third Series 116-7)
"When I was with Shih-t'ou, he used to say whenever anybody asked him a question, 'Close your mouth, no barking like a dog!' " (Essays in Zen Buddhism – Third Series 45)
"While scholars of the Avatamsaka School1 were making use of the intuitions of Zen in their own way, the Zen masters were drawn towards the philosophy of Indentity and Interpenetration advocated by the Avatamsaka, and attempted to incorporate it into their own discourses. For instance, Shih-t'ou in his 'Ode on Identity' depicts the mutuality of Light and Dark as restricting each other and at the same time being fused in each other; Tung-shan2 in his metrical composition called 'Sacred Mirror Samadhi'3 discourses on the mutuality of P'ien4, 'one-sided', and Chêng5, 'correct', much to the same effect as Shih-t'ou in his Ode, for both Shih-t'ou and Tung-shan belong to the school of Hsing-szu known as the Ts'ao-tung6 branch of Zen Buddhism. This idea of Mutuality and Indentity is no doubt derived from Avatamsaka philosophy, so ably formulated by Fa-tsang. As both Shih-t'ou and Tung-shan are Zen masters, their way of presenting it is not at all like that of the metaphysician." (Essays in Zen Buddhism – Third Series 19)
"Sekitõ Kisen carried on the line of transmission of Seigen Gyõshi7. He lived in a hut which he had built for himself in the vicinity of a Buddhist monastery. The writings ascribed to him are Sõanka8 and Sandõkai."
(The Development of Chinese Zen After the Sixth Patriarch 6)
Notes
1 Hua-yen-tsung (Kegonshû 華嚴宗)
2 Tung-shan Liang-chieh (Tõsan Ryõkai, 807-869 洞山良价)
3 Pao-ching San-mei-ko (Hõkyõ Zanmaika 寶鏡三昧歌、宝鏡三昧歌)
4 One-sided (p'ien, hen 偏)
5 Correct (cheng, shõ 正)
6 Ts'ao-tung (Sõtõ 曹洞)
7 Ch'ing-yüan Hsing-ssu (d. 740) 青原行思
8 Ts'ao-an-ko 草庵歌
The Ts'an-t' |
Friday-morning walk-through.
"To me, that's a huge thing," said Kaeding, a former two-time Pro Bowl kicker with the Chargers. "You know these football coaches; they freak out if the steak's on the wrong side of the potatoes."
Of the Thursday shakeup, Ferentz said, at first, "it was like walking on the moon -- a weird feeling."
In fact, the coach said he still wonders whether that decision may "blow up in our face" later this fall.
"If it does," he said, "that's how you learn."
The idea? Give the Hawkeyes two distinct periods of recovery. Iowa used GPS-tracking and recovery-monitoring technology to reach the decisions on practice changes.
"Kirk is very progressive and very open and wants information," Doyle said. "Anybody who's good in their field evolves over time. The core principles are still there. For a Kirk Ferentz-run football team, it's always been our goal to be tough, smart and physical and willing to go to work every day.
"But the thing that's most important to him is how you play the game. And when he talks about bad football, that's something that Kirk Ferentz doesn't accept. Kirk Ferentz is going to do everything he can to change that."See the rest of TIME’s Top 10 of Everything 2013 lists here
10. A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Jefferson Mays gets the flashy roles — eight of them, in fact, playing the snooty heirs to an English title who are getting bumped off one by one by a disinherited relative. Bryce Pinkham gets only one role, as the family member doing the murdering, but he’s the charming linchpin of this polished, frivolous but enjoyable musical version of the 1949 Alec Guinness movie Kind Hearts and Coronets. The score by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak is likable in its old-fashioned, faux-operetta way, and Darko Tresnjak’s clever, fast-moving production shows that movies sometimes can be turned into decent musicals.
9. Macbeth
Shakespeare is having a banner year on Broadway: no fewer than four of the Bard’s plays have opened this fall, but none as gripping as last spring’s one-man version of Macbeth, performed by Alan Cumming. The National Theatre of Scotland production is set in a mental institution, with Cumming as an inmate who performs all the roles himself, with some assistance from a bank of video screens and two hospital attendants watching over him. Cumming is furiously engaged and altogether extraordinary, and the oddball deconstruction seems perfectly suited to a tragic hero who reduces life to a “tale told by an idiot.”
8. Saint Joan
The plays of George Bernard Shaw don’t get revived much these days: too long, too talky, too dense with ideas and political arguments. But the downtown Bedlam theater company has brought his great 1923 drama about the 14th-century saint alive in a boldly stripped-down, amped up production. Just four actors (among them director Eric Tucker and Andrus Nichols as the strapping warrior maid) play every role, and the audience is required to get up and change seats several times to follow the action. Far from gimmickry, the intimate staging serves to focus the mind: Shaw’s epic clash of faith, the church and politics has never seemed so powerful or relevant.
Chad Batka / The Harman Group / AP
7. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
Every audience member has a front-row seat (and some vodka and blinis for good measure) in this immersive musical based on, of all things, War and Peace. As the spectators dine and drink in a faux-Russian supper club, the actors weave through the tables to reenact the story of Natasha’s entry into Russian society, with a few stabs at Tolstoy’s more cosmic themes. The show tackles the vast narrative with appealing cheekiness, Dave Malloy’s pop-rock score is easy to listen to, and the whole experience leaves you feeling drunk on more than just the vodka.
6. Domesticated
What happens after the sex scandal? That’s the ripped-from-the-headlines topic of Bruce Norris’s sharp, funny and invigorating new play. Jeff Goldblum is the politician who has to resign office after being caught with a hooker; Laurie Metcalf is the wife who has to live with him afterwards. The play moves relentlessly forward, like a shark toward its prey, as it exposes the impossible divide between men and women — as mean as Mamet and twice as funny. Anna D. Shapiro’s excellent off-Broadway production would be a perfect candidate for Broadway, but a strangely sour review from the New York Times will probably kill that idea. Talk about a scandal.
5. The Flick
Three geeky employees at a faded movie revival house spend their days cleaning up the seats, gossiping about old films, arguing over who’s going to run the projector and wallowing in their own aimless lives. Annie Baker’s long (more than three hours), nearly plotless slice-of-life comedy (it’s like a cleaned-up version of Kevin Smith’s Clerks) tests an audience’s patience, but ultimately rewards it with a funny, touching and (in Sam Gold’s excellent production) oddly absorbing group portrait
4. Belleville
They seem like a typical young American couple living in Paris, dealing with the usual relationship problems and neurotic hang-ups. But as Amy Herzog’s disturbing play unfolds, the fabric of their lives come unraveled, piece by painful piece. Herzog, the author of Before the Revolution and 4000 Miles, has no peer at creating real, instantly recognizable characters and then turning their comfortable, ordered lives upside down. The play’s startling, almost melodramatic climax threw off some critics, but Herzog’s extraordinary craft and tragic vision are rare among contemporary playwrights.
3. The Model Apartment
Who knew that Donald Margulies, author of popular, easy-to-take comedy-dramas like Dinner with Friends and Collected Stories, had this dark, almost horrifying family play in his trunk? An elderly Jewish couple, just arrived in Florida, have to spend a night in the “model” apartment of their new condo complex. When an unwanted visitor shows up — the abusive, psychologically damaged daughter they’ve been trying to run away from — the night turns into a nightmare. After a brief off-Broadway run in 1995, the play has been remounted superbly by director Evan Cabnet, and features a shocking and brilliant performance by Diane Davis as the daughter.
Joan Marcus / The Public Theater / AP
2. Here Lies Love
In a year when “immersive theater” became the rage, this sung-through musical about the rise and fall of Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos forced its audience to stand for 90 minutes on a disco floor, as the stages and actors moved around and between them. I didn’t hear anybody complaining — we were all too entranced by David Byrne’s melodic song cycle, with its catchy mix of Latin, African and disco beats; and Alex Timbers’ inventive staging, which utilizes newsreel footage, video projections, pop backup singers and a disco deejay to tell the story. The show had an all too brief run at New York’s Public Theater, but it will surely be back — probably for a long time.
Joan Marcus / Bryan-Brown / Boneau / AP
1. Matilda
Eight months after it opened on Broadway, and five months after it was passed over for Best Musical at the Tony awards (in favor of the more conventional crowd-pleaser Kinky Boots), this great show from London is still a marvel. The musical version of Roald Dahl’s story about a super-smart little girl who is misunderstood by almost everyone, including her appalling parents, is a children’s show for everyone: full of invention and high spirits, but edgy, unsentimental and never patronizing. Even better, the show is a box-office hit — proof you don’t have be a Kinky Boots to make Broadway audiences happy. Bertie Carvel got deserved raves for his cross-dressing turn as the slimy headmistress Miss Trunchbull. But every single performance and production detail, from the whimsical sets to Tim Minchin’s one-of-a-kind score, is lovingly crafted and right.
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Next Top 10 Best Movie PerformancesDespite the title, there’s no religious content in this post. The Hell in question is the German inventor [Rudolph Hell]. Although he had an impressive career, what most people remember him for is the Hellschreiber–a device I often mention when I’m trying to illustrate engineering elegance. What’s a Hellschreiber? And why is it elegant?
The first question is easy to answer: the Hellschreiber is almost like a teletype machine. It sends printed messages over the radio, but it works differently than conventional teletype. That’s where the elegance comes into play. To understand how, though, you need a little background.
Giant Brains and Porn
You don’t hear it as much as you used to, but there was a time when people called computers “electronic brains.” In the 1970’s, RCA had a recruitment ad that stated (if I recall correctly): “The best electronic brains are human.” That slogan made a big impression on me, and I’ve found it to be true in many cases.
You don’t have to look far to see examples. Phones have become pretty good at speech recognition, but little kids are at least as good. Computers can write novels, for instance, but humans do better. Even in places where computers can do better than us, like chess, it takes a really big computer.
Of course, our computers are superb at some things that we aren’t good at doing. That’s why, to me, the most elegant systems use the strength of the computer along with the power of the human brain. One of the strangest examples of that is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service. The Mechanical Turk (seen at left) was a famous 18th-century fraud that appeared to be a chess playing robot. It was actually a puppet operated by a chess playing man.
That’s not elegant at all. However, Amazon’s service allows companies to get human services from people in exchange for small payments. For example, suppose you have a photo sharing site, and you want to filter out pornographic images. As the U.S. Supreme Court’s Justice Stewart said:
I shall not today attempt further to define… [“hard-core pornography”]… But I know it when I see it…
It is difficult (or maybe impossible) to write a computer algorithm to classify pictures correctly as pornographic or not with no false positives or negatives. However, just about anyone could look at a picture and press a yes or no button and be right just about all the time. That’s the kind of thing you can farm out to the Turk service. The computer is good at transmitting and storing images. The human is good at classifying them.
So the Hellschreiber is Porn?
No, the Hellschreiber is not porn (unless you transmit the text of “50 Shades of Gray” with it, I suppose). However, it is an elegant use of the computer/human symbiosis. Think about a conventional teletype. A five- or eight-bit code modulates a radio signal (usually via frequency shift keying). The receiver notes the frequency shifts and reconstructs the code to determine what the message is.
That’s great if the link between the transmitter and receiver is a quiet wire. When the connection is via noisy radio, that’s different. Today, we can use digital signal processing to get better results than ever. We could put in sophisticated forward error correction codes, and we could use more robust modulation. But this takes more hardware that wasn’t available in Hell’s day. If a static crash or fading took out a bit, the result was a garbled message.
Humans are pretty good at recovering messages. If I wrote:
The ouick brown fox jumps over the l!zy red do8.
You can probably figure that out. You’ve seen the social media meme (to the left) where a message jumbles letters, and you can still read it. But in both cases, those messages still resemble the original message (and you sort of know what to expect them to say). If you got the message:
Meet me at the ($sdfk82.
Looking at this message, you probably can’t figure out my meaning. With a Hellschreiber, you have a better chance. Why? The Hellschreiber is like a cross between a teletype and a FAX machine. The device sends pictures of the letters, not codes. Not too surprising when you realize that Rudolph Hell had a background in television. Your brain can more easily unscramble a picture than a code that was randomly changed by noise.
Actually, the machine sends two images of the text to help in recognition. Noise or phase differences may make it a little hard to read, but it has to be very bad for the wetware between your ears to not be able to make sense of it. You can see a sample below:
The machine uses a 7×7 grid to form the letters. The characters are only sent once, but printed twice. As you can see, sometimes (due to timing errors) both lines are visible. Other times, one line is legible in the center and the other line appears chopped off at the top and bottom.
Modern Hell
Hams still use Hellschreiber as a communication tool. Today, of course, the mechanical machines are gone, and you use software with a sound card. Using software allows wide variation of character sets and even gray scale as an enhancement. You can see an example of some QSOs (ham-speak for contacts) using Hellschreiber in the video below.
Granted, digital modes that use forward error correction and other sophisticated methods can use the power of the computer to (usually) ensure error-free transmission. But Hell’s invention is a great example of why RCA said the best electronic brains are still human.
As designers, we are often in love with the machine parts of our design. However, a good system may be able to integrate human intelligence with the machine and surpass both.HERBAL TEAS FOR STRESS AND RELAXATION
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We learned the basics of Meruelo’s background: He started in his dad’s tuxedo-rental shop and became a major player in Southern California; he owned a chain of eateries (La Pizza Loca), a bank and even a TV station. For better or worse, he never quite got around to owning the Hawks. The sale collapsed without a real explanation as to why, though it was widely assumed that Meruelo’s finances weren’t up to NBA snuff.
Meruelo-as-owner was filed into that overstuffed folder of Hawks what-ifs: What if Julius Erving had been allowed to join this club? What if Dominique Wilkins had taken the last shot of Game 6 against Boston? What if they’d drafted Chris Paul? Meruelo the man was quickly forgotten, at least locally, although if you Google him you’ll find the first image shows him wearing a Hawks cap.
Nearly four years later, the circle turns back toward SoCal: Another man from L.A. wants to buy Atlanta’s NBA franchise. On the face of it, there seems a better chance this sale will be consummated. Antony Ressler was named by Forbes as the 418th-richest person in these United States. Not to say that Meruelo was a lightweight — as noted, he owns a bunch of stuff — but Ressler seems a heavier hitter.
Bloomberg Business reports that Grant Hill, a sporting blueblood — his dad Calvin went to Yale and played running back for America’s Team; Grant went to Duke, won two NCAA titles and was briefly one of the first next Michael Jordans — will be the team’s chairman. (Hill is also one of Ressler’s co-investors, along with Spanx founder Sara Blakely and her husband.) That sounds promising.
Again with the weirdness: The Hawks won 60 games with their architect in exile. General manager Danny Ferry took a leave of absence after an unfortunate phrase he uttered regarding Luol Deng was brought to light at the insistence of one bloc of Hawks ownership. (With the Hawks, 99 percent of the bizarre doings can be traced to owners.) That leave is in its seventh month.
Ferry has made no public comment since September, but it stands to reason that the reason he remains on the payroll is that he’s awaiting new ownership. If the point man is a Duke grad, it might bode well for Ferry — also a Dukie — and his chances of resuming his managerial duties. (Then again, Deng went to Duke.)
On the other hand, it’s believed Michael Gearon Jr. will keep a tiny portion of the team, and franchise icon Dominique Wilkins’ profile has been heightened — his statue outside Philips was unveiled last month — to the extent that he could well say, “I can’t live with Ferry,” and perhaps sway the new owners. (The root of Gearon’s disdain for Ferry can be traced to the belief that the GM marginalized the Hall of Famer.)
OK. Deep breath here. If there’s a bottom line to this latest bit of bottom-lining, it’s surely this: Once again, it appears — appears, we stress — this city might be rid of the group formerly known as the Atlanta Spirit, which deserves its place in civic infamy. This aggregation came together at the last minute to keep Turner Sports from selling the Hawks, the Thrashers and the arena to the Texas car dealer David McDavid, and everything since has been comedy laced with tears.
The Thrashers were allowed to leave for Winnipeg. These owners would sue one another over the Joe Johnson trade. They would be embarrassed that an in-house probe brought Bruce Levenson’s racially charged email to light. They would fight over Ferry’s characterization of Deng, and ultimately their internecine strife nearly destroyed the franchise.
Surely Alex Meruelo would have been better. Surely Antony Ressler — who’s married to Jamie Gertz, who males of a certain age will recall from her winsome movie roles in the ’80s — and the founder of Spanx will do better. It would be impossible to do worse.A "major, blockbuster-type production" is sniffing around Hamilton for locations for an upcoming shoot — and it's promising to be explosive.
Coun. Sam Merulla said Tuesday that a large production has chosen the city as the backdrop of its upcoming shoot.
The exact nature of the production is still top-secret — not even Merulla has been given the full details — but the shoot will require a full shutdown of Kenilworth Avenue between Britannia and Barton streets for filming that will include pyrotechnics and explosives.
"Due to the extent of these scenes and for the safety of residents, motorists and pedestrians, the road must be closed to facilitate," Merulla said in a post on his Facebook page.
Merulla explained that the closure would take place from 4 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Oct.16 and from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 17 (though the road will be reopened between 4 and 6 p.m. both days to accommodate the evening rush hour traffic).
The city's film office is being tight-lipped about the production, promising they will release further details once the film permit application has been approved.
Judging from the response to Merulla's Facebook post, the neighbourhood seems on board. Even Boris Brott, the well-known opera and symphony conductor, chimed in.
"This is wonderful for Hamilton. Congratulations to all involved. If we can help in any way, please count us in," he wrote, also suggesting that the film score should be recorded in Hamilton.
"This a very exciting opportunity for Hamilton and we want to capitalize on that, while also ensuring we are addressing the needs of the businesses and residents affected by this closure request," Merulla said.
ereilly@thespec.comA lecture at New York University by Professor Carla Freccero.
Both animal studies and queer theory share theoretical inheritances, even as they diverge in some of their philosophical and political commitments. This talk assesses the (non-exclusive) reciprocal impact of animal studies and queer theory. In particular Freccero is interested in how subjectivity and one of its privileged analytics, psychoanalysis, can be understood to be queer animal theory insofar as psychoanalysis has, since its inception, concerned itself with how mammals become human through specific technologies of subject-formation without assuming the successful result of such a process in advance. Psychoanalysis is always already queer in that it does not presume a pre-existing model of sexuality and gender from which to extrapolate a normative outcome. Likewise, Freccero argues, psychoanalysis does not presume “the human” as its starting point for analyzing how adult human subjectivity is achieved. This latter contention will occupy the bulk of Freccero’s argument as she experimentally sketches the possibility of non-anthropocentric theories of the specificity of animal subjectivity, all the while seeking to de-reify and de-universalize the presumed generality of such terms as “the animal” and “the human.”
Event co-sponsored by the NYU Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality and Department of Performance Studies.
Live Video feed will be available from the NYU Department of Performance Studies Facebook page here.Treasury countered by noting that banks, including JPMorgan Chase, think the department's asking prices are too high. Unable to agree on a price, some institutions are letting the department sell the warrants in public auctions.
While risky for both sides, the auctions give Treasury political cover amid growing criticism that its policies are too easy on big banks.
The shortfall estimated by the Congressional Oversight Panel concerns warrants, financial instruments that allow Treasury to buy shares of the firms at a set price in 10 years. If the stock prices of the banks go up, as they are expected to do, taxpayers could reap a healthy profit.
Treasury obtained the warrants when it began injecting billions into the nation's largest financial institutions in October. They were considered a "deal-sweetener"—a way to help taxpayers benefit from the upside of a financial recovery that depended on billions of federal dollars.
Many large banks received permission to exit the program far earlier than was initially expected. Last month, Treasury announced that 10 of the nation's largest banks—including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley —could repay about $68 billion of bailout money.
Treasury on Friday said the first large bank has completed negotiations with the government and repurchased its warrants. The government this week received $60 million from State Street of Boston to pay for the stock warrants. State Street had received $2 billion in bailout support from the government and repaid that money on June 17.
Twenty-two smaller banks already have repaid their bailout money, and 11 of those have repurchased their warrants. If the warrants for those firms "had been sold for their true market values, taxpayers would have recovered $10 million more," according to a report Friday from the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created by Congress to oversee the $700 billion bailout fund.
The warrants were sold at a one-third discount over their true prices, according to the panel's study. If warrants in the more than 600 banks participating in the bailout were sold at such a discount, that would mean taxpayers received $2.7 billion less than the panel estimates the warrants are worth.
Treasury last month announced a method for valuing the warrants through negotiation with the banks. The agency's offers reflect financial modeling and surveys of market participants.
The government also can sell the warrants in auctions instead of negotiating the prices. The panel said Treasury should consider holding open, public auctions to stop "any speculation about whether Treasury has been too tough or too easy on the banks."
Treasury disputed the panel's findings. Department spokesman Andrew Williams said the estimates are based on assumptions, so they may be higher or lower than the actual market prices of the warrants.
"For that reason Treasury is using a more comprehensive approach to valuing the warrants," including obtaining quotes from investors who buy and sell similar securities, he wrote in a statement.
As evidence, Williams pointed JPMorgan's decision to let Treasury sell its warrants at auction—an indication the bank thought Treasury was asking for too much.
"We've taken this action, which is consistent with Treasury's process... and which allows Treasury to find the true market price," said JPMorgan spokesman Joseph Evangelisti.
Banks have been eager to exit the bailout quickly to avoid the stigma and exempt themselves from restrictions, including limits on executive compensation. Repurchasing the warrants is a necessary step, but has been challenging because of disagreement about the prices.
The oversight panel's analysis was reviewed by three finance professors from Harvard Business School. The panel is headed by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren. She was the first to propose a new consumer protection agency for financial products, which has become a cornerstone of the Obama administration's reform efforts.
One of the group's Republicans, Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, warned against interpreting the report as critical of Treasury's approach to the warrants.
"It is exceedingly difficult to predict the value of financial securities and time the markets over the short term much less the 10-year term of the TARP warrants," he wrote.In a text-message poll asking what Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech "accomplished the most," MSNBC gave viewers only positive responses to choose from. By contrast, when MSNBC asked viewers the week before what Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech "accomplished the most," one of the options given was, "Attacked John McCain."
The day after Sen. John McCain's September 4 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, MSNBC conducted a text-message poll asking, "What do you feel McCain's speech accomplished the most?" But MSNBC gave viewers only positive responses to choose from; it did not give them the option of responding that the speech was in any way negative.
Specifically, the options given to respond to the September 5 MSNBC text-message poll were:
A. Inspired the nation
B. Explained what motivated his presidential run
C. Outlined his policy priorities if elected
D. Positioned himself as the tough maverick for change
By contrast, an MSNBC text-message poll conducted the day after Sen. Barack Obama's August 28 speech at the Democratic National Convention, asking, "What do you feel Obama's speech accomplished the most?" provided only three options, one of which was, "Attacked John McCain":
A. Inspired the nation
B. Outlined his policy priorities if elected
C. Attacked John McCain
From the 9 a.m. ET hour of the September 5 edition of MSNBC Live:
From the August 29 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:Perennial Orlando Pride forward Chioma Ubogagu played left-back for the first time in her life in a draw with the Chicago Red Stars.
(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)
ORLANDO, Fla. – A new opportunity awaited Orlando Pride forward Chioma Ubogagu. With seven players away on international duty in the inaugural Tournament of Nations and those players potentially needing rest upon returning, Pride head coach Tom Sermanni and his staff were bound to implement a lineup change. That change came in the form of Ubogagu playing a position she had never played in her life: left-back.
For Sermanni, he was pleased with Ubogagu’s performance in a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Red Stars on Aug. 5 but saw the apprehension in her during the week’s training.
“I thought she did really well. I thought she had an excellent game,” Sermanni said after the draw. “She was really apprehensive about playing there, and, obviously, she’s an attacker. She wants to be further forward. But, again, I thought her passing was good; I thought her defending was good; I thought she used the ball well. And, as I say, she got into some really good crossing positions and was a real danger down that side.
“So, you know, given that, basically, she’s never played at left-back, to my knowledge…we’ve put her in there with virtually no preparation because we’ve only had half a team to prepare for this game.”
The first-year Pride player was instrumental in two of the Pride’s best scoring chances. In the sixth minute, she sent in a cross near the Red Stars’ left end-line for an Alex Morgan header that ricocheted off the crossbar. Ubogagu also sent in the initial long ball to forward Jasmyne Spencer for the assist on Morgan’s goal.
As for Ubogagu’s apprehension in playing left-back, that derived from her lack of playing experience in the position. Her motivation to embrace the change, however, is her hunger for the playoffs.
“I’ve never played there in my life, so, I think, if I was apprehensive, it was ‘cause of that,” Ubogagu said after the match. “But I understand that it’s what the team needed. Steph [Catley], who’s great for us every week, obviously put in three 90s in a week, so, I understood the reason for the switch. And once I kinda wrapped my head around that, it was time to just do something that was bigger than me and do it for the team…
“At this point, I’m just really hungry for playoffs, and whatever we have to do, whatever we need to do to get three points every game, I’m willing to do.”
Fortunately for Ubogagu, there have been plenty of opportunities to watch other left-backs play, both in the men’s game as well as the women’s. The combination of her already-developed soccer acumen combined with individual film study is what drove Ubogagu’s preparation.
“So, I usually play in the front of Steph, so, Steph’s a great player, and I watched Tournament of Nations and stuff,” Ubogagu said. “So, there’s been a lot of football on in this weird, like, summer break with the international tournament on the men’s side, so I’ve been watching Marcelo [Vieira] and Real Madrid, Steph, like I said.
“But, at the end of the day, the game is football. So, I’m very familiar with what’s asked of each position. Yes, it’s a little different when you’re actually doing it, but I try not to think and just play freely, and hopefully I did okay.”
Given a rested Catley, Ubogagu is unlikely to play at left-back again.
The Pride continue their three-game home stand with their third and final matchup of the season against the Washington Spirit. Both previous results ended in draws.
Edits Log:
8/6/17, 4:57 p.m.: Added paragraph describing tangible impact in draw with Chicago.
For more on Ubogagu and the Pride, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.Story highlights The phone didn't contain evidence of contacts with other ISIS supporters
The mystery of the missing 18 minutes remains unsolved
(CNN) Hacking the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone has produced data the FBI didn't have before and has helped the investigators answer some remaining questions in the ongoing probe, U.S. law enforcement officials say.
Apple and the FBI are squaring off again Tuesday in testimony at a House hearing on encryption, with the recent battle over unlocking a terrorist's phone looming in the background.
Investigators are now more confident that terrorist Syed Farook didn't make contact with another plotter during an 18-minute gap that the FBI said was missing from their time line of the attackers' whereabouts after the mass shooting, the officials said.
'No evidence' of ISIS contact
JUST WATCHED Apple to U.S. lawmakers: Privacy at stake if it helps FBI Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Apple to U.S. lawmakers: Privacy at stake if it helps FBI 02:33
The phone has helped investigators address lingering concern that the two may have help, perhaps from friends and family, the officials said.
Read MoreI was just in New York City for the grand opening of the National Museum of Mathematics. Yes, there is now a National Museum of Mathematics, right in downtown Manhattan. And it’s really good—a unique and wonderful place. Which I’m pleased to say I’ve been able to help in various ways in bringing into existence over the past 3 years.
Of all companies, ours is probably the one that has been most involved in bringing math to the world (Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram Demonstrations Project, MathWorld, Computer-Based Math, Wolfram Foundation, …). And for a long time I’ve thought how nice it would be if there were a substantial, physical, “museum of mathematics” somewhere. But until recently I’d sort of assumed that if such a thing were going to exist, I’d have to be the one to make it happen.
A little more than 3 years ago, though, my older daughter picked out of my mail a curious folding geometrical object—which turned out to be an invitation to an event about the creation of a museum of mathematics. At first, it wasn’t clear what kind of museum this was supposed to be. But as soon as we arrived at the event, it started to be much clearer: this was “math as physical experience”. With the centerpiece of the event, for example, being a square-wheeled tricycle that one could ride on a cycloidal “road”—a mathematical possibility that, as it happens, was the subject of some early Mathematica demonstrations.
Behind the museum was a small group led by Glen Whitney, an energetic math PhD and recently “retired” hedge fund quant, who I had never met, but with whom I turned out to have quite a few connections in common. Soon I was involved as a trustee of the fledgling museum, and four other people from our company were on its advisory council. Needless to say, there were many questions and issues. But a prominent early one was what the logo for the museum should be.
What iconic image would best capture mathematics and its character, and be lively enough to connect with the youthful target group for the museum? Our company has had a strong graphic design tradition, and is of course deeply involved in math. So it was natural for me to suggest that perhaps we could make an early contribution to the museum by trying to develop a logo.
I posed the problem at our company, and quickly got a response from Chris Carlson in our User Interfaces group. Chris has been at our company for more than 18 years, and has long had an interest in computable forms (and in fact his PhD in architecture from Carnegie Mellon was on this subject). So perhaps it was not surprising that Chris suggested not just a logo, but a computable “meta-logo”—an infinite family of possible logos, generated by simple rules.
His idea was ultimately quite simple: pick a mathematical symbol and apply a sequence of symmetry transformations to it. But as is so often the case with simple rules, the results can be elaborate and striking:
His original proposal, developed with members of our Design group (including our longtime art director Jeremy Davis) addressed some of the new possibilities—and issues—presented by the meta-logo. The museum didn’t have to have a single official logo; it could have logos created all the time by its visitors. And the logos didn’t have to be static; they could animate too. Different projects or events could have their own special logos. And the logo itself could serve as a simple puzzle (“what symbol is that?”). And so on. Of course there were issues too. Like would a meta-logo, with its infinite variations, still be recognizable?
But after some discussion at the museum, the decision was made that, yes, the meta-logo was going to work. And indeed its very variability and structure seemed to capture remarkably well some of the most important features of mathematics. Gradually all sorts of lovely possibilities emerged for how a mass-customizable meta-logo could be deployed—from personalized business cards for the staff, to “logo IDs” for visitors, to being able to decorate almost anything with multiple variations of the logo.
And almost three years later there I was a few days ago walking down 26th St. from Fifth Avenue in New York, and I look up to see:
I reach the museum, and of course the (temporary) main entrance is full of logos:
It’s a few hours before the opening gala event. And of course inside it’s a hive of activity. The first thing I see is the logo generator station for visitors. But oops… there are no logos there yet, just lots of Mathematica code on the screen:
A basic interactive system for generating logos is a tiny amount of Mathematica code. But getting everything exactly right turns out to be quite tricky, and to involve some quite sophisticated mathematics. It’s easy to apply symmetry operations to regions representing font characters. The issue is rendering them. The most obvious thing is to layer them in the order they’re generated. But if the regions overlap, then doing that can break symmetry. And the only way to guarantee to preserve symmetry is to do some intricate computational geometry, breaking up the regions just right.
And with hours to spare, the final touches were finished, and the logo generator was ready. And so was the rest of the museum.
It’s an impressive two floors of exhibits. Full of inventive ideas about how to make math tangible to all, from middle school (or below) on. I’m quite a connoisseur of both mathematics and museums. But what impresses me most about MoMath is how different its exhibits are from what I’ve seen before. Each one has a unique idea. That I’ve typically never seen before. But that elegantly illustrates some fundamental mathematical principle. And does it in a way that only a physical exhibit can. Like nesting in the “human tree”:
Often there are computers involved in the exhibits. But they’re controlled and |
comet through the valley that separates its body and head. The team might even try to land the spacecraft on the comet's surface.
The decision might not be up to him. Accomazzo is stepping away from the day-to-day flight operations at Rosetta and is busy preparing for ESA's interplanetary missions to Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. Even with such exciting projects, he finds it hard to leave Rosetta behind. “It's a bit sad,” he says. “I don't know how I will be able to cope.”
He still dreams of Rosetta. “This morning I woke up at 4 a.m. and thought'something is wrong',” he says. “At 7.30 a.m. I got a call — Rosetta had briefly lost signal to Earth at 4 a.m. — I often have this kind of episode. I'm totally linked.”
SUZANNE TOPALIAN: Cancer combatant
One clinician always believed that cancer immunotherapy would work — and she was right.
By Heidi Ledford
Chris Maddaloni
When Suzanne Topalian heard in July that a therapy she had helped to pioneer could now be prescribed to treat people with advanced melanoma, she greeted the news with excitement, but also characteristic resolve. The meticulous cancer researcher and physician was already focused on the field's next challenges: approval for the drug in other countries and against a wider range of cancers. “Although this was reason to celebrate, we're still looking towards the horizon,” she says.
The drug in question is part of a hot new class called PD-1 inhibitors, which allow T cells in the immune system to jump into high gear so that they are free to attack tumours. This July, Japanese regulators approved the first such drug — nivolumab, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb of New York — largely on the back of clinical trials that Topalian led. Two months later, the US Food and Drug Administration approved another, called pembrolizumab. Some analysts predict that the drugs will become a cornerstone of cancer treatment, with a market exceeding US$10 billion by 2020.
Even as a medical student, Topalian says, she was hooked by the idea of turning the body's own defences against cancer rather than — as most other therapies do — attacking a tumour directly with radiation or drugs. In 1985, she joined the lab of tumour immunologist Steven Rosenberg at the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. She intended to leave after 2 years; instead, she stayed for 21 and set up her own lab. Rosenberg says that Topalian quickly made her mark as a talented, careful scientist who always kept the big picture in mind. “She was totally passionate about finding effective cancer treatments,” he says.
Even when sceptics doubted that cancer immunotherapy would work, and early clinical trials looked disappointing, Topalian was undeterred. “There would always be some patients who responded to those treatments,” she says. “It was those exceptional responders who kept hope alive.”
In 2006, Topalian left Bethesda to help to launch trials of nivolumab at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. That work led to a landmark publication in 2012 showing that nivolumab produced dramatic responses not only in some people with advanced melanoma but also in those with lung cancer — the world's most common cause of cancer death ( et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 366, 2443–2454; 2012). Regulators are now considering approval of the drugs for treatment of lung cancer.
Other researchers are pouring into the field, spurred by successes with PD-1 inhibitors and other cancer immunotherapies, says Jedd Wolchok, an oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “It's legitimized a field that was once scorned,” he says.
RADHIKA NAGPAL: Robot-maker
A researcher inspired by social insects gets robots to coordinate on a massive scale.
By Corie Lok
Reflection Films
When Radhika Nagpal was a high-school student in India, she hated biology: it was the subject that girls were supposed to study so that they could become doctors. Never being one to follow tradition, Nagpal was determined to become an engineer.
Now she is — leading an engineering research team at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But she also has a new appreciation for the subject she once disliked. This year, her group garnered great acclaim for passing a milestone in biology-inspired robotics.
Taking their cue from the way in which ants, bees and termites build complex nests and other structures with no central direction, Nagpal's group devised a swarm of 1,024 very simple 'Kilobots'. Each Kilobot was just a few centimetres wide and tall, moved by shuffling about on three spindly legs and communicated with its immediate neighbours using infrared light. But the team showed that when the Kilobots worked together, they could organize themselves into stars and other two-dimensional shapes ( et al. Science 345, 795–799; 2014). Achieving that level of cooperation in a swarm this large was a major feat, says Alcherio Martinoli, a roboticist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Nagpal's approach — combining theoretical proofs with a physical demonstration of swarm behaviour — “is, to me, extremely powerful and something other people should follow”, he says.
The hope is that this kind of swarm-robotics research will eventually lead to self-organizing robot teams that can rapidly respond to disasters, say, or aid in environmental clean-up. But getting even this far took much longer than Nagpal and her team originally estimated.
The original idea for the Kilobots is four years old, says Nagpal. Like other swarm-robotics researchers, her team had been doing computer simulations and small laboratory experiments. But then one of her postdocs, Michael Rubenstein, convinced her that it was possible to do much larger experiments, because advances in electronics, materials and three-dimensional printing were making it easier and cheaper than ever to create robots en masse.
The team struggled to go from building 20 autonomous robots — their largest group at the time — to the full-sized swarm of 1,024 Kilobots. The key turned out to be simplicity, says Nagpal. “The individuals would be less calibrated, have lower-quality components and would have less control over what they do,” she says, but they would still need to carry out complex tasks by working together. “Somehow, at the top, we would have to think of algorithms that didn't depend on precision at the individual level.”
Nagpal is now trying to develop large robot swarms that can self-assemble into structures in three dimensions. And she will continue to draw her inspiration from nature, she says — a practice she learned from her graduate-school adviser, computer scientist Gerald Sussman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Sussman convinced her to set aside her distaste for biology when he pointed out that cells are the ultimate computers, able to take in data from signalling molecules, and to carry out complex chemical calculations to decide how to act. And then there are the extraordinary things that happen when these cell-computers come together, says Nagpal.
“At the end, you get this functioning organism and it's so amazing that you forget that it's even composed of cells,” she says. This is a key goal in swarm-intelligence research: using the collective to accomplish much more than the individual. “Looking at biology makes me think differently about computer science,” she says.
SHEIK HUMARR KHAN: Ebola doctor
An infectious-disease expert battled a killer virus in Africa.
By Erika Check Hayden
Pardis Sabeti
In this year's devastating outbreak of Ebola, Sheik Humarr Khan played a unique part. He was a scientist — part of the team that performed the first genetic sequencing studies of the virus in his native Sierra Leone. He was an infectious-disease doctor who turned down an invitation to leave his country so that he could stay and treat patients. He also became one of its many victims, dying on 29 July.
Ebola brought devastation to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia as it ballooned into an epidemic during 2014. Khan was the lead physician at Sierra Leone's Kenema Government Hospital, where he was treating and studying Lassa, another potentially fatal viral disease, until the hospital was overwhelmed by people with Ebola.
According to those who knew him, Khan believed that research and medicine should serve everyone — not just those able to access and afford it — and he had eschewed offers to make more money working in the capital, Freetown, to stay in the underserved rural region of Kenema. “That was one of the more important examples he set,” says John Schieffelin, a physician at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, who worked with Khan.
Khan became a central figure in the Kenema community and when Ebola struck, he cancelled his plans to teach abroad. When he became sick himself, his doctors decided not to give him the experimental treatment known as ZMapp in case it backfired and caused dangerous side effects. Some staff at the hospital worried that his death would spark civil unrest. “They said that if Dr Khan dies, people in Kenema are going to tear the hospital down,” remembers Lina Moses, an epidemiologist also at Tulane who spent much of the year working in Kenema.
The outbreak now looks as though it is levelling off, and drug and vaccine trials are getting under way. The research that Khan was involved in showed how quickly the virus was mutating, and the team he worked with is now installing genetic sequencers throughout West Africa so that they can continue to track its evolution.
But the toll has been great: Ebola has killed around 6,300 people, including many doctors and other health-care workers. Recovering from this loss of scarce experts will be a tremendous challenge, says Estrella Lasry, a tropical-medicine specialist for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in New York City. “It's going to take years before the same number of people who died are trained”.
DAVID SPERGEL: Cosmic sceptic
An astrophysicist found errors in a major discovery about cosmic inflation.
By Ron Cowen
John Jameson/Princeton Univ.
David Spergel first spotted the blunder while on a train in late March. Ten days earlier, researchers had made front-page headlines by holding a press conference announcing the probable detection of gravitational waves from the far reaches of space. That long-sought signal provided evidence that the infant Universe had undergone a brief but enormous expansion called cosmic inflation, and the result had prompted talk of a Nobel prize for the team, which was led by John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Spergel was troubled from the start by the evidence that Kovac's team had gathered from the BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole. As an astrophysicist who studies the early Universe at Princeton University in New Jersey, he worried that the signal might be an artefact. On the train, en route to giving a lecture in New York City, he realized that the BICEP2 team had made a mistake when accounting for how nearby dust might alter the long-distance signal. He raised his concerns in his talk, and in May he co-authored a paper that pointed out the flaws ( et al. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.7351; 2014).
Spergel, who sports a shaved head and a voice that can fill a room, decided that he needed to speak out. “I wanted to let the broader physics community know there were reasons to have doubts,” he says.
Social media amplified his criticisms. A video of his New York talk drew nearly 2,000 views, alerting others to the controversy. Soon, talk of a Nobel prize for the BICEP2 team was eclipsed by discussions about how it had made a cosmic mistake.
When the BICEP2 researchers published their findings in June ( et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 241101; 2014), they were more tentative than at the press conference — although not enough to satisfy Spergel. A forthcoming analysis of satellite data may soon settle the controversy. For cosmologist Marc Kamionkowski of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the episode shows the danger of announcing major results too early. Although the BICEP2 researchers may have had good reasons to hold a press conference, he says, “they or others in a similar situation in the future may lean towards awaiting some vetting”.
MARYAM MIRZAKHANI: Surface explorer
A mathematician's award shines a light on a lack of women in the field.
By Erica Klarreich
Courtesy of Maryam Mirzakhani
When Maryam Mirzakhani was a mathematics graduate student at Harvard University in 2003, she went to her adviser, Curtis McMullen, with a question. McMullen had just solved a long-standing problem related to the behaviour of billiard balls on a type of abstract table that can be folded up into a doughnut surface with two holes. It was a major discovery, but Mirzakhani asked why he had proved it just for surfaces with two holes, rather than for complex surfaces with even more. She was drawn to the largest possible problem — even if she had no idea, back then, just how hard it would be to solve. “Maybe sometimes not knowing enough is a blessing,” she says, “because then you just do your thing.”
Mirzakhani, now at Stanford University in California, turned this problem over in her mind for almost a decade, until she found an answer. In a 172-page paper written in 2012 with Alex Eskin of the University of Chicago, Illinois, she extended McMullen's result to all surfaces with two or more doughnut holes, tying together disparate mathematical fields such as geometry, topology and dynamical systems ( and Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.3320; 2013). “It's a spectacular result,” says Howard Masur, a mathematician at the University of Chicago. In August, Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal, often called mathematics' Nobel prize, for this and other advances in pure mathematics. Among her other findings is a surprising link between hyperbolic geometry — the geometry of saddle shapes — and string theory.
Mirzakhani is humble — when she got word of her award, she assumed it came from a hacked e-mail account — and extremely private. She kept a low profile after her prize was announced, but the news was greeted with an explosion of interest elsewhere. It raced through social media and the press, reaching outlets such as the fashion magazine Elle and the feminist blog Jezebel. Most of the discussion was not about abstract surfaces, however: it was about how the Iranian-born mathematician was the only woman to receive the Fields Medal since the prize was first awarded in 1936.
The commotion threw a spotlight on the vast under-representation of women in mathematics: according to a 2012 survey of US universities by the American Mathematical Society, women make up only 30% of PhD students — a number that has not budged for years — and only 12% of tenured faculty members at PhD-granting universities. Those who do become tenured mathematics professors receive a disproportionately small number of scholarly awards.
Mirzakhani says that she has not encountered any outright discrimination against women, but that there are subtle cultural forces that can undermine their confidence, such as a shortage of peers and a perception among girls that mathematics isn't “cool”. She hopes her award will inspire confidence in female mathematicians — and others believe that it will change how they are perceived. From now on, “no one will be able to think about the Fields Medal without picturing Maryam Mirzakhani”, says Ruth Charney, a mathematician at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and president of the Association for Women in Mathematics. “It's a clear signal that there are women doing absolutely top-notch mathematics — in case anyone wasn't sure.”
Mirzakhani is sure, and she predicts more female Fields Medal winners soon. Meanwhile, she is focusing on pushing her analysis of billiard surfaces even further. She regards herself as a discoverer, not an inventor, of mathematics. “I see it as exploring some unknown territory,” she says. “It's an adventurous thing, trying to find the connections.”
PETE FRATES: Ice-bucket challenger
A patient advocate helped to kick-start the social-media stunt of the year — with huge returns for research.
By Sara Reardon
Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty
In the two-and-a-half years since he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), 29-year-old Pete Frates has lost the ability to speak or move. But in November, the former university baseball coach was the guest of honour at a sporting-goods shop near his home in Beverly, Massachusetts, where he sat with his newborn daughter in his lap and watched a Christmas celebration that featured an actor dressed as Santa Claus dousing himself with snow.
Santa was paying homage to the 'Ice Bucket Challenge', in which people post and share videos of themselves dumping ice water over their heads to raise awareness and donations for ALS research. Frates first promoted the idea in August, through posts to Facebook and YouTube that he dictated using eye-tracking software. Since then, it has become one of the most lucrative social-media fund-raisers ever for biomedical research — and has led advocates for other little-known diseases to wonder whether similar efforts could also help them to raise money.
The ice-bucket idea did not originate with Frates's posts — similar challenges had been used in other social-media campaigns. But his efforts, along with posts by Pat Quinn of Yonkers, New York, who also has ALS, did a lot to help the challenge go viral. Both men urged Internet users to show solidarity by posting videos. The meme morphed into a fund-raising campaign: either dump water on your head or donate money to ALS research, then challenge friends to do the same. Many people chose both.
So far, participants from around the world have posted at least 17 million ice-bucket videos on Facebook, and raised more than US$115 million — almost three times the $40 million the US National Institutes of Health spent on ALS research last year.
Critics say that the Ice Bucket Challenge is a fad and that its focus on a disease affecting around 500,000 people worldwide could draw attention away from deadlier threats, such as heart disease, which kills 7.4 million people every year. Nevertheless, the strategy has caught the attention of other advocacy groups. The National Organization for Rare Disorders in Danbury, Connecticut, held a seminar in October on viral fund-raising campaigns, and is planning a follow-up session owing to its popularity.
Back in Massachusetts, the Frates family still hopes that the Ice Bucket Challenge will one day pay off for ALS. “When there is a treatment,” says Pete's father, John Frates, “it will go back to August 2014.”
KOPPILLIL RADHAKRISHNAN: Rocket launcher
India's space chief led the country's charge to Mars.
By T. V. Padma
Arun Sankar K/AP/Press Association Images
Koppillil Radhakrishnan knew the odds were against him when India's Mangalyaan space probe closed in on Mars this year. As head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he was well aware that half of all attempts to reach Mars have ended in failure.
But the ISRO had taken lessons from other countries' mistakes, and it set modest aims for its first interplanetary mission, which it billed as a technology demonstration. When Mangalyaan settled successfully into Mars orbit on 24 September, India joined the elite group of nations with the ambition and technical capability to explore the Solar System.
In his 43 years as an engineer and manager at the ISRO, Radhakrishnan has led a diverse set of projects, from developing remote-sensing satellites to setting up India's tsunami-warning system. The Mars mission was a gamble, but it caused less heartache than the ISRO's work on a cryogenic rocket engine that had failed during a launch in 2010 and finally succeeded this year. “The Mars mission was a slightly more joyous occasion,” he says, while playing down his own role. “I was like a conductor of an orchestra.”
The Mars mission has put the spotlight on Asia's space ambitions. India plans in the next three years to launch its second Moon mission, and China aims to bring lunar samples back to Earth by 2017.
India's success this year drew widespread applause. “This is good for India and its economy, demonstrating the ability to develop and implement high-technology enterprises,” says Raymond Arvidson, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Radhakrishnan says that India's space plans should not be judged against those of other countries: “We are not racing with anyone. We are only racing with ourselves.” But he will soon leave the race. Radhakrishnan will retire at the end of the year, leaving him free to pursue his love for classical South Indian singing and dancing. He has not had much time for that during the ISRO's hectic pursuit of Mars.
MASAYO TAKAHASHI: Stem-cell tester
An ophthalmologist injected hope into the stem-cell field during a troubled year.
By David Cyranoski
Masanaori Inagaki/AP/PA
For an hour on Friday 12 September, Masayo Takahashi sat alone, calmly reflecting on the decade of research that had led up to this moment.
An ophthalmologist at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, Japan, Takahashi was about to watch a sheet of epithelial cells that she had grown be transplanted into the back of a woman's damaged retina. She had made the cells from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which have been widely touted for their potential to generate genetically-matched tissue for treating a range of diseases. The transplant would be the first test of that promise in people, and therefore a major milestone for the stem-cell field. As she sat, Takahashi quietly considered all those who had helped her get to that point (“so many people — it would be like the credits rolling at the end of a movie”), and the scandal in the stem-cell field that had threatened to derail the project earlier in the year. “It was like a sacred hour,” she says.
Takahashi had been trying to use stem cells to repair retinal damage for ten years — and trying to downplay hype about the cells for almost as long. Her work received a boost when, in 2006, stem-cell scientist Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan discovered how to make iPS cells, which are much easier to make than other human pluripotent cells. Collaborating with Yamanaka, Takahashi worked out how to turn the iPS cells into sheets of retinal epithelial cells. She then tested the resulting cells in mice and monkeys, passed regulatory hurdles, recruited patients, and practised growing cells from those patients. Finally, she was ready to try the transplants in people with a common condition called age-related macular degeneration, in which wayward blood vessels destroy photoreceptors and vision. The transplants are meant to cover the retina, patch up the epithelial layer and support the remaining photoreceptors. Watching the procedure, “I could feel the tension of the surgeon”, Takahashi says.
In the end, everything went smoothly — but Takahashi will not reveal whether it has been a success until a year after the transplant. She does say that the tissue seems to have maintained its brownish colour, a sign that it has not been attacked by the immune system. The patient, a woman in her 70s, had already lost most of her vision and is unlikely to get it back; but Takahashi's team is keen to see whether the transplant is safe and prevents further retinal deterioration.
Takahashi had planned to operate on six patients in an informal clinical study. But a law that went into effect in Japan last month opens the door to a fast-track formal trial that would move the technology, if successful, to open clinical use. She is now considering which path to take.
The transplant was a high point for the field after a major low. Earlier in the year, controversy over two stem-cell papers published in Nature and unrelated to Takahashi's research had enveloped the CDB. The papers, which reported a quick recipe for making pluripotent stem cells, were first lauded and then shunned after it emerged that some figures had been manipulated. The spotlight fell on Haruko Obokata, the papers' first author, who continued to argue that the method worked. The episode took a tragic turn when Yoshiki Sasai, who supervised Obokata at the CDB, killed himself in August. In the wake of the scandal, the centre was drastically restructured and its research budget was slashed.
As all this unfolded, Takahashi found her own work under intense scrutiny: she was accused of rushing the procedure in an effort to make money, and concerns were raised over whether the cells were safe. A month before the scheduled surgery, the health ministry suddenly announced that several new safety tests would be required. At times, Takahashi says, she felt “beaten”.
Now upbeat, however, Takahashi is aiming to clear a much higher bar — transplanting layers of photoreceptors together with the epithelial sheets — to restore a small degree of vision to people with macular degeneration. The photoreceptors would have to make connections with neurons, something that Takahashi realizes will be a challenge. For that, she will use the ability to grow three-dimensional retinal tissue in vitro — a technique, she notes with sadness, that was pioneered by Sasai.
Other scientists at the centre share the grief, and say that Takahashi's success was a welcome distraction. “It was definitely encouraging for all CDB people,” says developmental biologist Masatoshi Takeichi, former director of the centre.
SJORS SCHERES: Structure solver
A biologist brought the cell's molecular machines into sharper focus.
By Ewen Callaway
MRC LMB
Sjors Scheres is surrounded by ribosomes. A picture of one fills his computer screen, and thousands more are stuffed on his hard drive. His CV is studded with high-profile papers from this year showing some of the clearest images ever produced of these complex protein-making machines. So it is all the more surprising when Scheres, a structural biologist, says that he isn't all that interested in ribosomes. “It's all about the math,” he says, with relish. “That's what my main contribution is.”
That mathematics is helping to drive a revolution in structural biology. Once dominated by a method called X-ray crystallography, the field is now in the thrall of a technique called cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM. Scheres's calculations have led to software that transforms grainy cryo-EM images into exquisitely detailed pictures, allowing biologists to visualize molecular machines more easily and accurately than ever before.
Scheres started his PhD trying to get a portion of a gene-regulation protein to form tidy crystals — a prerequisite for X-ray crystallography, which involves pummelling the crystals with X-rays, then using the resulting diffraction patterns to deduce the protein's shape. But he abandoned the project when his protein, like so many others, defied crystallization. He was drawn instead to cryo-EM, in which a beam of electrons is used to visualize flash-frozen protein solutions. Three-dimensional structures are then created by merging electron micrographs taken from different angles. But at the time, the technique was known as 'blob-ology' because the images it produced were so patchy, Scheres says.
In 2010, when Scheres joined the Laboratory for Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK, microscopes were being developed that could detect electrons more efficiently and take snapshots of proteins at hundreds of frames per second. But Scheres knew that better computer programs would be needed to make sense of the flood of data, so he shut himself in his office to try to write one. “I didn't have a group. I was just programming,” he says. The resulting software, named RELION, brought the blobs into focus: it did a much better job of marrying images into a three-dimensional molecular structure than did existing tools.
“We left him alone for a couple years, and he came up with all this beautiful software,” says Venki Ramakrishnan, a molecular biologist at the LMB. Ramakrishnan had won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in determining the structure of the bacterial ribosome using X-ray crystallography. But it takes years to obtain such structures because ribosomes are made up of dozens of different proteins and RNA molecules. Cryo-EM offers a quicker route, and this year, Ramakrishnan collaborated with Scheres to produce detailed structures of yeast and human ribosomes. Now, his lab has converted almost exclusively to the new technology. “For us it's a perfect saviour,” he says. “We can be defined by the biological questions, rather than what we can crystallize.”
Scheres is now looking for more difficult structures to crack. He found one in a project with a team at Tsinghua University in Beijing, to determine the structure of γ-secretase, a protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease. The protein is relatively small and prone to movement, which blurs cryo-EM images — but Scheres has already produced one structure and is working on improvements. “It is kind of a boom time in cryo-EM,” says Richard Henderson, a structural biologist at the LMB who helped to develop the new electron microscopes, “and Sjors deserves a lot of the credit for getting it going.”
Ones to watch in 2015
Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate official
After this year's climate accord between the United States and China, Xie and the world's biggest greenhouse-gas polluter will be a focus of attention at climate talks.
Alan Stern, Principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission
Stern will be firmly in the spotlight in July when his mission becomes the first to reach Pluto. Just don't tell him it's not a planet.
Joanne Liu, International president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
MSF has shone in the global response to the Ebola epidemic, and Liu will be a big player in next year's efforts to end it.
Bernard Bigot, Nominated as next director-general of ITER
Bigot wants to radically reform the troubled multi-billion-euro international project to build a huge reactor that would demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy.
Rick Horwitz, Executive director, Allen Institute for Cell Science
As head of a new US$100-million venture funded by philanthropist Paul Allen, Horwitz must push cell biology to a new frontier.Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X for PS Vita launches March 24 in Japan
Accessory Set with shoulder pouch and cloth announced.
The PS Vita version of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X will launch in Japan on March 24, 2016, Sega announced. It will cost 6,990 yen.
Pre-orders include an Arcade Aime Card featuring the game’s main visual.
Sega also announced a 3,480 yen Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X Accessory Set, which will include an original shoulder pouch for your PS Vita and a cleaning cloth featuring the game’s main visual.
A PlayStation 4 version of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X is planned for release in Japan in fall 2016.
View images of the Accessory Set at the gallery.
Update 11/30/15 at 11:30 a.m.: An earlier version of this article stated “Reboot” by JubyPhonic would be a playable song in Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X. This is false. Sega released this region-blocked video alongside the game’s announcement. We use this website to download region-blocked Japanese videos, so we can upload them to vid.me and make them viewable worldwide. We thought we pasted the URL into the download website’s URL form, but we didn’t. It rather kept its default URL, coincidentally a video of the song “Reboot”, which we downloaded and uploaded instead by mistake. Watch the correct video below, or via Niconico.Editor’s Note: Some have speculated this is a portable HAARP system that can manipulate the weather…
On May 20th 2015, a special unmanned space plane of the United States Air Force, Boeing X-37B, was deployed to space by the American government.
The Mirror reports that the reusable unmanned spacecraft blasted into orbit from Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, carrying a brand new type of ion engine called a “Hall thruster,” and a NASA experiment designed to test how 100 types of materials respond to the harsh conditions of space. At a first glance, the vehicle looks just like a mini Space Shuttle, yet it isn’t. X-37B is too small to carry people on-board, but does have a cargo bay similar to that of a pickup truck, which is just large enough to carry a small satellite.
At the time the plane took off, some scientists expressed grave concern. A senior scientist at the Global Security Program, and also a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Laura Grego reportedly told Space.com that there was “no compelling reason” why experiments should be carried aboard a top-secret craft.
Currently, it is believed the unmanned plane has spent the past year orbiting around Earth. The American government has, however, failed to give any tangible reason behind the deployment of X-37B to space, except saying it is for an experiment. As to the actual nature of the experiment, that still remains a mystery.
However, due to the secret nature about the actual mission of the space vehicle, on its 1st anniversary in space (May 20th, 2016), many observers have resorted to speculations and assumptions about the true purpose of the plane orbiting around the Earth.
In the Russian media, for example, we gathered that several articles have been published, suggesting it is part of a space warfare mission designed to allow the United States to destroy other satellites in space.
Even in America, some critical online news media outlets have said the X-37B is part of a top-secret government program to develop reusable, unmanned spacecraft technologies and conduct covert experiments.
The American online news reports added that the United States Air Force has already successfully completed three X-37B missions, starting with the first launch in April 2010; it is said the three missions and two X-37B craft have proved reusable flight, re-entry, and landing technologies. Judging from this background, many observers asked that if the previous missions have proved successful, why was another X-37B launched again in 2015?
However, according to an American renowned astronomer at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Jonathan McDowell, the mystery of the X-37B may not lie so much in the structure of the vehicle, but rather, in what it is carrying. He revealed that the vehicle is perfect for carrying sensitive cargo into space for testing.
Mr McDowell also posited that the American government is conducting some covert experiments in space, and will try as much possible to keep it secret, adding that even engineers working on the plane cannot tell its mission in space.
PC World quoted Mr McDowell as saying
They are filling the payload bay with various experiments. Probably different experiments each flight, probably for different customers. The sorts of things that you would want with something like this … you develop new technology sensors like new cameras, new listening devices, intelligence [gathering] radio antennas, and maybe a new type of antenna dish that unfolds in a new way. And you want to exercise it in space multiple times and then bring it back to earth.
The big question now for many observers is how long this mysterious mission is going to last. It is said the duration of the past three missions has progressively increased, from 240 days, to 469 days, and finally 674 days. Therefore, many observers believe that this current mission might last for 720 days, or more.
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Contributed by Amando Flavio of AnonHQ.NEW YORK — A former McDonald’s worker acquitted of charges he placed shards of glass into a police officer’s Big Mac nearly a decade ago has won a $437,000 settlement from the city after arguing the officer fabricated the story to win money by suing the fast food restaurant.
Albert Garcia was 18 in January 2005 when Officer John Florio accused him of spiking his burger with broken glass. He initially confessed after being questioned by four detectives for hours in a small, windowless room in the Bronx restaurant.
But Garcia, who has an IQ of 81, soon recanted, and his lawyer’s investigation revealed enough inconsistencies in the officers’ testimonies that the state’s highest court unexpectedly decided to hear the assault case this year. The case had been dismissed in 2012, a decision upheld by a lower state appeals court.
Last month, the city agreed to a settlement.
“I was thrilled when I found out,” said Garcia, a 28-year-old father of two who works as a counselor at a Bronx YMCA and is studying criminal justice. “I really thought this wasn’t going to happen.”
It might not have if Florio hadn’t pursued a $6 million civil claim against the McDonald’s franchise owner about a week after the burger incident. The claim was settled in 2009 for $15,000, said Garcia’s lawyer, Raymond Aab.
“That really opened the door for me,” said Aab, noting it allowed him to take Florio’s and other detectives’ depositions, thus uncovering crucial inconsistencies.
Calls to Florio weren’t returned. His former lawyer, Richard Kenny, said though he hadn’t spoken with Florio in some time, he believed in his honesty and his innocence.
“He was crestfallen and I would say slightly even devastated by the implication that he conjured up this set of facts in an effort to make money,” Kenny said. “I think Garcia’s lawyer did an outstanding job on his behalf, but I think John Florio was a real victim here.”
On this much everyone agrees: On January 29, 2005, Florio, a now-retired veteran officer assigned to the canine unit, stopped at about 11:30 p.m. at the McDonald’s drive-thru window and ordered a No. 1 combo meal: a Big Mac, fries and a Coke.
But just minutes later, while driving on a busy expressway with his dog Dodger aboard, Florio testified that about three bites into his hamburger, he |
And a diesel uses the sheer heat generated by compression to ignite the diesel. And that’s been around just as long.
Now, it’s entirely possible to ignite the petrol in a petrol-engined car using compression alone, and has been for about 100 years. That said, this is usually known as ‘a big frigging problem’, or ‘pre-ignition’, depending on the calibre and candour of your mechanic. In fact, sciencey types developed leaded and high-octane petrol with the sole intent of resisting pre-ignition, due the the engine’s tendency to get a bit over-eager and ignite the fuel before it’s supposed to, breaking many important things in the process.
In the case of the Mazda’s X engine, though, compression ignition is an entirely intended part of the cycle. And it’s here that we have to get technical again, so bear with us. You see, diesel engines run very lean, by which we mean a large air-to-fuel mixture. Put simply, diesel engine = much air, not too much fuel. Too much fuel actually has a detrimental effect on combustion by quenching the burn, because fuel has a cooling effect in the engine. No, really.
Now, you try to increase the air-to-fuel ratio in a petrol-powered car and you’ll have all sorts of problems – pre-ignition being just one. Another is that the further you head away from the ideal stoichiometric ratio (fancy-pants term for perfect air-to-fuel mixture), the more energy the spark plug has to discharge to ignite what’s in the cylinder. And, when you remove the cooling effect of the petrol in the cylinder, spark plugs have a tendency to burn themselves out and drop the spark plug tip into the cylinder. This is generally considered a bad thing.
So, let’s move on to compression ratio. If that’s just a buzzword to you, it means how big the air in the cylinder started, and how big it is after a piston’s had its way with it. So, let’s say an engine has an 18:1 compression ratio. That means that the air-fuel mixture in a cylinder is now 18 times smaller than it started off. It’s also enough to ignite a lean air-fuel mixture – diesel or petrol. So, it’s a good thing in a Massey-Ferguson, less so in a Ferrari. That’s why petrol engines have compression ratios far lower than diesel.
To recap, diesel = not much fuel + much pressure, and petrol = more fuel, less pressure. However, Mazda’s X engine covers off these seemingly contradictory modi operandi by acting as both types of engine, depending on the situation.
Mazda’s already played around with the preconceived notions of compression ratios – in that diesels should be high and petrols low – with the SkyActiv D engine, which has a much lower compression ratio in order to achieve some of the benefits (such as a comparatively free-revving nature) of petrol engines. The SkyActiv X takes things a step (or, if you will, a giant leap) further.
The SkyActiv X engine burns petrol, but works as a compression-ignition engine (i.e: like a diesel) for the bulk of its operation. But, when the computers decide that the engine needs a bit of spark-ignition (cue puns about putting the spark back into a relationship), it fires up the spark plugs that have been sitting idle until then. It sounds simple when you condense the tech into a sentence or two, but developing plugs that can sit idle, then work, for instance, is a massive engineering challenge on its own. How do you make sure they don’t get sooty? Or too hot? The mind boggles.
So, as you can tell, there are more than a few obstacles to overcome when trying to marry petrol with compression ignition. But, if Mazda has cracked it (and the proof of the pudding is always in the eating), there are a number of benefits that we can expect from post-2019 Mazdas, such as a 10 to 30 per cent improvement in torque over the SkyActiv G engine, as well as a 35 to 45 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency. In fact, it’s as efficient as the SkyActiv D engine – and that’s no mean feat. Oh, and many, many fewer bad gases that give us all asthma and unhappiness.
Now, as wonderful as all this sounds, it’s clear that all the clever lads were tied up in the engineering department, because Mazda has seen fit to name the overall strategy for its groundbreaking tech ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030’.
And the marketing onanism doesn’t stop there. “Mazda believes its mission is to bring about a beautiful earth and to enrich people’s lives as well as society,” it said. “The company will continue to seek ways to inspire people through the value found in cars.”
In any case, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the tech itself is pretty impressive and extends a rope to consumer internal combustion engines as they start to circle the drain.
So, what do you think? Is there a place for dino-juice in the future? And, if so, how should it be implemented – just for commercial vehicles, in a series hybrid or in the old-school, engine-and-gearbox arrangement that’s been doing the business for more than a century?Construction Status: Winter 2018-19
Rehabilitation of Outer Half of Southbound Bridge Underway
Winter 2018-19 — Construction on the outer half of the southbound U.S. 202 bridge over Amtrak at the U.S. 30/Exton Bypass Interchange gets underway this winter following completion of repairs to the inner section of the bridge in late 2018.
Crews this winter will remove the original concrete pavement and began cleaning and repairing the bridge section’s structural components. Placement of the new concrete deck is scheduled for this spring along with construction of new outside parapets. Rehabilitation of the southbound bridge is expected to be completed by mid-2019.
Work on the southbound bridge follows rehabilitation of the northbound span and a traffic shift that splits southbound traffic approaching the bridge. The new pattern has the southbound inside lane shifting into a barrier protected “express lane" on the refurbished northbound bridge while the outside southbound lane remains on the southbound side as the southbound bridge is rehabilitated a half-at-a-time.
When the southbound bridge work finishes, two lanes will be restored in each direction on the rebuilt bridges. The final stage of the project will reconstruct the median and mill and repave the approach to both the northbound and southbound bridges in work that is expected to be completed at night, finishing work this summer on the $26.4 million project that began in spring 2017.
Crews completed replacement of the deteriorated concrete pavement on the two-lane ramp from U.S. 30/Exton Bypass to U.S. 202 north in early December 2018. Replacement of the concrete pavement on the two-lane ramp from southbound U.S. 202 to U.S. 30 finished in late spring 2018.
PennDOT replaced the ramps' concrete after discovering that the original concrete, placed during construction of the Exton Bypass during the mid-1990s, was deteriorating due to a chemical reaction between the concrete’s sand and cement known by engineers as ASR (alkali-silica reaction).
Construction on Dunwoody Drive below the bridges to replace the retaining wall that supports the bridges’ southern abutments will be completed in spring 2019. Rehabilitation of the deck, expansion joints, parapets and approaches on the Morstein Road bridge over U.S. 202, located south of the U.S. 30 interchange, has been completed. Additional repairs on this overpass’s piers and abutments will wrap up next spring as well.
The bridge and ramp repairs will complete the final phase of the U.S. 202 Section 300 improvement project in East Whiteland and West Whiteland townships, Chester County. The bridge and ramp repairs are scheduled for completion in late 2019. Allan A. Myers Construction, of Worcester, PA, is the general contractor on the 100 percent federally-funded project.All Thomas Niles could do was shake his head in disbelief at how the UCF football team dramatically regressed during a 44-7 blowout loss to East Carolina.
The Knights (0-11 overall, 0-7 American Athletic Conference) took a step in the right direction against Tulsa Nov. 7, putting up 30 points. It was only the second time all season the team posted more than 30 points.
And after 10 consecutive weeks of games, players and coaches got much-needed rest just in time to gear up to face struggling East Carolina during a prime-time Thursday game on ESPN.
UCF players were looking for a break-out moment during a disastrous season and instead suffered another breakdown.
"We wanted some carry over from the last game [against Tulsa] on how well we played at points, three-and-outs... [made] some stops, [forced] turnovers, held them to field goals and all that stuff. We did do some of that [against East Carolina,] but it's just like, well, it's been the whole story of the season," Niles said Thursday night.
PICTURE GALLERY: Check out pictures from the NCAA football game between the UCF Knights and the East Carolina Pirates at Bright House Networks Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
"You know, once we get cut, you can't stop the bleeding, and that's what it was again today."
Thursday's contest marked the first home game with an interim head coach standing on the UCF sideline. George O'Leary retired just hours after the Knights suffered a 59-10 homecoming loss to Houston Oct. 24. It was the largest margin of defeat UCF has suffered in Bright House Networks Stadium history.
But even that wasn't the worst loss the Knights have endured this season, with a loss to Football Championship Subdivision Furman getting that title.
And yet, there was something far more devastating about East Carolina's dismantling of UCF. Youth and injuries couldn't cover the multitude of sins this time.
The Knights regressed and were limited to a single touchdown by freshman receiver Tre'Quan Smith. They were forced to punt 10 times. Their defense allowed an opponent to score more than 40 points for the sixth time this season.
Some wondered if UCF players quit during the game.
"You guys looked at the game like me, so I'm not going to say anything," Niles told reporters after the contest. "But we all know what happened."
Some players are still wondering what happened during this lost season. A small group of current Knights have three championship rings, two conference titles and were part of a Fiesta Bowl win in 2013.
Now, a senior class that was around to witness some of the most successful years in the school's football history will walk away with a pile of losses.
"It's a nightmare that every day I wish I would wake up from. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. But we can't give up.... I know it's my last year, I can never play football again, and I know other seniors feel the same way, so we want to go out with a win," UCF senior H-back Cedric Thompson said. "That's our goal.
"Obviously, our goal going into this game was to get a win, but that didn't happen, so we have a final opportunity to do that. And it's gonna be a home game, so we really hope that we can do that and we're gonna work towards doing that."
sgreen@orlandosentinel.comGetty Images
The Jaguars coaching staff is working the Senior Bowl, giving them an extended look at many draft prospects that could become members of the team later this year.
Defensive players will be getting a close look from the Jags. The last couple of years have seen the team pay a lot of attention to the offensive side of the ball, but General Manager Dave Caldwell said that the focus will shift in what he calls a “very good” year for defensive players in the draft.
“Now, we can really focus on which side of the ball do we really want to build,” Caldwell said, via the Florida Times-Union. “We feel good about the offense right now. We still have a ways to go and aren’t done by any means, but we’ll really focus on the defensive side of the ball. Getting [defensive end Dante] Fowler and [defensive tackle Sen’Derrick] Marks back will help us, then we have cap space and eight draft picks to fix the rest of the needs.”
The Jaguars have high hopes for a healthy return for Fowler, their first-round pick last year, and they may look in the same direction this year as Caldwell broke out the “you can never have enough pass rushers” chestnut on Tuesday. There are needs all over the Jaguars defense, though, and it sounds like this offseason is going to be devoted to filling as many of them as possible.Combined MPG: 18
Trade-in value: $3,800
Verdict: Sell it yourself
The rule of thumb to figure out if your vehicle qualifies for the government's new "cash for clunkers" program is: If it gets a combined city/highway fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon and has a trade-in value less than $4,500 it probably makes the grade.
But just because your vehicle qualifies for the program doesn't mean you should actually take advantage of it. In some cases, you could still do better without it.
Take a 2001 Mustang Bullitt GT. With an estimated combined city and highway fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon, the Mustang GT could get you a $4,500 voucher for a new car with better fuel economy.
But considering that Mustang fans would be appalled at the idea of tossing a special edition GT coupe into the maw of a car crusher, there is a better way: Sell it yourself.
Since trade-in value represents, essentially, the "wholesale" cost of a new car, you can generally do much better by selling the car directly to a new owner, bypassing the middle man.
In this case, selling it yourself would net you about $5,500. Whether that extra $1,000 -- and the pleasure of knowing the car will live on -- is worth all the trouble is up to you.
We've selected a swath of popular vehicles and determined whether or not their owners should take advantage of "cash for clunkers." In all of these examples, the estimated values are calculated by Kelley Blue Book, assuming, except where otherwise noted, a base-model vehicle with standard equipment that is in "Fair" condition and has been driven about 15,000 miles a year. We're also assuming you can qualify for the maximum $4,500 credit on your new car.
Click through for a look at the sometimes surprising verdicts on a few more vehicles.A force of 160 American army soldiers have landed in Iraq as part of ongoing efforts by a US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State that has captured swathes of the country and its war-torn Syrian neighbor, the Arabic-language media outlet Asharq Al-Awsat said.
Iraqi security sources told the pan-Arab paper that the force landed at a military base in the Anbar province, from where Iraq is running its offensive against IS, Israel’s Walla news reported Saturday.
The base is already hosting hundreds of American Army personnel who are training the local forces, but this is the first time that a US fighting force has arrived in Anbar, the report said. The soldiers are expected to take part in an operation to oust the Islamic State from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, and some 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad.
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IS overran Ramadi in mid-May in a major setback for Iraqi forces, which had held out against militants in parts of the city for well over a year.
Coalition forces bombed a key jihadist command and supply hub in the Ramadi area last week. A video of the strike on a football stadium showed a massive secondary explosion at the site.
“The stadium was a key (IS) command and supply hub in the Ramadi region and was being used to store large amounts of homemade explosives, weapons and ammunition,” the coalition said in a statement.
“Destroying this hub will significantly disrupt (IS’s) ability to conduct operations and resupply their fighters in Ramadi.”
The group seized swaths of Iraqi territory in a June 2014 offensive, and coalition forces are carrying out daily air strikes against the jihadists to assist Iraqi forces, which have made little progress on the ground in recent weeks.
AFP contributed to this report.rename.vim : rename variables and files in your code
script karma Rating 11/4, Downloaded by 815 Comments, bugs, improvements Vim wiki created by Christophe-Marie Duquesne script type utility description IMPORTANT:
It is recommended to use EasyGrep.vim rather than this script. The "replace" feature does nearly the same thing, and the implementation is much better.
==
This script is a fork of renamec.vim from Bastian Mathes
It features two functions:
:call Renamec() renames the variable under the cursor. Cscope is called to get the references to the corresponding C symbol.
:call Renamef() renames the file under the cursor. The references to this files (like #include"path/to/file") are updated.
- When renaming a variable or a file, the quickfix list is updated, so you can jump in the code to modified parts (for example to check if the comments need an update).
- The buffers where the modifications occured are not unloaded and changes are joined so that they can be canceled easily with ':bufdo undo'
install details open the vimball archive with vim and source it with ':so %' rate this script Life Changing Helpful Unfulfilling script versions (upload new version) Click on the package to download. package script version date Vim version user release notes rename.vba 1.1 2010-03-26 7.0 Christophe-Marie Duquesne code cleanup rename.vba 1.0 2010-03-25 7.2 Christophe-Marie Duquesne Initial upload ip used for rating: 128.148.231.11Another dominant display from powerhouse prop Andrew Fifita has prompted Cronulla Sharks coach Shane Flanagan to endorse his front-rower for a State of Origin recall when the NSW Blues side is named on Monday morning.
Fifita played all three games in the 2013 series and was dropped after Game One of the 2015 campaign, but his early-season form this year suggests he could be in line for a fifth appearance on June 1.
Fifita has been at his destructive best in 2016 with 1,702 metres through the opening 11 rounds, and was one of Cronulla's best in their gritty 20-12 win over bogey side the Sea Eagles on Saturday night.
The 26-year-old produced 183 metres from his 22 runs and came up with 33 tackles from as many attempts, while his six tackle breaks and five offloads proved too much for the Manly defence to handle.
While there was nothing wrong with his first stint, his reintroduction in the second half proved the turning point with the game in the balance at 12-all.
Fifita came back on with around 30 minutes to go and brought an energy that his side had been lacking during the middle stages of the game.
His enthusiasm earned the Sharks a crucial penalty that helped them retake the lead, and it was that vigour that Flanagan said was the difference on the night.
"I just thought we were struggling with our big men at that period of time," Flanagan said.
"(Sam) Tagataese and Fifita were on the bench and my front row was 'Gal' (Paul Gallen) and Chris Heighington. When he came it on it gave us that size and his carry. He carried really strongly in that second stint. I thought he turned the tide a little bit there for us.
"I think Andrew this season has been outstanding. He's worked really hard on some areas of his game that he needs to concentrate on; particularly the play the ball and some errors.
"He's worked really hard on that and I think he's been outstanding this year."
Teammate Michael Ennis said Fifita's game on Saturday was indicative of how he's carried himself all year; going so far to say that he thought the former Blue was one of the premier props in the game.
"He's been super all year from my perspective," Ennis told NRL.com.
"I think he's one of – if not the – form front-rowers in the competition, without doubt. He was enormous tonight. His second stint was as good as you'll get from a front-rower in first grade. I thought he really helped change the momentum of the game.
"He's an entertainer as well as a good footy player. He knows his job and he does that well, but he's also got that something special in him that gets the Cronulla fans on their feet."
When pressed on his Origin prospects, Ennis said it would be very difficult to leave the big man out of the side for Game One.
"You'd imagine he'd be thereabouts," the Sharks No.9 said.
"Our side has won eight in a row and he's been a big part of that. In terms of front-rowers in the game, if you're talking about Aaron Woods or James Tamou or David Klemmer, he's certainly in that calibre."Hello associate! Hope you are doing well. Today I am going to share some of my programming experience with Apache Spark.
So if you are getting started with Apache Spark then this blog may helpfull for you.
Prerequisite to start with Apache Spark –
MVN / SBT
Scala
To start with Apache Spark at first you need to either
download pre-built Apache Spark or,
download source code and build on your local machine.
Now, If you downloaded pre-built spark then you only need to extract the tar file at the location where you have the permission to read and write.
Else you ned to extract the source code and run the following command at SPARK_HOME directory to build the spark –
Building with Maven and Scala 2.11
./dev/change-scala-version.sh 2.11 mvn -Pyarn -Phadoop-2.4 -Dscala-2.11 -DskipTests clean package
Building with SBT
build/sbt -Pyarn -Phadoop-2.3 assembly
Now to start spark
goto the SPARK_HOME/bin Execute./spark-shell
You will get following prompt :
hence Apache spark provedes you following two object by default on spark-shell :
sc : SparkContext spark : SparkSession
Although you can also create your own SparkContext (if creating project apart with Spark-Shell ) :
val conf = new SparkConf().setAppName("Demo").setMaster("local[2]") val sc = new SparkContext(conf)
Now you can load data with two type of Dataset :
Now You know that :
A data frame is a table, or two-dimensional array-like structure, in which each column contains measurements on one variable, and each row contains one case.
DataFrame has additional metadata due to its tabular format, which allows Spark to run certain optimizations on the finalized query.
An RDD, on the other hand, is merely a Resilient Distributed Dataset that is more of a blackbox of data that cannot be optimized as the operations that can be performed against it are not as constrained.
However, you can go from a DataFrame to an RDD via its rdd method, and you can go from an RDD to a DataFrame (if the RDD is in a tabular format) via the toDF method
Creating an object of RDD and load data to RDD dataset
val data = Array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) val distData = sc.parallelize(data) distData: org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD[Int]
Either you can load data from a file
val distFile = sc.textFile("data.txt") distFile: RDD[String]
Here is a complete example of WordCount to understand RDD :
val textFile = sc.textFile("words.txt") val counts = textFile.flatMap(line => line.split(" ")).map(word => (word, 1)).reduceByKey(_ + _) counts.saveAsTextFile("count.txt")
Simillarly you can create DataFrame object :
val sqlContext = new SQLContext(sc) val df = sqlContext.read.json("emp.json")
Now you can Querry with DataFrame Object.
Example of DataFrame :
val sqlContext = new SQLContext(sc) val df = sqlContext.read.json("emp.json") df.printSchema() df.show() df.select("firstName").show() df.select(df("firstName"), df("age") + 1).show() df.filter(df("age") > 25).show() df.groupBy("age").count().show() println("
Using Collect Method") df.collect.toList.map(aRow=>println(aRow))
Here is Slide for the Same
Here is Youtube Video
Reference :
http://spark.apache.org/
Stay tuned for Spark with Hive
ThanksDonald Trump at a New Hampshire campaign rally GOP Islamophobia: Two-thirds of New Hampshire Republican primary voters want to ban Muslims from entering U.S. Months of Republicans stoking bigotry results in 2/3 of GOP voters supporting ban proposed by Donald Trump
Early on Tuesday, it was too early to say anything meaningful about actual poll returns in New Hampshire, but NBC reported an absolutely stomach-turning result from exit poll data:
NH EXIT POLL: 66% of GOP primary voters support banning Muslims from entering the U.S. #Decision2016 pic.twitter.com/ML7gElzaZR — Meet the Press (@meetthepress) February 9, 2016
At this stage in the race, everything gets filtered first through the "horse race" lens, and so the immediate take on this is clearly that this is good for Donald Trump, the only candidate who has seriously backed the idea that this country should ban Muslims from entering our country.
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But the real story here is the real damage that has been done by a Republican primary where the candidates constantly compete over who is most certain that ISIS is hiding in their bushes. Even those Republican candidates who have pushed back against Trump's proposed travel ban for Muslims have nonetheless pushed the idea that Muslims are inherently untrustworthy people that should be handled very carefully, as if they are beehives instead of people.
Every single Republican candidate in the race has demagogued on this ridiculous notion that Syrian refugees present a serious threat to the country and that the Obama administration is somehow not vetting them enough. Even Jeb Bush, who tried to take a more moderate stance on this, argued that Christians should have priority over Muslims, a stance that is based on this notion that there is something inherently shifty and dangerous about being Muslim. Chris Christie was so eager to sell the notion that Muslims are frightening by nature that he argued that even "orphans under five" need to be treated like a threat.
Anti-Muslim hysteria was bound to rise after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, of course. It's a shame, but there's always going to be people who refuse to hear reason or look at evidence and hide behind knee-jerk bigotry instead. But it's hard to imagine that it would be this serious. The San Bernardino shooting had fewer than half the casualties that you get on an average day in this country from gun violence, after all, and there's no real evidence to suggest the shooters were attached to any larger conspiracy.
No, this level of bigotry is the direct result of Republicans climbing all over each other to declare that they were scared of Muslims the most. You can't tell people, day in and day out, to hate and fear others for their differences without the message taking hold.CBS4's Suzanne McCarroll talks to Ken Blum about the damage rabbits did to his car. (credit: CBS)
DENVER (CBS4) Travelers have a warning for drivers who park their cars near Denver International Airport (DIA). Rabbits are chewing the wires under many cars costing owners a lot of money. The rabbits get in and chew the brake lines, the clutch lines and other wiring. Local car repair shops estimates they can do thousands of dollars in damage.
“When I had the trouble with the oil light coming on, the dealer told me the wires that controlled the air conditioning were chewed,” said Ken Blum, one car owner who knows all about the not so funny bunny business at DIA.
Blum has had to have repairs done on his car twice due to rabbit damage and he estimates the cost at approximately $700.
“I saw no signs…nothing to tell me, ‘Hey, beware’,” Blum told CBS4. “My insurance didn’t cover it, the manufacturer didn’t cover it.”
This isn’t a new problem at the airport. CBS4 first started covering hungry hares in 1999. They were munching on the wires of de-icing equipment. Now it seems they’ve moved to the outlying parking lots.
CBS4 contacted airport officials about the problem. They said that only a small percentage of the people who park out there ever complain of rabbit caused car problems. They also told CBS4 that United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services agents patrol the parking lots and remove rabbits when they see them.
Hungry hares are not just a problem at DIA, other private parking lots are having trouble too. Lot owners tell CBS4 that they’re trying to deter the rabbits with extra fencing and coyote urine.
DIA said they have only received a handful of claims concerning rabbits damaging cars in recent years. Since 2009 there have been nine official claims from passengers reporting damage to their cars from rabbits.
DIA said more than 11,720 cars are parked on the property each day.
–Written for the Web by CBS4 Special Projects Producer Libby SmithThe Russian has had his fair share of frustrations this year and scored just four points from the first nine races of the season, compared to the 29 that teammate Carlos Sainz has delivered.
But despite another difficult race in Austria, where Kvyat triggered a first corner incident that led to the exit of Max Verstappen, Red Bull says it retains faith in him on the back of the good speed he has delivered this year.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "He misjudged his braking point and Max was an unfortunate victim of that. But I don't think anybody is going to come down too hard on him."
With Red Bull having assured Sainz of a deal for next year, Horner said that Kvyat was also likely to be confirmed imminently at Toro Rosso too.
When asked if Kvyat's option had been taken up, Horner said: "Not yet but I cannot see a scenario where it won't be.
"He has actually driven a pretty sensible season so far, so the likelihood is that it will be taken up in the relatively near future."
The news on Kvyat and Sainz will be bad for Red Bull reserve Pierre Gasly, who had hoped that an opportunity would open up at Toro Rosso for 2018.
The lack of movement at Toro Rosso comes with Red Bull having both Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen under contract for next year too.
There had been talk that Ferrari was trying to lure Verstappen away, and even stories over the Austria weekend that the Dutchman had asked to leave his current team.
But Horner reiterated that Verstappen was going nowhere until at least 2020.
"It is total propaganda. Total rubbish," said Horner about the reports. "He has a contract for 2019. Then after '19 he's on the open market."A behind-the-scenes worker at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is accused of stealing nearly $85,000 in valuables from checked luggage, including guns.
David Vang, 23, of St. Paul, was charged by summons in Hennepin County District Court with 11 counts of felony theft in losses last summer and fall at Terminal 1, also known as the Lindbergh terminal.
“Such thefts are rare, but they do occur,” airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said Thursday. “Nearly 20,000 people work at MSP International Airport, and while most are honest, law-abiding citizens, there are likely to be a few in such a large group who aren’t as trustworthy.”
Precaution advice
Hogan added that the best way for travelers to protect themselves is to “pack valuables in their carry-on luggage, rather than their checked luggage, whenever possible.”
Along with 10 firearms retrieved from Vang’s living room closet, authorities say they uncovered more than 700 other items he stole, including iPads, laptop computers, projectors, cellphones, cameras, purses, watches, knives, jewelry and hunting and fishing gear.
Vue Xiong
Vang was employed at the time by the Dallas area’s Elite Line Services to maintain baggage conveyance systems.
Airport police were led to the thefts after a Delta Air Lines traveler reported that his bow and electronic items were missing from his luggage when he arrived in Alaska from Minneapolis, according to the criminal complaint.
All of the victims were believed to be passengers making flight connections, because “the items had been electronically scanned into checked luggage inventory by [MSP] airline employees but were not among the items scanned as having been loaded onto the aircraft,” Hogan said.
“One of the challenges is that travelers will often report missing items only to their airline or only to law enforcement officials at the airport where they originally checked the bag,” Hogan added, “not at their destination airport or at the airport where they caught a connecting flight.
“Many times thefts aren’t reported to us at all, and when they are, it can be difficult to determine where along the traveler’s route the crime occurred.”
Cameras aid in case
Police had two hidden cameras installed in the area where they believed the thefts were occurring. Surveillance footage showed Vang taking items from luggage and hiding them nearby until his shift ended, the complaint added.
The surveillance also showed Vang taking the items to an employee parking ramp, where he put them in a vehicle driven by his wife, Vue Xiong, according to the charges. Xiong, 21, was charged with one count of felony theft.
Under questioning by police, Vang admitted to the theft, the complaint read. Authorities put the value of the items at $84,379.
The defendants, who were charged by summons, could not immediately be reached for comment. Vang’s first court appearance is set for April 18, Xiong’s on April 25.
Vang had a security badge issued by police, Hogan said. Since Vang worked in a secure area, he “had gone through all the federal background checks, and no disqualifying crimes were identified on his record,” Hogan added.
Hogan did not know whether his employer ran Van through a similar security process. A supervisor at the company’s Twin Cities facility declined to comment on the case.Watch the Pacade RetroPie Bartop Arcade Cabinet Video
Bartop Arcade Cabinet Build. It was a big hit and I got so much great feedback from you guys! You guys really are the best audience ever. Well, today I’ve taken almost a years worth of feedback and used that to design and release an all new version of my bartop arcade based on all of the requests you guys have sent me! I am calling this version the Pacade, mostly because it is themed after a 1980’s bartop arcade cabinet that played only Pac-Man and Galaga (and since I can’t legally call it a Pac-Man bartop arcade). This new RetroPie Bartop Arcade has some new features. The stand-outs are 1) front facing USB ports for add-on controllers, 2) a fan option, 3) no lighted marquee, 4) and a VESA mount option for the monitor. So with that said, let’s get starting building the Pacade!
Constructing the RetroPie Bartop Arcade Cabinet
Step 1: Layout the Side Panels
Using the plans, layout the components of the arcade on sheet of MDF (or plywood if you prefer). MDF is generally easier to finish because it doesn’t have wood grain.
Step 2: Cut All of the Components Out
While it’s certainly best to cut everything out with a tablesaw, the only tool you really have to have to make this bartop arcade cabinet is a jigsaw.
Step 3: Add the Backer Blocks
Using backer blocks will make your cabinet much easier to assemble, but are purely optional. If you’re just going to screw the cabinet together, you can can skip this step.
Step 4: Rout out for the T-Molding
Every old school arcade cabinet looks awesome with T-Molding. That’s why I use T-Molding on all of my builds.
Step 5: Assemble all of the Components
The cabinet can be held together with numerous methods. Screws, glue, brad nails, etc. I prefer to use wood glue and brad nails. The brad nails are only there to hold things together while the glue dries.
Step 6: Drill the Control Panel
Using the provided drilling template, drill all of the holes for the buttons and mount the control panel.
Step 7: Prepare for Paint
To prepare for painting the arcade cabinet, you’re going to want to fill all of the holes with wood putty and then lightly sand the cabinet with 220 grit paper.
Step 8: Prime the Arcade Cabinet
Prime the cabinet with Filler Primer. This is a step you don’t want to skip. Primer will make then end product look night and day better. After priming, lightly sand the primer with 220 grit paper. It is best to wait 24-48 hours before sanding.
Step 9: Paint the Bartop Arcade Cabinet
It is best to let the primer cure for 24 hours before painting the cabinet. If you paint it sooner, you run the risk of getting a crackling effect in your paint.
Step 10: Install the T-Molding
No arcade would be awesome without T-Molding. Well, that’s my opinion. 😉 If you need more help with T-Molding, visit my T-Molding Tips and Tricks page.
Step 11: Install the Electrical
I always install a quad outlet box in the back of my cabinet. If you’re not familiar with electric, just use any old power strip from the local home improvement center. Always test the power with a plug tester before using it the first time, to make sure you wired it correctly.
Step 12: Install the Control Panel Components (Joysticks and Buttons)
Install the joysticks and buttons and wire them to the manufacturer’s specification sheet (should be included with the buttons).
Step 13: Install the Monitor and wire the Raspberry Pi
Install the Monitor in the case |
’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts, but make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this,” Obama said from the White House several hours after the blasts. “Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”
He pledged the full help of the federal government and said: “The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight.”
Related: Obama pledges federal help
Suspicious packages were found after the blasts at three Boston subway stops, and authorities were investigating. New York police deployed extra security to landmarks, Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was closed to foot traffic, and the Pentagon tightened security. Federal authorities briefly grounded flights at the Boston airport as a precaution.
The race is a signature event in Boston and has been run since 1897 on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April. Tens of thousands of spectators turn out each year to watch.
Race organizers said that almost 27,000 runners competed, representing 96 countries. The winners were Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia for the men and Rita Jeptoo of Kenya for the women. A special marker at the 26th mile of the course, yards from the finish, had been set up to honor the 26 dead in the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting last December.
The elite men began running at 10 a.m., and the explosions were reported just before 3 p.m. The winners had long ago completed the race — Desisa finished with a time of just over 2 hours, 10 minutes — but the explosions came as masses of other runners were approaching the finish. NBC affiliate WHDH said that storefront windows nearby were blown out.
Related: Slideshow of scene of explosions
“Right now I’m in my condo with about 50-60 people I picked up off the street including marathon runners. Setting up a camp,” Corey Griffin told NBC News. “They have nowhere to go because everything is shut down. Officials said to get inside. This is crazy.”
Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism analyst for NBC News, said that authorities would probably examine residue from the blasts to determine their type.
Adding that it was premature to identify a culprit, he said: “If this was a deliberate act, unfortunately it certainly would reflect something that we’re seeing. There’s an emphasis on these soft-targeted attacks now. We’re moving away from the spectacular attacks and we’re moving into the small-grade, homegrown attacks.”
Related: Images from the scene
Will Ritter, spokesman for Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez, who was running the race, told NBC News that he heard what sounded like two explosions and saw smoke rising near the Boston Public Library. He said that he saw three fire engines and police running to the site.
“We heard two really large explosions in rapid succession, about a second apart from each other,” Ritter said. “Everybody kind of ducked and hit the ground.”
The AP reported that runners and race organizers were crying as they fled the scene, and that bloody spectators were carried to medical tents intended for exhausted runners. Runners who were still on the 26.2-mile course were being stopped and directed elsewhere, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said. The agency suggested that people trying to reach loved ones use text messaging because of crowded phone lines.
Authorities gave a phone number for people in search of loved ones — 617-635-4520. They encouraged people with information about the blasts to call 1-800-494-TIPS.
NBC News' Tracy Connor and Jeff Black contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed to this report.
This story was originally published onGuineensine is a dietary N-isobutylamide widely present in black and long pepper (Piper nigrum and Piper longum) previously shown to inhibit cellular endocannabinoid uptake. Given the role of endocannabinoids in inflammation and pain reduction, here we evaluated guineensine in mouse models of acute and inflammatory pain and endotoxemia. Significant dose-dependent anti-inflammatory effects (95.6 ± 3.1% inhibition of inflammatory pain at 2.5 mg/kg ip and 50.0 ± 15.9% inhibition of edema formation at 5 mg/kg ip) and acute analgesia (66.1 ± 28.1% inhibition at 5.0 mg/kg ip) were observed. Moreover, guineensine inhibited proinflammatory cytokine production in endotoxemia. Intriguingly, guineensine and LPS independently induced catalepsy, but in combination this effect was abolished. Both hypothermia and analgesia were blocked by the CB1 receptor inverse agonist rimonabant, but the pronounced hypolocomotion was CB1 receptor-independent. A subsequent screen of 45 CNS-related receptors, ion channels, and transporters revealed apparent interactions of guineensine with the dopamine transporter DAT, 5HT2A, and sigma receptors, uncovering its prospective polypharmacology. The described potent pharmacological effects of guineensine might relate to the reported anti-inflammatory effects of pepper.Rifle is NOT (always) fine
It seems that every time I go to a shooting range, I meet someone who would make a claim of supreme accuracy of their firearm. This rifle shoots great, they say, when they do their part. I've seen sub-MOA claims being made for PSLs, 22LR AR-style semiautomatics, 10/22s, all kinds of plinker-style ARs, and even AKs.
A request for live demonstration usually produces a wide group, and then another one, and another one, and ultimately it all ends with an expression of a genuine surprise on the shooter's face: just yesterday this same rifle shot a really tight group, but today it just won't cooperate.
Then they blame themselves.
But the truth is, shooting from the rest with a scope at a short distance does not require a lot of skill. Within reason, of course, things start getting a lot more interesting as the groups shrink beyond 0.25MOA, or the range goes beyond 300 yards. However, the difference between 3MOA and 1MOA when shooting from the rest at 100 yards in vast majority of cases cannot be explained by the shooter's skill: there is simply no way to shake the rest so violently that an accurate rifle will produce groups so big.
When you look through the scope, you will see the reticule "walk" on the target. That's the order of magnitude of your impact on the group. For most people, it's 0.5MOA or less, but I can imagine 1MOA in the case of really bad shooting position and really shaky hands. No more.
Then it gets more interesting. The dispersion of the group is a square root of a sum of squares of dispersion due to the rifle and dispersion due to the shooter...
...which means that the actual impact of the shooter is even smaller. Let's say a shooter is a 1MOA person, and the rifle is 1MOA rifle(*), then the expected group sizes will be only 1.4MOA, not 2MOA.
(*) You wouldn't generally call a rifle with a standard deviation of 1MOA a "1MOA rifle" as there is only a 66% probability that the groups from such a rifle will be within 1MOA. A 1MOA rifle would have a standard deviation more similar to 0.5MOA. It doesn't matter for the purpose of this argument, as the numbers simply scale.
So, with the and the scope, your contribution as a shooter is rather marginal.
For example, here is the same "me" shooting two different rifles from the same setup. A generic AK-47:
...and a generic target Savage rifle:
Same distance, same shooter, same shooting rest, even the same scope.
If your rifle mostly shoots wide groups and occasionally very tight groups, it's not because you "worked hard" on the better groups, it's because of the randomness of the firearm - once in a while even a very inaccurate rifle will fire a very tight group. Don't blame yourself. It's your rifle. Contrary to what the Internet might say, your rifle is not "fine".
But that's OK. It's even good.
There are plenty of great rifles out there, and finding an accurate one is usually not difficult. You, on the other hand, are unique, and replacing you is not possible.
What does it mean? It means that if you are shooting under ideal conditions (scope, rest, you can see through the scope that the reticule is steady on the target, with no more than 0.5MOA jitter, 100 yards or less, no heavy wind, 5 shot groups with reasonable ammunition), and the rifle does not produce tight groups consistently, do not blame yourself. It's most likely the rifle.
Of course, you should not have unreasonable expectations for the rifle either. Your AK is not a 1MOA gun, and it's not a 2MOA gun, either. Your 10/22 isn't, as well as most other semiautomatics, especially ones in rimfire calibers. They are just not made to do this. Their design goal was to go boom, not to hit very small targets in faraway places.
If you want a gun that shoots 1MOA or under reproducibly, get a target bolt action gun, verify it on the rest with proven optics and decent ammunition. Then once you know that rifle and scope work, you can work on your handloads and positional shooting skills. You start working on yourself after you have eliminated the rifle from the equation, not the other way around.
Read more about what makes an accurate firearm here.1. Get a police sketch done of what you would look like with a beard.
2. Build your playing card pyramids without being hassled by nags of “It’s in the way of the TV” or “Stop doing that in the bathroom.”
3. Refer to every time of the day as “Beer 30.”
4. Hand feed your hungry hungry hippo all of the marbles.
5. When you see a pair of buxom twins walking down the street you can openly express yourself and give your buddies high fives and say, “Heck yeah, someday I’m going to find a woman who loves me and we’ll have twin girls of our own and raise them and love them with all of our hearts.”
6. Get a prostate exam in every state.
7. Have a night out with the boys until you all puke in your favorite bucket.
8. Pickle your toothbrush collection.
9. Purchase a tiny one-inch hat and construct a device around it made of magnifying glasses so the hat looks normal size and wear it around and make it your new thing.
10. Rearrange your kitchen drawers so all the spoons are in the fork’s spot.
11. Wink 13 times at the grocery store cashier.
12. Learn a new smile.
13. Give a peace offering to the neighborhood skunk.
14. Finish creating the new workout craze that will sweep the nation, Only Doing Sit-Ups and Eating Rocky Mountain Oysters.
15. Make ranch flavored Drano because it’s not stupid and pointless, it’s smart and good.
16. Set a picture of Pamela Anderson as your work computer background so people know you are back on the hunt.
17. Make a body wash suicide by mixing several brands of soap together.
18. Completely transform yourself into Skeeter from the hit animated series Doug. Your girlfriend always wanted you to look like Roger Klotz but you knew that wasn’t the real you.It's hard to verify the claims without being privy to the content of council meetings (whose secrecy may be violating the law). However, GM's Mary Barra tells TechCrunch that "environmental issues" did come up as part of the discussion. The question is: are any of these discussions making an impact? A judge's temporary block on the immigration ban may have more of an immediate effect, and there are no signs that the White House will rethink attempts to suppress climate change science and prop up fossil fuels. Musk may put key issues on the table, but he can't guarantee that Trump, Bannon and crew will change their minds.
As it stands, Musk faces the same risk that Uber's chief did: staying on the council may pose a threat to his bottom line. Some Model 3 customers are cancelling their pre-orders in protest of Musk's supposed friendliness to Trump. No matter how much Musk may believe in talking things out, he may have to quit if association with the President costs him both significant revenue and a tarnished brand image. Tesla can't save the planet if people aren't buying, after all.Following practice on Thursday, LSU head coach Les Miles confirmed that Danny Etling will be the starting quarterback for Saturday's game against Mississippi State.
Miles had dropped strong hints throughout the week that Etling would get the start over Brandon Harris, but that his status could change throughout the game.
"Danny will take the first snap," Miles said during his weekly "Last Word with Les" segment on the school's website. "But I hold the right to make that decision at any point in time that I want to."
Etling entered last weekend's game against Jacksonville State on the third possession after Harris struggled to move the offense. The Purdue transfer wasn't spectacular in relief, completing just 6-of-14 passes, but did open up the deep passing game, throwing for 100 yards and a touchdown.
The Tiger faithful are certainly hoping there is an improvement from the passing game under Etling, as the team ranks 121st in the country through two weeks, averaging just 129 yards per game through the air.Phantom Negro Weapons are those weapons which White Americans report black people having but which are never found for some strange reason. Even trained police officers report them. They are greatly feared by the white community, probably due to their magical properties:
Properties:
Cloaking – they disappear just before a police search but magically reappear afterwards. This makes blacks particularly dangerous.
– they disappear just before a police search but magically reappear afterwards. This makes blacks particularly dangerous. Shapeshifting – these weapons can change form into something else, like a mobile phone or a wallet (pictured).
– these weapons can change form into something else, like a mobile phone or a wallet (pictured). Non-photographic – they do not appear on film or video when they assume a deadly form. Black people cannot see them in that form either – just white people.
– they do not appear on film or video when they assume a deadly form. Black people cannot see them in that form either – just white people. Lethal only to blacks – who possess them or stand near them (see below for examples). They are incapable of wounding white flesh.
Related phenomena: phantom black assailants.
Examples:
1999: Amadou Diallo – shot 41 times, hit 19 times, died. His gun shapeshifted into a wallet.
– shot 41 times, hit 19 times, died. His gun shapeshifted into a wallet. 2006: Sean Bell – killed when police shot 51 times after one of his friends reached for his gun. The gun cloaked itself and was never found.
– killed when police shot 51 times after one of his friends reached for his gun. The gun cloaked itself and was never found. 2009: Oscar Grant – shot dead when he reached for his gun. Since it was a Phantom Negro Weapon, police failed to find it when they searched him before putting him face down on the ground.
– shot dead when he reached for his gun. Since it was a Phantom Negro Weapon, police failed to find it when they searched him before putting him face down on the ground. 2011: Kenneth Chamberlain – shot dead when he threatened armed policemen with a butcher’s knife. The knife, of course, being a Phantom Negro Weapon, did not appear on the video recording.
– shot dead when he threatened armed policemen with a butcher’s knife. The knife, of course, being a Phantom Negro Weapon, did not appear on the video recording. 2012: Ramarley Graham – the gun in his waistband cloaked itself after police shot him dead in front of his grandmother.
– the gun in his waistband cloaked itself after police shot him dead in front of his grandmother. 2012: Trayvon Martin – no weapon was reported, but the way his killer acted you would think his Arizona iced tea and bag of Skittles had shapeshifted from something far more deadly.
– no weapon was reported, but the way his killer acted you would think his Arizona iced tea and bag of Skittles had shapeshifted from something far more deadly. 2012: Rekia Boyd – was killed when police shot at Antonio Cross, whose gun shapeshifted into a mobile phone.
– was killed when police shot at Antonio Cross, whose gun shapeshifted into a mobile phone. 2012: Jordan Davis – killed after threatening Michael Dunn with a shotgun rather than turning down his music. The police were unable to find the shotgun. Maybe it will still turn up, but more likely it was Phantom Negro Weapon which has cloaked itself.
Main uses: By black males when they are hopelessly outgunned or can achieve little reasonable benefit for themselves through violence. Inotherwords: where it would be nuts to use a mere physical weapon. Like when armed policemen pound on your door – time to whip out your Phantom Negro Weapon! Or when you are face down on the ground with a policeman’s knee in your back. Do not despair, it is never too late if you have your trusty Phantom Negro Weapon! Or when someone asks you to turn down your music. Loud music is worth dying for!
Analysis: Whites might be truly imagining these weapons, maybe out of racist fear, but far more likely they are just lying through their teeth to stay out of prison. Most Phantom Negro Weapon stories that depend on racist stereotypes to be believable would have to be lies.
See also:I hate small talks. Except i like you deeply.
I'm very confident, exceptionally sarcastic and quite witty. I am also the most sincere, candid and thoughtful lady you will ever meet. I'm a bad-ass relationship counselor and I've been blessed with the ability to give good and practical advice. I'm of the firm belief consulting is my calling. I also believe life is all about taking chances and meeting new people, experiencing new things, and having your perceptions altered.
Personally, I like to go out to bars, clubs, owambes where they serve small chops and asaro elepo, restaurants, malls, parties etc but I hate driving on Lagos roads and also a blind bat at night. I love sea food a lot especially prawns and that big fish Jagzee Chow sells at Freedom park.
I like to have a good time wherever I am and I love to laugh and make others laugh a whole lot too. I believe sarcastic people have very high IQ level. In my time alone I enjoy keeping up with the news, staying happy, and drinking sweetened yogurt. I love to cook at home, kick back in my famous short night gown with hair net on the long part of the settee and watch movies or series with boiled groundnuts or ofio, otherwise known as tiger nuts...or both. I do stalk all my #MCW and #WCW on this settee as well.
I don't respond to insults, snide remarks, nonconstructive criticisms nor mind games. I'm mature enough to walk away and I hope you are, too. I'm aware the sweetest things in life are either forbidden, too expensive, unhealthy or unavailable.
I believe in romance and cry when watching romantic or touching movies. I love R&B and fantasize a lot when listening to Joe, Michael Bolton, Carl Thomas, Celine Dion, Lionel Richie and Ginuwine. I've got my tastes but I'm not a full time snob. I like Beyonce as much as I do Rihanna, however I don’t like JayZ.
My two favorite movies are...
1. Comedy movies
2. Horror movies
My blog write-ups are taken from personal real life experiences with my spouse, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and I'm here to meet people and take constructive comments and suggestions. Comments that attack my person or people i blog about and not the subject at hand won’t even get published. I love the doughnut method of feedback as it reveals the in-depth quality of people's thinking capabilities..
Take a chance and message me. I’d love to read your comments.5 year-old boy killed in clashes in Turkey’s southeast
ŞIRNAK – Doğan News Agency
AA photo
A 5-year-old boy was killed on Dec. 28 during clashes between security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in the Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak, which is currently under curfew.Hüseyin Selçuk was hit by a single bullet in the neck while he was playing in the garden of his house. He was gravely injured and later succumbed to injuries in hospital.Meanwhile, authorities said there were no security forces operating in the neighborhood where Selçuk was playing.“According to initial examinations, Hüseyin Selçuk lost his life due to a Kalashnikov bullet hitting his neck,” the authorities added.Another 3-month-old baby, identified as Miray İnce, was shot in the back of her head reportedly while in her mother’s lap inside their house in the Sur neighborhood of Şırnak’s Cizre on Dec. 27.To prevent open defecation, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation has issued a circular authorising its health and sanitation officials to fine the violators on the spot.
The fine amount has been fixed at Rs 50, as per a circular issued by SDMC.
All deputy commissioners have been asked to ensure compliance of these directions. The step has been taken in compliance with Supreme Court’s order (in 2000) to recover charges from person littering or throwing rubbish and causing nuisance so as to affect the sanitation and public health, said officials.
“Though we have been making all efforts to make our area open defecation free, it is also important to make the people habitual of using public toilet complexes. Unfortunately, people living close to railway tracks still defecate in open. Besides issuing challans, we will educate such people with the help of NGOs,” said South DMC commissioner Puneet Goel.
To change the behaviour of public toilet users, the Union ministry of urban development in collaboration of the SDMC launched Swachh Shauchalaya Campaign on Wednesday. It was launched by cricketer Suresh Raina — one of the Brand Ambassadors of Swachh Bharat Mission.
“More than the construction of public toilets, it is their effective maintenance which is the biggest challenge. Users often don’t flush, leave the toilet dirty and the theft of bulbs, taps, bins, door etc is also common. The campaign aims to change the behaviour, inculcate a sense of responsibility and ownership,” said DS Mishra, secretary UD ministry.
North DMC targets to make all wards open defecation free by year end
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has declared 90 wards open defecation free on Wednesday. These are the areas where arrangements for public toilets and mobile toilet vans have already been made, claimed officials.
In rest of 14 wards, the civic agency has proposed to construct nine community toilet complexes with provision for 180 seats. The places where these would be constructed include Sawda-Ghevra, Bawana and Nareala area.
“The work has already been initiated and expected to be completed by October 2017. Besides, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board has promised to construct 2241 seats toilet facilities December, 2017,” said Preety Agarwal, mayor, North DMC.
Municipal Commissioner, Praveen Gupta said that additional facility of 302 number of seats would be created, out of which 112 number of seats are constructed. “In 48 toilets, 96 seats are exclusively for ladies. These are likely to be completed by September 2017.”
First Published: Jul 20, 2017 17:32 ISTThe Liga MX draft took place this Wednesday and Thursday and Queretaro made some very surprising moves. Los Gallos Blancos are clearly looking to compete in this upcoming Clausura 2018 as the team made some statement signings in this Liga MX draft.
The only first-team player that was lost in the last couple of days was Emanuel Villa, who joined Ascenso MX side, Celaya. Queretaro made four key signings on Wednesday that showed that the franchise is looking to really compete and avoid what has been seen in recent tournaments. One of the least surprising signings for Los Gallos was getting centre-back Hiram Mier on a permanent deal from Monterrey. The 28-year-old has been a consistent starter for the team in the past two tournaments but will definitely have to fight for his starting role in this upcoming Clausura 2018.
One of the main reasons Mier will need to fight for his starting role is because Queretaro also signed Diego Novaretti from Leon. The Argentine defender was a consistent starter for La Fiera in the Apertura 2016 but had some severe disciplinary issues that limited his playing time in the last two tournaments. The 32-year-old is very experienced and adds a tremendous physical presence standing in at 6-foot-4. The starting centre-back slots will be very contested on Luis Fernando Tena’s team with players like Mier, Novaretti, Miguel Angel Martinez and Alexis Perez.
The second most notable signing the Central Mexican team made was the acquisition of fullback Miguel Samudio from Club America. By many standards, Samudio did not have the best season of his career in the Apertura 2017 but still managed to be a consistent starter for Las Aguilas and get calls to the Paraguayan national team. The left-back spot was definitely a position that needed strengthening for Queretaro as players like Jonathan Bornstein and Luis Esqueda were being used throughout the Apertura 2017. Luis Fernando Tena needed to upgrade that role and Miguel Samudio was one of the best options domestically that he could have gone for.
The biggest signing of the draft for Queretaro and by far one of the most surprising by any Liga MX team was the signing of Edson Puch from Pachuca. This is the statement signing that showed the rest of the league that Los Gallos want to compete in the Clausura 2018. The Chilean forward had a rough Apertura 2017 as he was plagued by injury problems and only ended up starting five games for Los Tuzos. Before that, in two tournaments Puch managed to score 15 goals with Necaxa and easily become one of the best players in the league. Perhaps, the move to Pachuca was too overwhelming for Puch and the injury problems also did not help as well.
The 31-year-old will be the star player, the main man again with his new team like he was with Necaxa. This could boost his confidence and get him and Queretaro back on track in this Clausura 2018. When Luis Fernando Tena was appointed as Queretaro’s manager there was skepticism but it looks like he and new president Jaime Ordiales are looking to get the team back on top.Chomping at Bits comes stocked with the best Florida Gators links and news we can find, and some other stuff. Got a link you think we should check out? Email us at AlligatorArmy@gmail.com, subject line CAB, or find us on Twitter at@AlligatorArmy or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AlligatorArmy.
Florida women's basketball extends win streak to 10: The 10-1 Gators defeated Saint Francis 122-65 in the first round of the Gator Holiday Classic yesterday. Florida scored 70 points in the first half, breaking the previous Florida record for points in a half. Those 70 points were also the most by a team in any half of a game in the history of the O'Connell Center. Florida's 122 points also surpassed the prior program record of 112 points in a game. Florida forced a season high 40 turnovers and had five players score in double digits. The Gators will play N.C. State today at 2:30 p.m. Monday in the championship game of their home tournament. (Florida Gators; Ethan Bauer, Independent Florida Alligator)
Jalen Tabor vows to be even better next season: Tabor leads the SEC in passes defended (18) and is closing in on Florida's single season record in that category (19). He has four interceptions on the season, two of which were pick-sixes. Tabor wants to add some weight to his frame in the offseason and even has a desire to potentially appear on offense next year. While teammate Vernon Hargreaves III racked up post-season honors, Tabor, who often outplayed the All-American junior cornerback, was only named to the All-SEC Team. Tabor is setting lofty goals for himself next year by wanting to play even better, be named a First Team All-American, and win the Jim Thorpe Award. (Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel)
Caleb Brantley to return to Florida next season: Brantley will be a redshirt junior next season, and an integral part of the Gators' defensive line. One factor in Brantley's decision to return was Jonathan Bullard, who Brantley notes returned for his senior season, which became his best one at Florida, and helped improve his draft stock. (Matt Baker, Tampa Bay Times; Jordan McPherson, Independent Florida Alligator)
Florida kicker commit Eddy Pineiro talks about his decision to become a Gator: Pineiro was impressed that he was the first recruit that Jim McElwain chose to visit after the Gators finished the season. Pineiro is also aware of the concerns from some regarding his lack of in-game kicking experience. A soccer star at his high school, Pineiro was recruited to the football team in his senior year because they desperately needed a kicker. Pineiro made extra points and took over kickoff duties, but never attempted a field goal during the seven games in which he played. The reason? Pineiro says his high school team was "very bad." Pineiro also acknowledged that Florida "is struggling the most probably out of any school in the country in kicking", which gives him an early opportunity to earn a starting job. (Anthony Chiang, Palm Beach Post)
Chauncey Gardner recruiting for Florida: The early-enrolling DB can't wait to get to campus and start his career as a Gator. Like Nick Washington and Quincy Wilson before him, Gardner is trying to persuade other recruits to join him at Florida. (Zach Abolverdi, SEC Country)
28 Florida student athletes graduated this weekend: The student athletes included national championship team gymnasts Kytra Hunter, Rachel Spicer, and Lauren Rose, as well as track and field star Tony McQuay. Basketball player Alex Murphy and football players Roger Dixon, Jr., Antonio Morrison, Latroy Pittman, Jr., Dallas Stubbs, Trip Thurman, and Dakota Wilson also graduated. (Florida Gators)
Florida Basketball Trivia:
A) Which player holds the record for most career starts for the Gators? (Last week, I asked who had the most consecutive starts) How many starts did he make?
B) Which player holds the record for most personal fouls in their career? How many did he have?
C) Which player holds the career record for free throw percentage (in players who made at least 140 attempts over their career)? What was the percentage?
D) Which player holds the record for career assists? (record only kept since 1968) How many did he have in his career?
The comments are yours.Sly's kids join A-list offspring from Laura Dern to Dakota Johnson as alums dish on the gig their parents love: "He was so honored," says Gia Mantegna of father Joe's reaction to her selection in 2011. "It was the fact that your parents had a career in Hollywood that was respected."
Scarlet, Sistine and Sophia Stallone were lounging in the living room of their family's Beverly Hills estate when their father — that would be Sylvester — announced that he'd just been on the phone with Lorenzo Soria, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The trio, ages 14, 18 and 20 (more about them here), had been chosen to share the honor of being 2017's Miss Golden Globe.
"We all started screaming and jumping up and down, music blasting, dogs barking," recalls eldest sib Sophia. "We didn't think we would get it." Perhaps they did not, but just about anyone else could have scanned the checklist — stunning, personable, fruit of the loins of a genuine Hollywood legend (and 2016 Golden Globe winner for Creed) — and seen the Stallone girls as shoo-ins.
In truth, the competition for Miss Golden Globe — the young women (and sometimes young men) who help hand out trophies and escort the winners on and off the stage at the HFPA's annual awards ceremony — can get hairy. It may not be a speaking part, but it's still a gig performing onstage at one of the biggest awards shows of the year, a chance to make a first impression not just on the Hollywood elite but on millions of viewers (18.5 million in the U.S. alone in 2016). For many actresses — Anne Archer (1971), Laura Dern (1982), and Melanie Griffith (1975) and her daughter Dakota Johnson (2006) — it's among the very first screen credits on their résumé, while for others, like Candace Savalas (1987), Lisabeth Shatner (1985) and Lily Costner (2004), it's also the last.
To qualify for the title, candidates must be poised, polished and harbor the DNA of a bona fide A-lister, although lineage has not always been among the criteria. When the HFPA first created the title in 1963, the honor was bestowed upon a pair of more or less randomly selected up-and-coming actresses, one from the world of film and one from TV: Donna Douglas (Elly May on The Beverly Hillbillies) and Eva Six (a Hungarian actress whose career didn't quite pan out). "It was the very first award ceremony I ever attended," says Linda Evans, Miss Golden Globe 1964, of her memorable night schlepping shiny hardware. "It was something MGM arranged for me to do," recalls the 74-year-old Dynasty star. "They dressed me up, sent me there, I gave out the awards — and the rest is history."
In 1971, though, the HFPA made a change: From that time forward, the title would be granted only to the offspring of the stars, preferably those with two famous parents. The shrewd move began what's since become a Hollywood birthright and sparked a vigorous free-market competition among the town's co-mingling gene pools. The next big change came 24 years later, when, in 1995, the club went co-ed, naming John Clark Gable, Clark Gable's only son, the first Mr. Golden Globe (then 34, he also was the oldest ever chosen). "Truly an honor," says Gable of the experience. "For the first time, they asked a male heir."
The custom is not without its fans. "I love the Miss Golden Globe tradition. So retro. So old Hollywood. So 'A Star Is Born,'" says New York awards season event planner Peggy Siegal. As for any aroma of entitlement, longtime Oscars head writer Bruce Vilanch is quick to wave it off: "Please — nepotism has never been hotter. Just look at the Trump kids! The Golden Globes are always ahead of the curve."
The process of selecting a Mr. or Miss Golden Globe is not chiseled in stone. Some years it's a more grueling gantlet than others. "There were about five of them in there," remembers 24-year-old Greer Grammer (Kelsey's daughter) of her interview with the HFPA at its Robertson Boulevard headquarters for the 2011 awards. "They asked, 'What are you doing? What are your career hopes?' I remember one person telling me that Frasier was more popular in England than in the United States, which I thought was hilarious." Grammer had just been cast in the MTV series Awkward, and was feeling pretty upbeat about her prospects. "But I didn't get it," she says. "I was so sad because I had done pageants before, so I thought I'd be perfect." Gia Mantegna, daughter of Joe Mantegna, remembers her audition that same year: "[They asked me] about my life and my career and what it meant to be the daughter of someone in the industry," recalls the actress, now 26. "To be honest, I wasn't familiar with what Miss Golden Globe was. [My father's publicist] just told me to show up to this building and go on this interview. It seemed silly. Like, what is this? This is not anything I'm earning on my own. This isn't a job. I'm just doing this because my dad's an actor." She ended up getting the gig.
Other years, the selection process has been considerably more laid-back. 2016's Miss Golden Globe, Corinne Foxx, the 22-year-old daughter of Jamie Foxx, received a phone call "out of the blue" informing her she'd been chosen. "I was completely shocked," she says. The same thing happened to Grammer, who in 2014, three years after being rejected, also received a call from the HFPA finally offering her the job. "I didn't even have to go in for an interview!" she says.
There is no Miss Golden Globe training. Instead, the anointed are thrust into a whirlwind of nomination announcements, red-carpet appearances, pre-parties and rehearsals. Foxx says she "went into complete research mode" when she got picked. "Greer Grammer was the year before me, so I watched YouTube videos of how she gave out all the trophies." The heavily publicized Miss Golden Globe party — the Stallone daughters' was held at Catch on Nov. 11, though their selection had been leaked a few days earlier — serves as a dry run. "You are given a welcome by the HFPA president and you deliver a speech," says Grammer. But those who've held the title say nothing prepares you for the physical (and even emotional) intensity of the job itself. "I didn't realize how involved you are onstage," says 2010's Miss Golden Globe, Mavis Spencer (daughter of Alfre Woodard). "You have to give the winner the award and then move them to this mark. Then you have to move everyone off the stage and behind a wall. You're running |
the forum and was running it from law enforcement servers for almost two weeks to catch suspects.
During this time, the FBI were able to use a network investigative technique (NIT) -- otherwise known as a hacking tool -- against people who logged in and visited child pornography threads on the domain and slurp their true IP addresses and other information.
Michaud had no previous criminal history, but in a subsequent raid on his home, US agents allegedly discovered a thumb drive containing pornographic images including child abuse and rape.
Last month, the FBI was asked to provide the exploit source code to Vlad Tsyrklevich, a malware analyst hired as part of the defence. However, according to Motherboard, law enforcement has asked the judge to reconsider under a sealed motion, arguing that revealing the full code would do nothing more than show the researcher how the hacking tool was deployed -- and not what happened afterwards.
Law enforcement has given the researcher a portion of the code. However, the defence argues that viewing the full source code will give them the chance to determine if the FBI's exploit carried out functions beyond those permitted by the warrant, which could be a critical element to the case.
A decision has not yet been reached.
See also: Beyond Silk Road 2.0, over 400 'dark web' Tor sites seized by FBI
This is not the first time, nor likely the last, that law enforcement has kept the Tor network within its sights. In 2014, the FBI was able to take down the resurrected underground marketplace Silk Road 2.0, and with the help of Europol and other agencies, also seized over 400.onion domains.
A total of 17 arrests were made in connection to Dark Web services, and over $1 million in Bitcoin, as well as180,000 euros in cash, drugs, gold and silver were seized.
Read on: Top picksCharles McQuillan/Getty Images
Having failed to win an overall majority in the UK’s general election, Theresa May’s Conservative party is hoping to foster an informal coalition with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Members of the party have taken controversial stances on everything from climate change to evolution, with one assembly member being unaware that heterosexual people can contract HIV. Here are five things you need to know when it comes to science and the DUP
Climate change
The party has a history of speaking out against climate change. Senior member Sammy Wilson has called climate change a “con”, and described the Paris Agreement as “window dressing for climate chancers”. During his time as Northern Ireland’s environment minister, he said that people would eventually “look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on Earth we were ever conned into spending billions of pounds” on the issue.
It isn’t just Wilson though – in 2014, DUP ministers tried to oppose proposals to introduce local measures against climate change in Northern Ireland.
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Abortion
Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK where women cannot access abortion unless their life is endangered by pregnancy – a legal situation that is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, according to a Belfast High Court ruling in 2015.
But on taking leadership of the party in 2016, Arlene Foster promised to block any attempt to change these laws, telling reporters “I would not want abortion to be as freely available here as it is in England.”
Foster did, however, say she might consider an amendment in cases of rape. But the DUP’s Jim Wells – formerly the health minister for Northern Ireland – opposes abortion even in these circumstances.
Evolution
DUP assembly member Thomas Buchanan has previously called for creationism to be taught in schools. In 2016, he voiced support for an evangelical Christian programme that offers “helpful practical advice on how to counter evolutionary teaching”. He has expressed a desire to see every school in Northern Ireland teaching creationism, describing evolution as a “peddled lie”.
Buchanan told the Irish News “I’m someone who believes in creationism and that the world was spoken into existence in six days by His power,” adding that children had been “corrupted by the teaching of evolution”.
Green energy
The DUP’s leader narrowly survived a no-confidence motion following a disastrous attempt to bolster green energy in Northern Ireland by providing subsidies for wood burners. Arlene Foster introduced the scheme in 2012 when she was head of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. The original budget was £25 million, but a lack of price controls meant that, over five years, almost £500 million went up in smoke.
HIV
Last year, DUP assembly member Trevor Clarke admitted that he had thought only gay people could be infected with HIV, until a charity explained otherwise. He made the comments during a parliamentary debate around a campaign to “promote awareness and prevention” of HIV in Northern Ireland and to increase support for those living with HIV.
Read more: How YouGov’s experimental poll correctly called the UK electionThe latest and greatest early access program (EAP) version of PyCharm is now available from our website:
Get PyCharm 2017.3 EAP 4
New in this version
Faster setup for SSH interpreters [Pro only]
If you’ve ever configured an SSH interpreter in PyCharm before, you know it takes a while for PyCharm to synchronize its helpers to the remote machine. Furthermore, as PyCharm needs to download libraries from the remote machine altogether you’d be waiting a while until you could start working. We’ve made serious performance improvements in this release, see this video for an impression:
Watch video on Vimeo.
Further Improvements
When running a test from the context menu, it will now use the test runner you’ve configured for your project
For TypeScript: extract interface, and more refactorings and quick fixes [Pro only]
If you work with PostgreSQL date/time columns with timezone, you’ll be happy to learn that we’ve improved the handling of showing timezones. If you set the timezone for your session with SET TIMEZONE='europe/berlin'; this will now work correctly. [Pro only]
this will now work correctly. [Pro only] And more, have a look at the release notes for details
If these features sound interesting to you, try them yourself:
Get PyCharm 2017.3 EAP 4
As a reminder, PyCharm EAP versions:
Are free, including PyCharm Professional Edition EAP
Will work for 30 days after being built, you’ll need to update when the build expires
If you run into any issues with this version, or another version of PyCharm, please let us know on our YouTrack. If you have other suggestions or remarks, you can reach us on Twitter, or by commenting on the blog.The libertarian magazine Reason falsely asserted on Thursday that electronic debit cards issued to people in the food stamp program could be used to purchase adult sex toys at a lingerie shop in Louisiana.
Earlier this week, WAFB reported that Kiss My Lingerie in South Louisiana had been accepting the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card for the past eight months.
According to the Department of Children and Family Services, about 10,000 Louisiana families get cash benefits from the federal government to help cover family needs. And WAFB pointed out that Alcohol, tobacco and adult entertainment items cannot be purchased with the card.
In a post on Reason‘s “Hit & Run” blog on Thursday, editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown declared that poor families could “Buy Dildos on the Taxpayer Dime in Louisiana.”
“[U]ndergarments in general are a pretty basic necessity, so not beyond the pale as an EBT purchase per se,” Brown admitted. “But you can sure buy your bras cheaper at Target than at a lingerie shop.”
“And from the looks of things, the kinds of items Kiss My Lingerie sells are pretty far from basic undergarments. EBT benefits could also be used there to purchase ‘toys and novelties.'”
An employee at Kiss My Lingerie, however, told Raw Story that the company did not accept EBT cards for adult toys.
“We don’t accept that for adult toys,” she said. “No, no way.”
Reason did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Watch the video below from WAFB, broadcast March 11, 2014.
WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
[Woman reaches for purple dildo (Shutterstock.com)]Kyle Busch won’t expect a repeat next year for his Camping World Truck Series team. That would be expected no matter who was driving the car for a team after a season where it won 14 of the 22 events.
But Busch will continue a transition he hopes has more younger drivers in his Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks next year as he will drive just four of the 22 events while fielding three full-time trucks instead of two.
Busch will put Erik Jones, who won three races last year, in a truck full time thanks to the help of KBM sponsor Toyota.
He then will have another truck full time for the funded Justin Boston and another truck he will split with Matt Tifft (six races) and Daniel Suarez (12 races). Suarez, backed by companies owned by Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, will run a full Xfinity (formerly Nationwide) Series schedule next year for Joe Gibbs Racing and the KBM truck. Tifft also was able to bring some funding.
“Obviously you’ve got to do what’s right for business and when somebody comes to you with money, you take a look at them and you decide whether you want to work with them or you don’t,” Busch said about Boston and Tifft.
“Looking at their past successes that they had, it made sense. They’ve had success. They run good. They’ve been consistent. … You try to see if you can’t help them out and make a deal and move them up and see what their success can be like at the next level.”
Boston was the top rookie in ARCA in 2013 and was ninth in the stand-alone Nationwide race at Kentucky this past year. Tifft was eighth in the Martinsville truck race this year. And Suarez has won 13 races in NASCAR regional series, including 10 in NASCAR’s series in Mexico.
“I’m confident enough in these guys and Jones that they’ll do a good job and they can still bring home some wins without me being out there and winning races,” Busch said.
Jones can certainly win truck races. He won three last year in just 12 races in the truck that he shared with Busch, a truck that won the series owners title.
“Jones is a rare breed,” Busch said “He is going to make it on his talent, not on money. That is hard to come by these days.”
Busch said it is hard to find someone to come with the $3-3.5 million needed to fund a young driver for a full season. He won’t try to do a program for less because he doesn’t believe cutting corners is best for anyone.
There is proof he is right. It is not rare to see owners come and go quickly in the series, including the latest Turner Scott Motorsports team that is not expected to compete next year and already has sold many of its trucks.
“They’re spending too much of their own money,” Busch said about the deals some drivers have brought to owners and then what happens to the owners. “It’s not going to work. Look at what happened. It’s a fickle business. It’s tough. People always want to nickel and dime you and knock your price down but in reality, when you stand firm, you’re going to be the last one standing.
“We work hard that we choose the right deals. … We try to make sure we give them every opportunity possible to succeed and not give up.”
It’s that philosophy that led Busch out of the Xfinity Series. He tried to do a car for himself and brother Kurt in 2012 and while Kurt won one race, Kyle went winless. Parker Kligerman had some Toyota backing and other funding and ran a car for Busch in 2013. After two years and no wins, Busch closed that part of his operation.
“Been there, done that,” Busch said about the possibility of going back to Xfinity. “It’s just so hard to compete at that level.
“Yeah, we can run third to eighth every single week but to beat the 54 (that I run for JGR), beat the 22 (of Team Penske), damn it’s really hard to do. I’m not interested in going back and trying to relive those moments.”
Focusing just on trucks and what he had money to run paid dividends. Busch won seven truck races last year, while JGR development driver Darrell Wallace Jr. won four and Jones had three. Wallace is expected to run at least a part-time Xfinity schedule next year.
“I don't expect our group to be able to win as many races as we did this year next year,” Busch said. “I still expect us to run well and compete, and for Erik Jones to be able to have a legitimate shot at a championship and to be able to run consistent each and every week.”Moviegoers Say 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Is the Most Anticipated Movie of 2016
As we begin a new year at the movies, it's no surprise to see another Star Wars story front and center on moviegoers' minds. In a nationwide poll conducted by Fandango, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story topped the list as the year's most anticipated movie. The December release, which is a spin-off and takes place shortly before the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, is still shrouded in a bit of mystery as only one image has been released.
Still, with rumors that Darth Vader and maybe even Boba Fett will be in the movie fueling anticipation -- not to mention The Force Awakens smashing box office records left, right and sideways -- it certainly feels like the Force is going to remain strong with this one for a good while. (Bonus stat: The next two Star Wars movies, including The Force Awakens sequel, will arrive in theaters five months apart from one another.)
Somewhat surprisingly (or not really), the Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory came in second ahead of all the big superhero movies, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (third), Captain America: Civil War (fifth) and X-Men: Apocalypse (eighth). It's also a little surprising to see the next Bourne movie in fourth place considering we haven't seen a trailer yet. It just goes to show you how influential that franchise is when Matt Damon is in the lead role.
Check out all the results, which also include the most anticipated actor, actress, rising star and debut comic character (oh, hey Wonder Woman), below.
Most Anticipated Movie:
1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (December 16)
2. Finding Dory (June 17)
3. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 25)
4. Untitled Jason Bourne Movie (July 29)
5. Captain America: Civil War (May 6)
6. Star Trek Beyond (July 22)
7. Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24)
8. X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27)
9. Zoolander No. 2 (February 12)
10. The Jungle Book (April 15)
Most Anticipated Actress:
1. Melissa McCarthy (Ghostbusters)
2. Scarlett Johansson (Captain America: Civil War)
3. Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: Apocalypse)
4. Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train)
5. Charlize Theron (The Huntsman: Winter’s War)
Most Anticipated Actor:
1. Matt Damon (Untitled Jason Bourne Movie)
2. Will Smith (Suicide Squad)
3. Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool)
4. Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)
5. George Clooney (Hail, Caesar!)
Rising Female Movie Star:
1. Sophie Turner (X-Men: Apocalypse)
2. Leslie Jones (Ghostbusters)
3. Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad)
4. Christina Wren (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)
5. Nadia Hilker (The Divergent Series: Allegiant)
Rising Male Movie Star:
1. Tom Holland (Captain America: Civil War)
2. Riz Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story)
3. Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse)
4. Stephan James (Race)
5. Ed Speleers (Alice Through the Looking Glass)
Most Anticipated Comic Book Character Debuting in a Major Role:
1. Wonder Woman (Gal Godot in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)
2. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool)
3. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad)
4. Aquaman (Jason Momoa in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)
5. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange)
6. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman in Captain America: Civil War)What’s above an A+? A++? Do you just get gold stars at that point?
Whatever the custom, this teenager who attends a Catholic high school deserves all the accolades, and perhaps some scratch-and-sniff stickers, because who doesn’t love those?
The 11th grader, who goes by averagesmurf, was asked to write a paper defending the morals of one of the church’s teachings.
“The assignment is to write a ‘Summa Theologica’ style paper where you present a ‘moral dilemma,’ which is where you give the objections to church teaching and then the replies from the church. The exact words my teacher said in class were that you have to provide the church teaching to ‘show and prove that the church’s position is right,’” the student writes on Reddit.
Instead he turned in a 127-page whopper of a paper, simply titled Gay Marriage is Fabulous.
Here’s how things escalated, in his own words:
In terms of what she (the teacher) went over in class, we had a whole class were kids asked anonymous questions about moral issues and then we discussed it in a large group, afterwards the teacher would provide the church’s teaching and “correct” what we said in our discussion. Then she would move on before we got to put another word in. When the issue of “why is the church so against gay marriage” came up, I asked for the little “talking ball” and just started going for like 15 minutes on how the bible isn’t a condemnation of homosexuality and in all ways affirms love rather than hate and how god doesn’t make mistakes when he makes us, we are who we are. After which, when she started quoting Aquinas on natural law, I stood up and said that natural law has no basis in scripture, science, and fails the is-ought fallacy presented by David Hume and is bases heavily on divine command theory which fails the euthyphro dilemma. Then I went on about how, when conceiving natural law, Aquinas bases his argument on a law by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian, who wasn’t very intelligent and believed gay people caused “famines and pestilences”. The bell rang at this point, which did not provide her an opportunity to “correct” my statements. However, in the next class, she changed the format of the class. She did not allow discussions and showed a video the whole class (link). The video insinuates that homosexuality is basically a choice or something caused by abuse and “unhealthy relationships”. Furthermore, during class she’s spouted off standard, conservative bull-sh*t arguments like the “sanctity of marriage”, “gay = aids”, “gay relationships are unhealthy”, “kids need a mom and a dad”, “Gay men are much more likely to be pedophiles”, etc. When you do actually bring up significant arguments against the church, she vehemently steers around the question and avoids the answer. For instance, in class, when we we’re talking about “gay = pedophilia”, i said that there was no evidence nor science to back the claim up, but rather much to discredit such a laughable theory. Furthermore, I went on to say that the only people who have higher rates of pedophilia are priests who molest little boys. Her response was, “is that a fact? or is that just something the media wants you to believe.” She went on to totally deny that priests had ever molested children.
Many were quick to cry foul, questioning whether the story was made up. 127 is an awful lot of pages, after all.
In a separate response titled “I know people are just going to hate on me, but here’s the full paper,” the student provided a link to the full text, which we will ever-so-happily share here.
Related: This Flow Chart That Destroys Religion’s Case Against Gay Marriage Is So Easy, Any Zealot Can Use ItCommunity fans were faced with disappointment when series creator and showrunner Dan Harmon was ousted in 2012, ahead of the cult sitcom's fourth season. Failing to find its footing in ratings and at risk of losing its core fanbase, the show brought Harmon back into the fold over the summer, along with the surprise announcement of a fifth season renewal.
Tasked with the unprecedented challenge of helping the show regain its course, Harmon has announced something of a full revamp, beginning with the Jan. 2 premiere of season five's “Repilot.”
Until now, details of the upcoming season have been kept mostly under wraps, however a new trailer has just arrived, which sheds some light on its plot. With Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) returning to the fictional Greendale Community College in the role of professor, season five already appears to be a drastic departure from season four, and an attempt to bring back some of more grounded elements of earlier seasons.
Watch the trailer below:
Series regular Chevy Chase departed the show during season four, and Donald Glover, who raps under the stage name Childish Gambino and portrays the role of Troy Barnes, has announced that he will exit halfway though season five. Former cast member John Oliver will return in the part of Professor Ian Duncan.
Community's upcoming season will include cameos and recurring roles from the likes of Ben Folds, Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad), David Cross (Arrested Development), Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development), Rob Corddry (Children's Hospital), Brie Larson (United States Of Tara, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly), Walton Goggins (Justified), Kumail Nanjiani (Portlandia), Tim and Eric, and more!
The fifth season of Community will premiere Thursday, Jan. 2 on NBC, with back to back new episodes, beginning at 8 p.m. EST.CS:GO history has many of its high points defined by Swedish virtuosos. When people rattle off names to illustrate greatness or sheer dominance, GeT_RiGhT, olofmeister, f0rest, KRiMZ, and JW are generally on the tip of their tongue. As a region, Sweden for the vast majority of CS:GO's lifespan has had its two top teams also be the two best teams in the game’s history. It should come as no surprise then, that Sweden as a region has also boasted one of the most extensive lists of legitimate, prospective star talent that can make an impact on an international stage.
Although this list was, and still is, extensive, outside of the occasional tournament, these players were rarely given a consistent, solid platform from which to prove their worth. Mixed teams, semi-professional organisations and tier 3-4 online comps were the standard playing environments for budding Swedish stars.
Fortunately, the creation of the Swedish Epsilon eSports and GODSENT organisations in early 2016 saw two potential-stacked line-ups which could contest at a decent-enough international level to give their best players important exposure. GODSENT moreso though, given the benefit of having former major champions and experienced players in znajder and pronax to validate their roster.
Both of these rosters, with their shining prospects, had their high points and moments of recognition throughout the year, showing a new depth to the Swedish scene to the international crowd. As a result, both sides would get wrapped up in the incredibly long and messy Swedish shuffle that occurred between Fnatic, GODSENT and disco doplan from Epsilon. With Fnatic's slumping results and internal issues, GODSENT would become a farm team for new talent.
In the end, the overall shuffle was made up of three smaller moves that ended up seeing twist, Lekr0 and disco doplan all play on Fnatic for a short period of time before ending up on GODSENT. Fnatic ended up just returning to the same roster as before, and have since gone on to find new life with JW as their star player. GODSENT though, after the Swedish shuffle, have been struggling to work with the leftovers.
Photo by: DreamHack | Adela Sznajder Flickr.com
Although they have some of the hottest prospects in Swedish CS, prospects which also have international LAN experience under their belt, GODSENT have failed to make it out of six separate qualifiers for big tournaments, including the PGL Major qualifier, and have no LAN results worth mentioning. Recently they were knocked out of the 2017 Dreamhack Malmo EU qualifier by Bulgarian side Outlaws, a team ranked well out of the top 30 teams in the world, in an online Bo3.
Being a part of this current GODSENT roster might very well end up being the lowest point in the careers of all five players involved.
But the on-paper results for the post-shuffle GODSENT don't tell the full story, especially not of the individual components that make it up. To find what GODSENT really is as a team, one has to look at the manner in which they keep consistently failing, and why it will be important for understanding the future of the individuals in this team.
GODSENT as a team, is much like The Room as a movie. As a qualifier, 'team' is used in the loosest way possible. At its best moments, the individual performance make you laugh at how insane they are, at its worst moments, the overall composition and thought behind it makes you cringe until your forehead touches your upper lip.
This is largely due to the brand of Counter-Strike GODSENT has always pushed for and how it fits in the current competitive landscape. The majority of GODSENT's momentum in games comes off the back of individual plays and impact by any one of their four impact fraggers. Whether it be with twist on the AWP, disco doplan in clutch situations or lekr0 on pistols, GODSENT's level of talent and ability to win impossible rounds is far above the cut of their relative competition. The current core's most notable result, a top four at Dreamhack Malmo 2016, was almost entirely done by the in-form play of lekr0 and twist, and key clutch round wins from znajder.
Photo by: DreamHack | Adela Sznajder Flickr.com
The centre of GODSENT's game is its individual components; an approach which, on the surface at least, shouldn't lead to the results over the last five months.
Pronax experienced unparalleled success in Fnatic peddling a similar approach—allowing his incredibly talented stars to have freedom throughout the early round, then being able to snowball any momentum gained into round wins via great mid-round calling. Although the current meta favours slower teams that default to a map-control based T-side and safe, late-round information plays on CT-side, this GODSENT/pronax philosophy isn't out-of-place. G2 Esports and the current Fnatic roster both approach the game similarly and are considered top ten teams in the world.
GODSENT's issue with adopting this style though, isn't like most other teams who have struggled with it. Historically, like we've seen with G2 and Fnatic, the downfall of an individually centred side is when the individuals can no longer perform. As 2016 waned on and both shox and ScreaM stopped putting up game-breaking numbers, G2 stopped making it out of groups. When olofmeister stopped being the best player to ever touch the game, Fnatic stopped playing like the best team to ever play as well. GODSENT's individual players though, overall at least, are still incredibly talented and in-form, which is one of the reasons why they are so frustrating to analyse. Because one of GODSENT's many issues is that they lack the teamplay and communication to make this style of play work.
As a team, they lack the cohesion and polish required, especially on their T-sides, to play the explosive, quick trading contact plays onto sites that they default too. While this could be in-part due to the sheer amount of talent on the roster, it is also due to just how many teams in CS:GO right now boast incredible teamplay.
The sides which they've lost against include the likes of BIG, Immortals, Vega Squadron, Space Soldiers and Gambit Esports, all teams with above-average to excellent teamwork. This means that essentially GODSENT's only win condition is dampened by the better macro, communication and teamwork of their opponent. Skill, in the current landscape is only one component in a fairly large web of factors required for success.
Their individual approach and lack of teamplay becomes even more apparent due to the pace and aggression in which they approach rounds. On CT, GODSENT has been infamous since their inception for playing a very aggressive, fast, forward CT defence that wants to put their star players in positions to win duels. While this was good against the second-tier teams who were trying to play a similar style in early-2016, against the slow map control defaults of today, it can easily fall apart. A good example of this aggressive CT defence can be seen in their game against G2 at Dreamhack Malmo.
What's more, when GODSENT can't get anything going with this very explosive, fast style of individual play, they have little to fall back on. In Atlanta and the PGL Major Offline Qualifier, we definitely began to see more of the slower paced rounds creep into GODSENT's T-side offense, but these weren't executed with the same methodical intensity as sides like Gambit or even Heroic. For example, here is one of their slower T rounds at the Major qualifier on Train against Cloud9. They execute late onto B in a 4v5 yet don't communicate properly in clearing the site allowing Stewie2k to easy shut down the round late, and pronax lurking from ivy ends up being isolated and totally useless in the round.
The key narrative for this side though, is what the future will hold for its individuals. Because, in the same two games above where we saw very low-level mistakes being made on a macro level, we also saw Lekr0 get a 1v5 deagle ace and disco doplan win a 1v2 clutch one round and then get a round-winning double entry the next. In this way, you have to also respect the system that allows such explosive and jaw-dropping plays. Yet, respect or not, it's clearly a system that's not winning games.
This immense talent is being lost in a system that revolves too much around them. They don't need disco doplan to hit more shots or znajder to step-up his rifling, they need the support around their inherent skill.
So although these string of poor results might take off the sheen from the lens of historical hindsight, don't lump a systemic failure of a team's philosophy and style with a lack of individual form. Although the system itself is based around the individuals, confusingly the individuals aren't necessarily the one to blame here.
GODSENT as a side are dissonant, but not necessarily a bad one. They need harmony and structure around their current stars, not just replacing some for a newer, louder noise. Don't let the overall orchestra's clashing detract from the potentially long and prosperous careers of it's strong individual instruments.
source header image: DreamHack | Adela SznajderJohn Waters has described sleepless nights, losing a stone in weight and how he is afraid to go into Dublin's city centre at night in the wake of the Pantigate controversy.
John Waters has described sleepless nights, losing a stone in weight and how he is afraid to go into Dublin's city centre at night in the wake of the Pantigate controversy.
In his first interview since the event, the controversial columnist also defended his €40,000 settlement with RTE – saying he believes he could have received €4m from the national broadcaster if the libel proceedings had gone to a full hearing.
"What is the great crime in taking money off the state broadcaster?" he asked, in an interview near his holiday home in Sligo town yesterday.
"Let me tell you this, if this had gone on, it isn't €40,000, I would have got €4m out of RTE."
Mr Waters also took the opportunity to reinforce his stance on gay marriage and adoption.
"This is about free speech. It is about the rights of people to speak about what is important without being demonised," he said.
Waters told the Sunday Independent he has been left fearing for his personal safety.
"I won't go in to Dublin city centre at night. When you have that kind of toxicity generated out of nothing, what are you going to do? It's not worth it."
"I was walking down the street and a guy on a bicycle shouted 'you f***ing homophobe' at me before cycling on. I was in a coffee shop on another occasion and a woman waddled over to me with a pram and told me I should be ashamed of myself before walking off. They are cowards, they shout something and keep walking, they don't want to engage.
"I was frightened almost in a metaphysical way, that people could be so full of hatred. That, in accusing me of hatred, they could manifest a hatred infinitely greater than anything I could possibly imagine."
Asked if he had become depressed as a result of the national backlash, he said, "I don't believe in depression. There's no such thing. It's an invention. It's bullshit," he said, "it's a cop out."
He also described how the backlash had taken a personal toll on his physical health: "I lost nearly a stone in the first few weeks of this. I didn't sleep."
Mr Waters said he gave serious consideration to quitting journalism and is still considering leaving Ireland to work elsewhere.
"I have no friends in the media anymore."
Describing the lowest point, he said it was the realisation that no one would speak out in his defence.
"You have a certain hope that somebody, somewhere knows you for who you are, you kind of have some kind of naive hope that one of these people are going to stand up and say 'hang on, this is wrong, this is not this guy' and that moment never came."
In a passionate interview, Waters also defended previous statements he made on gay marriage and adoption which have landed him in hot water.
Questioning gay adoption, he drew parallels with two brothers taking paternal responsibility of a child.
"If two brothers who love each other in a particular way decide 'we would like to adopt a child' this society would regard that as an absurdity, they would laugh them out of court.
"Yet if two men who are involved in a sexual relationship go forward to adopt a child we are told now, that should be okay? I find that really hard to understand, intellectually. Why is it that it is okay but it is not okay for two brothers or two straight men? I think that's a legitimate point."
He went on to describe as'satirical' the fight to introduce gay marriage, when the core of the traditional family unit remains so broken.
"There is something fundamentally wrong to go off then and to come up with a peripheral issue, which gay marriage is in my view, and to deal with that first, when the raw bloody core of our family law and our family life in this country... that is satire. It is a mockery of reality to actually deal with something so peripheral and marginal, when there is such a wound at the heart of our culture. So I make no apologies for calling it a satire. It is satirical."
He defended his use of the word 'buggery', questioning why anyone would take offence to the term.
"People are selectively finding things offensive to suit themselves. But what is so offensive about the word buggery? I mean it's a phenomenon, it's a word to describe a physical function. My definition is anal penetration by men. It is very clear what it means. It is a term to describe a physical function, end of story. Why is it offensive? If the act is not offensive to people, why should the word to describe it be offensive?"
Speaking about the international attention the controversy had attracted, he questioned the interference of high-profile figures from both and home and abroad.
"I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Madonna but people should mind their own business. Just like Pat Rabbitte should mind his own business.
"He chose to intervene in this at a critical moment on an entirely one-sided basis. He is the Minister for Communications, I was on the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) for three years while he was minister, we are the authority, the people who form and implement policy. Not once in that time did that minister come to sit at our table to discuss anything with us. So I would suggest that he does his job rather than interfering in issues that had nothing to do with him."
Mr Waters said he feels as though he has been "tarred and feathered" and "put on trial" for his beliefs.
"Enda Kenny used to be against gay marriage and now he is not. Not one journalist has asked him to explain the trajectory of his change of heart."
On his history of legal disputes and settlements he said each one: "went to the very core of my being and my spirit."
Watch more -
Sunday IndependentSan Francisco’s new affordable housing requirements for developers are coming into focus Tuesday with a proposal to require more middle income housing at the expense of housing for lower income residents.
Supervisor Ahsha Safai along with Board of Supervisors President London Breed, with the support of Mayor Ed Lee, are introducing the inclusionary housing legislation Tuesday.
The legislation would require developers of rental projects with at least 25 units who opt to build affordable housing onsite (instead of off-site or paying a fee) to provide 18 percent of those units as affordable. The current requirement is 25 percent with 15 percent of total units for low-income earners, who are at 55 percent of area median income, and 10 percent for middle income earners.
That’s where another big change comes in. Under the proposal, a third of the 18 percent required units would need to go to those low-income earners of 55 percent area median income, a third to those earning 80 percent of area median income, and a third for those earning 110 percent of area median income.
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1m.
Brooks funded her legal battle out of a £16.1m severance deal she secured when she resigned as News International’s chief executive in July 2011. She was cleared of four charges by the jury in relation to phone hacking, corrupt payments to public officials and an allegation that she conspired to pervert the course of justice.
If she had been convicted she would have had to repay all her costs to the parent company, News Corp, and would also have been hit for costs sought by the Crown Prosecution Service, which put the total legal outlay for the trial at £1.7m.
The CPS is battling to get £750,000 of costs back from Coulson, who was found guilty and jailed last month for his part in a conspiracy to hack phones while editor of the News of the World.
In a judgment last week, Saunders said the prosecution’s application for costs would be delayed because of outstanding matters, including the question of whether Coulson’s severance deal with News International included an indemnity for costs arising out of the trial. Coulson resigned from the NoW in 2007 and went on to become David Cameron’s director of communications.
The judge is also waiting for an affidavit from Coulson relating to his assets.
“It does seem to me, however, that inquiries as to what has happened to the severance payment that was made to Mr Coulson and the capital sum realised by downsizing his home, are legitimate questions and Mr Coulson has agreed to answer them,” Saunders said.
Brooks can claim for costs associated with the hacking and perversion of the course of justice charges, but not the two counts related to paying public officials as these were made after legal aid changes clawed back the amount privately defended clients could demand from the crown.
Her lead counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, and his team were understood to be paid about £30,000 a week, amounting to more than £1m in fees for court time alone over the 33-week trial.
The £25m is lower than the earlier £60m estimate for News Corp’s bill for the trial, but it is not thought to include ancillary services, such as a noting barrister transcribing the trial on a daily basis, two individuals reporting daily back to the company’s HQs in New York and London, and the presence of a corporate lawyer virtually every day during the trial.
News Corp has spent £100m on legal costs in the last year arising out of the closure of the News of the World, which would have included fees spent on criminal and civil proceedings, and will have included some of the defendants’ costs.Internet.org, a project by Facebook which aims to bring data connectivity to masses is having a tough time convincing the world its intention and importance. The project was launched in India by the social juggernaut in February in collaboration with telecommunication company RCom. But since the launch, the company has received severe backlash, forcing the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to come out and defend the project. But things are far from sorted.
After the backlash in India, the company is now receiving disapproval from groups in Indonesia, Colombia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe among many other places. Sixty people from digital-rights groups in 28 countries or regions around the world have come together to sign a joint letter addressed to Zuckerberg expressing their dissent to Internet.org’s practices on fairness, privacy and security.
“It is our belief that Facebook is improperly defining net neutrality in public statements and building a walled garden in which the world’s poorest people will only be able to access a limited set of insecure websites and services.” the open letter reads. “Further, we are deeply concerned that Internet.org has been misleadingly marketed as providing access to the full Internet, when in fact it only provides access to a limited number of Internet-connected services that are approved by Facebook and local ISPs. In its present conception, Internet.org thereby violates the principles of net neutrality, threatening freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, security, privacy and innovation.”
“We urge Facebook to assert its support for a true definition of net neutrality in which all applications and services are treated equally and without discrimination — especially in the majority world, where the next three billion Internet users are coming online — and to address the significant privacy and security flaws inherent in the current iteration of Internet.org,” the letter further reads. “Zero rating is currently Internet.org’s basic model: Facebook is partnering with ISPs around the world to offer access to certain Internet applications to users at no cost. These agreements endanger freedom of expression and equality of opportunity by letting service providers decide which Internet services will be privileged over others, thus interfering with the free flow of information and people’s rights vis-a-vis networks.”
For Internet.org, Facebook partners with wireless carriers and content and other service providers to offer an app which provides users in that particular network with free access to select services. While privacy watchdogs have had always shown their concern towards the project, stating the possibility of it violating net neutrality, it wasn’t until earlier this year that Facebook received flak in an unprecedented number when it launched the service in India. This criticism pressured many partner companies who later pulled their services from Internet.org project, saying that their company supports net neutrality.
On a post, Zuckerberg defended the project, saying that this project should and must coexist with net neutrality. “If someone can’t afford to pay for connectivity, it is always better to have some access than none at all,” he noted. Unfortunately for Zuckerberg, the watchguards of the internet strongly disagree with him. On a blog post titled “Internet.org Is Not Neutral, Not Secure, and Not the Internet,” EFF, an international non-profit digital rights group strongly condemns Internet.org.
After receiving flak in India, Facebook opened the Internet.org program to all interested companies provided they complied with Internet.org’s technical guidelines. Some of the requirements that it has put forward includes the images, videos, VoIP calls, Flash, Java applets and other elements to weigh less than 1Mb in size. EFF finds this newly imposed requirements absurd. “We agree that some Internet access is better than none, and if that is what Internet.org actually provided—for example, through a uniformly rate-limited or data-capped free service—then it would have our full support,” it noted. “But it doesn’t. Instead, it continues to impose conditions and restraints that not only make it something less than a true Internet service, but also endanger people’s privacy and security.”
The organization points out that this unwittingly also puts users’ security and privacy at risk. “That’s because the technical structure of Internet.org prevents some users from accessing services over encrypted HTTPS connections(…) A critical component of Internet.org is its proxy server, which traffic must pass through for the zero-rating and the interstitial warning to work correctly. Some devices, like Android phones running Internet.org’s app, have the technical ability to make encrypted HTTPS connections through the proxy server without becoming vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks or exposing any data (beyond the domain being requested) to Facebook. Internet.org’s Android app can also automatically bring up the interstitial warning directly on the phone by using the app to analyze links (as opposed to Facebook serving the warning via its proxy server).”
The problem is that most inexpensive feature phones don’t have the technical sophistication to support HTTPs connection. “For these phones, traffic must pass through Internet.org’s proxy unencrypted, which means that any information users send or receive from Internet.org’s services could be read by local police or national intelligence agencies and expose its users to harm.”Time for gifting means a ton of baking or jar mixes! Gluten-free recipes are mentioned as GF with the link. All recipes are soy-free or can be made soy-free.
What are your favorite jar gifts for the holidays.
* Jump to Jar Gifts
* Jump to Cookies and Brownies
DIY Jar Gifts:
This Chocolate Pumpkin Cake mix in a jar.
Make Chocolate Pumpkin Cake or spiced Chocolate cake with the jar ingredients.
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Brownie Mix in a jar for 8 and Single Serve mini jar too. Pictured below.
Mexican Hot chocolate Mix in a Jar. or gingerbread hot chocolate, or peppermint or caramel or kahlua!
Single Serve Gingerbread Cake Mix. Gift the jar, mix, bake and serve in the jar! GF. Pictured below.
Chocolate Chunk Oat Almond Cookies in a Jar. GF
Coconut Macaroons Mix in a Jar. GF
Need some thing savory, try a delicious Dal! Indian spiced Lentil Soup mix in a jar. GF
And this Savory Spicy Sweet Granola/Trail mix.
Sriracha Quinoa Millet Cranberry Orange Peanut Granola. A mouthful I say. GF
If you love Coconut Chutney like I do, you need to make this chutney or the mix in the jar and keep a couple of them fordays you want to whip some up in 2 minutes!
Coconut Chutney Mix and Dosa Crepe Mix in a Jar. South Indian breakfast ready in 15. GF option
Make some Gingerbread cake or make a mix in a jar.
Holiday Cookies and Brownies:
Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies. GF oil-free
Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies
100% Spelt Triple Ginger Molasses Soft Cookies
No Bake Cookie dough bars. GF
Pistachio Almond Cranberry Thumbprints.
Almond Butter Snickerdoodles. Melt in your mouth cinnamony goodness
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Tiramisu Cookies. GF mmmmm
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie dough Truffles
Sugar Cookies. GF
Crunchy Citrus cookies. GF
Coconut Flour Brownies. And a lot more brownie options
Cranberry Chocolate chip Oatmeal Cookies
Banana Oatmeal Raisin Muffin tops
Quinoa Oat Ice cream Muffin tops
Some other Holiday goodies…
Christmas Fruit Cake. this one you will actually like!
Coconut Laddoos or Truffles.
Christmas Stollen Wreath bread with Cranberries, Pistachios, Candied orange.
Coconut almond Rum balls!! GF
Gingerbread Spiced Chocolate Nut butter Truffles GFBy Rick Snyder
Flying into Cairo, my wife, Mary Ann, and I first noticed the immense desert, which makes up 90 percent of Egypt.
Then we saw the Nile River, flowing north to the Mediterranean. Ninety-five percent of Egyptians live within 35 miles of its life-giving waters.
Then we descended into the sprawling city of Cairo. With 23 million inhabitants, roughly the population of Australia, it is the world's second-largest city.
We came to see the work of the Presbyterian Church in Egypt. So we visited a seminary and the Egyptian Bible Society. We toured Coptic churches, Egypt's largest denomination, and worshiped in a secluded new church powered by a generator. At social agencies, we listened to eyewitness accounts of Egyptian life.
And yes, we rode camels, saw the pyramids and the Sphinx, minutes from Cairo's edge, and took side trips to Alexandria, home of the ancient library, and Luxor, with its magnificent temples. What an experience!
Driving through Cairo is an adventure in itself. Traffic lanes are a suggestion. A short trip can take 15 minutes or an hour and 15 minutes. It is said that cycling is an invitation to suicide. And Yogi Berra might describe crossing the street as 20 percent timing, 20 percent sprinting and 90 percent prayer.
Cairo is impressive. Most buildings are the same tan brick. Green parks are rare. But at night, Cairo's thousand mosques form a glittering panorama.
Overlooking the city is Saladin's citadel, built to defend the city from the Crusaders.
Coptic Cairo traces its origins to the visit of the Holy Family after Herod's slaughter of the innocent children.
Islamic Cairo is a labyrinth of narrow alleys, which provide shade on the hottest of days. Latticed second-story windows allow women, restricted to the home, a glimpse of the outside world.
Cairo is a city of contrasts. You will see horse-drawn carts on side streets taking vegetables to market and new BMWs, humble family shops and upscale department stores, and women in full burqas chatting on iPhones.
Impoverished immigrants live in cemeteries, while pristine, gated communities are springing up in Cairo's suburbs.
And in Tahrir Square, the focal point for the 2011 revolution that toppled Egypt's longtime dictator, Hosni Mubarak, and the 2013 revolution that toppled Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mohamed Morsi, you can dine at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Hardees or Pizza Hut.
In fact, after worshiping at the new church, our potluck started when the Pizza Hut deliveryman brought a dozen pizzas.
Prior to our trip, friends asked, "Is Cairo safe?" Our guides and missionaries assured us, "Cairo is probably safer than Chicago. You just need to know where you are."
We found Egyptians friendly, outgoing and eager to practice their English. Yes, some vendors are pushy, but if you smile, say "la shukraan" — "no thank you" — and keep moving, they aren't a problem.
Tourism is down significantly since 2011, so tourist sites are carefully protected. The typical Egyptian seems unconcerned about Middle Eastern politics, saying, "Syria is a long way off."
A new constitution has been drafted that will guarantee religious freedom, but it cannot be ratified until a new Parliament is elected.
But living conditions for most Egyptians are difficult. The unemployment rate hovers near 25 percent. Nearly half of Egyptians live on $2 a day or less.
At a ministry site, we heard a young boy tell of dropping out of school to support his family by working in a glass factory from the ages of 6 to 16, without goggles or protective clothing.
Illiteracy and a high sexual assault rate are also significant social problems.
Egypt has 2,900 churches, and the church is growing after the violence of August 2013, when Islamist fundamentalists burned five dozen churches and Coptic institutions like schools, monasteries, bookstores and even an orphanage.
When the church responded not with "an eye for an eye," but with prayers and forgiveness, even devout Muslims were impressed.
Would we go again? Absolutely! We were reminded that laughter sounds the same everywhere and that we have many things in common — a love for our children, a concern for the future, a longing for meaningful employment and a hope for peace.
Rick Snyder is the retired senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Champaign.The second-ranked Louisville baseball team capped off a season sweep of rival Kentucky by knocking off the Wildcats 5-2 in Lexington Wednesday night. The Cards also beat the Cats 2-1 at Jim Patterson Stadium eight days ago.
U of L did the bulk of its damage in the 6th inning, when it turned a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead it would not relinquish. The biggest blow of the inning came on a Nick Solak smash up the middle that was questionably ruled an error on Wildcat second baseman JaVon Shelby. Two runs scored to give Louisville the lead for good.
On the mound, seven Cardinal pitchers combined to limit Kentucky to just 6 hits and only 1 earned run. Eastern High School product Robert Strader picked up the win after working a hitless home half of the 8th. Zack Burdi shut the door in the 9th to notch his team-best 7th save.
The victory improved U of L to 38-11 overall this season, and 27-0 in games in which it scores first.
With all due respect to Kentucky and the Bluegrass rivalry, Louisville has a much bigger and more important fish to fry this weekend with No. 7 Florida State coming to Jim Patterson for a three-game set. The Seminoles, one of college baseball's perennial powerhouse teams, have not failed to win the ACC's Atlantic Division in nine years, a streak the Cards can end with a single victory this weekend.
Up Next: No.2 Louisville will host its first-ever Top 10 matchup at Jim Patterson Stadium, vs. No.7 FSU (FRI 6pm - SAT 1pm - SUN 1pm), FREE. — Louisville Baseball (@UofLBaseball) May 7, 2015
People are excited.
U of L is also just two wins away from locking up the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament. There's never been a better time to hop on the bandwagon.The exposure of a deeply humiliating security failure at a nuclear facility in Tennessee resulted in the conviction of and 83 year old nun, and two others for sabotaging the plant and a second charge of damaging federal property.
The incident happened last July, and took place at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. They spent at least two hours in the complex after cutting through security fences. They proceeded to hang banners, string crime-scene tape and hammered off a small chunk of the fortress-like Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, or HEUMF, inside the most secure part of complex.
Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, told the court they had no remorse for their actions. Their defense attorneys claimed that they had performed a valuable service to the security of the facility.
“The shortcomings in security at one of the most dangerous places on the planet have embarrassed a lot of people,” said Francis Lloyd, who represented Sister Megan Rice of Washington, D.C. “You’re looking at three scapegoats behind me.”
It’s important to note that this may be the country’s most important nuclear facility. It is the plant that has had a hand in making, maintaining or dismantling parts of every nuclear weapon in the country’s arsenal.
While there were hearings in Washington today regarding the tragedy in Benghazi, the question arises; is the United States government neglecting security within our own borders? Has Homeland Security become an agency that involves itself only with terrorism? If an 83 year old woman, along with two other civilians, can break into what should be the most secure nuclear resource in the country, how easy would it be for trained professionals?
Neile Miller, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told a Senate subcommittee that officials have taken “decisive action” since the July 28 intrusion at the Y-12, including a new management team and a new defense security chief to oversee all of the agency’s sites.
“The severity of the failure of leadership at Y-12 has demanded swift, strong and decisive action by the department,” she said. “Since the Y-12 incursion, major actions have taken place to improve security immediately, and for the long term.”
Sister Rice said her only misgiving was that she had waited so long to stage a protest. “My regret was I waited 70 years,” she said. “It is manufacturing that which can only cause death.”
She was asked why she hadn’t felt obligated to inform the Catholic bishop in her area of her intentions. Rice responded: “I’ve been guilty of many discourtesies in my life.”
It took only 2 and ½ hours for the jury to convict the three trespassers.
Prosecutor Jeff Theodore told the court that they were in an area where guards were allowed to use lethal force. “They’re lucky, and thank goodness they’re alive, because they went into the lethal zone,” he said.
The three sprayed baby bottles full of blood on the exterior of the facility. Boertje-Obed explained their reasoning. “The reason for the baby bottles was to represent that the blood of children is spilled by these weapons,” he said.
I have heard political posturizing over many issues. I have questions as to why the American public hasn’t heard about this serious incident until the trial for these three individuals was completed.
James Turnage
Columnist-The Guardian ExpressHTC Leaks Smartwatch
HTC was at one time the hottest thing in Android phones. HTC was responsible for the flagship G1 the first “Google” Android phone that hit the market. After a slight downturn in 2011 and 2012 it appears that HTC is back full throttle with Android.
Their HTC One M8 is one of the most desirable Android phones on the market. The company has also said that they are keeping it’s eye on the wearables market.
Androidandme.com reported Monday that famed and often times correct, leaker evleaks posted some artist renderings of what is believed to be HTC’s first Androidwear smartwatch.
The popular Android site also found what looks to be a glimpse of HTC’s first smartwatch in a video the company posted about the importance of design. The video chronicles many HTC design offices and HTC’s design time talks about the values of design to the company.
At around :35 seconds into the video, you catch a glimpse of a man working at his desk. To the right of the man (in the screen grab above) you can see what could very well be HTC’s Androidwear smartwatch.
Dustin Earley at androidandme is convinced that the photo looks a lot like the renderings that evleaks has posted.
What do you think. Here’s the evleaks photo and the video is below:We all expected Martin Buser to not stop in Galena after coming fresh of his 8 hour layover. But instead he declared that he is pulling over for a bit. He has no apparent problems, and is in his normal cheerful mood. After the big flood here in Galena the dog yard is a bit rearranged by Mother Nature. In this case in a good way, one of the tight turns has been flooded away. Martin expecting ” the usual ” gee’d his dog team into the old dog lot, just to realize, wrong place…. He skillfully turned the team around on command and parallel parked to Aliy Zirkle’s Team. Martin was cold, he did not waste much time, and is moving quickly to warm up. I do not think he will stay long here, with so many hard chasers out of Ruby already.
Surprisingly, I did take Martin with 6hrs and 9 minutes longer to get here than it did Aliy who yet has to take her 8 hr layover. Small things like the wrong runner plastic for the unexpected cold temperatures can make the difference.
Here are some pictures, enjoy!Quintin Demps recently revealed his philosophy for creating takeaways. Will his advice rub off on this impressionable young Chicago Bears defense?
The Chicago Bears signed Quintin Demps this offseason for two reasons: solidify their suspect safety position and help generate more takeaways. Quintin Demps this offseason for two reasons: solidify their suspect safety position and help generate more takeaways.
Demps certainly brings an element of stability to the safety position after two solid years with the Houston Texans. In fact, Pro Football Focus had him ranked as the 12th overall safety in the league after his 2016 campaign. And he also showed a knack for finding the football, recording nine pass breakups, six interceptions and a forced fumble last year. As such, he seems like he could help the Bears get back to taking the ball away from opponents regularly.
But to Demps, takeaways don’t happen if you don’t do the little things first. And it’s that mentality that he will try to impress on a young secondary that has a lot to learn about making plays on the football.
“Doing your job” comes first; takeaways second
With the Bears ranking dead last in turnover production last year (eight interceptions, three fumble recoveries), taking the ball away will definitely be a focus for this year’s defense. The safety room, in particular, has been greatly maligned for its inability to play the football. With stat lines like this, it’s hard not to see why.
Per @PFF, Matthew Stafford had a perfect 158.3 passer-efficiency rating when targeting #Bears S Harold Jones-Quartey (5/5, 89 yards, 1 td). — dan durkin (@djdurkin) December 12, 2016
However, rather than just encouraging teammates to try harder to take the ball, Demps advocates a more simple approach. Via J.J. Stankevitz of CSNChicago:
“Turnovers are like, it’s not something that you go get, it’s something you let come to you by doing your job first and then helping out,” Demps said. “And then you’d be surprised how they come to you by doing your job and being aware of when you can help somebody out. A lot of times when you get help is when you get picks and turnovers.”
Basically, rally to the football and attack as a unit. If that sounds familiar to Bears fans, it’s probably because that’s how their team used to play defensive football. Sure, Charles Tillman, Brian Urlacher and Co. made plenty of great individual plays to force fumbles or intercept passes. But how many times did we see the Bears create takeaways from gang-tackling or tipped balls?
What Demps is advocating, in essence, is a return to the Bears defensive football fans know and love. Be where you’re supposed to be, fly to the ball and the rest will follow.
Want more INTs? Don’t miss tackles
Perhaps Demps’ most interesting advice for the secondary was that tackling is a major key to getting more interceptions.
“I tell my safeties all the time, we gotta tackle first,” Demps said. “Tackle first, don’t miss any tackles and then the picks are going to come. I promise you that.”
What does tackling have to do with picking off passes? More than we typically realize.
His insight is interesting given how badly the Chicago Bears struggled with tackling last season, particularly against the run. If you can’t stop the ground game (rushing stats: 27th in attempts, 26th in yards and 25th in touchdowns allowed), teams pass on you less (4th-fewest passes, 7th-fewest passing yards against). And when you can’t tackle anyone, like in this game, you have bigger problems.
In short, actually stopping the ball in front of you forces the offense to run more plays. That, in turn, creates more opportunities to make a play of your own as a defense. Demps absolutely practiced what he preached last year, leading Houston’s secondary with a PFF run-defense grade of 83.0. Perhaps it’s no coincidence, then, that he made as many plays as he did in 2016.
If the Bears secondary wants to make more plays on the ball, they’ll have to play fundamentally sound across the board. Helping instill that mentality, more so than what he brings in raw stats, may be where Demps’ value truly lies.
Expect two things from the Chicago Bears defense this season: smarter, more sound football and an increase in turnover production. They won’t be the 1985 Bears or even the 2006 Bears, but they will be better in 2017.Born Nov. 10, 1934 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Sutherland spent much of his teenage and adult life living in Winnipeg. A solid two-way hockey player who starred for the Cincinnati Mohawks of the International Hockey League, "Sudsy" spent most of his pro career playing effectively in various minor leagues. He had a brief, two-game stint in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens during the 1963 Stanley Cup playoffs but otherwise was unable to crack the National Hockey League until he was 33 years old.
Sutherland played parts of four seasons with the Flyers beginning with the very first season in 1967-68 through 1970-71 where he compiled 42 goals and 29 assists for 71 points in 124 regular season games. He also appeared in the first 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games in Flyers history, posting two goals and four assists for six points.
"Bill was an original member of this organization who helped set the standard of success and what it meant to be a Flyer," said Flyers President Paul Holmgren. "He came to the Flyers as a veteran and played a crucial part in leading the team to a first place finish in the West Division in the very first season. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time."
Bill Sutherland, member of the Philadelphia Flyers original team in 1967-68, passed away on Sunday at the age of 82.
The Flyers acquired Sutherland's rights from the Quebec Aces when the Philadelphia Hockey Inc. purchased the Aces, a former Montreal Canadiens farm team, to become the new NHL expansion team's first American Hockey League affiliate. He earned a spot with the parent team out of their first training camp, impressing coach Keith Allen with his work ethic and hockey sense.
"Expansion benefitted some of the players like Bill, who had been playing in the AHL. He was a good hockey player who just needed an opportunity," recalls Flyers Hall of Fame defenseman Joe Watson, a teammate of Sutherland's on the inaugural team.
On Oct. 11, 1967, Sutherland scored the lone Flyers' goal in the first regular season game in team history; a 5-1 road loss to the Oakland Seals. Eight days later, the Flyers hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Spectrum in the first home game in team history. Sutherland again scored the only goal of the game, tallying off a rebound as the Flyers prevailed, 1-0.
Incredibly, Sutherland's historic moment almost didn't happen. He had trouble gaining entry into the Spectrum to join his teammates.
"The security guard wouldn't let Bill in the building," Watson recounts with a chuckle. "Bill was in his 30s but he looked older, and the guard thought this guy had to be too old to be a professional hockey player. Bill couldn't convince him."
Eventually, the matter got straightened out and Sutherland claimed a piece of immortality.
He went on to score 20 goals and 39 points as the Flyers won the Western Division championship in their first season. The Flyers lost Sutherland to the Minnesota North Stars via the 1968 interleague draft but then reacquired him in a March 2, 1969 trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He remained with the Flyers until early in the 1970-71 season.
After a 250-game NHL career and 60 games with the Winnipeg Jets in the fledgling World Hockey Association, Bill Sutherland retired as an active player. He later went on to a lengthy coaching career, serving both as the head coach and an assistant with the Jets in the NHL and as an assistant with the American Hockey League's Maine Mariners.
Sutherland, who always took great pride in having been part of the inaugural Flyers' success, spent the remainder of his life living in Winnipeg. He was in ill health late in life.Marvel’s Jessica Jones is adding a major (and mysterious) role in season 2.
Two-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Janet McTeer (The White Queen, The Woman in Black, Damages) is joining the cast of the acclaimed Netflix hit, EW has learned exclusively. The British actress will play an “undisclosed character who will have an enormous impact on Jessica’s life.” The casting represents the first major addition to Jessica Jones for the new season.
“We are so fortunate to have an actress of Janet’s talent and stature join what is already an incredible cast,” said Marvel TV chief Jeph Loeb. “Our second season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones aims to capture what audiences loved about our first, and Janet will be key to achieving that goal.”
Added series creator Melissa Rosenberg: “We couldn’t possibly be more excited to work with Ms. McTeer for our second season. Her gravitas and authenticity are the perfect ingredients for all we’re trying to create this year. She disappears into roles, gives her characters extraordinary dimension and depth. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to collaborate with her.”
“Janet McTeer is the consummate actor, slipping seamlessly into each character she brings to life,” added Cindy Holland, vp of content at Netflix. “We’re thrilled to have her join the outstanding cast, led by the fearless Krysten Ritter.”
Let the speculation begin on who McTeer will play!
Jessica Jones will once again have 13 episodes in season 2. The show stars Krysten Ritter as the title character and featured Carrie-Anne Moss, Rachael Taylor, Luke Cage lead Mike Colter, and David Tennant during its first season back in 2015. Rosenberg has noted she plans to hire all-female directors for the new season. No premiere date is set, though next year looks likely. Before then, we’ll see Jones in the eight-episode miniseries The Defenders which is coming Aug. 18.Flight controllers for quadcopters and other drones are incredible pieces of engineering. Not only do these boards keep an aircraft level, they do so while keeping the drone in one place, or reading a GPS sensor and flying it from waypoint to waypoint. The latest of these flight controllers is built on everyone’s favorite $5 computer, the Raspberry Pi Zero.
The PXFmini controller and autopilot shield is the latest project from Erle Robotics that puts eight servo outputs on the Pi, barometer and IMU sensors, a power supply, and all the adapters to turn the Raspberry Pi Zero into a capable flight controller. Since the Pi Zero will have some computational horsepower left over after keeping a quadcopter level, there’s a possibility of some very cool peripherals. Erle Robotics has been working with depth cameras and Lidar on more than a few drones. This makes for some interesting applications we can only imagine now.
The schematics for the PXFmini are open source in the best traditions of the RC and drone community and will be available soon. You can check out a video of the FXPmini flying around an office below.Looking back, my high school classes blur, but I remember Shattered Dreams. That’s because it did its job—it made me never forget. And yet, I still question to this day what purpose that memory served. Why act out traumatic events that may never occur?
Prevention, I keep hearing. Being ready when, and if, tragedy hits. The U.S. has become obsessed with rehearsing crises as a means of preventing future mistakes. Only now, the practice is becoming standardized protocol. And this new reality, one where false memories prime us to the idea that no place is truly safe, is exemplified by active shooter drills popping up in schools around the country.
Proponents argue the more realistic the drill is, the less likely students are to feel and act unprepared in a true scenario. Yet a growing number of parents and psychologists argue that this immersive approach in the country’s schools isn’t justified by worthy statistics. After all, the chance of any student dying in a school-related shooting is one in 2.5 million.
So, while the debate over how far is too far remains fragile ground, what continues to be strikingly underreported is that glaring, albeit obvious, question: What does the trauma curriculum actually teach?
* * *
On the night of April 20th, 1999, Melissa Reeves rushed to the emergency room waiting area of a local hospital in Colorado. She and her fellow school psychologists were tasked with an unforeseen responsibility: to comfort students who had escaped Columbine High School, where, only hours before, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree, killing 13 people. It was a time when the FBI had no definition for "active shooter" events, nor any way of tracking them, and Reeves was experiencing that lack of cohesion firsthand.
"We had no idea what we were doing. We basically were told to show up. The kids didn’t know us. We didn’t know them," Reeves said. "We walked out of there saying, 'This is unacceptable.'"
The experience inspired Reeves to develop PREPaRE, a two-day workshop that teaches students how to handle trauma before and after a school tragedy. The comprehensive curriculum also develops a crisis-response plan for administrators, faculty, and mental-health professionals—something Reeves didn’t have at her disposal the night of Columbine. Today, as the chair of the National Association of School Psychologist’s School Safety and Crisis Response Committee, Reeves believes striking a balance between physical- and psychological-focused efforts is critical for long-term impact, rather than having districts spend thousands of dollars to turn schools into New Age bunkers.
Many schools have, nonetheless, taken that latter approach. In Minnesota, the Rocori School District, still recovering from a fatal school shooting in 2003, spent upwards of $25,000 on bulletproof whiteboards. Meanwhile, in Texas, Camey Elementary School, which has never experienced a shooting, recently spent $21.5 million rebuilding a facility with bulletproof glass on the front doors, 50 security cameras, and a panic button installed inside the main office. This past June, even bulletproof blankets made their way into naptime defense budgets.U.S. women’s hockey goalie Jessie Vetter had an awesome concept for her 2014 Sochi Olympics mask: Using actual 23 karat gold in the paint – hey, she’s going for gold, right? – and adorning it was inspiring American iconography.
One of the images was of the Constitution’s famous opening line, “We The People” and some text from that historic document. But when Vetter takes the ice for Team USA next month, it won’t be found on her mask – the International Olympic Committee ruled it had to be deleted.
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From IN GOAL Magazine and mask artist Ron Slater:
“[It] had to be removed because no writings of any kind to promote the country is allowed,” Slater explained in an email to InGoal. “A sort of ‘our country is better than your country” kind of thing that the IOC frowns upon. Her name had to come off because they see it as self promotion. They wanted everything to be team based. … Our original idea was ‘land of the free, home of the brave,’ and that would have had to have been removed as well.”
The IOC’s Rule 51 bans any sort of advertising, demonstration, and/or propaganda on an athlete's equipment at the Olympics. American men’s hockey goalies were hit with the regulation in the 2010 Vancouver Games, as Jonathan Quick’s “support our troops” slogan and Ryan Miller’s “Matt Man,” a tribute to his late cousin who died of leukemia, were stripped from the mask designs.
Vetter and Slater were able to keep a USA logo, the Statue of Liberty and a bald eagle on the mask, as apparently none of that is propaganda. Here's the new back to the mask.
And the side, which was maintained:
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Look, the Olympics have any number of silly restrictions on freedom of expression, and the idea that the U.S. Constitution is seen as “propaganda” rather than a procedural document establishing societal and governmental rules is asinine.
It’s not like the preamble reads, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union and be soooo much better than you unwashed heathens across the oceans …”
But our real question here: If Jessie Vetter can’t have a few words of the |
the remaining 40 percent will retain this stake.
Atletico's neighbours in the Spanish capital Rayo Vallecano are apparently interested in taking the youngster on loan next term, to allow him to gain experience in La Liga.Alfa Romeo introduced MiTo and Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde models at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Now, both vehicles are set to make a debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed at the end of June. In fact, the Giulietta is celebrating its 60th anniversary with this new QV version. The car is the perfect example of the brand's DNA. It is driven by the 1750 Turbo Petrol engine, which produces 240 hp (276 kW). The unit is coupled with a six-speed, twin dry clutch ALFA TCT transmission that contributes to the achievement of 6 seconds acceleration time for the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h. The top speed is electronically limited to 149mph.
The exterior of the car is distinguished by its lowered sports suspension and the legendary Quadrifoglio Verde emblem on the front wings. In addition, the car features dark-tinted rear window glass and the Anthracite finish on the mirror fairings, front grille, door handles and fog-light frames. At the back, there are two large exhaust tailpipes. Giulietta QV runs on 18-inch alloy wheels behind which one can see red four-piston Brembo brake callipers and large 320mm brake discs.
The ultimate expression of Italian style can be seen throughout the interior of the car. First of all, the designers added new wraparound sport seats, with a one-piece backrest and trimmed in leather and Alcantara. There is a brand new steering wheel, trimmed in leather and accentuated by contrasting white stitching. Aluminium sports pedals, darkened interior headlining, special floor mats and a leather-trimmed gear lever and parking brake lever round-out the interior.
Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde also includes 6.5-inch Uconnect touch-screen multimedia system. It comes with integrated satellite navigation with 3D bird's-eye view maps, progressive route guidance and 'One-Step Voice Entry Destination' function. The system also features DAB digital radio, Bluetooth connectivity with music streaming, Aux-in/USB port and voice command operation.
The other model which is carrying the Quadrifoglio Verde emblem is the Alfa Romeo MiTo. The car is powered by 1.4-litre MultiAir Turbo Petrol engine, which works in combination with the ALFA TCT transmission with steering-wheel paddle shifters. The unit produces 170 hp (125 kW) and up to 184lb/ft (250 Nm). ALFA TCT achieves 0 – 100 km/h acceleration time in 7.3 seconds. The top speed is limited to 136mph.
The new MiTo is also getting a new matte Magnesio Grey exterior body colour. It features enhanced styling attributes such as a burnished finish on exterior elements and the 18-inch alloy wheels, plus a rear spoiler, sports rear bumper and twin exhaust pipes. The interior is also revised. It includes new flat-bottom sports steering wheel and the new Uconnect five-inch touchscreen multimedia system with DAB and satellite navigation. And this comes as a standard.
The interior is also highlighted by the new flat-bottomed sports steering wheel, trimmed in leather with contrasting white stitching (just like Giulietta QV), and including paddle-shifters for the ALFA TCT transmission, as well as the new instruments with integrated Quadrifoglio Verde logo. The sports seats are trimmed in specific Quadrifoglio Verde fabric and finished with white-and-green stitching.
Source: Alfa RomeoFrom left, Germany's Paul Biedermann, France's Yannick Agnel, U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte and U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps compete in the final of the men's 200-meter freestyle. (PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
The world has seen this sort of performance plenty of times from Michael Phelps. Trailing at the halfway point. A huge push off the wall, a massive surge underwater. Suddenly, the lead. A strong finish. A gold medal.
The world saw it again Tuesday night, only Phelps wasn’t the guy who did it.
Phelps was the guy who lost the lead.
Fellow American Ryan Lochte overtook Phelps, the defending Olympic champion, and held off Germany’s Paul Biedermann, the defending world champion, to win the 200-meter freestyle at the swimming world championships in 1 minute 44.44 seconds.
Phelps went out fast but couldn’t finish; he got the silver in 1:44.79. Biedermann claimed the bronze in 1:44.88, nearly three seconds slower than when he broke Phelps’s world record in the event wearing one of the now-banned speedsuits at the 2009 championships.
“It’s a big confidence boost,” said Lochte, who rarely competes in the event. “I guess it was my time tonight.”
The race left Phelps still seeking his first gold medal after two races here — he won a bronze in the men’s 4x100 relay Sunday. It also bolstered Lochte’s burgeoning reputation, hinting that he no longer is merely a capable rival for the world’s best swimmer, but perhaps a true challenger to that title.
Not that Phelps seemed quite ready to acknowledge that.
Phelps suggested during an introspective news conference well after the race that things would be much different once he got back to the serious training he has largely neglected since he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Games.
“With the training I’ve had in the last six to eight months, that’s all I had in the tank,” Phelps said. “I would have loved to win but I think this is something that is going to help me next year.... The reason why I haven’t been able to swim as fast as I wanted to the last two years is: It’s all my fault.
“I know I can go faster than that, that I know for sure.... That time won’t win a gold medal next summer.”
Lochte, who won six gold medals at last year’s Pan Pacific Championships, had never beaten Phelps at a world championships or Olympic Games before Tuesday. Yet he absorbed the result as if he expected it all along, not so much cracking a smile as he pulled off his goggles and stared at the scoreboard. South Korea’s Park Tae Hwan got fourth in 1:44.92; France’s Yannick Agnel also went under 1:45 with his finish in 1:44.99.
Phelps, too, kept his cool. Two days after expressing deep disappointment with the U.S. relay team’s third-place finish, Phelps looked for the positive.
“I’m bummed I didn’t win,” Phelps said, “at the same time.... I’m headed in the right direction and very pleased.”
Phelps admitted to feeling a bit of satisfaction at beating Biedermann, who not only stole his world record at the 2009 worlds in Rome but also trounced him in the race.
“In ’09, I was the underdog and nobody knows me,” Biedermann said. “Now, it’s a little bit more difficult for me.”
Lochte executed his strategy perfectly. He anticipated that Phelps would go out hard and stayed close enough to strike. On the second turn, Lochte flew off the wall and swam that length faster than anyone else in the pool by more than 0.4 of a second. The field closed over the last 50 — including Phelps, who swam the last length 0.29 of a second faster than Lochte — but no one could close the gap.
Bob Bowman, Phelps’s coach, said Phelps followed orders perfectly, albeit a tenth of a second or so slower than he would have liked. But he simply didn’t fool Lochte, who speculated about how Phelps would approach the race the day before it took place.
“I know he wants that clear water,” Lochte said Monday night. “I’m going to move over to the lane line and draft off of him.”
Lochte joked with Phelps on the medal stand about his having to compete in the night’s 200 butterfly semifinals later — Phelps advanced to the final with the third-best time (1:54.85). The pair had also goofed around in the ready room, with both singing to the hip-hop playing on Phelps’s headphones. The music was so loud, Phelps said, Lochte could hear it standing next to him.
Lochte likely will face Phelps again in the 200 individual medley final on Thursday; both easily advanced in their heats Wednesday morning. Lochte, who went under Phelps’s 200 medley world record at the 2009 world championship, will enter that race as the favorite.
“I am definitely a completely different swimmer than I was in 2008,” said Lochte, who won two golds and two bronze medals at the 2008 Summer Games. “I’m a lot stronger and a lot smarter just going into my races.”Russia has called for the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the 1945 atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“The bombings of the Japanese cities, which were the only instances in human history when atomic weapons were used, have never been subject to an international tribunal. But we all know, that crimes against humanity have no statute of limitation,” Speaker of the Russian Duma Sergey Naryshkin said.
He also took to task the US government for having launched the attacks on the Japanese cities in a flagrant violation of international conventions banning the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilian population.
“The current US authorities want to conceal not the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this would be impossible, but the hypocrisy and cynicism of their leaders of these times,” Naryshkin said, adding, “Such behavior casts a shadow on the modern American policies which, of course, retain the legacy of exceptionalist ideology and the position of own infallibility and arrogant force.”
This handout picture taken on November, 1945 shows the A-bomb Dome, three months after atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. (AFP photo)
Naryshkin said the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the death of a large number of civilians who had absolutely no involvement in the crimes committed at the time by the Japanese army.
He called into question the military justification of the attacks, saying Japan was practically defeated after the Soviet Army’s victories in Manchuria.
On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped a four-thousand kilogram uranium bomb on Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people. Three days later, the Japanese port city of Nagasaki was also attacked by an atomic bomb, which left another 70,000 people dead.Perry Kitchen, Darlington Nagbe and DeAndre Yedlin are among 40 players selected.
Former University of Akron men's soccer players Perry Kitchen, Darlington Nagbe and DeAndre Yedlin are among 40 players on the United States men's national team preliminary roster for next month's Copa America Centenario.
The Copa America Centenario is a 16-nation tournament that will be held in the U.S. It involves six teams from CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean federation) and 10 from CONMEBOL (South America federation).
Kitchen plays with Hearts of Midlothian in the Scottish Premier League. Nagbe is with the defending Major League Soccer champion Portland Timbers. Yedlin plays with Sunderland in the English Premier League.
The U.S. roster also includes Columbus Crew forward Ethan Finley.
The U.S. will begin training May 16 and play three matches ahead of their opener against Colombia on June 3 in Santa Clara, Calif. The final 23-man roster will be determined by May 20.Donald and Melania Trump (Shutterstock)
The wife of the GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is in the process of filing a lawsuit against the Daily Mail – as well as a few other media outlets — for reporting she worked as a paid “escort” prior to marrying the self-described billionaire.
According to Politico, an attorney for the former model said that several media organizations have been put on notice to expect legal action for defaming the potential First Lady.
“Mrs. Trump has placed several news organizations on notice of her legal claims against them, including Daily Mail among others, for making false and defamatory statements about her supposedly having been an “escort” in the 1990s,” attorney Charles Harder stated in an email. “All such statements are 100% false, highly damaging to her reputation, and personally hurtful. She understands that news media have certain leeway in a presidential campaign, but outright lying about her in this way exceeds all bounds of appropriate news reporting and human decency.”
Last week the Daily Mail made the allegations in an article questioning Melania Trump’s background including questions over whether she had ever graduated college, which might lead to another legal battle.
According to Politico, other media organizations warned their staffers against reporting on the unsubstantiated rumors, however the Daily Mail went forward leading to a possible court battle.SAN FRANCISCO — Banana-Sam the squirrel monkey has been swiped from the San Francisco Zoo, and if you have him and are thinking of keeping him, zoo officials have a message for you: Bad idea.
The 2-pound, orange and gray fuzzy monkey is small and cute and probably pretty cuddly, but he belongs in his zoo exhibit, with trained professionals. He has extremely sharp teeth and he will bite “if provoked,” zoo officials said in the statement.
Police are on the case, but the zoo needs the public’s help too. If you see the monkey, don’t delay: call the cops. $5,000 reward for Banana-Sam’s safe return, thanks to a pledge from a private donor, zoo spokesman Danny Latham said.
“If your friend, relative, neighbor or acquaintance suddenly has a pet monkey that they didn’t have the day before, please call 9-1-1,” said San Francisco Police Sgt. Michael Andraychak. “We don’t know where the animal is; we are hoping for the public’s help.”
Andraychak said the police are investigating the theft in tandem with zoo officials and animal control.
“It appears (that it was) a deliberate effort to get into the zoo,” he said.
The vandals cut a perimeter gate sometime Thursday night, climbed on top of a roof sheltering five primate exhibits and then cut two holes in the mesh of the squirrel monkey exhibit, zoo officials said.
Police are looking for prints. Ones that aren’t monkey prints, that is.
“This was a criminal act of vandalism and trespassing, and we are working with police to identify the perpetrators,” said San Francisco Zoological Society president and Executive Director Tanya Peterson.
In the meantime, Banana-Sam has developed something of a cult following. He’s got a phony Twitter feed, SF_BananaSam, tracking his travels through the city, with stops at the Doggie Diner and a ride on Muni to the Rain forest Cafe at Fisherman’s Wharf. (“Arrived Fisherman’s Wharf. People still wear fanny packs? Considering going back to zoo,” SF_BananaSam quipped.)
Banana-Sam has lived at the zoo since the summer he and about 20 other squirrel monkeys arrived there after funding for a local research program was discontinued.
It’s not often that animals are stolen from the zoo, police said.
“It’s a rare occurrence,” Andraychak said.
Eleven years ago, also at the very end of December, two rare koalas that were stolen from San Francisco Zoo were found a few days later after an anonymous tipster called police. They were located in a house in South San Francisco, apparently victims of theft by two teenagers trying to impress their girlfriends.
Banana-Sam is 17-years old, male and has special nutritional needs, police and zoo officials said. Squirrel moneys are some of the most common monkeys in the Central American rain forests, but they are very shy and skittish.
“Squirrel monkeys are very cute and look like they would make good pets. However, they are wild animals, and prefer the forest much more than a home,” according to the website wildernessclassroom.com.
Anyone with information regarding Banana-Sam’s whereabouts is asked to contact the San Francisco Police Department at 415-553-8090.
Wire services contributed to this report.Valery Sharifulin/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis
Three and a half years after he sought temporary asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London only to find himself a captive instead, a UN group has ruled that UK and Swedish authorities unlawfully detained WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in violation of their international human rights obligations.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a statement released today that UK authorities should let Assange leave the embassy and that both the UK and Sweden should compensate him for what it said was an "arbitrary" or prohibited detention.
"Having concluded that there was a continuous deprivation of liberty, the Working Group... found that the detention was arbitrary because he was held in isolation during the first stage of detention and because of the lack of diligence by the Swedish Prosecutor in its investigations, which resulted in the lengthy detention of Mr. Assange," the UN group wrote in its report. The group said that Sweden and the UK should "assess the situation of Mr. Assange to ensure his safety and physical integrity, to facilitate the exercise of his right to freedom of movement in an expedient manner, and to ensure the full enjoyment of his rights guaranteed by the international norms on detention." The group didn't elaborate on the nature of the compensation Assange should receive.
Although Assange has technically been a voluntary resident at the embassy since he sought asylum there in June 2012, he has effectively been a captive in that he has been forced to remain inside the building or risk arrest by UK police outside the embassy, even though he's never been charged with a crime.
The finding released today is not legally binding, and UK and Swedish authorities have indicated that they reject the UN body's conclusion. Both nations have said in statements that Assange has never been under detention and is free to leave the embassy, though the UK acknowledges that as long as the Swedish arrest warrant still stands, he will be arrested if he leaves.
“We have been consistently clear that Mr Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK but is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorian embassy," the British Foreign Office told the Guardian in a statement. "An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European arrest warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden."
Regardless of the finding's lack of legal strength, it adds fuel to the pressure already on Sweden to withdraw the arrest warrant for Assange, as his defense attorneys have demanded. It also weakens the ability of the UK and Sweden to apply pressure on other countries for human rights violations.
"I've been detained now without charge in this country, the United Kingdom, for five and a half years," Assange said over video feed at a news conference held by his lawyers at London's Frontline Club this morning, including the year and a half before he entered the embassy when he was briefly detained and then put on house arrest. "That’s five years where I’ve had great difficulty seeing my family and seeing my children."
The UN body's announcement today comes after lawyers for Assange filed an application for relief (.pdf) in 2014 calling his detention "harsh and disproportionate."
His lawyers argued that the detention was unlawful because it prevented Assange from exercising his right to asylum and because a Swedish prosecutor failed to conduct her investigation of him in a manner that was consistent with his rights. "She had an obligation to question him expeditiously, and it was her failure [to do this] that meant that the investigation ground to a halt [for more than five years]. That was a contributing factor to the length of the detention," Melinda Taylor, one of the lawyers representing Assange, told WIRED.
"Today that detention without charge has been found by the highest organization in the United Nations that has the jurisdiction of considering the rights of detained person to be unlawful," Assange said.
Assange has faced arrest for several years on two warrants, one issued in 2010 by Sweden and one issued in 2012 by UK authorities, which is related to the warrant from Sweden. If the two nations adhered to the finding today and cancelled the warrants, it would have allowed him to leave the embassy without threat of arrest by them. He would then have been able to proceed to Ecuador under that nation's protection if that's where he decided to pursue long-term asylum. But even if a path opened for him to leave the embassy, the investigation against him in Sweden has not been dropped.
He also still faces legal jeopardy in the US, where a 2010 grand jury investigation found that there was sufficient evidence to bring charges against him in relation to his publication of documents leaked to him in 2010 by Chelsea Manning. Although US authorities asserted in 2013 that no charges had actually been filed against Assange at that point, this could change, and at any time Assange could find himself facing a US arrest warrant.
The warrant out of Sweden was issued after authorities there demanded he travel to that country for questioning in relation to an investigation into alleged sex crimes. The investigation was launched after Assange had sexual relations with two women in Sweden. Assange has denied any criminal conduct and has insisted that his relations with the women were consensual. Police documents from the case, which were leaked online in 2011 indicate that the encounters were consensual at first, but that the women subsequently objected to some of Assange's actions, to no avail. They went to police only to get authorities to force him to take an HIV test and were surprised when prosecutors opened a rape investigation against Assange.
Although Assange has never been charged with any wrongdoing in the six years since the investigation began, his freedom has been effectively curtailed. Swedish authorities allowed Assange to leave Sweden that country in 2010, even though an investigation was underway, and only later sought his arrest, demanding he return for questioning—a demand he has been fighting ever since.
The second arrest warrant filed in the UK was for breach of bail, which occurred when he fled to the Ecuadorean embassy in June 2012 after losing his protracted legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning. Assange had been out on bail while battling the extradition, and violated its terms when he failed to return to the country house where he was required to sleep at night. The penalty for violating bail is normally six months, Taylor noted to WIRED, which far exceeds the amount of time he has already been under detention in the embassy.
Assange has fought the extradition to Sweden because he and his attorneys suspect that the Swedish arrest warrant is a pretext to extradite him further to the US, where he fears he could face espionage charges for publishing – video and documents leaked to him by Chelsea Manning.
To avoid the risk of extradition to the US, Assange has long insisted that he would submit to an interrogation by Swedish authorities as long as they conducted it at Ecuadorean embassy or he was allowed to do it by video-link. But Swedish prosecutors insisted he travel to Sweden for questioning; they only reversed that stance recently. Last December, Ecuador and Swedish authorities reached a bilateral agreement for a Swedish prosecutor to travel to the UK to question Assange at the embassy. Those negotiations hit a snag, however, when someone requested that Ecuadorean officials be allowed to ask Assange the Swedish prosecutor's questions.
In the meantime, the investigation against Assange has been in limbo for nearly six years due to the intransigence of Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny.
Assange’s attorneys argued during an appeal in Sweden in 2014 to dismiss the warrant that the investigation had "not been conducted with the effectiveness and urgency" it should have been. The Swedish court agreed, chastising Ny for her failure to examine alternative avenues for interrogation and thereby failing in her obligation "to move the preliminary investigation forward."
The head of the Swedish bar association even called the showdown a "circus" and urged the Swedish prosecutor to compromise. "It is time for this longstanding matter to be brought to a fair and proportionate end," Anne Ramberg, head of the bar association told the Guardian, at the time.
The Swedish prosecutor has already lost ground on her case due to the delays. Assange had initially been wanted for questioning in relation to four allegations sexual molestation charges, stemming from an encounter with one of the women. But the statute of limitations has since run out on that alleged crime, so only the rape allegation and investigation remains active.
"It is the end of the road for the legal arguments that have been presented today by Sweden and the UK," Assange said today. "Put simply, those arguments lost. There is no appeal. The time for appeal is over." He added: "It is now the task for Sweden and the United Kingdom…to implement the verdict."Dita Von Teese (née Heather Sweet) is a beautiful contradiction. She’s a modern businesswoman and brand with perfume and lingerie lines, who looks and dresses like she stepped out of a 1940s movie, and she was once married to shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. With 1.78 million followers on Twitter -- her Devonshire Rex cat Aleister Von Teese has 37,900 followers on Instagram -- Von Teese is completely self-made, and her dedication to vintage style has been copied by none other than pop star Katy Perry.
She’s been described as the “queen of burlesque” for single-handedly reviving that retro art form, but she combines its retro aesthetic (and what could be retro ideas about femininity) with progressive ideas about sexuality and gender. Her “Strip, Strip Hooray!” touring burlesque show features drag king MC Murray Hill along with burlesque stars of all shapes and sizes. She has as many, if not more, female fans as she does male fans, because women love the pro-woman -- and yes, feminist -- message she sends regarding women and power.
Von Teese brings this postmodern pastiche of old and new to relationships and sex as well, and she talked to International Business Times about what makes women and men appealing and seductive.
International Business Times: How would you describe your brand, Dita Von Teese?
Dita Von Teese: I like to call myself a "glambassador." I believe in glamour and sensuality and using these tools in everyday life, not just to put on a show for men. Sensuality, glamour, eroticism are things we should partake in because we enjoy them. Putting on lingerie, perfume, makeup -- if someone else reaps the benefits, that’s great.
I know the power in the art of seduction. It’s something you do because you believe in it. Sexiness is being confident and comfortable in your skin. An epic failure is trying too hard.
Photo: Marianne Rosenstiehl/Madame Magazine
IBTimes: How did you get into vintage style?
DVT: As a little girl, I remember vividly wanting to be a grown-up lady. To make decisions for myself and not be told what to do. I grew up being fascinated with the symbolic power of womanhood. Lingerie, perfume and makeup were the tools. It was a rite of passage to indulge in them.
I realized that my relationship with those things was different -- it was only later I really saw them as tools of seduction.
I worked in a lingerie store when I was 15. My relationship with it was symbolic of femininity -- something I wore because it was beautiful. But I remember my father was offended. I would wash and then hang lingerie to dry. It had a different meaning for him than it did for me.
When I released my maternity bra, not all women saw it the way I did, and some equated it with sexuality. For some of us, it’s not always about wearing something for someone else. It might seem like how I look is only about sex, but I’ve had more backlash from men. “Do you have to wear that hat?” I’ve had boyfriends ask, or “Do you have to wear that corset?”
IBTimes: What do you like about vintage style? Burlesque?
DVT: I feel like I grew up with that era -- my mom watched those old movies. I couldn’t relate to modern standards of beauty like the “Sports Illustrated,” type where there’s lots of emphasis on natural beauty. I don’t relate. I’m a boring looking girl with average features. I can be extraordinary with makeup, curled hair. I could be who I wanted to be. It offset my shyness, helped my confidence, and made people notice me.
Glamour is the art of creation. In the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s, those sex symbols were created from clothes, makeup, lingerie. Women were not natural, they were weaving a web of beauty....
I got into burlesque in the 1990s L.A. nightclub scene. I’d go to strip clubs and was fascinated. Everyone looked the same. I asked, What if I did it and did it differently? It’ll either be a total failure or totally amazing. All the strippers were trying to be like each other. There wasn’t a lot of variety. So, I worked in this strip club and wore vintage lingerie, had my hair in a “China doll” bob, wearing corsets. I thought, I might not get $1 from 20 guys, but I could get $20 from one guy. And then I realized what’s different about you makes you valuable. Eventually fans of “Playboy,” fetish people and famous people helped me kick off my burlesque career.
Photo: Albert Sanchez
IBTimes: What concepts of love and sex from the past do you think we can learn from? In spite of your attachment to past glamour and values, you don't seem like a nostalgist, and you're certainly not conservative.
DVT: I’m old-fashioned in many ways. I don’t make the first move. I’m not sexually aggressive. It’s OK to be that way. There’s thousands of years of programming there! I feel close to womanly things and things that are stereotypical. I like to be courted, have doors opened for me. I like to be allowed to be in my femininity. But also I’m independent and have power.
IBTimes: What do you think of the modern dating scene?
DVT: I was single a few times in the past couple years. I can’t just get on Tinder, though, so I would go on a million blind dates. I’m adventurous and willing to put time in and pay my dues. These apps are great tools; they drum up energy. The women I know who use them end up making things happen. They’re putting something out there in the world, and they end up dating. The women I know who say they would never use them -- they’ve been single for like 10 years.
As for sex or hooking up, I like to find out right away if there’s sexual compatibility. I’ve noticed that if there’s weekslong courtship and the sex isn’t good, you’re stuck with the drama. How do you tell them you didn’t enjoy it? I gotta find out right away!
IBTimes: What’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for you?
DVT: Grand gestures are great, but I like little gestures, too, like love letters written on paper. I had someone write my name in the snow on the top of a car and then took an artistic picture of it. Being asked to marry someone was romantic. But usually, I like the little gestures, like someone staying with me when I’m sick.
IBTimes: What’s the most romantic thing you've ever done for someone?
DVT: I like to write letters from the heart. Giving something someone can hold. If I have something I want to say, I don’t do it in email. I write perfumed letters on beautiful stationery, and I even use rose-scented ink. Or spray the letter with perfume I'm wearing.
IBTimes: What’s the worst part of modern-day romance?
DVT: Getting divorced! And the financial side of divorce. Protecting my assets? Not romantic. Also, online dating seems so awkward. Sometimes when I look at profiles, I think, I hope this person finds someone!
IBTimes: What are the best ways to seduce someone?
DVT: For a woman, it’s confidence. A woman who knows what she likes. Confidence in her skin. She doesn’t put down other women, and she aligns herself with other women. It comes with age and experience. I hope younger women are cultivating their wit and wisdom. Sex and seduction are not just your looks, beauty and body.
For men, I’m attracted to men with a sense of humor when things get tough. In men, I also like elegance, kindness, men who take care of me when I need them. I also need hardworking men. He doesn’t have to make a lot of money, but he needs to be a hard worker.
IBTimes: What’s your favorite romantic movie and book?
DVT: Movie -- David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart.” Book -- Georges Bataille’s “Story of the Eye,” an erotic surrealist novel about two people with intense fetishes who find and accept one another. The stories of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller. People have always had carnal sexuality! It wasn’t kinder, gentler times in the past.
IBTimes: Are you seeing someone now?
DVT: Yes, for the past year. Someone not into the limelight. A friend I’d overlooked. It’s nice to be with your best friend.Can we have a rational discussion about hits to the head?
Bob McKenzie TSN Hockey Insider Follow|Archive
Can we have a discussion about hits to the head?
A rationale one devoid of emotion and hyperbole?
I’m not sure, but let's give it a shot (pun duly noted).
First things first: Jacob Trouba's hit on Mark Stone on Sunday is a clear Rule 48 violation.
Here's how the rule reads:
“Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable is not permitted.
In determining whether contact with an opponent's head was avoidable, the circumstances of the hit including the following shall be considered: (i) Whether the player attempted to hit squarely through the opponent’s body and the head was not "picked" as a result of poor timing, poor angle of approach, or unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward. (ii) Whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full bodycheck unavoidable. (iii) Whether the opponent materially changed the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit in a way that significantly contributed to the head contact.”
Now here's video of the Trouba hit on Stone:
Was Stone’s head the “main point of contact” on Trouba's hit?
Yes. It's not up for debate.
Trouba did not “hit squarely through the body.” Stone's head was “picked as a result of poor timing, poor angle of approach...”
Stone did not put himself in a “vulnerable position.” He did not “materially change the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit in a way that significantly contributed to the head contact.”
If you're ticking off all the boxes for a Rule 48 violation, Trouba's hit on Stone clearly qualifies.
As an aside, for those Senators' fans who were miffed a major penalty was not assessed to Trouba on the play, the rule book is pretty clear on this.
Trouba was correctly assessed an illegal check to the head minor penalty (Rule 48). There is no provision for a major penalty on Rule 48 – it simply doesn't exist – unless the referee deems it to be a match penalty for “intent to injure.”
Was Trouba's hit an “intent to injure” type of play?
No.
Stone was eligible to be hit. Trouba's hit wasn't as malicious or vicious as it was poorly timed and/or misaligned. There's always some degree of subjectivity on these, but I would like to think we can all agree that didn't look like an intent to injure match penalty.
Based on all of the above, there was no surprise whatsoever when NHL Player Safety tweeted late last night that Trouba would have a disciplinary hearing today.
And he will be suspended.
Isn't this a lovely, civil discussion we're having so far?
Let's try to keep it that way, but we're going to severely test those limits as we talk about Evgeni Malkin's hit on Blake Wheeler last Thursday.
At 11:04 of the third period, Malkin was assessed a two-minute minor for interference when he hit Wheeler, who was trying to clear a loose puck from the slot area but never actually got his stick on the puck. To the letter of the law, it was interference. Malkin likely couldn't have known Mark Stuart would, by a split second, get his stick on the puck instead of Wheeler, so Malkin hit Wheeler.
But the referee did know Wheeler wasn't eligible to be hit; hence the call for interference.
One might suggest Malkin could have been whistled for charging instead of interference. His feet appeared to leave the ice just prior to contact being made. It easily could have, probably should have, been a charging minor.
Why, though, was this not a Rule 48 violation, an illegal check to the head minor?
Clearly, contact was made with Wheeler's head. But there was also significant body-on-body contact as well.
This angle of the Malkin hit clearly demonstrates that while the head was contacted, Malkin also hit “squarely through the body.”
Angry Jet fans – no shortage of them right now – would rather you look at these views on Malkin making contact with Wheeler's head:
In any case, in the eyes of the referee(s), interference or charging or Rule 48, the outcome would be the same: A minor penalty. The ref did his job.
Next question: Why didn't NHL Player Safety call a disciplinary hearing to suspend Malkin?
The argument would be that not every interference, or charging, penalty “rises to the level” of supplementary discipline. Sometimes a penalty is just a penalty and, in this instance, that is precisely how Player Safety opted to look at it. That's never going to be a strictly black-and-white argument, so the subjectivity engenders debate.
Understood.
Displeased Jets fans would argue that there's no difference between Trouba hitting Stone in the head and Malkin hitting Wheeler in the head.
But, according to NHL rules, there most clearly is a difference.
The NHL is very forgiving on hits to the head IF said hit to the head is also accompanied with a full body-on-body check.
And in spite of the contact Malkin made with Wheeler's |
to protect your family," the woman's son told KRQE News 13.
In the end, most of the hospital gown was ripped off.
"It didn't even occur to me until I got him under control that he was naked," the man explained.
Police later learned Diaz had been checked into Lovelace hospital and left before treatment.
"He probably just saw two senior citizens and felt like they would be an easy target," said the man. He thanked APD for responding so quickly and arresting the man.
While police don't encourage victims to confront suspected carjackers, Tixier said the men did the right thing in this case.
"Our biggest concern when people confront offenders is you never know what they're armed with, and in this case it was a pretty safe bet that he wasn't armed," officer Tixier explained.
Both police and the victim's family are thankful no one was seriously injured.
After getting punched in the face by the woman's son, witnesses said Diaz apologized while lying on the ground. He was arrested and booked on felony robbery and aggravated burglary charges.
Police warn everyone to stay alert when taking things out of their cars. Due to health privacy laws, APD cannot release why Diaz was in the hospital in the first place.Sanchez is the leading member of the Chile squad that has booked a last-16 place against hosts Brazil on Saturday.
The 25 year-old scored and made a goal in the 3-1, Group B victory over Australia and also helped inspire the famous win against Spain.
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has been in Brazil in his capacity as a commentator for French television and has used the trip to look at a number of transfer targets.
Wenger wants to sign at least one new forward this summer and is also chasing Italy's Mario Balotelli, who AC Milan are keen to cash in on.
Sportswear manufacturer Puma, who sponsor both Arsenal and Balotelli, are understood to be keen for a deal to happen.
Juventus have been leading the chase for Sanchez, while the forward could also be offered to Liverpool as part of a Barcelona bid for Luis Suarez.
But Arsenal have now registered an interest in Sanchez, who would cost around £25 million if Barca could be persuaded to sell.
Wenger has the funds at his disposal to sign both Balotelli and Sanchez, but that scenario appears to be unlikely.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest worry over Balotelli is his temperament but the 23 year-old would undoubtedly represent an upgrade on Olivier Giroud and is an out-an-out striker.
Sanchez is more versatile and can play in a variety of positions across the forward line. He scored 21 goals from the right for Barca this season, his best return since moving to Spain.
Sources close to Barca claim the Spanish club are extremely reluctant to let 25-year-old Sanchez go, but that could change if they manage to sign a new top-class forward this summer.
Other than chasing forwards, Arsenal are searching for a new right-back, a dominant central midfielder and a back-up goalkeeper.
- Other players Arsene Wenger is keen to sign this summer
- Ander Herrera to be first of four Manchester United signingsLiam and Noel Gallagher have reportedly ended their feud.
The brothers have barely spoke since a huge backstage bust-up ended their band Oasis in August 2009, but the pair recently met up at a family wedding in Ireland and buried the hatchet and are now even planning to open a bar together with their beloved mother Peggy.
A source told the Daily Star: "Liam initially came up with the idea after a recent trip to Manchester with his mum Peggy.
"Then between them they thought Noel should also be brought on board.
"The brothers are thinking about an indie rock-themed place which serves artisan food."
The pair plan to call their bar Champagne Supernova after the Oasis anthem - which was included on the band's seminal album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? - of the same name and hope to finalise their deal at an underground venue close to the Deansgate and Spinningfields area of Manchester.
The insider added: "The brothers are consulting their famous friends such as Russell Brand and Holly Willoughby for advice on the venue.
"They reckon a hot new bar could bring them together again."
While the business move doesn't mean Oasis will be getting back together, the group's original guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs - who left the band in 1999 - recently predicted a musical reunion will happen eventually.
He said: "If someone said, 'Here's a field, here's a stage and here's 200,000 people,' I'm sure Liam would jump up and do it, and I don't think it would even take anyone offering him a massive bankroll of money. He'd do it because that's what he loves, that's his passion."
Since the super-group disbanded Liam, 41, started new band Beady Eye, while 46-year-old Noel has embarked on his own solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.NEW YORK ( TheStreet ) - JCP ) shares were surging after the market closed Thursday after the legendary investor George Soros revealed that he had taken an 8% stake in the struggling retailer.
JCP was surging 7.1% to $16.33 in after-hours markets.
Soros Fund Management disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing, dated April 15, that it bought 17.4 million shares, or a 7.9% stake in the retailer's stock.
The move comes amid the drama that's unfolded at the struggling retailer. Earlier this month, the Plano, Texas-based company announced it was replacing CEO Ron Johnson and bringing back Myron "Mike" Ullman to rejoin the company. The move, announced April 8, was immediately effective. Ullman had served as CEO of JCP until late 2011.
JCP's stock was suffering over criticism that Johnson's strategic move away from coupons and deals and focus on store design was in opposition to what the customer wanted. It's clear that consumers like their deals and coupons.
Soros' investment represents a big bet on JC Penney's turnaround. The retailer wasn't on Soros' SEC 13-F filing in February, which disclosed the fund's holdings as of Dec. 31, 2012.
Soros joins Bill Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management has a nearly 18% stake in the retailer, according to TheDeal sister publication.
In other news, SBUX ) said net income rose 26% in the second quarter to $390.4 million compared to the year-earlier quarter.
The company reported second-quarter earnings per share of 51 cents, which included a 3-cent "non-routine gain on the sale of the company's equity in the joint venture that operates Starbucks stores in Mexico." Analysts were expecting the company to post earnings of 48 cents per share.
Starbucks said total net revenue rose 11% in the quarter to $3.55 billion, just shy of analysts' estimates of $3.59 billion. The company raised its full-year earnings per share target range to $2.12-$2.18 from the previous target range of $2.06-$2.15.
Starbucks shares closed up 1.1% to $60.50. Shares were down 2.5% to $59 in after-hours trading.
Retail stocks were also rising Thursday following expectations for a strong first-quarter GDP report to be released on Friday.
KORS ), SHLD ) and ZUMZ ) were among the biggest winners of the day.
Shares of Michael Kors rose 5.8% to $56.63 on Thursday. Teen retailer Zumiez rose 4.4% to $28.93 while Sears rose 4.5% to $50.52. One of the lone losers of the day: LULU ). The stock fell 0.9% to $75.10.
To contact Laurie Kulikowski, send an email to: Laurie.Kulikowski@thestreet.com
>To submit a news tip, email: tips@thestreet.com
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Followonand become a fan onGael Clichy says Man City boss Pep Guardiola has imposed a strict diet for the players
Gael Clichy says Pep Guardiola has introduced strict dietary discipline at Man City
Manchester City defender Gael Clichy has revealed new manager Pep Guardiola has enforced a strict dietary regime at the club.
Guardiola has been quick to impose discipline as he seeks to make sure his players are fit for the new season.
Clichy has been impressed with the 45-year-old's contribution at City so far, claiming any players who do not shape up will find themselves in trouble.
"If your weight is too high, you're not training with the team," Clichy said.
'You hear it a lot but, for my part, it's the first time any manager has really done it. And we have a few players who are not training with the team yet.
"You have to know that if your weight is 60 kilos and you are on 70 kilos, then you cannot play football.
Guardiola's approach is refreshing, says Clichy
"He cut out some juice and, of course, pizza and all the heavy food is not allowed.
"Some people think that's normal but, in truth, it's not always like this. I know because I've been playing football for a long time. It's really refreshing and very exciting."
Clichy believes City's attackers will enjoy the forthcoming campaign as Guardiola's fluent style, which is built around a mobile midfield, should help create many chances.
"He said if he could play 11 midfielders, he would play them," Clichy said. "So I guess for a midfielder it's unbelievable.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says city rivals United will be a better team this season under Jose Mourinho Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says city rivals United will be a better team this season under Jose Mourinho
"And the strikers are going to score a lot of goals because we are going to create chances."
City, who kick off their Premier League campaign on August 13 with a home match against Sunderland, are currently in China, where they play Borussia Dortmund on Thursday.The Pokémon Company has been hosting a live press conference in Japan to focus on future strategy for the franchise, and has announced an AR (augmented reality) smartphone app - for Android and iOS - called Pokémon Go. This is being produced in conjunction with Nintendo and developed by start-up Niantic, and it's coming in 2016.
Employing ideas that have been utilised in a number of other apps, this utilises a smartphone's location data and camera to recreate gameplay in the real world. The broad idea is that you'll find, catch and battle with Pokémon in the real world, and a separate Pokémon Go Plus wrist accessory will serve as an additional notification device. The idea is that you can play alone and interact with others through the game, and Game Freak fans should be pleased to know that Yunichi Masuda is consulting on the project; it's also planned to interact with the main series games too.
Unsurprisingly this will be free-to-play but with microtransactions, while the Go accessory will no doubt be a hot ticket item in stores if the app achieves early success.
A big hat tip to Serebii for following the NicoNico stream and providing this information and imagery. You can see a lengthy reveal trailer and the full press conference below. Are you excited by this?
Subscribe to Nintendo Life onIntroduction
Screenshot from an ad sponsored by conservative nonprofit Carolina Rising. YouTube
Crossroads GPS, one of the nation’s largest politically active “dark money” nonprofits, quietly supplied millions of dollars in 2014 to other politically active nonprofit groups seeking to influence the midterm elections, according to new tax filings reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity.
One group received nearly all its money from Crossroads GPS: Carolina Rising, a North Carolina-based group that sprang up and spent almost all its money running thousands of TV ads that boosted now-U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis in what was one of the nation’s most hotly contested Senate races.
Crossroads GPS reported giving Carolina Rising $4.82 million, or roughly 99 percent of its revenue. The group appears to have received only one other contribution, for $60,000, according to a tax filing posted by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that last month filed a complaint against Carolina Rising with the Internal Revenue Service.
Crossroads GPS and Carolina Rising are both “social welfare” nonprofits organized under section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code. Such nonprofits have assumed new, high-profile roles in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision in 2010.
Their nonprofit status means they aren’t required to reveal their donors, making the source of the money behind the Carolina Rising ads — filtered through two different layers of anonymity — nearly impossible to penetrate.
Crossroads GPS — together with a related super political action committee, American Crossroads, that does reveal its donors — spent nearly $49 million directly on the 2014 elections, all supporting Republican candidates, according to campaign finance data tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The two groups were co-founded by Karl Rove, a political strategist and former advisor to then-President George W. Bush.
Targeting the Senate
But the new tax filing shows Crossroads GPS also gave millions in additional money to other groups that were active in the crucial 2014 elections, when the parties battled fiercely over control of the U.S. Senate.
Republicans won, and the new documents prove Crossroads’ influence was far larger than the public knew.
Crossroads GPS gave $5.25 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the behemoth business lobby that spent $35.5 million on the midterm elections, almost all of which supported Republican candidates. Chamber-backed candidates won big.
Scott Reed, the Chamber’s senior political strategist, was not immediately available to comment on the Chamber’s relationship with Crossroads GPS. A spokeswoman for the Chamber declined to comment.
Crossroads GPS gave $2 million to the American Future Fund, an Iowa-based group that spent about $3 million during the 2014 elections on House and Senate races, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, another “social welfare” nonprofit on the Crossroads GPS grantee list, boosted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during his hotly contested re-election bid last year.
Ahead of that election, the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition spent more than $14 million on advertising — and accounted for about one of every seven TV ads in the contest. Most of the group’s ads praised McConnell and his support for Kentucky’s coal industry, or criticized McConnell’s Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, who ultimately lost the race.
The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition received $390,000 from Crossroads GPS.
Reached by the Center for Public Integrity, Scott Jennings, a spokesman for the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, declined to comment.
Not so ‘diverse’
The fact that Carolina Rising received nearly all of its money from Crossroads directly contradicts what Dallas Woodhouse, now the head of the state Republican Party, told the Center for Public Integrity in a November 2014 interview.
In November, Woodhouse said Carolina Rising was funded by multiple donors, and the organization had “a large, diverse donor body.”
He did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the Crossroads GPS grant, or questions from the Center for Public Integrity regarding the apparent contradiction with his earlier comments.
He has said Carolina Rising spent roughly $4.7 million on the Tillis ads, or roughly all its money. In addition, he has repeatedly described the ads as nonpolitical issue ads because they didn’t explicitly tell voters to vote for or against anyone.
Revenue at Crossroads GPS jumped to more than $69 million in 2014 from a low of about $3.4 million in 2013, a non-election year.
Spending soared, too, from slightly more than $4 million to nearly $66 million.
Crossroads GPS reported receiving 80 contributions of $5,000 or more during 2014, including one for $20.6 million and another for $14.5 million.
The group spent more than $13.6 million on grants to other groups, all described as for the purpose of “social welfare.”
In response to a request for comment on the grants, Crossroads GPS spokesman Ian Prior said they were not made for political purposes.
“We made grants to other non-profit organizations to promote the (c)4 mission of Crossroads GPS,” he said in an email. “We are confident based on our written agreements with each one of those non-profit organizations that our grants were used for the non-political purposes that they were given.”
Michael Beckel contributed to this report.President Obama's tweet quoting former South African President Nelson Mandela following the violent clashes and domestic terror attack after white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, has made Twitter history with over 3 million likes, making it the most-liked tweet since the social media site launched, according to new Twitter analytics data
The tweet, at more than 2.6 million likes as of Tuesday, had even surpassed talk show host Ellen DeGeneres' selfie tweet at the Academy Awards in 2014. The tweet quickly surpassed the 3 million mark as of late Tuesday night, following President Trump's press conference in which he equated counter protesters to the white supremacists actions in Virginia.
According to Nick Pacilio of Twitter Communications, Government & News, the message is also considered one of the top five most re-tweeted tweet ever.
Mr. Obama, who faced a variety of national tragedies during his time in office, took to Twitter on Sunday to share a quote from Mandela along with a photo of children of various ethnicities.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite," read the tweet, quoting a line of text from Mandela's autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom."
The man behind the Twitter account exposing white supremacists
Mr. Obama has largely stayed away from making overtly political statements on his social media page since leaving office, but has continued to weigh in on domestic and international events from the terror attacks in Manchester, England, to well-wishes for Republican Sen. John McCain after he announced that he had brain cancer.
While President Trump tweeted his own sentiments following Saturday's attack and violent protests, saying "we all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for" and later condemned hate "on many sides", many were left wondering when Mr. Trump would come out and explicitly denounce white supremacists and other hate groups that were involved in the violence.
Two days after the events, amid growing pressure from the public and political world, Mr. Trump denounced racism as "evil" in a televised statement from White House.Keeping track of how much you've spent sounds like sage advice, especially if you're keeping a budget. But be aware that that number will also frame prices in a negative way. Economist Dan Ariely has called this the "problem of relativity." Imagine you see a fetching $50 chair. Would you be more likely to buy it after a $5 lunch or as part of a $500 spending spree? Fifty dollars is $50, no matter how you cut it. But it's easier to swallow when it's "only" a tenth of your total haul.
The best way to overcome decision fatigue and "the problem of relativity" is to write a list and buy only what's on the list. That way you approach Black Friday not as an exploratory mission into the dark world of discounts and window shopping, but as a pure check-the-boxes trip.
(5) Beware of "Free." Something weird happens to our brains when the price for something goes from $1 to $0.01 to free. We stop thinking clearly. Getting things for free feels like such a good deal that we'll go out of our way to get it. Here's Dan Ariely in his book Predictably Irrational:
"A few years ago, Amazon.com started offering free shipping of orders over a certain amount. Someone who purchased a single book for $16.95 might pay an additional $3.95 for shipping, for instance. But if the customer bought another book, for a total of $31.90, they would get their shipping FREE! Some of the purchasers probably didn't want the second book (and I am talking here from personal experience) but the FREE! shipping was so tempting that to get it, they were willing to pay the cost of the extra book."
Free isn't bad. It's good. It's great. It's free! But we're often so enraptured by free that we overreact, tailoring our purchases around getting to FREE! shipping, or FREE! membership, or FREE! headphones, and wind up spending more in the process. Don't do it. Instead, just buy exactly what you want and nothing more.
(6) Warranties and Rebates Are Dastardly Tricks. Price discrimination is most dangerous when you can barely see it. Buying insurance on an electronic toy? Ah, such peace of mind! Rebates? Ah, such savings!
Perhaps. But both are forms of price discrimination. Warranties push risk-averse customers into paying a higher price for the same product. "[Warranties] make no rational sense," Harvard economist David Cutler told the Washington Post. "The implied probability that [a product] will break has to be substantially greater than the risk that you can't afford to fix it or replace it. If you're buying a $400 item, for the overwhelming number of consumers that level of spending is not a risk you need to insure under any circumstances."Rebates test customers' memories and willpower. A $10 rebate on a $40 candlestick feels right in the moment. But four months later, when the words "candlestick rebate" flash in your brain at work, are you really going to take time out of your day to save the equivalent of one day's lunch? Retail companies are betting that many of you will answer that question with a "meh."
(7) Avoid the Rush. Your brain is smarter in slow motion. Feeling hurried can force bad decisions in all aspects of life, as nowhere is it true more than a crowded store. When we're bombarded with stimuli, racing to grab cardboard boxes before the frantic mother of five behind us, we forget the key question in shopping: Will I still want this thing when I leave the store?
Thinking about how much we'll regret our purchases can radically change our shopping behavior. A recent study of holiday shopping out of Harvard and Columbia Business Schools devised a mischievous three-part experiment. First, shoppers chose between an expensive or cheap article of clothing. Second, they were randomly divided into groups and asked how much they expected to regret their purchase in one day or ten years. Third, they were released into a mall. The economists found that thinking about short-term regret moved shoppers to buy discounted products. Those primed to take the long view bought more extravagant goods.
One conclusion from the study is that short-term thinking leads to discount hunting while taking a longer perspective on our buying habits motivates us to price quality over bargains. In the frenzied atmosphere of a Black Friday store, we're manically focused on saving money. But a broader perspective might move us to spend more on the few items we really care about.
(8) Beware "Good Deals" on Items You Know Zilch About. I love this story from Priceless by William Poundstone. Once, Williams-Sonoma couldn't sell their $279 breadmaker, perhaps because, you know, it was a $279 breadmaker. But when the company introduced a $429 breadmaker next to their $279 model, sales of the cheaper model doubled even though practically nobody bought the $429 machine.
Plausible Lesson 1: Williams-Sonoma shoppers are inscrutably nuts. Plausible Lesson 2: We don't know what anything's worth, especially weird stuff like breadmakers, so we're more susceptible to cues that tell persuasive stories about what they *should* cost. Don't let that happen! Don't fall for what looks like a "good deal" just because you can justify it to yourself on the basis of "it was 40% cheaper than the other model." Research prices before you allow store cues to give you answers.
(9) The Most Efficient Gift Is the Worst Gift. It's cash. Yes, it's awful. It's cold and bloodless and impersonal and everybody will hate you if you get it for them. It's also extremely efficient for buying somebody exactly what they want for the perfect price. The famous economic paper "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas" showed that gift-giving "destroys" between a tenth and a third of the value in what we buy. That means the recipient of a $100 shirt would value it between $70 and $90. Cash is better.
You can't get cash for that special someone, unless you happen to be dating an economist studying deadweight loss. So best to follow the advice of Geoffrey Miller, the University of New Mexico professor, whose book The Mating Mind informs us the best gifts are "the most useless to women and the most expensive to men."
(10) Waking Up at 2 AM to Stand in Line For Hours Isn't *Necessarily* Crazy. Your shopping experience, like any experience, has a value. In other words, it has a price. It might seem silly for people to waste perfectly good hours of sleep to wait in line at Best Buy. I happen to think it is silly. But it is not irrational, for two reasons.
First, it's another example of price discrimination, since retail stores are essentially gifting their best deals to their most discount-desperate customers. Second, if you love waiting in frigid Walmart lines at 2 AM, well that's just, like, your time-cost preference, man. Maybe the absurd inconvenience of the wait is a part of the story you want to remember and tell friends later. We pay for memories and stories and extreme experiences that will bring us joy later down the line all the time. Maybe this isn't any different. So don't think: While I was sleeping, my friends were wasting their lives for a slim bargain. Think: While I was sleeping, my friends were paying for an entertaining experience with their time.
(11) One Last Thing: Don't Buy That One Last Thing! Black Friday is exhausting. And when you feel exhausted, your brain gets drunk with stupid. It's decision fatigue, it's leg fatigue, it's everything fatigue. Retail stores know this. So they put cheap stuff tantalizingly close to our arms in the checkout aisle. It's so cheap, and small, and cute, I have to have it, your decision-fatigued brain will plead. Don't listen.Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Sunday expressed concern over the Trump administration's planned response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, while acknowledging the commitment and hard work being done by federal first responders.
“We are on the verge of failing Puerto Rico," Blumenthal said during a press call after he returned from surveying the damage on the U.S. territory.
"My fear is Americans are failing other Americans," he continued, adding that “one of the major failings in the federal responsibility is the failure to plan."
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However, the Connecticut senator did praise the work being done by first responders, such as the Federal Emergency Management Administrator (FEMA).
“I’ve been enormously impressed with the dedication and diligence of the people with FEMA," Blumenthal said on the call.
“They’re working heart and soul, everyone needs to pull together and put aside partisan differences," he continued.
The senator has been critical of President Trump's response to the disaster in recent days.
"No, what’s “out of whack” is leaving millions of American citizens without power, clean water, or fuel for two weeks," Blumenthal tweeted after the president lambasted Puerto Rico's debt in the midst of the recovery, saying the island was “throwing our budget out of whack."
No, what’s “out of whack” is leaving millions of American citizens without power, clean water, or fuel for two weeks. https://t.co/optyVTpxI5 — Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) October 3, 2017
Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico last month, leaving virtually the entire island without power.
Critics blamed the federal government after aid such as food and water was slow to reach people on the island.It all started off so earnestly, but the Sinn Fein leader's microblogging timeline has rapidly filled with cake-baking teddy bears and rubber ducks
Forget Chinese wall posters and Kremlinology. These days reading the political runes relies on decoding politicians' Twitter feeds, and the one currently preoccupying analysts is that of Gerry Adams. "Is the strain of being Sinn Fein president telling on Gerry Adams?" asked Ruth Dudley Edwards in her column in this week's Sunday Independent. "More and more, he seems to be taking refuge in a Twitter persona that would be more suitable for a fellow living in his mother's basement, playing in the bath with his rubber ducks."
Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) Emergency legislation shortly on Promissory Note. But no information from government. This is no way to do Dail business of significance.
The putdown came after a Christmas in which Adams, who started twittering (as he likes to call it) a year ago, exposed a supplier for failing to deliver his Clonakilty black and white pudding, said his teddy bear had baked a cake for Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson and tweeted a photograph of four luminous rubber ducks he'd received as a present. He ended the year by sending New Year greetings to "family, friends, comrades, detractors, begrudgers, bigots, the media".
Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) New ducks. They light up! Made my Christmas. pic.twitter.com/VZ9x7Evyml
Dudley Edwards is not the first to wonder what the idiosyncratic Adams Twitter account means. He started to tweet on 6 February 2013, and his early efforts – "Emergency legislation shortly on Promissory Note. But no information from government. This is no way to do Dail business of significance" – suggested grinding earnestness. But he quickly found his true voice. "Barr an lá leat. Another soft day," he tweeted a week later. "Me @ Ted have work 2 do. Have a nice Lent." He appended a photograph of Ted, his teddy bear, a frequent theme in his 2,000-plus tweets since, along with rubber ducks, cupcakes, his dog Snowie (who has his own account, @SnowieAdams, unverified but followed by his owner), food – he likes to tweet photographs of what he's about to eat – and popular music, especially Leonard Cohen.
Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) Well @ least thats 1 problem sorted. Dinsdins have arrived. Better late than never. Grma Kev. Bob?? pic.twitter.com/eiCy4uRrpD
Some have suggested the Flann (or perhaps Flan) O'Brienish tone is a little calculating. "Gerry Adams tries too hard to be cute and whimsical on Twitter," said the Irish writer Damien Owens (on Twitter of course) last week. "It's like Charles Manson showing you his collection of tea cosies." Adams is alert to the criticism. "I listen to some of those things that are said about my twittering by journalists who have never talked to me in their lives," he told an interviewer last year. "It becomes a sinister Sinn Fein plan. It's just me. If people think it's stupid, they can." "But what about the teddy bears?" demanded the fearless interviewer. "You have to think of the sensitivities of teddy bears," insisted Adams. "Teddy bears aren't given their place in the scheme of things in this world." Quite.The Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb or MOAB is the heaviest and most lethal weapon that the US Army is said to have used on the Islamic State camp in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
MOAB, also known as the Mother of All Bombs, is the heaviest non-nuclear bomb in the US' armoury. It weighs over 10,000 kilograms including around 8,500 kg of ammunition.
Russia is also said to possess a similar bomb. They call it the Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP). This bomb is considered four times more powerful than the MOAB. And, they 'lovingly' call it the Father of All Bombs (FOAB).
India does not have either an MOAB or FOAB that can be used against terror groups that pose security threat to the country.
India has the Smart Precise Impact and Cost Effective - simply called SPICE - bomb. SPICE is the biggest conventional bomb that Indian Air Force has under its command for use.
The SPICE is manufactured by Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. It is a precision guided bomb that can be carried on Mirage 2000 fighter planes of the Indian Air Force.
SPICE bomb. (Photo: @hakim_zric77) SPICE bomb. (Photo: @hakim_zric77)
The surgical strike that India carried in September last year is an indication that it too can hit at the terror camps the way the United States does.
So, if and when India decides to carry out an attack on terror camps, the Air Force can carry SPICE. It weighs around 2,000-lb or roughly 1,000-kg.
Apart from Mirage 2000, one variant of Sukhoi-30 MKI can also carry SPICE and deliver at the enemy's camp.
Besides SPICE, Indian Air Force also has 1,000-lb HSLD or High Speed, Low Drag bombs.
The HSLD can be fitted in several fighter planes including Jaguar and Sukhoi-30 MKI versions.
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ST. GEORGE — Nancy Limburg’s six-year-old toy Yorkshire terrier, affectionately named Chewy, was killed by her neighbor late Friday afternoon in front of Limburg’s daughter.
However, did Limburg’s neighbor intend on killing the dog?
That’s the question St. George police said they are mulling in a case that gained outrage from a social media post.
Police responded to a report that a dog had been killed near 2040 East in St. George at around 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to Capt. Mike Giles of the St. George Police Department.
The dog entered a neighbor’s yard and approached a man who was working on landscaping around his home. The man struck the dog in the head with a pair of long-handled pruning shears, killing the dog instantly, Giles said.
“He was using some scissors — some gardening shears; some old pruning shears and the dog was approaching him or came after him and he used those shears and swung it at the dog,” Giles said.
The incident was witnessed by Limberg’s daughter, Haley, who said the neighbor struck the dog twice.
Haley said she saw Chewy run across the street after the neighbor’s dogs started barking, drawing Chewy's attention.
“The next thing I saw (Chewy) was bleeding on the (ground),” she said. “... I didn’t know if he had cut (Chewy’s) nose or if he had hit him. I was scared.”
Limberg said she was in her room when her daughter, distraught, told her what had just happened.
“My daughter came running in screaming, yelling 'the neighbor just killed Chewy. The neighbor just killed Chewy,’” Limburg said. “I got up and went across the street, where he was at and my dog was on the sidewalk — blood all over the sidewalk.”
Chewy and the Limburg's pet cat (Photo Courtesy: Nancy Limburg)
Limberg said she had no previous encounter with the neighbor prior to the incident, though Haley said the neighbor had complained about the dog running across the street before.
Chewy was a two-pound dog that didn’t bark much and was mostly an indoor dog, Limberg said.
“He was a sweet dog,” she said, holding back tears as she went on to describe him.
She added that she confronted her neighbor upon seeing Chewy dead on the sidewalk.
“I asked him, ‘why would you kill my dog? What makes you think you can just kill my dog?’" she said.
The neighbor told her it was done in defense of his dogs that were in his backyard, Limberg said. Both Haley and Nancy Limberg said the neighbor pointed at Haley and said she told the dog to run across the street.
Officers took statements from both sides and Giles said the case remains under investigation. The man's name was not immediately released.
Part of the rage from the social media post stems from police not making any arrests or issuing any citations. Limberg said she believed police “let her down.”
“They didn’t arrest him — he didn’t go to jail. He’s still across the street,” Limberg said, in frustration. “It’s sad because we’ve lost our dog. My daughter has medical conditions — that dog was a service dog to her and for him to do that in front of her is just traumatic in itself.”
Giles said the man was not arrested because of how animal cruelty laws are written, it was difficult to determine if an arrest would be appropriate.
Police cannot arrest an individual unless the officer witnessed the action or if a felony had occurred, he said.
Since there are different levels of animal cruelty laws that vary from misdemeanor to felony, Giles said it was difficult for officers to arrest the man unless it was an obvious felony case since no officer witnessed what happened.
“There’s a lot of factors that can play in determining whether that act was intentional. Was it reasonable? Was it lawful?” he said. “That’s what we’re working through right now.”
The major difference between the levels is often intent.
“In this case, there are conflicting accounts of what the suspect was intending to do when he encountered the animal,” Giles said, in a written release posted on the department’s Facebook page Saturday morning. “This conflict makes it more difficult to determine what the suspect intended to do when he encountered the dog.”
Giles added it will be up to the prosecutor’s office if |
bigger than you could maintain by conscious use of your imagination. Create as many detailed areas as you want, but surround these with regions whose landscape is only known in a general way, and whose specific content is unknown. These allow room for expansion, and for the “surprise me” exercises later on in this paper. – Make the world a place where you feel comfortable and safe, so that it reinforces the impressions established in the previous step, and make it a place where you can have fun. – You can populate your world if you wish, but DO NOT, under any circumstances, use images of living people in your world. For some time, all of the contents of your world will be a reflection of yourself in one way or another. There is a possibility that images of people will be “taken over” by some unconscious part of your mind as a vehicle of expression. If you use images of real people, the behavior of the image may carry over into your relationships with the real person, with ill effect. Begin to build your world by picking one location within your “map” of it, and imagine yourself standing at that spot. Fix the relationships between various landmarks in your mind, and see them surrounding you at the proper angles and distances. Fill in the details to the degree that you would actually be able to see if you were standing at a similar spot in the real world. For example, one of my magickal spaces has a landscape of hills and ravines covered by a thick forest like pre-colonial America. The central area contains a rather utilitarian castle on a low bluff overlooking a large river meadow. A small tame river meanders along one edge of the meadow. Various outbuildings and special-purpose areas are dispersed in clearings in the nearby forest. I began to build this world by imagining myself standing in the meadow, looking north. I can see the green grasses, small colorful wildflowers, and an occasional cowpie nearby. Animal paths wander about, and a more direct human-made path goes from the bluff to the river. The bluff appears to be made of a flaky granite, and the castle is right on the brink of it; a couple of winters' worth of erosion to the bluff might undermine the nearest wall. I can only see all of one castle wall from this position, and part of another; I can just barely see the top of a tower above the wall. All of the walls are made of dressed gray stone without mortar. Below the castle a tunnel or gate is cut into the bluff at the meadow level. Turning to the east, I see that the bluff gradually reduces in height towards the south, coming down to the meadow somewhat south of my current position. I can see the end of a dirt road where it curves off the bluff and into the meadow. More forest rising behind the road implies that the ground beyond is higher. I know from my “map” that there is an area of grassland a mile or two in that direction. Looking south I see that the river continues in that direction, and passes through a cut in the hills several miles away. Sunlight glares off the entire length of the river in that direction, and a haze prevents me from seeing anything beyond the gap. Looking west, I see that the river is fairly shallow at this point; small ripples cover its surface as if it were flowing over a gravel bar. The forest beyond it is edged with undergrowth, mostly honeysuckle bushes, which has been tramped down in places as if by animals coming for water. Paths leading into the forest quickly disappear into the shadows of the trees. You do not need to fill in all the details of the scene consciously; in fact, it is better to encourage your imagination fill in many of the details by itself. Give it the general outline and let it show you what you should see in such a location. E.g., instead of trying to imagine each blade of grass and wildflower in the meadow, I would let my unconscious do so. If I liked what it did, I would send it a feeling of approval; if I didn't like it, I would tell it to try again, and turn away for a moment to let it change things. Once you have the view from a particular location fixed fairly well, move to other nearby locations – twenty to thirty yards away, for outdoor locations – and imagine what things would look like from this new position. What does the changed perspective reveal that was hidden before? What was unseen from the previous location that can be seen now? (Note that perspective in magickal space is never quite the same as it is in the physical world, though the difference is hard to quantify; you will not be able to make things appear in precisely the way you see natural objects.) Keep moving to new locations and build up an image of the scene as it would be seen at each one, until you have a good sense of the place as an actual “space”. In the example space, I spent some time going to various positions in the meadow, noting that less of the castle was visible close to the bluff, more of it from farther away; noting the colored gravel in the riverbed, and how it made a ford across the river, etc. Then I went up to the castle and looked outward from positions on every side of it, seeing the wider landscape, filling in the positions of various known places in the forest, deciding how far the grasslands extended behind the castle, and so on. Do this for your own space. When you have established the perspective from several locations, try moving smoothly between them, with the parallax of the surroundings changing continuously, as it does when you move about in the physical world. At first you will find that your vision of your world has a tendency to “withdraw” from the scene; your imagination will try to view it as if seen through a window, or on a movie screen, or like a tableau in a museum. Whenever you notice this has happened, firmly place your viewpoint back inside the scene, and fix it there by turning and looking at what is in every direction around you. Also at first, your world will tend to be still and tableau-like, a frozen image. Once you have the appearance of things fairly well established, try bringing some action into the scenes. Let grass and tree limbs be blown by breezes, and hear the sounds the wind makes. Watch water move and hear the sounds it makes. Add some living creatures to the landscape and let them move around in ways appropriate to their natures. It is also important that you stay relaxed throughout the exercise; doing this work should be like a relaxing daydream, not requiring fixed concentration and alertness. Do the relaxation exercise before starting each session, and do it again if you find yourself getting tense at any time during the session. Let your mind do as much of the work as it can without conscious decisions on your part, and encourage it to do more. You should spend at least several weeks on this exercise, and as much more as you want. Take your time, relax, and give as much work as you need to filling in the details in all the important locations in your world. Indoor locations should be given as much time as the general landscape. The more thoroughly you do the work in these early stages, the more effective your scrying will be later.
C. Establish a body in the magickal space
The final step in the basic process of creating a magickal space is to create a body for yourself within that space. Up to this point in the exercises, you have been pretty much a naked viewpoint, seeing the world but not interacting with it to any great extent. Now you need to build up an image of your body within the space, and learn to use it. To do this, you need to develop a conscious awareness of the sensory surface of your body and of its kinesthetics, and duplicate these in an “astral” body. Judging from accounts by students at the Fellowship of the Inner Light, this part of the work gives people the most difficulty, and people will have widely varying degrees of success in it. Before entering your magickal space, stand up and relax, preferably without any clothes or jewelry. Close your eyes and put your attention onto your skin. Even without anything touching you, you should be able to feel a sense of activity or sensitivity in your skin, a “readiness to feel”. Note the way your body's shape is outlined by the skin sensations. Next, plan out some series of movements that will move every part of your body in turn, through most of its range of movement. Tai Chi or Yoga exercises are good for this if you know them. Still keeping your eyes closed, go through the movements and note how each part of your body feels in different positions, and note what your kinesthetic sense tells you about the positioning of your limbs as you move. Finally, do the same sequence again with your eyes open. This time pay attention to the way what you see of your body changes as you go through the movements. Pay particular attention to your hands and arms. Try to consciously associate the image of your body with the sensations you get as you move. Each of these three steps focuses on one of the major aspects of your body image: your sense of the body's boundaries, its internal sensations, and its appearance to your eyes as you interact with your surroundings. Under normal conditions, these sensations are half-unconscious, and are always secondary to whatever activity you are engaged in. You need to be aware of them consciously in order to build yourself a second body inside your magickal space. If you wish, you can do these exercises separately from your practice in your space, until you are ready to make your magickal body. Once you are ready, sit down and go through the relaxation exercises, and enter your magickal space. Once there try to feel as if you have a body in the magickal space that feels exactly like your physical body, but is completely separate from the physical. Go through the three steps in your imagination, and try to duplicate all the sensations you had while doing them physically. By doing this you will, over time, gradually build up a perception of your “astral body” as a distinct entity, within and a part of your magickal space. After finishing this exercise in each session in your magickal space, spend some time just moving around your world, touching and manipulating things as if they were physical objects. Things you touch should give sensations appropriate to their nature; bricks and stone should feel hard and rough; metals should feel cool, with textures appropriate to their shape; wood should feel warm and grainy, etc. If you have rituals that you do on a daily basis (and haven't already started doing them in your magickal space) create a dedicated place in your magickal space for ritual work and begin doing them there as part of this practice. The regular, repetitive movements of ritual work will serve to reinforce your body image, and doing the rituals will begin to turn your space from a mere refuge into something useful for your magickal work. In particular, I would recommend practicing the Golden Dawn's pentagram and hexagram rituals; these will be important later, as a means of testing the visions you obtain when you start scrying.
PROBLEMS
The most common problem people encounter in this part of the work is maintaining a consistent shape for their body. They find that even after long practice their head and arms will remain reasonably well-defined, but the rest of their imaginary body has a tendency to blur into amorphousness. This is a reflection of the relative density of nerves in the physical body. Eighty percent of our sensory and kinesthetic nerves are in the head and hands; half of the remainder are in the upper chest, shoulders and arms. Our perception of the rest of the body is substantially more vague, and depends as much on sight as on direct sensory connections. When one tries to build an astral body, the mind tends give each part of it a size proportional to the relative nerve densities. This is really not so bad. You don't need legs in the magickal space, since you are moving yourself around by your volition rather than by pushing yourself with muscles. You _do_ need arms and hands to do the gestures of magickal rituals, and lips and jaws to speak the words. If you find that after some practice you can't maintain a full body image, don't worry about it; just get by with what you do have, and imagine the rest of your body concealed by a robe or other loose garment. The second problem people have is that their physical body twitches or moves when they try to move their magickal body. They unconsciously tense up the physical body, trying to “lock” it so that it won't follow along with the magickal body. This is a matter of lifelong habit, of associating the sensations of movement with the volitional act of moving your muscles. One has to disassociate the sensations from the volition, and another simple exercise will help. In your magickal space, imagine you are standing with your arms held out in front of you, palms facing downwards. Now imagine that you are turning them so that the palms face upwards, but that you are turning them _entirely with your eyes_. That is, you see them turning over, and feel the sensations of the changed position, but you don't involve the part of your mind that moves the muscles. You should _see_ your arms move without willing them to move. (In fact, you are directing your will through your visual centers instead of your muscles, but it should not seem like you are willing it, at first.) The first few times you do this, your physical arms are almost certain to tense up into rigidity. When you notice this happening, stop and do the relaxation exercises until your body is loose again, and then go back to trying to move your magickal hands again. Once you succeed in turning your astral hands over without tensing your physical hands, you should try moving the fingers individually. Curl each one over onto the palm, and straighten it out again. Again, do the relaxation exercise whenever your physical body tenses up. When you succeed in moving the individual fingers without tensing up, try various coordinated movements: clenching your fists, grasping objects, karate chops, Vulcan greeting-gestures, and so on. The hands are the hardest part of the magickal body to separate from the physical, because a major portion of our nervous systems go into controlling their movement. Once you have managed to dissociate movement of your magickal and physical hands, the rest of your body will be very easy, and can be done with similar exercises, if necessary.
3. Putting your magickal space to work
By the time you have worked the exercises in the previous sections for a few months, you will have established a solid foundation for all your future magickal work. Practically every magickal and meditation technique you will ever encounter is a variation or extension of the skills you have learned in building your magickal space. Every person will have a different level of “peak performance” with these techniques. Only a rare few are able to enter wholly into the magickal space, and become entirely unconscious of their physical body; for these people, the end result of this work is indistinguishable from the classical descriptions of astral projection. Most people will find that a certain portion of their awareness remains “outside”, and that the intensity of the sensations they have never attains the brightness and clarity of normal perception. I fall at the low end of this latter category myself; in my visions, colors are more implied than they are perceived directly, and most of the time I need to focus intently to perceive fine details. Being able to put all of your awareness into the magickal space is not necessarily an advantage. What matters more is that you make the best use of the level of skill you do have. It is the meaning you can extract from your experiences, the insights you gain into yourself and the world, and the uses to which you can put them, that count the most. Bright and glorious visions are nothing, if they have no useful content or if your awareness and understanding are not (gradually but permanently) expanded thereby. Having established the basics, in the following sections we are going to look at various exercises, all of which are forms of “scrying”. Before going into the details, we need to consider – in a general way – the nature of the things a person experiences while scrying. Dreams, it is often said, are the realm of symbols; the same is true of scrying. But while the symbols of dreams are usually expressions of processes happening below the conscious level of awareness, the symbols seen in scrying are often (in an ideal world, always) the expression of processes and events occurring _above_ the level at which consciousness resides. They are the lowest and most readily apprehended aspect of processes that the consciousness can not yet completely encompass. In a sense, the symbols you see are no more than anchor points; a convenient means by which your awareness is given a connection to something coming from outside its current scope. The form of the symbol does not necessarily bear any direct relation to the nature of that to which you are being connected. Some symbols – such as the Greek gods or the cabalist's Tree of Life – have forms that directly reflect some aspect of the inner reality. Others have connections that are largely a matter of convention; they relate to particular aspects of the inner reality only because we habitually use them in such a way. The cabalistic color attributes are in this category. And others yet are seized upon to serve the needs of the moment, and have no particular meaning outside the context of the vision in which they occur. But in all these cases, when a symbol is seen in a vision it has a direct connection to some magickal power, archetype, thought-form or entity. In order to get the greatest benefit out of your scrying, you must continually attempt to sense _beyond_ the symbol, to extend your awareness along the path it provides and apprehend that which it embodies. Accomplishing this is a delicate task. The relaxation exercises described previously again become important, this time the portion of them dealing with quieting the mind. This is important in two ways: first, because the mind's internal chatter will tend to overshadow and conceal that which is being communicated through the symbol, and second, because active parts of the mind will attempt to twist the meaning of the symbol to fit with their own preconceptions. This is especially the case where the practitioner has personal desires that relate to the information being conveyed, or where the person's self-image feels threatened. If your conception of yourself is dependent on a particular world-view and the information does not accord with that view, it will be almost impossible for you to see it clearly. To reduce the possibility of this happening, you should also work consciously to develop a mental state of unattachment towards the content of your visions, a deliberate disregard for any personal significance they contain, and a deliberate refusal to evaluate the contents for truth or falsity. Critical evaluation of the results of a scrying session is definitely necessary, but the time for that evaluation is _after_ the session is completed. While the work is proceeding, you should seek to be in a perfect state of suspended judgment; neither believing nor disbelieving anything that you see or sense, simply seeking to receive the symbols and their attached meanings precisely as they present themselves. When using scrying techniques in magickal work, you are always trying to penetrate unknown “territory”. Any work that can result in a spiritual advance will be, by definition, at least partly outside the scope of your current perspective and understanding. Like anything truly new, it takes the mind a while to adjust and be able to see it clearly. Further, the meanings behind any symbol can have many different levels; it may take a long time for these to “soak in” to your awareness, and the final significance may be very different from the first, superficial appearances. In my own work, it has sometimes taken up to a year and a half, with repeated exposures, before I fully comprehended what I was being shown. Thus, no evaluation you make should ever be so definite that you cannot change it; all meanings should be tentative until they have been repeatedly reinforced by additional experiences. I cannot give any assurance as to the manner in which the meanings attached to a symbol will appear to a particular person. I do not have enough information from other people to characterize any particular way as “typical”. In my own case, they come in two or three ways, depending on the amount of power I have managed to invoke and how high above my normal level of consciousness I have managed to raise my awareness. Usually, they appear as groups of thoughts or associations that appear simultaneously in my mind with the words spoken by some entity, providing a detailed context for the words; it is as if the thoughts out of which the entity produced the words were being transmitted along with the words. If I am looking at a visual symbol rather than hearing words, then they appear as sudden detailed “realizations” of what the symbol is intended to represent, which appear instantly in my awareness. Less frequently, the hidden meaning of symbols appears as an entire storyline, a long series of events that appear in the mind as if some part of myself had been taken away, taken on a long tour through magickal spaces, and was then returned to the exact moment in time from which it had left. The complete tour is instantly “remembered” as it happened, even though for my conscious awareness, no time at all has passed. In the rarest case, the meaning appears to my awareness as a tightly-bound packet of mystical energy, which sits in my mind and gradually “unravels” itself into words, images, and meanings over a period ranging from minutes to weeks. These “packets” seem to be some magickal equivalent of books. Their content usually does not seem to be directed at the particular person receiving them, but rather at some general audience; and the content is often radically different from the perspectives and ideas the seer would normally be interested in. You should not take these as being the only ways in which the meanings behind symbols can present themselves to you; you may find that some other means is more typical for you. But if you do happen to receive information in any of these ways, you can feel confident that you have had some success in this matter.
The Magickal Mystery Tour
The first scrying technique is very simple, and can be very entertaining. The results you get with this method can range from silly to sublime, from inconsequential to important, depending on the conditions of the moment. This method lets you acquire a feel for the ways in which your unconscious mind symbolizes things, and gives it some practice in doing so in a non-critical situation. Enter your magickal space and re-affirm your safety there, using the method previously described. Then go to some familiar outdoor location in your space, and look around to establish your bearings and the relative positions of the other familiar regions. Having done this, imagine that these familiar territories are surrounded by vast areas about which you know nothing as yet, in which anything at all might be happening at any given moment. Decide that you are going to take a walk and look around some part of those areas. Then look around you again, pick a direction, and start walking. As you move out of your familiar areas, don't try to imagine that you will find any particular features in the landscape, and don't try to look for any particular thing. Let the your imagination fill in the features of the areas you pass through without interference. Move around in the wilderness until you find some interesting item. It might be an interesting natural feature, an object, a building, a person or animal. Examine the object or explore the building, remembering that everything unusual has some sort of meaning in a magickal space. If nothing clear comes to you, move along in the direction you were going. Sometimes it happens that several locations in sequence tell a story that isn't clear until you have been to all of them; other times, the first locations you come to simply aren't very important. Talk to a person or animal as if they existed independently of yourself; treat them with the respect and politeness you would give to any stranger you encounter in an isolated place; try to maintain a friendly and unthreatening attitude no matter what the being does, and remember that since all this is taking place in your private world, you are perfectly safe. Don't try to script their actions, just let them speak and act spontaneously. Asking a person you meet to tell you about himself and what he is doing will nearly always get a positive response. If the person does not acknowledge your presence, or does not respond to your queries, then watch what they are doing for a time, until you don't see any point in continuing to do so. Then move on to another location. If they do respond, when you have run out of questions then ask them if there is anything else interesting to see in the neighborhood, and follow any directions they might give you. Usually such explorations will tell you something about yourself, your life-situation, or your current magickal environment. It will all be in symbolic form, of course; the obvious meaning of the events won't always be their deepest significance. But once you understand the symbolism, the results usually turn out to be something useful or interesting, though not always important. This method is particularly good for those times when you know something important is going on in the magickal side of your life, but you can't tell what it is. It is also very good for any situation where you aren't certain what questions you should be asking. To use the method in such a way, hold the idea that you need information or answers in your mind while you are picking the direction for your tour, and try to sense the direction in which the answers lie; there will always be such a direction. Then go in that direction and continue finding interesting things until you feel like you have received all of the answer; this will usually manifest as a sense of relief or a reduction in some vaguely-sensed pressure. Then consider the things you have seen in relation to your current situation; the meanings they contain will usually provide essential clues you need.
The Magick Mirror
The next method is very close to a “classical” scrying method, save that the appurtenances are astral rather than physical. The method is capable of endless variations, of which only a few will be described. Pick a convenient location within your magickal space. If you intend to scry in conjunction with invocations of magickal forces, a temple or magickal workroom would be the best place; otherwise, any place where you feel most comfortable and secure. In that place, imagine a frame, as for a large mirror. This should be at least your own height, and of a width such that all of it can be in your field of vision at the same time. Now imagine that this frame contains a sheet of glass. But rather than being a silvered mirror the glass appears to contain a deep, transparent blackness; as if behind the glass were a void of indefinite extent. You can get an idea of the correct appearance – and construct a physical magick mirror at the same time – by taking a piece of half-silvered or quarter-silvered glass (from a scientific supply house) and laying it on a piece of good-quality black velvet. Look into this under very low illumination and it will seem to have an indefinite depth; that is, it will seem to have depth, but you will be unable to tell exactly how deep it is. You should at the same time imagine, and _feel_ a total confidence, that the answer to anything you look for will appear to you in this mirror. Don't get bogged down in _how_ the mirror does this, simply generate an emotional confidence that it works. The basic use of this mirror is fairly simple. You hold the thought of what you want to know about in your mind, and then you imagine that the mirror is “tuning in” to that thought, using the thought to make a connection to some place where the answer can be found. Once you feel that the mirror is tuned, release the thought and wait in mental silence for images to arise out of the darkness of the mirror. And as with the “mystery tour” technique, the images will be accompanied by meanings that you will be able to “hear” or sense in your mind. There are several variations on the basic method for different purposes. Once you get accustomed to the basic method, you can make use of those described or invent your own. As you come to be familiar with the method, your own intuition will become a better guide to its use than any “official” technique; do not be afraid to experiment. For psychometry, hold an object in your (physical) hand, and imagine that there is a link between it and the mirror. Then look to the mirror to reflect the “impressions” contained in the object. If it is an object that is connected by use to some person, you must specify that it is impressions of the person that you want, not impressions of the object itself; otherwise you may get some odd results. For example, I once tried to psychometrize a flint knife-blade, and got a geological history of the stratum from which the flint had come. It's connections to its rocky origins were stronger than its connections to the persons who had made and used it, and these came across most intensely. You can also “psychometrize” a person – give them a “life reading” or answer specific questions – by holding their hands and looking to your magickal mirror to reflect impressions you get from their spirit. This is more difficult, takes more practice, and works best when you have no personal relationship with the person in question. It should _never_ be done with people with whom you have an emotional entanglement of any sort. To get basic ideas and meanings related to visual symbols, imagine the symbol drawn on the face of the mirror in glowing lines. Then imagine that you are pushing the symbol into the mirror, so that it recedes in the distance and eventually vanishes from sight. Sending the symbol into the mirror “tunes it in”; wait in mental silence for images to arise, and these will bear in some way on the symbol. Magickal invocations can be used to enhance the power of the mirror. As an example, you might want to explore the nature of the element of Fire. You could begin by performing the Lesser Pentagram ritual to banish extraneous influences, directing that the banishing include the mirror. Then you could use the Greater Pentagram ritual to invoke the element of Fire. When you have a strong sense of the element's force being present, direct that force into the mirror, simultaneously imagining that the force is not only tuning the mirror to the element, but is also charging it up and clearing the channels so that the mirror works with its best effect. Or alternately, you could request that the archangel or angel of the element appear to you in the mirror and answer your questions. With any of these methods, the images you get will at first be vague and static. But with practice the images will sharpen, expand and become active, presenting whole landscapes and long storylines that dramatically present the answers you are seeking. The mirror will seem to become a window opening on the part of the astral plane that relates to your search. Once you achieve this, the mirror can be used as a “gate”, an opening through which you can travel directly to the plane being viewed, to experience events there first-hand. From the standpoint of initiatory magick, this is the preferred mode of operation, since it immerses your consciousness in the power you are exploring. Immersion increases the potential for real and lasting changes in awareness and enhances your power to achieve insights and realizations from the power. To convert the mirror to a gate, imagine that the image in the mirror becomes three-dimensional, as if you were actually looking through a window at a real place instead of just seeing a picture of it. Then imagine that the glass of the mirror dissolves and vanishes while the image in the mirror remains in place. Or if it is easier for your mind, imagine that the glass is in fact a hinged window in a frame, and open the window. You will usually find that unless your being is totally in tune with the force you have invoked, you will have some difficulty passing through the frame and into the world on the other side. The Golden Dawn's “Sign of the Enterer” will help to overcome the resistance. Stand just short of arm's length from the gate; raise your arms directly above your head, and then bring them down and forward with the fingers straight, while at the same time taking a step forward. Alternately, pull your hands back so that they are close to your body at shoulder level, and then extend your arms sharply forward while taking the step. Imagine that these gestures are punching a hole in whatever is resisting your entry, and that the momentum of your forward movement is carrying you through the gate and into the world beyond. If you still feel resistance once you are through the gate, repeat the gestures again. Once you are though the gate, look around and make note of everything you see. Start with the major features of the landscape, then focus in on the details. If you have invoked the power correctly, you should see objects and events that reflect parts of the power's nature. It is good practice to test the world you enter, and any beings you encounter, to ensure that they are in fact related to the power you invoked, and are of a good nature. The means of testing will be discussed in detail in the next installment of this series. If you find that you have difficulty turning the mirror into a gate, or that the mirror won't give you images of complete landscapes and storylines, a variation on the magickal practice of “pathworking” will help. The practice as described below is halfway between scrying a simple symbol and doing a freeform exploration of an invoked force, and will thus assist in the transition between them.
Pathworking
The term “pathworking” is used for several different practices, ranging from simple meditations through programmed visualizations to visions and astral travel. What they all have in common is the use of symbols traditionally associated with the “paths” of the Tree of Life, e.g., the Tarot trumps. These symbols have been in use for long enough that stable regions reflecting their power have been established in the inner planes. By using the symbols in these practices the person connects to those regions and can learn something of the realities behind the symbols. Preliminary Steps 1. Pick a visual symbol for the path you want to explore. Tarot cards are good starting points. The cartoon-like images of the Rider or Wang decks are preferable to detailed images like Crowley's deck; the bright, flat colors of these cards encourage your imagination to fill in the blanks. We'll use the Rider deck's “Fool” card as an example. 2. Review what you know about the correspondences of the card. Read what your available sources have to say about the card. Then go on to some unconnected activity for a while and let your unconscious absorb the information; let it make its own connections and conclusions without any effort by your conscious self. Using the example card, what comes immediately to my mind: The Fool is generally attributed to the element of Air and the path of Aleph. In the Golden Dawn version of the Tree, the path of Aleph connects Kether with Chokmah. In Achad's version of the Tree, it connects Malkuth with Yesod. The Fool is a primal form of Air, more cosmic and less “earthy” than the Tarot suit of Swords. In the cabala, it represents both the “mind” or “intellect” aspect of being, and the Yetziratic, “formative”, or “Son” aspect of the IHVH sequence. In the Enochian elemental sequence it represents the creative Ideal manifested by the divine, which is the basis for further development and full manifestation through the other elements. In the structure of the planet Earth, it is the atmosphere which lies between the spirit-aspect of the planet's magnetosphere and the water-aspect of the oceans. And so on. 3. Study the card and note the details, and also note any connections that come to mind. Consider the figure in the card; what does his/her posture, gestures, expression, etc. say about his attitude and emotional state? Where does his attention seem focused? Try to get some idea of the type of personality being expressed. Ex: The cliff on which the Fools stands seems to be colored using three of the Malkuth colors: black, olive, and russet. The Fool's boots are citrine, completing the foursome. The mountains in the background are in a Yesodic violet, with snowy tops reflecting the light of the Sun, which is colored in Kether's white. The sky, dominant in the picture, is an Airy yellow, slightly darker than the citrine of his boots. The Fool's outer garment is green with ivy patterns, reminding me of the Green Man of Celtic mythology and Malkuth again. The lining is red, reminiscent of both Fire and the sexual energy of Mars. There are wheels embroidered on the garment, which brings to mind another card, The Wheel of Fortune, attributed to Jupiter, who is Lord of the Air. There are also Fleur-de-Lys on the garment, which are either Lilies (Malkuth, according to Crowley) or Irises (Yesodic by color and shape). His inner garment is white, again suggesting Kether. A feather is mounted at the front of his hat, and its shape suggests the Uraeus serpent of Egyptian costume, or the feather of Maat. He carries a rose in his left hand and a staff with a bag at the end (rather phallic) in his right. The Fool's head is bent back, his eyes focused on something in the distance that only he can see. His posture is somewhat pretentiously “sensitive”, the sort that you would see the French Sun-King use in one of his dances. Overall he reminds me of a Galliard poet of the 13th century, a noble's over-educated younger son, wandering and pretending to be a minstrel while eschewing mundane tasks. He is about to walk over a cliff. The dog at his heels seems either playful or trying to call his attention to his immediate danger. You don't have to go into such detail as in the example; if you are just starting out in magick, you probably won't have the resources to do it. The important thing is to note the details, and try and interpret the figure's expression and posture, and the acts in which he seems to be engaged. These first three steps are preparatory, and should be done before beginning the main part of the practices. Once you have done them, let the information float in your unconscious for a few hours or a day while you do other things. The idea is to gently focus the unconscious on the subject matter, and to let it absorb the information and ideas without your conscious interference. This makes it more willing to participate in the practices, and enhances its ability to make connections with the magickal region behind the card. Main Practice 4. Sit down and do the |
33 people who claimed they were sexually abused by Sandusky. In addition, Penn State was fined $48 million by the NCAA.
The NCAA imposed other heavy sanctions against the football program, cutting scholarships, barring the team from postseason play and stripping Penn State and Paterno of 112 victories dating to 1998. The NCAA later eased its penalties and restored the wins.
This past season marked the return of Penn State football as a top program. The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten championship and made it to the Rose Bowl.
According to investigators, McQueary went to Paterno a day after the shower encounter to discuss what he had seen. Paterno alerted Curley and Schultz, and McQueary met with both of them about a week later.
The administrators told Sandusky he could not bring children onto campus anymore, but they had no plan to enforce that rule, prosecutors said.
It was not until nine years later that an anonymous email sent to a district attorney led investigators to approach McQueary in the case.
Prosecutors on Monday also cited a 1998 complaint against Sandusky over his showering with a boy on campus that led to a campus police investigation and notification of the county prosecutor but no charges. Sandusky admitted hugging the youngster in the shower, and promised never to shower with a boy again.
That left Sandusky free to continue working with boys at his charity, his summer football camps and the nearby high school.
The U.S. Education Department fined the university a record $2.4 million for not recording the 1998 case on its daily crime log, as required under federal law.
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Silverstone Classic is over for another year, the crowds have gone home and the racing cars turned off. After what was a great weekend of racing and classic car appreciation we can all look at it as time well spent. What you may have missed, however, was the auction taking place in the Wing throughout Saturday and Sunday.
The sale was well attended and had some gorgeous classics for sale, with some fetching suitably eye watering prices. Here is our roundup of some of the best cars that sold, or didn’t sell over the weekend.
1991 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Sold for: £72,000
2012 McLaren MP4-12C
Sold for: £96,750
Although these early cars had a few technical gremlins this is still an immense amount of car for the money. Looking inside the interior looks dated and out of touch with the red leather on blue exterior, and really shows how far the brand has come when you compare this to the 720S and the change made in just five years.
2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
Sold for: £112,500
In what seems to be the supercar bargain pairing of the millennium this ‘Scud’ with a tickle over 30k miles sold for less than a second hand Audi R8. Maybe this auction wasn’t well positioned for the supercar crowd, it was certainly well positioned for the plucky buyer. The 430 Scuderia needs no introduction and for those up to date with current prices will know that £112,500 is a steal. Congratulations to the new owner – we’re not jealous at all….
1987 Ford Capri 280 Brooklands
Sold for: £55,125
1966 Mercedes-Benz 250SE Coupé
Sold for: £37,125
1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona EX-Elton John
Sold for: £551,250
So there we have it, the best sales from Silverstone Auctions Silverstone Classic sale. There were also a series of unsold cars at the sale, view the full sold and unsold list on the Silverstone auctions website HERE.Order blocking government funding of stem cell research is a serious setback in search for cures to diseases, say scientists
American scientists have reacted with anger at a court ruling that strikes down Barack Obama's decision to greatly expand medical research using stem cells taken from human embryos.
Scientists described the order by a federal judge in Washington, who said that the president had overstepped a law barring the government funding of research in which human embryos are destroyed, as "deplorable" and "a serious setback" in the search for cures to major diseases.
Lawyers for an alliance of Christian groups who brought the case, which tied opposition to experiments on embryonic stem cells to the anti-abortion campaign, said the ruling appeared to go further than restrictions under President George Bush and bar all government funding for such research. It also pushes the ever-contentious issue of abortion to the fore again in the runup to November's mid-term elections and presents Obama with the difficult choice of whether he wants a battle in the courts and in Congress to repeal the legislation.
The court order came after an executive order by Obama in March last year that lifted restrictions put in place by Bush eight years earlier. Those restrictions limited government funding to a small number of existing lines of human embryonic stem cells. The administration had allocated about $250m (£160m) to the research. The National Institutes of Health added an additional 70 lines after Obama's order. But Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the president's decision was in conflict with the Dickey-Wicker amendment, a 1996 law that bars the use of government funds for "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed". The law has been renewed by Congress each year.
Scientists swiftly condemned the ruling. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (Cirm) said the court order would disrupt advances in research for cures to diseases such as diabetes and Lou Gehrig's. "The decision is a deplorable brake on all stem cell research," said Cirm's president, Alan Trounson. "Many discoveries with other cell types... would not happen without ongoing research in human embryonic stem cells."
Steven Aden, a lawyer for the Alliance Defence Fund which brought the case, said: "We're gratified that the court accepted what we think is a plain and commonsense reading of the applicable law and we're hopeful that ultimately this will result in the renewal of good, science-based funding for adult stem cell research."
Scientists were also left confused over whether they had to immediately halt embryonic stem cell work paid for with government funds or if the ruling only prevented federal authorities from distributing more grants.
Cirm said the order appeared to bar research permitted even under the tighter regulations imposed by Bush.
Aden said he believed the ruling prohibits any government-funded research involving embryonic stem cells.
"We think that's right. When congress passed the Dickey-Wicker amendment back in the days of the Clinton administration the reason for that was to get the American public out of funding research that involves the destruction of human life," he said.
An opinion poll by the Pew foundation last year found that 54% of Americans support research using human embryos.Chan Pelton Stripped of Title, Banned from Properties for WSOP Circuit Chip Theft
February 26, 2014 Chad Holloway
Last week, three-time gold ring winner Chan Pelton, who topped a field of 181 in Event #9: $1,125 No-Limit Hold’em to win his third ring and $47,061 in prize money, was caught attempting to remove a T25,000 chip from play at the World Series of Poker Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club. The action has cost him dearly as he has now been stripped of the title, disqualified from the WSOP National Championship, banned from all Caesars properties, and will receive no prize money.
The punishments were handed down by both the PBKC and WSOP after the former entity completed their investigation.
“An act of theft of poker room property — the removal of a poker chip off the poker table – by one of the two remaining players in the event – was confirmed by video surveillance and by the perpetrator in question, who later returned the stolen chip,” the PBKC said in a statement. “PBKC’s review confirms that the integrity of the event was in no way compromised, and the impact of the incident only caused harm to the perpetrator himself.”
The removal of the chip is a violation of WSOP Tournament Rule 39, Section A, Part ii, and the PBKC has stated that Pelton’s intent was not considered in their investigation. Pelton claimed he only wanted it for a souvenir, though many posters in a dedicated TwoPlusTwo thread believe his real intention was to use it in the $1,675 Main Event.
In accordance with Tournament Rule 39, Section D, Pelton was disqualified from the event and the title and first-place prize money, which had been frozen by the casino, was awarded to the original runner-up, Chris Bolek, who seemed pleased to be awarded the victory.
I'll take it. — Chris Bolek (@NowYouCB)
“The integrity of our games is of upmost importance and regardless of the intent in question from this incident, we cannot sit idle and risk the stolen chips being re-introduced in the future,” said PBKC Card Room Director Noah Carbone. “We take great pride in providing a fair and secure environment for our valued patrons and this unfortunate incident, while discovered and handled swiftly, should serve as a reminder to players that tournament chips are the property of the poker room and must remain on the table at all times.”
“As operators, we must follow the rules — just as we expect players to follow the rules — and any violation of the rules, must be dealt with in a manner that ensures integrity of the event in question, as well as future events. If rules infractions occur, we view incidents in the worst case scenario plausible, and as such impose penalties governed by our rules to ensure the best possible outcome for all players in the future and to best ensure integrity of events on a going-forward basis,” Carbone added.
Not surprisingly, Pelton was banned from PBKC property in the future. Likewise, Pelton faced repercussions from the WSOP, which released a statement of their own.
Chan Pelton. Photo courtesy of kbtx.com.
“The individual who admitted the theft and violation of tournament rules will no longer be eligible for the National Championship and is also being served an indefinite suspension from all WSOP-related events taking place at Caesars-owned properties, effective immediately,” the statement said. “This suspension is a companywide casino ban, forbidding the individual to step on any Caesars-owned property in the future. Failure to comply will result in trespassing charges, and possible further law enforcement.”
Pelton had won his second ring earlier that week by taking down Event #2 $365 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight or Better for $12,181. That win remains unaffected. The two victories made Pelton an overwhelming favorite to win the stop’s Casino Championship, which comes with a seat into the 2014 National Championship, but now that title will go to the player second in points, which appears to be Jeffrey Gunnip with 80 points.
This isn’t the first time Pelton has found himself in hot water. On May 25, 2012, KBTX Bryan/College Station, TX reported that then 29-year-old Pelton was arrested for possession of a substance and possession of marijuana after police found him asleep in a running car.
According to a probable cause statement, police woke him, searched the car, and discovered a pound of packaged marijuana, Xanax pills, and $1,760 in cash, which he claimed as online poker winnings. Pelton reportedly admitted to police that he intended to sell the marijuana, though he later denied this claim.
*Lead photo courtesy of WSOP.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia banned pork imports from Belarus on Friday, stepping up a diplomatic and trade war over the arrest of a Russian businessman and threatening to deepen the isolation of its former Soviet ally.
Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner speaks during the Reuters Russia Investment Summit in Moscow September 13, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov
Russia is one of Belarus’ few diplomatic backers after 19 years of authoritarian rule by President Alexander Lukashenko but has responded furiously to the arrest this week of Vladislav Baumgertner, head of Russian potash company Uralkali.
Baumgertner was seized on Monday at the airport outside the Belarussian capital Minsk after being invited to talks with the prime minister, and then humiliated by television footage showing him being searched in his prison cell.
Since then, Russian officials have announced a 25 percent drop in oil supplies to Belarus in September, threatened to extend the cuts for several months and hinted at possible restrictions on imports of Belarussian dairy products.
Russia’s veterinary regulator said the restrictions on hog and pork product imports had been imposed over concerns about African swine fever in Belarus and would not be lifted until the virus was wiped out or brought under control.
The moves could deal a significant blow to Belarus, a transit country for Russian oil and natural gas to Europe. Its economy, already in danger of collapse, is heavily reliant on agriculture and Russian oil supplies.
“Relations between Russia and Belarus seem to be delving to new lows and the expectation is that Russia will further ratchet up pressure on its neighbor via the trade channel,” said Timothy Ash, an analyst at Standard Bank in London.
“All this comes as the economy in Belarus looks precariously fragile.”
POTASH CARTEL
The dispute followed the collapse this month of a Russia-Belarus sales cartel that controlled two-fifths of the $20-billion global market for potash, an ingredient used in mineral fertilizers.
In a sign that the breakup of the joint venture with Uralkali is causing problems for Belarus, a senior official at state potash producer Belaruskali said it had suspended two of its four potash mine complexes for maintenance.
Any big fall in output at Belaruskali, which was Uralkali’s partner in the potash cartel, would have a severe impact on the finances of Belarus, where the soil nutrient accounts for 12 percent of state revenue and about 10 percent of export income.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said nothing in public about the dispute but his foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Moscow was counting on Belarus freeing Baumgertner quickly and described the dispute as commercial but not political.
The Kremlin also tried to play down the political impact by saying Putin had followed protocol by sending a telegram congratulating Lukashenko on his 59th birthday on Friday.
Russia has denied any of the economic or trade moves this week were connected with Baumgertner’s arrest but the timing undermines these statements.
Belarus has defied the pressure, charging Baumgertner with abuse of his authority and threatening criminal charges against Suleiman Kerimov, Uralkali’s top shareholder and a Kremlin ally.
But Belarus, a country of less than 10 million, needs Russia for energy and economic handouts and as a counterweight to the European Union and the United States, which shun him because of his treatment of opponents and lack of tolerance for dissent.
The timing is unfortunate for Putin because Russia is also in a dispute with Ukraine, another former Soviet republic which Moscow wants to dissuade from closer integration with the West.
Western European countries are following the situation closely because oil supply cuts in the past to Ukraine and Belarus have caused disruptions to pipeline flows to Europe.
Moscow says Kiev must choose between free trade with the EU and a Russia-led customs union that also includes Belarus, and wants control of Ukraine’s gas pipeline network. But Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich stood firm on Friday, saying: We will not trade up our country - that is our principle.”
Moscow is particularly sensitive to what happens in Belarus and Ukraine because it considers them as its “near abroad”, an area where it sees Western diplomatic or economic interference as a threat.I talk about social justice online a lot. My frequent twitter rants about it are literally the reason I decided to make this patreon. I've interacted with many communities and many different folks from all sorts of backgrounds, and encountered all sorts of discussions.
And so, I have of course encountered situations where I was rather frustrated by social justice discourse. I've encountered abuse and harassment framed in and excused by the language of social justice. I've directly been on the receiving end of it at times, and I have friends who personally have dealt with some particularly vicious smear campaigns.
And we've all heard the horror stories. Artists driven off Twitter because they drew something "problematic." Staffers on shows harassed and threatened over innocent stuff. Tumblr callouts with thousands of reblogs.
But that's not what I'm writing about today. What I am writing about today is another trend I've noticed. A trend among some people to really push this narrative, that of "Social Justice Run Amok!", to focus on it and emphasize it. To push a narrative of marginalized people, drunk with power, abusing and silencing anyone at will for the slightest of offenses real or imagined. And if some of the facts in a particular case don't quite fit this narrative, then those facts are ignored or distorted.
It's a popular story, and I don't just mean among right wing shitheads. Plenty of people on the left love to write stories about this. And while there is nothing wrong with calling out abuse regardless of where it's coming from- indeed this is very important- often one can find that the facts of a case aren't quite what they first seem, and the person pushing the narrative is not arguing in good faith.
Case in point, I want to talk about that Vulture article by Kat Rosenfield that was passed around earlier this month.
If you spend much time reading about social justice related stuff online, you probably have heard about and possibly read this article already, and there's a good chance you've heard about some of the pushback to it as well. A chunk of that pushback has focused on the article identifying someone who wrote a critical review, Shauna, by her full name. This information apparently wasn't exactly impossible to find, but also wasn't present on most if not all of Shauna social media presences, including where she wrote and shared the review (she's since deleted a lot of them so it's hard to track down some info).
It's for this reason I hesitate to directly link to this article, though it's not exactly difficult to find where it is to read it, in case you want to be sure I represented it fairly.
Despite the above controversy about Shauna's full name, if you read this article and aren't already deeply familiar with the specific situation, it may seem to be a very classic case of Social Justice Run Amok. It presents a terrifying picture of countless writers and readers who are scared to write or say anything for fear of being deemed problematic, and of twitter mobs ruining everything. It uses the case of The Black Witch as a central example of a book unfairly maligned, it's author and fans smeared.
It's an interesting read, and by the time you've finished it you'll probably have forgotten that the lede there, "sometimes before anybody's even read them," doesn't quite fit as the article is about a controversy started by a review by someone who did read the book. And in fact the only case of something nobody had read being criticized was a throwaway mention near the end of the article highlighting a single 1 star Goodreads review of a different book in progress, a review that judged the book based on the author's previous work.
But hey, the article does point out that after Shauna's review that sparked the outrage was posted, plenty of people posted negative reviews to Goodreads where they openly admitted they hadn't read the book yet. And the article attempts to paint Shauna's review as an outlier, illegitimate, written by someone who just doesn't understand what they're reading or is perhaps just too sensitive. Consider how the review is described initially.
"The Black Witch centers on a girl named Elloren who has been raised in a stratified society where other races (including selkies, fae, wolfmen, etc.) are considered inferior at best and enemies at worst. But when she goes off to college, she begins to question her beliefs, an ideological transformation she’s still working on when she joins with the rebellion in the last of the novel’s 600 pages. (It’s the first of a series; one hopes that Elloren will be more woke in book two.)
It was this premise that led [Shauna] to slam The Black Witch as “racist, ableist, homophobic, and … written with no marginalized people in mind,” in a review that consisted largely of pull quotes featuring the book’s racist characters saying or doing racist things."
So, it seems like a clear cut case of Social Justice Run Amok, possibly inspired by tumblr. Someone conflating a racist character with a racist author or viewpoint, completely misunderstanding the point of the book. Shauna might have read the book, but she clearly didn't get the book or what it was trying to do, so she might as well have not read it.
Except... if you read Shauna's review, almost immediately she says the following paragraph. Emphasis was in the original.
"Before I get into this review wholeheartedly, I want to address the supporters of this book. Yes, I read the whole thing. Yes, I understand that it's supposed to be a redemption story in which deeply seated prejudices are uprooted and the main character learns. But here's the thing. She doesn't learn. Even with 100, 50, 30, pages left, Elloren Gardner was still saying and doing racist things. Additionally, it takes 350+ pages before that redemption arc even starts, and those pages before it are filled with some of the most vile hatred and vitriol I've ever seen from a protagonist. "
I'm gonna pull a few salient quotes from the review related to this now. Emphasis mine this time.
"This scene is absolutely horrifying. Not only does Elloren feel fully justified in the way that Lukas threatened an entire scene of workers, when she later apologizes (at the VERY end of the book), Fernyllia completely forgives her, even though she threatened to send her granddaughter to a labor camp. Forgiveness by PoC coded fantasy races is spread throughout this entire book, but I really don't buy it. Elloren doesn't change enough to deserve their forgiveness. "
"This defensiveness, this absolute belief that nothing Elloren ever does could possibly be wrong, this never changes. Once she starts learning not to be racist (remember y'all, we're 280 pages into this book and her redemption arc hasn't even started) she still gets personally offended when anyone questions her motives. "
"I mentioned this a lot while I was live-tweeting this book, but the only races that Elloren has really accepted are ones where someone has been nice to her. She still harbors resentment toward the Kelts and the Urisk, but she's accepted Icarals and Lupines.
The basis for treating another person like a human shouldn't be whether they are nice to you."
" pg. 492. Elloren decides to start wearing the Gardnerian silks made by slave labor to blend in. She even wears the white armbands that other Gardnerians have started wearing in support of Marcus Vogel's appointment to the Verpacian council. There's some major Nazi imagery here, like this book needed anything worse.
... Yvan is upset that she's started wearing the silks and even the armband. Elloren is offended that people infer her beliefs based on her clothing. "
I should note that Marcus Vogel is a racist with a genocidal ideology. This is page 492, well into Elloren's redemption arc. She's wearing clothing explicitly endorsing horrific racism, a racism she spent the majority of the book specifically supporting, racism she still exhibits in her thoughts and actions, and she is offended that people are upset by this or think it might be an indication of what she believes.
Another example of this exact thing, also regarding the racist armband, is given on page 558. The book is only 608 pages long, and she's still doing that shit.
Now, I should clarify that I have not read the book itself. So it's quite possible that maybe this review is inaccurate about some stuff, that it doesn't give the full picture. But I have not heard anyone dispute any of the quotes, the page numbers, or the general summations of Elloren's thoughts and actions. Even people defending the book have admitted that she continues to think and do horribly racist things well into her apparent redemption.
One could argue that it's tough for a racist to just suddenly change their way of thinking, and so this is just accurate to real life. Regardless though, it's clear from reading Shauna's review that she's not just objecting to the premise of the book. She's not just objecting to racist characters doing racist things and insisting that makes the book racist.
She's objecting because the book is, in her view, a book about a disgusting racist (and I haven't even addressed the other forms of bigotry Elloren has) who spends the entire book being disgustingly racist, but who has a revelation a little over halfway through that not all other races are evil, but continues to still say and do racist things, gets offended when anyone questions her for this, and is easily forgiven for all the terrible things she did despite not really changing much.
Of course this is just the first book, so perhaps Elloren will be more "woke" (as Kat Rosenfield describes it) in book 2. But regardless of what might or might not happen later on in the series, there is just one book now, and people can only judge the book based on the narrative that is in the book.
The Vulture article misrepresents the content of Shauna's review, but it does link to it, so people could just follow the link and read it themselves. But who is actually gonna take the time to read a nearly 9000 word review linked to in an already lengthy article? Most will just skim over it a bit, and see that indeed it is full of pull quotes of characters saying racist things, and easily miss the important criticisms throughout it.
Speaking of those pull quotes, I do think they were overused in Shauna's review, and the review could have overall used some better formatting and focus. But their heavy use did illustrate a helpful fact, which is just how much of a racist Elloren is. This isn't fantasy "I think affirmative action is reverse discrimination," this is fantasy "Nazi/white supremacist."
I don't use those terms lightly, but both Elloren's grandparents were genocidal monsters who killed countless people and founded the racist ideology that is the basis of the book. And in addition to the racist armbands, there is also apparent Holocaust imagery invoked regarding one of the genocides. Elloren is at least unaware of the whole genocide part at the start, but she still tries to defend her grandmother when she learns about it though.
So when Elloren is easily forgiven despite, at least according to Shauna, not really changing, this is the type of thing that is being forgiven.
Writing a story with a racist protagonist is tricky. Writing a racist who learns they are racist and tries to grow but still continues to struggle with racism, someone who you want the readers to sympathize with while they are saying and doing repulsive things is extremely tricky. It's easy to screw this up. I don't think The Black Witch was written with malicious intent, and some people felt it did a good job of presenting a story about overcoming prejudice and racism. But intent is not magic, and some people, including Shauna, clearly felt otherwise. They felt it was a massive blunder that spread a harmful, gross narrative.
And despite the impression the Vulture article would give you, the argument for this view wasn't simply "racist character does a racist thing."
Now, why the hell did I spend so much time focusing on this review? After all, the Vulture article was about online toxicity and abuse, and though it used the review as it's central piece and starting point, it's points about harassment should still be valid, right?
The reason I spent so much time is because it was important to help illustrate that the Vulture article isn't actually about that at all. It's about a narrative, about "Social Justice Run Amok," about those darn marginalized people overreacting to every perceived slight and pushing people around. There's no room for nuance here, and especially, there is no room for legitimate grievance here.
That's why Rosenfield opens the piece with the initial positive buzz about the Black Witch: It's such a great book! It's why she mischaracterizes Shauna's critical review. Why she focuses only on the negative reviews on Goodreads that admitted to not reading the book and ignores the negative reviews by people that did read it. Why she condescendingly says "Still, the interpretation of Forest’s novel as a 600-page paean to anti-miscegenation seems rare among those who’ve actually read it" before pointing out it's positive Amazon rating. Because she cannot let you think that any reasonable person could possibly have issues with The Black Witch.
Because after all, she's not writing an article about people potentially overreacting when a legitimate grievance goes viral. She's writing about censor happy SJWs destroying freedom with their toxicity and drama.
When you know what Kat Rosenfield is doing, what angle she's pushing, some of the signs can be seen throughout the article. She spends a lot of time talking about how scared people are to comment on anything in YA books because of the online SJW twitter mobs. How people are terrified to even talk to her about this for her article. She makes the point that only a single person critical of this case of Social Justice Run Amok was willing to be identified by name in her article.
And yet, also in that same article, she is dismissive that Shauna would be scared after being contacted by her and told about what she was writing. This is a post gamergate world. It's hard to imagine that Rosenfield could still be ignorant of how badly things can go for someone who dares criticize a piece of media for being racist/sexist/etc. Why wouldn't Shauna be scared about an article like this being written?
Given that Rosenfield would, when writing this article, include Shauna's last name and portray her as someone who started up a viral hate mob simply because a racist character in a book said racist things, I'd say her fears were well founded. But Rosenfield focuses on conspiracies and rumors related to her conversation with Shauna and past behavior, to portray any concern Shauna or her friends might have had as ridiculous.
Rosenfield talks about people criticizing those who would dare to decide to read the book, saying "However, just reading a so-called problematic book in order to judge its offensiveness for oneself is considered by many to be beyond the pale." Yet when you look at some of her example tweets in context, you realize they were responses to the trend of people who, upon hearing that something has been criticized for being racist/bigoted/etc, proudly declare their intention to partake in it.
Which, if you think about it, is kind of odd. It's one thing if you're interested in something, hear it's been criticized for being problematic, but decide you want to still judge it for yourself. It's another thing to hear that something is being criticized as racist, immediately take it as an endorsement of the work, and let everyone know you intend to buy it. Rosenfield muddles criticism of the latter with criticism of the former.
And some of the tweets Rosenfield highlights are just bizarre. I'd think she'd have no shortage of, well, "problematic" tweets to highlight. After all, Shauna's review did go viral. And as I've said, I'm no stranger to the problems with social justice discourse at times. Even if she did nothing but cherry pick, there should be plenty of tweets to pick from, it should be easy to find nothing but terrible tweets to prove her point. Yet in places in the article, mild disagreement is portrayed as some demanding confrontation, and polite discussion regarding language used in a tweet is somehow a rebuke so harsh its an "exaggeration, but not by much" to compare it to blasting someone for suggesting you shouldn't tell an author to kill themself.
Meanwhile, I apparently accused the author of The Black Forest of being a Nazi sympathizer. No, I don't mean on Twitter. No, I wasn't quoted in the article. As far as I know, Rosenfield doesn't know I exist. I mean I accused the author of The Black Forest of being a Nazi sympathizer in this very post.
Confused? Wondering where I did that? Look to where I say that the main character of the book, based on what I heard, is basically a fantasy Nazi or white supremacist (Though initially unaware of the genocide aspect). And I talk about how the book wants you to sympathize with the protagonist and her journey. Aka, sympathize with a fantasy Nazi.
This exact same point, made on Twitter by Ana Mardoll, got reductively described in the article as her having derided the author of The Black Witch as a "Nazi sympathizer." It's not exactly wrong to frame it that way I suppose, but it erases context and explanation. And when people hear the words "Nazi sympathizer," phrased like that, it brings to mind people who helped the Nazis in World War II, people directly complicit in murders and other atrocities.
So framing the tweets that way was incredibly disingenuous. Of course, the article did link to one of the tweets, so people could scroll up the thread and read the full context. But how many people follow every link in an article full of dozens of linked examples?
Incidentally, Ana Mardoll and several of the other people highlighted by Kat Rosenfield in this article had previously argued with her over a now deleted tweet in which Rosenfield attacked those criticizing the book... without having read the book herself.
Any one of these points could be defended, probably. One could come up with explanations, say I'm being too harsh, that I'm not giving Rosenfield the benefit of doubt. That there's a good faith explanation for everything. That it's just coincidence that people she fought with on twitter were chosen to be examples of the angry mob she portrayed in her article.
I don't buy it. Not all of it together, and especially not considering the way she caricatured Shauna's review right at the start and Ana's tweets later on. And I've seen this type of article too often. There are people who seem to have based their entire career off of writing these things, with trans activists in particular being a popular boogieman for the "Social Justice Run Amok" of the day. So I can often tell when someone is selling BS.
Kat Rosenfield is selling BS. She's painting a picture of marginalized folks flush with power, crushing people for minor infractions and imagined offenses. She even admits that the controversy about The Black Witch didn't appear to hurt it at all, if anything it might have helped sales, but this does not stop her from painting a terrible picture of twitter mobs so fierce they have everyone cowering in fear. This is not a nuanced take on how harassment unfortunately does exist within social justice communities. This is just part of a long trend of portraying the concerns of marginalized people as absurd, imaginary, overreactions over nothing.
Abuse does happen. Abuse exists in the YA community. It should not be excused. But you can call out abuse without making things up or demonizing oppressed people expressing concerns.
To sum things up, call out abuse when you see it. Don't be abusive yourself. Don't assume that just because a community or person is "progressive" they can't be abusive themselves.
But be very, very, very wary whenever you see a "Social Justice Run Amok" type article. Be very careful, and look with a critical eye. Because oftentimes these articles are trying to sell you a load of crap, and sometimes they're written cleverly enough where it can be hard to tell this if you're not already very familiar with the specifics of a situation. And portraying oppressed folks as irrational angry mobs wielding more power than they actually have can do some real harm.There is more information available on this subject at Kelly Gay on the English Wikipedia.
Kelly Gay is an American Science Fiction and Fantasy author. She is the author of the short story "Into the Fire" from Halo: Fractures, as well as the novella Halo: Smoke and Shadow[1] and the novel Halo: Renegades.[2]
Background [ edit ]
Kelly Gay is the author of numerous works, most notably the Charlie Madigan series. She has written both in both the Adult and Young Adult genres, and is particularly well known for her works of urban fantasy. She has received a North Carolina Arts Council fellowship grant in literature, and she was twice a RITA Award finalist, as well as a 2010 finalist for Best First Book from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. She has published some of her books under the name "Kelly Keaton".[3]
Halo bibliography [ edit ]
Trivia [ edit ]
Because of her surname, Gay's works are sometimes incorrectly listed as LGBT fiction. In November 2016 Halo: Smoke and Shadows was temporarily listed on Amazon as 14th best seller in LGBT sci-fi, before being corrected.[4]FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- Two New York men were charged after the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force discovered that they printed counterfeit money in a Fairview Park hotel room, police say.
Bruce Ferreiro, 25, and Johannser Paredes, 23, face felony charges of forgery and possession of criminal tools, Fairview Park police Lt. Paul Shepard said. Their cases were bound over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury.
U.S. Marshals went to the hotel room to serve a warrant in a separate investigation about noon Friday at the Ramada Inn on Brookpark Road near West 220th Street, Shepard said.
Officers found a large amount of money during their search of the hotel room. The investigators discovered the money didn't feel like regular cash and a lot of the bills had the same serial number, Shepard said.
U.S. Marshals contacted the Secret Service. They learned the $2,900 recovered was fake, Shepard said. The officers also found a printer in the room and a stock of stationary paper, he said.
Secret Service declined to pursue a federal criminal case due to the relatively small amount of fake money discovered, Shepard said. Brook Park police were called to take over the investigation.
The men took photocopies of real $50 bills onto stationary paper. They cut the money out of the paper.
The men would go to a store and buy items with the fake $50 bills. Afterwards they would go to a different location of that specific store and return the items. They would get real money in return, Shepard said.
Police say there is no specific reason why they were in the Cleveland |
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